From Amateur to MVP: Janusz Kowalik and the Chicago Mustangs
A Moment of Brilliance: A Soccer History Blog, February 11, 2014
In the fall of 1968, the NASL flirted with extinction after its inaugural season. The league, after a merger between the USA and the NPSL, failed to capture the attention of the American sports fan as the owners had planned. Clubs drew less than 5,000 fans a game collectively, which ultimately led to twelve of the NASL’s seventeen teams to abandon the league all together. In the midst of this turbulent atmosphere, Janusz Kowalik, along with Pepe Fernandez, netted a league record thirty goals during the 1968 season. The record stood for a decade until Giorgio Chinaglia scored thirty-four goals during the 1978 NASL season. Due to the league’s popularity at the time of Chinaglia’s feat, the press covered the Italian’s exploits extensively and his place within the league’s history is unquestionable. Yet Janusz Kowalik is little more than a footnote in the league’s history due to the leagues near insolvency in 1968. Kowalik, like many of the NASL’s early players, remains a relative unknown, but his path from amat
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