Charlotte Independence will pay tribute to 1981 soccer champions at Saturday’s game

The Charlotte Independence will honor the city’s soccer history during Saturday night’s game with a halftime ceremony celebrating the 40th anniversary of a champion.

The Carolina Lightnin’ won the American Soccer League championship in 1981 in its inaugural season and, for a while, captured the attention of a city that had yet to see the NFL or NBA put teams in Charlotte. The Lightnin’ famously drew a league-record crowd of 20,163 fans to Memorial Stadium in uptown Charlotte to see its 1981 championship game.

The Independence now plays in the same venue, although the American Legion Memorial Stadium has been substantially updated.

The Independence enters Saturday night’s 7 p.m. home game against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds with a 10-8-4 record in the United Soccer League. The Independence sits in fourth place in the Atlantic Division; Pittsburgh is in second place.

For the game, the Independence players will suit up in replica uniforms that are nearly identical to those the Lightnin’ wore in 1981. Tickets start at $12 and can be purchased at CharlotteIndependence.com.

This story was originally published September 15, 2021 at 2:43 PM.

Scott Fowler

The Charlotte Observer

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Columnist Scott Fowler has written for The Charlotte Observer since 1994 and has earned 26 APSE awards for his sportswriting. He hosted The Observer’s podcast “Carruth,” which Sports Illustrated once named “Podcast of the Year.” Fowler also conceived and hosted the online series and podcast “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” which featured 1-on-1 interviews with NC and SC sports icons and was turned into a book. He occasionally writes about non-sports subjects, such as the 5-part series “9/11/74,” which chronicled the forgotten plane crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 in Charlotte on Sept. 11, 1974. Support my work with a digital subscription