Laurie Calloway

Laurence John Calloway (born 17 June 1945) is an English retired footballer who played as defender, spending thirteen years in the English leagues and five years in the North American Soccer League.

Since retiring from playing professionally, Calloway has coached teams in several US leagues.

Calloway began his professional playing career with Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1962, but failed to make an appearance for their first team.

He remained with Wolves until 1964 when he dropped down the league to join Rochdale where he would spend four seasons.

He spent the next thirteen years as a journeyman bouncing from one lower division club to another.

In 1968 Calloway moved to Second Division Blackburn Rovers.

After two seasons with Rovers he was sent to Division Four club Southport in August 1970 in exchange for Alex Russel.

A year later Southport transferred Calloway to fellow Division Four club York City.

He left York to his final English club Shrewsbury Town in 1972, where he remained for two seasons.

In 1974, Calloway left England to try his fortunes with the North American Soccer League.

He signed with the San Jose Earthquakes.

Over the next twenty-two years, he would return time and time again to the San Francisco Bay Area as both a player and a coach.

From 1974 until 1977, Calloway became an integral part of the Earthquakes.

His playing time peaked in 1977 when he saw time in 26 games and scored two goals.

However, he received his greatest recognition in his first year with the team when he was selected as an NASL All Star Honorable Mention (third team).

In 1978, he left the Earthquakes to coach and play for the Southern California Lazers of the American Soccer League (ASL), but was back in San Jose for the 1979 season.

That year, he saw his lowest time on the field and he retired at the end of the season.

With his retirement from playing, Calloway became a full-time coach, a job he would remain with for the next thirty years.

As previously mentioned, he held his first head coaching position with the Southern California Lazers of the ASL during 1978, its only season in existence.

When he retired from the Earthquakes in 1979, he then held various assistant coaching positions before being selected for his second head coaching position with the California Surf of the NASL.

The team hired him in 1981 to replace Peter Wall.

However, the Surf lasted only to the end of the 1981 season before folding.

Two years later, on 14 March 1983, the Seattle Sounders (NASL) hired Calloway as their new head coach.

For the third time in his career, he was the head coach for a team in its last year in existence.

Calloway took the team to a 12–18 record and third place in the Western Division.

The Sounders folded at the end of the 1983 season, then the NASL collapsed at the end of the 1984 season.

However, Peter Bridgwater, owner of the Earthquakes entered the Earthquakes in the Western Soccer Alliance, a loose collection of previously unaffiliated amateur and semi-pro "super clubs".

Bridgwater hired Calloway who took the Earthquakes to a 4–1–2 record and the alliance title.

That season the Earthquakes finished third in the alliance, its best finish since the 1985 season.

That was the best the Earthquakes did until it folded after the 1988 season.

With the collapse of the Earthquakes, the WSA awarded a new Bay Area team, the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks in 1989.

In 1991, the Blackhawks hired Calloway as the team's second head coach.

He then took the Blackhawks to the 1991 APSL championship.

That victory put the Blackhawks into the 1992 CONCACAF Champions' Cup.

Under Calloway's direction, the Blackhawks went to the semifinals, only to lose to Club América on a 4–3 aggregate.

Calloway coached the Blackhawks through the end of the 1992 season.

The 1992 season was also characterised by antagonism between Calloway and a young forward by the name of Eric Wynalda.

The feud between the two culminated when Wynalda launched into a tirade against Calloway after he was subbed out of a game.

Calloway kicked Wynalda off the team and Wynalda left the US for Germany two weeks later.

The announcement of the formation of a new US division one league, Major League Soccer, Peter Bridgwater became instrumental in the formation of a new San Jose franchise.