Ron Newman: Sporting KC’s first manager

photo credit Graham Green

From Tampa, Florida the news came in which trows a vail over the remainder of the 2018 season for Sporting Kansas City. Ron Newman, manager of the club from 1996 to 1999, had passed away at age 84.

Players opinions and recollections have been coming in as news spread at the end of such a long soccer career that spanned over 40 years.

First as a player Newman came to the United States to the then North American Soccer League before his role as first player-coach and then full coach of Lamar Hunt’s Dallas Tornado. The league’s demise saw Newman move inside as coach of San Diego Shockers of Major Indoor Soccer League where he experienced phenomenal success in his over a decade at the helm of the club.

His previous relationship with Lamar Hunt saw Newman hired as the first head coach in 1995 before any other in Major League Soccer. His move to Kansas City led him to build a team that was all about attack and flair and also into contact with young broadcaster Sean Wheelock.

“Ron Newman was a man who gave the time to a person who wanted to get involved in the game,” says Sean Wheelock, former commentator for BBC’s World Football Phone In and an expert in North American soccer. “He was innovative and able to build a successful team piecemeal in the early days of the league which was all about the attack.”

For fans of Sporting Kansas City who remember the days of the countdown clock and the sudden death and the players who wowed them. Digital Takawira, Uche Okafor, Preki, Mo Johnston, and Sean Bowers were players who helped fans fall in love with the rainbow  designed shirt of the day.

But it was his relationships that he had that will live long in the memory of those who knew him. “He was very relate-able,” continues Wheelock. “He would invite me on the road to come talk about the game, treating me like one of the team not the broadcaster. I even recall being invited to his home to watch the England national team in a qualifier. He was a man who treated anyone he worked with with respect.”