Author and Soccer Historian, Stephen Brandt, returns to Protagonist to share the second installment of the story of the NASL Atlanta Chiefs.

When talking about managers in Atlanta history, we do have to go back a bit. One of the ones we have to mention is some of the greats in the NASL days. To get the leagues going, a couple British players from the midtable and lower reaches of the English Pyramid. This just proved to us that if you were a squad player, you could change the sport. I’ll look past what Johan Cruyff did as a manager for this one instance.

Future NASL commissioner Phil Woosnam, did bring over one player who changed the indoor game many years later. Ron Newman and Woosnam did more for the game in the 70s and 80s than Don Garber has done in the two decades that he’s been around in soccer. Woonam brought Newman over as a player/coach to help build the game in Atlanta. Newman created the first kids soccer league and summer camps. By the time he left Atlanta for a job in Dallas, he turned the whole thing over to the YMCA. Ironically, later Newman met a person who played in his first leagues in Dallas. Woosnam was also the best manager Atlanta had, per him leading the Chiefs to the 1968 NASL title. While being the manager, he was also the sporting director, and player as well.

After Woosnam and Newman left, their goalkeeper Vic Rouse took over the top spot as manager. Vic, a one time Welsh Internationally Capped Goalkeeper, played in the English Football League for Crystal Palace, Oxford United, and Leyton Orient. He played as an amateur with Millwall and Northampton Town without making an appearance for either club. He got that one cap for Wales when he was a player in the old Fourth Division in 1959. That made him the first international player from that far down in the league.

Phil Woosnam, Welsh International, ran the Chiefs on and in the front office

Rouse became interested in playing for the Atlanta Chiefs when fellow Welsh international Phil Woosnam became the head coach. Woosnam left for the NASL Commissioner Job in 1968 for the 1969 season. Rouse was then appointed the player/manager of the Chiefs. He only stayed with the team until 1972 when he retired as a player. As of 1982 he was still the manager of the Metropolitan Police ten years later when he was back in England. And according to records in 2026 the man is still alive.

Dan Wood became the first manager in the second era of the Atlanta Chiefs when the Colorado franchise moved to the town. Needless to say, Wood had an interesting career as well. He was born in Central New York, in Elmira and graduated from Ithaca High School in 1964. After High School he attended Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1966 he transferred to Tuffs University, where he was on the baseball, soccer, basketball, and football teams. In 1977 he became the soccer and tennis coach at Cornell while earning his PHD.

During Wood’s five years at Cornell, he had the team in five NCAA tournament appearances, and a 52-20-6. He also recruited future/former US National Team head coach Bruce Arena as a goalkeeper, while Arena was playing lacrosse. In 1975, Wood jumped to the American Soccer League to coach the Tacoma Tides. In his first season, he took them to second place in the Western Division, and a berth in the ASL semifinals, where they lost to the champions Los Angeles Skyhawks. The Tides folded after the 1976 season, so he went back to Cornell to finish his doctorate.

Ron Newman served as coach of the Atlanta Cheifs

Once that was done, he moved to the Colorado Caribous of the NASL in 1977 as an assistant coach. He was elevated to the head coach for the last month of the 1978 season. They went 8-22, and out of the playoffs. At the end of the season, the team moved to Atlanta to become the new Chiefs. Wood stayed on for another two years and brought his former Tides assistant coach David Chadwick as joint-head coach for 1980. When Wood left in the 1980 season Chadwick stayed on. In 1984 Chadwick named Wood assistant coach with the Minnesota Strikers. Wood was also an outstanding amateur golfer, and joined the pro ranks in 1985. He qualified for the 1992 PGA Championship in St. Louis.

The final head coach/manager for the Chiefs was David Chadwick. In his first season the Chiefs tied with the Chicago Sting for the best record in the league at 13-5. They also lead the entire indoor attendance at 10,287, it was more than double than the outdoor team was averaging. The indoor team made it to the semi-finals, and the indoor success made it to the outdoor season. The Chiefs nearly doubled their goal scoring output from the 1981 season due to Brian Kidd coming in on loan from the Bolton Wanderers. Kidd finished 3rd in the NASL with 22 goals in 1981. The season before the Chiefs only scored 34 goals. The Chiefs won the Southern Division with 17-15. In the opening round by the Jacksonville Tea Men. The crowds didn’t follow outside, and just three days after the loss to Jacksonville the Chiefs closed their doors. They were one of seven clubs to fold after the 1981 season.

The Atlanta Chiefs during a training session

by Stephen Brandt