Anyone else remember the NASL's "Soccer: The Sport of the '80s" advertising campaign? I recall having a souvenir pennant with that slogan that they gave out at a Dips game some year. It was still in my parents' basement somewhere as of the mid-1990s. I also recall the bumper stickers saying "Diplomats Soccer at RFK/It's the game for today."
I remember attending Dips games fairly often and thinking it was a Very Big Deal when my pee-wee soccer team got to play on the RFK field prior to a Dips game once. Don't remember the year at Woodson (too young), but I seem to recall there was a later minor pro league, the American Soccer League, in 1987 that had a "Washington Diplomats" team playing at RFK and a "Washington Stars" team playing at Woodson. Funny thing is, our family lived about two miles east of Woodson and Frost (I used to walk to school at both of them) but I never went to a Stars game, although I did go to a Diplomats game. This was a decidedly semi-pro league—if you compare it to hockey it would be lower than the ECHL, most likely—and I always wondered how they came up with the money to rent RFK.
