Former Tulsa Roughnecks Charlie Mitchell, Victor Moreland Honored Friday

The Oklahoma soccer community will honor two legends in Tulsa Friday, January 27, 2012.  

The Oklahoma Soccer Hall of Fame will induct Victor Moreland and Charlie Mitchell as part of its class of 2012.

Both men were fan favorites on the Tulsa Roughnecks, the Tulsa affiliate of the North American Soccer League.

A native of Belfast, Moreland joined the Roughnecks in 1978 on loan from his Glentoran Soccer Club to play for the Tulsa Roughnecks in the North American Soccer League.  After one year with the Roughnecks, he returned to Glentoran and was sold to England's Derby County (a Division I squad) through 1981.

He played against Manchester United, Liverpool, and Chelsea.  In 1981, the Roughnecks bought Victor's contract and he played for Tulsa through the 1984 season and the NASL Soccer Bowl Championship.

Victor and Lynn were married at TU's Sharp Chapel then repeated the ceremony at a Roughneck match in 1983.

When the NASL folded, Victor played around the United States.  After playing in more than 900 professional games and nine international games for his Northern Ireland National team, he decided to end his playing days.

In 1995, Victor started the Tulsa Nationals Soccer Club with Union Soccer Club in Tulsa. He and Lynn have three children and four grandchildren.

Charlie Mitchell is a native of Scotland.  He came to the U.S. in 1970 when he joined the Rochester Lancers of the NASL.

He joined the New York Cosmos in 1976, where he set up a spectacular bicycle kick goal scored by teammate Pelé against the Miami Toros.

Mitchell was player-manager for Team Hawaii when it moved to Tulsa in 1978 and became the Tulsa Roughnecks.  He left Tulsa in 1979 to play elsewhere, only to return as coach in 1980.

He played a total of 206 NASL regular-season games and nine NASL playoff games.  

He coached for a season and a half before being replaced.  Mitchell then opened a sports bar-restaurant and became involved in youth soccer.  He coached the men's and women's soccer teams at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma for nine years.

Friday night he'll join Moreland, as well as Sol Asekun, Chuck Turci, Richard Brook, and Brian Elliott when they're inducted into the Oklahoma Soccer Hall of Fame Class of 2012 at the DoubleTree Hotel.