Mention the summer of 1967 and you think of the release of Sgt. Pepper, the summer of love and for Dandies of a certain age, the Washington Whips. 1967 was the year that the Dons headed to the U.S.A to help bring 'soccer' to the masses and teach these Yanks all about the beautiful game. This week, in the absence of SPL action, RedTV brings you rare footage from that historic trip 39 years ago.

The United States Soccer Association arranged the tournament and invited foreign teams to compete in the inaugural season. Each team adopted the name of the city they represented with Aberdeen becoming the Washington Whips for the duration of the competition. Other teams competing from the UK and Ireland were Hibernian, Dundee United, Wolves, Stoke City, Sunderland, Glentoran and Shamrock Rovers with the season running from mid May to mid July. During that period Aberdeen played 14 matches.

Eddie Turnbull had just completed his most successful season as manager finishing fourth in the league, taking Rangers to a replay in the semi final of the League Cup and losing 2-0 to an all conquering Celtic team in The Scottish Cup final. A match he was to miss because of ill health and an illness that was to put in doubt his ability to travel to the States. Turnbull did travel on the insistence of the American organisers and was rewarded with an audience with President Lyndon Johnson at the White House.

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Redfact: During the tournament the Dons wore numbers on the front of their shirts as well as the back. This proved so popular that the Dons incorporated this on their return to the Scottish game for season 1967/68.

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After suffering an opening defeat at the hands of Stoke City the Dons put a decent run together and fought their way through to the final in the L.A. Coliseum where they faced Wolves on the 14th July for the right to win the President's Cup. It is highlights of this epic encounter that RedTV features here. The description by our American host that this match may be the greatest soccer game seen anywhere is perhaps slightly over the top, but certainly Hollywood would have struggled to come up with a better script for this classic played in their own back yard.

Any thoughts that this tournament was merely a series of friendly fixtures will be completely discarded after witnessing some of the challenges in this game played in front of 17,824. The footage is in colour, but not to the standard we are used to in this day and age. Also the audio is a bit ropey at the beginning of the clip, but not as ropey as the commentator that covered the game. Even if the match hadn't been a classic then this would have been worth viewing for the American commentary alone. We won't spoil this for those who may be unaware of the outcome. The Dons squad is listed below along with all results leading up to the final. Enjoy!

AFC Squad: Clark, Whyte, Shewan, Munro, McMillan, Petersen, Storrie, Smith, Johnston, Melrose, J. Wilson, Hermiston, Buchan, P. Wilson, Taylor, Watt.

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USSA President's Cup 1967 - Results

Date & Venue	Opponents	Result	Scorers
27th May Washington	Stoke City	1-2	Storrie
31st May Toronto	Hibernian	2-1	Smith, Storrie
3rd June Washington	Cagliari	1-1	Storrie
7th June Washington	Cerro	3-0	Smith, J. Wilson, o.g.
11th June Detroit	Glentoran	2-2	J. Wilson, P. Wilson
14th June Cleveland	Stoke City	2-2	Shewan, P. Wilson
20th June Washington	Wolves	1-1	J. Wilson
25th June San Francisco	ADO the Hague	0-0	-
28th June Washington	Sunderland	1-1	Munro
1st July Dallas	Dundee United	2-0	Smith, Whyte
4th July Houston	Bangu	1-0	Smith
8th July Washington	Shamrock Rovers	1-2	Munro
10th July Washington	Wolves	3-0	Storrie(2), Buchan
Above was a replay of 20 June match following Dons' protest of illegal use of substitute.
14th July Los Angeles	Wolves	See clip	-

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