1978 NASL Skelly Indoor Invitational

The 1978 NASL Skelly Invitational was a four-team indoor soccer tournament held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the Tulsa Assembly Center on the first weekend of March 1978.

Overview

Four teams, all from the North American Soccer League, participated in the two-day event: the Houston Hurricane, the Minnesota Kicks, the Washington Diplomats, and the host Tulsa Roughnecks.
Matches were 60 minutes long and divided into three 20-minute periods, with an intermission between each period. Timed overtime periods, featuring a golden goal winner, would be used to decide any matches tied after 60 minutes. Each session consisted of two games . The opening round of matches would be semi-final games, with the Session 2 matches on Sunday afternoon serving as the third place match and Championship Final respectively. The first match of Session 1 was Minnesota's first time playing indoors. The second match of Session 1, played on Saturday, March 4, 1978, between Tulsa and Houston, marked the first time the expansion Hurricane faced NASL competition, and was only the Roughnecks third-ever game.
Approximately 3,500 people attended the two sessions. Tulsa won both of its matches and was crowned champions of the Skelly Invitational. Roughnecks forward Nino Zec edged out both teammate Milan Dovedan and Washington's Randy Garber by one assist to lead the invitational in scoring with 5 goals and 2 assists. The tournament's co-MVPs were Zec and Tibor Molnár, also of Tulsa. The Kicks were runners-up in the invitational, with the Dips defeating the Hurricane for 3rd place in the consolation match. The all-tournament squad included four Roughnecks: Zec, Molnar, Dovedan, and goalkeeper, Gary Allison.

Tournament results

Sessions

Session 1: Saturday, March 4, 1978
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Session 2: Sunday, March 5, 1978

Final standings

''G = Games, W = Wins, L = Losses, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, GD = Goal Differential''

Statistical leaders

Scoring

Goals, Assists

Leading scorers	Goals	Assists	Points
Nino Zec	5	2	12
Randy Garber	5	1	11
Milan Dovedan	5	1	11
Mike Bakić	4	0	8
Ade Coker	4	0	8
Živorad Stamenković	3	2	8
Mark Moran	2	1	5
Gerry Morielli	2	1	5
Don O'Riordan	2	1	5
Matt O'Sullivan	2	1	5
Jim Steele	2	1	5

*Three players tied with 2 goals 0 assists.

Goalkeeping

GA = Goals Against, GAA = Goals Against Average, SV = Saves, SF = Shots Faced

Leading Goalkeepers	Minutes	GA	GAA	SV	SF
Darryl Wallace	60	3	3.00	25	30
Gary Allison	60	5	5.00	unk	unk
Bill Irwin	60	5	5.00	19	24
Kurt Kuykendall	63	8	7.875	unk	unk

*Minnesota and Houston used multiple goalkeepers in each match.

Tournament awards

Most Valuable Players: Nino Zec and Tibor Molnár
All-tournament Team: Nino Zec, Milan Dovedan, Randy Garber, Tibor Molnar, Dale Russell, Gary Allison

Non-tournament matches

These were not the only indoor matches played that winter. The four Skelly Invitational participants played a combined 12 additional matches. In fact 10 days later, Houston hosted their own indoor tournament, the Schlitz Indoor Touney. Since a full season of indoor soccer was still two years away, NASL teams were free to do their own scheduling. There were reports of the league awarding an "NASL Cup" for the best team among those that participated in at least 16 indoor games. Of the 24 teams in the league, 11 had indoor matches planned. The Tampa Bay Rowdies, for example played eight games. By contrast, the Chicago Sting signed on to play only two games at Washington, both of which were ultimately canceled because of scheduling conflicts with a boat show at the D.C. Armory. In the end, no team played more than nine games in 1978, and only a handful played more than three.