By Mike Wise, Washington Post
A deeply attached fan of a championship team called a couple of months back, saying he had arranged an interview with the coach and one of his star players at the L Street downtown office of an international businessman, that it was of “paramount importance” to be there.
Asked what this is about, he replied simply, “It’s about the best team you never heard of.”
Several days later, in a third-floor conference room with a strong African art-deco motif, an upbeat, ultra-fit man introduced himself: “Hello, Mori Diane, nice to meet you.”
Diane, the executive vice president of his company for the past 28 years, is — for the purposes of this story — “the player.” Sitting next to him is “the coach”: a grinning, 73-year-old, gray-flecked gentleman who speaks in a rhythmic Trinidadian twang.
“I’m glad you have come,” said Lincoln “Tiger” Phillips, a former world-class goalie who once faced Pele. “Now we will tell you the story.”
The World Cup final will be played Sunday in Brazil, where either Germany or Argentina will be christened champion of the beautiful game before millions of viewers. Millions fewer will remember it is also the 40th anniversary of Howard’s beautiful season, the unbeaten, untied 1974 Bison, a mishmash of Caribbean and African kids led by the legendary Phillips. Read Full Article
