Posted: Apr 28, 2010
(Portions of this story were taken
from both the Sewanee athletics website and the U.S. Soccer
website)
SEWANEE, Tenn. -- Sewanee alum Kyle Rote, Jr., C'72, was elected to the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame this month. Rote was the 1973 rookie of the year in the North America Soccer League, the 1973 scoring champion, a 1973 All-Star and was the leading scorer for the Dallas Tornados for three years. He was also known for his three-time victory in the ABC Superstars Competition. Rote also represented the the country on the US National Soccer Team for three years.
"As a kid growing up in the 70's, soccer was a sport that was played by foreigners," said current Sewanee head men's coach David Poggi. "If you were American, and chose to play soccer you were called a lot of politically incorrect things. If you were a good athlete and your passion was soccer the peer pressure was even worse. A lot of things have changed."
"What Kyle was able to do (almost single-handedly) was permanently change the stigma associated with being a soccer player in the US. Countless generations owe you a debt of gratitude."
After transferring his sophomore year, Rote played three seasons of soccer at Sewanee and had record-breaking marks of: 17 goals in 1969, six assists in 1970, 47 career goals, 16 career assists and 110 career points.
SEWANEE, Tenn. -- Sewanee alum Kyle Rote, Jr., C'72, was elected to the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame this month. Rote was the 1973 rookie of the year in the North America Soccer League, the 1973 scoring champion, a 1973 All-Star and was the leading scorer for the Dallas Tornados for three years. He was also known for his three-time victory in the ABC Superstars Competition. Rote also represented the the country on the US National Soccer Team for three years.
"As a kid growing up in the 70's, soccer was a sport that was played by foreigners," said current Sewanee head men's coach David Poggi. "If you were American, and chose to play soccer you were called a lot of politically incorrect things. If you were a good athlete and your passion was soccer the peer pressure was even worse. A lot of things have changed."
"What Kyle was able to do (almost single-handedly) was permanently change the stigma associated with being a soccer player in the US. Countless generations owe you a debt of gratitude."
After transferring his sophomore year, Rote played three seasons of soccer at Sewanee and had record-breaking marks of: 17 goals in 1969, six assists in 1970, 47 career goals, 16 career assists and 110 career points.
During his junior year, Rote took up the javelin and was the CAC champion his senior year and set the school record. He was also an NCAA national qualifier in the event and team captain in track as well as soccer. Rote has been elected to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, The Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the Sewanee Athletics Hall of Fame and was the 1980 Sewanee Alumnus of the Year.
Drafted No. 1 by the Dallas Tornado in the NASL’s first college draft in 1972, Rote debuted in 1973 as the league’s top scorer with 30 points (10 goals, 10 assists), Rookie of the Year and an Honorable Mention All-Star. Known for his athleticism and skill in the air, Rote scored a header in a 1-0 win against the New York Cosmos in a 1973 playoff semifinal to lead the Tornado to the championship game, which they dropped to the Philadelphia Atoms. In 1974, he was a part of an NASL All-Star team that faced the Red Army of Moscow club in an indoor match at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens.
Rote played with Dallas through the 1978 season, and led the team in scoring in 1973, 1975 and 1977 before leaving prior to the 1979 season as the Tornado all-time leading scorer. He was obtained in the offseason by the Houston Hurricane in a transaction involving the highest purchase price ever paid for an American soccer player.
Promoted by his team and the NASL as a home-grown star equal to the international soccer heroes of the day, Rote drew considerable attention to soccer among American sports fans during his career. The son of former Southern Methodist and New York Giants football star Kyle Rote, he represented soccer in the made-for-television ABC Wide World of Sports Superstars competition for four years from 1974-1977. He won his preliminary competition all four years and the final event in 1974, 1976 and 1977 beating 100s of the world’s greatest athletes like O.J. Simpson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Lynn Swann, Julius Erving, Roger Staubach and winners of three Olympic decathlon gold medals. He was the first to win the event three times, and one of only three people to win the event at least three times.
Rote earned five caps with the U.S. Men’s National Team from 1973 to 1975. He debuted off the bench in a 1-0 win against Poland on Aug. 12, 1973, and started the next match for the U.S., a 1-0 win against Bermuda in Hartford, Conn., in September. Before his hometown Dallas fans in 1974, he started in a 0-1 loss to Mexico in 1974. In March of 1975, he joined the U.S. team on a European tour, earning his final cap off the bench in a loss to Poland. He also took the field for the U.S. against Italy in an exhibition that was not an official FIFA match.
While active as a player, Rote stepped upstairs to the broadcast booth to serve as color commentator for CBS in the 1970s. Slated to be the soccer commentator for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow before the U.S. boycott, during the 1980s he worked on-air for ESPN, USA Network and CBS broadcasting MISL and other events.
Highly regarded as one of sports most respected men, shortly after retiring Rote moved to the business side of sport and in 1984 founded Athletic Resource Management. He continues to serve as a consultant for the agency that has represented some of sports biggest names on the field and sidelines including Bill Parcells, Nick Saban, Reggie White, Scottie Pippen and others.
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