San Jose Battles Houston for the Earthquakes’ History. And Wins.

By: Laurie | November 27th, 2007

In the beginning, there were the San Jose Earthquakes. And they won two MLS championships. And it was good.

Then the Earthquakes moved to Houston. And since the word “Earthquake” has far less relevance for Texans than it does for Californians, they changed their name to the Houston Dynamo. And they won two more titles. And it was good.

And then San Jose was granted an expansion team. And they were renamed the Earthquakes. Soccer would live on in Northern California! And there was much rejoicing.

Or…well…some rejoicing. This being MLS.

But confusion reigned over the history! Which team won those first two championships? Was it the Dynamo, with their continuing play across two states? The team which still has several of the original players? Or was it San Jose, reclaiming their past, with that unfortunate period when they had no team being just a little misunderstanding?

The New York Times (scroll down to the middle) reports that those wins belong to San Jose.

According to M.L.S., the expansion San Jose Earthquakes, which will begin play next season as the third incarnation of a team with that nickname (the original Earthquakes were part of the North American Soccer League from 1974-84), will reclaim the club history. In the league’s eyes, the Dynamo has only two years of history, even though several of its players (Dwayne De Rosario, Eddie Robinson, Brian Mullen, Craig Waibel, Richard Mulrooney and Pat Onstad played in both the 2003 and 2007 title games) are part of the history of both clubs.

Only in MLS could a team with only ten or so expansion draft players (and no goalkeeper last I checked), a team which has never played a game… Only here could they have won two championships.

I love the USA!
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D

This was actually decided a long time ago. When San Jose first moved, the league decided then that all records and history belonged to San Jose, not Houston. We actually wrote about this in 2005 (link is here: http://dcunitedblog.blogspot.c...
Melissa

Wait... this was seriously disputed? And MLS had to step in? Oy vey.
bluemeanies

Also, wasn't there recently a dispute in England over the Wimbledon titles and the reformulated by fans wimbledon won the rights to it not the relocated team?

I believe the decision to leave the titles in San Jose was made the same day the trucks left for Houston, so Houston never had a real claim to them. I think the trophy case even stayed.
jz

You might want to check your history. They were NFL champs in 1950, 54, 55, and 60. That was prior to the merger and the advent of the Superbowl. But you could certainly argue that they are more prestigious championships in the annals of American sports than a MLS championship.
Aaron

Of course, the Browns have won precisely s*** in their history, so there's little argument.
jz

The same situation occurred with the Cleveland Browns. So although it isn't unique to the MLS--it is definitely an American thing.