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ONEONTA, NY (December 15,2006) – Hall
of Famer Ahmet Ertegun (Class of 2003), an
internationally known music impresario and former
president of the New York Cosmos, succumbed to
injuries sustained in a recent fall. “He was a
visionary in music and in soccer,” Hall of Fame
President and Hall of Famer (Class of 1995) George
Brown said. “Arguably, he, his brother Nesuhi
Ertegun and Steve Ross, the Cosmos leadership group,
created the concept of the super club, now the well
recognized strategy adopted by some of the world’s
most famous soccer clubs such as Chelsea and Real
Madrid. The Cosmos lit up the American soccer world
with the biggest names in the game, including
multiple World Champions like Hall of Famers Pele of
Brazil and Franz Beckenbauer of Germany.”
Ahmet Ertegun, the son of a Turkish
diplomat, came to the United States as a young boy.
His interest in music began early in life and his
ability to see the potential of such now-revered
artists as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, before
anyone else, got his music company off to a roaring
start in the 50s and early 60s. Along with his
brother Nesuhi, their company, Atlantic Records,
became a top label, drawing artists to its stable
because Ahmet recruited the best producers and sound
engineers to produce the best records. That same
philosophy carried over to the Cosmos, as not only
did the team have the best players, but some of the
top coaches and trainers graced the sidelines. The
Cosmos leadership also saw the team as it saw
concerts, as an event and promoted the team as such
to a worldwide audience. When a record breaking
crowd of 77, 691 fans showed up at Giants Stadium
for a playoff game against the Fort Lauderdale
Strikers on August 14, 1977, it did seem that the
Cosmos had created a new world of soccer in the
United States. In tribute to these twin careers,
Ahmet and Nesuhi are the only people inducted into
both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Class of 1987
and Class of 1991, respectively) and the National
Soccer Hall of Fame.
What a sad week it has been,
following the death of Lamar Hunt,” Brown continued,
“as we have lost two of the giants of the North
American Soccer League, the league that really put
soccer on the national map in the this country”
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