March 31, 2007: Niall Quinn's Taxi Cabs

Quinn, suited up for the Republic of Ireland's game with Portugal,

Lisbon, October 7, 2000. The game ended in a 1-1 draw.

This was also the day Germany beat England

in the last event at the 1923 version of Wembley Stadium.

March 31, 2007: Fans of English soccer team Sunderland Association Football Club are stranded, about as far from home as you can get and still be in England. The team's owner gets them home on his own dime. Or, should I say, his own tuppence.

Niall John Quinn was born in 1966 in what is now administered as South Dublin, Ireland. He was a forward, and, with his height and skill, was thought of as the next chapter in the "Irish Connection," a successor to several players from Dublin, and also from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who had helped North London team Arsenal win the 1979 FA Cup. He played on Arsenal’s 1987 League Cup-winning team. But he wasn't ready, and when Alan Smith was brought in from Leicester City shortly thereafter, he became an afterthought, a reserve on their 1989 League Championship team.

In 1990, he was sold to Manchester City, where he became a star, and even performed admirably in an emergency stint as their goalkeeper. One of his new teammates was Steve McMahon, who had been on the other side when Arsenal beat Liverpool in the season finale that decided that 1989 League title. McMahon looked like a fool that night, signaling to his teammates that there would be just 1 minute of injury time, when there turned out to be 2, with Michael Thomas scoring the winning goal in said 92nd minute. But Quinn didn't play in that game. Nor were they national teammates: Despite his Irish heritage, McMahon was born and raised in England, and played 17 times for England, including in the 1990 World Cup.

Quinn has described Man City, then managed by former Everton star Peter Reid, as having a "happy-go-lucky atmosphere," into which McMahon never fit. On their 1992 preseason tour in Italy, they got into an altercation. Afterward, Quinn headed for a dance club, and was denied entry, due to the blood on his shirt. So he took it off, and was let in, wearing nothing but a pair of cutoff jeans and sneakers. A Man City fan who had followed the team to Italy saw Quinn, and he sang, to the tune of "The Stars and Stripes Forever":

Niall Quinn's disco pants are the best!

They go up from his arse to his chest!

They are better than Adam and the Ants!

Niall Quinn's disco pants!

Quinn woke up the next morning with a hangover, remembering nothing, and still wearing those cutoffs and those sneakers. He cleaned up, got dressed, and went down to the hotel restaurant, where his teammates were eating breakfast. So was the fan, who had booked the same hotel. Upon seeing Quinn, he belted out the song again. Suddenly, it all came back to him.

Quinn, who called it "the song that will follow me to the end of my career," admits that he no longer has those pants. However, they can't possibly fail to be better than Adam and the Ants. They sucked.

Quinn finished his playing career for Sunderland A.F.C., in the North-East of England, saying, "I learned my trade at Arsenal, became a footballer at Manchester City, but Sunderland got under my skin. I love Sunderland." The song followed him, and, in 1999, a Sunderland-based rock band named Love Supreme recorded a full-length song around the chant, and it reached Number 56 on the British music charts.

Quinn playing for Sunderland in 1999,

wearing regular shorts, not "disco pants."

Quinn retired after playing for the Republic of Ireland national team at the 2002 World Cup, having previously played in the 1990 edition (but not '94, despite Ireland's qualification for it). He played 92 games for them, scoring 21 goals, a national record, and still 2nd behind Robbie Keane with 68. He then went into management, eventually buying a part-ownership of the Sunderland team, known as the Black Cats for the black lions on their club crest, and being made its chairman.

They badly needed a new direction. In the 2002-03 season, they finished dead last in the Premier League. Out of 38 games, they only won 4 and drew 7, for a total of 19 points, and were relegated to the 2nd division of English football, then named "Division 1."

After 2 seasons, which included the renaming of that division as "The Championship," they gained promotion back to the Premier League for 2005-06. But it was a disaster: They won only 3, and drew 6, for 15 points, a new record for the fewest points in a top-flight season since a win was made 3 points in 1982. (That record has been broken by the 2007-08 Derby County team, which only had 11.)

On July 25, 2006, Sunderland owner Bob Murray, who couldn't afford to keep the team, sold the team to a consortium led by Quinn. That consortium spent enough money on good players to suggest they could win promotion back to the Premier League, and hired recently retired Manchester United captain Roy Keane, Quinn's former teammate on the ROI national team, as manager. They got off to a great start in the 2006-07 season.

Outside Sunderland's home, the Stadium of Light

On March 31, 2007, Sunderland, then in English football's 2nd division, were playing away at Cardiff City, along with Swansea City one of two teams from Wales in the 92-team English Football League. Sunderland won, 1-0, at Ninian Park, with substitute Ross Wallace scoring in the 72nd minute.

For a reason that I haven't been able to determine, the Sunderland players and fans weren't going to fly home out of Cardiff's airport. They had to go 50 miles to the east, getting across the Severn Bridge, over the River Severn, which separated Wales from the West Country of England, to the airport in Bristol, still 300 miles from Sunderland in the North-East.

The players flew out of Bristol to Sunderland, no problem. But Quinn decided to fly back with the fans on an airline called EasyJet. Recognized by some of them, after they'd already had the chance to have a few drinks that night, they started singing "Niall Quinn's Disco Pants." At the top of their lungs.

A few of the other passengers complained, and the pilot had 80 people thrown off the plane. An EasyJet employee told them they could have seats on the first plane out the next morning, at no extra charge -- but the airline wouldn't give them a place to spend the night. They were really in a bind.

Quinn pulled out the club checkbook -- since it's Britain, I should say "chequebook" -- and hired taxis. He paid £8,000, about $15,000 at the time (about $21,000 in 2022 money), to take them up Britain's M5 Motorway, from Bristol in the South-West to Sunderland in the North-East. Again, that's about 300 miles. To put that in perspective, it's roughly the distance from New York to Portland, Maine. Or from New York to Fredericksburg, Virginia.

In 2007, £8,000 would have been chump change for a big club like Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United (or, now, Manchester City). But for Sunderland, a team trying to get back into the Premier League, it was a pretty penny.

People from Sunderland are called "Mackems," a holdover from the city's past as a shipyard: "We make them, and you take them" becomes, in their accent, "We mack 'em an' you tack 'em." The Mackems have never forgotten Quinn's act of generosity, and one of them adapted the "Disco Pants" song, including taking a pot-shot at Freddy Shepherd, then owner of their arch-rivals, Newcastle United F.C., a.k.a. the Magpies or Mags for their black and white shirts:

Niall Quinn’s taxi cabs are the best!

So go shove it up your arse, EasyJet!

Fat Freddy wouldn’t do it for the Mags!

Niall Quinn’s taxi cabs!

When Shepherd sold NUFC to Mike Ashley, "Fat Freddy" was replaced with "Fat Ashley."

That win in Cardiff turned out to be the 14th game in a 17-game unbeaten run for the Black Cats, as they finished 1st in the Championship, earning promotion to the Premier League, where they stayed for the next 10 seasons.

Quinn sold his stake in the team in 2011, although he has remained a fan of theirs. He has returned to color commentary on soccer games -- or, should I say, "colour commentary on football matches."

Sunderland developed a reputation as a team that played dirty, especially against Arsenal, the North London team I support. I don't like Sunderland, but, using the U.K. vernacular, Niall Quinn is a top man.

*

March 31, 2007 was a Saturday. Elsewhere in British soccer, Liverpool beat Arsenal, 4-1 at Anfield in Liverpool. Peter Crouch scored 3 goals.

Baseball was in Spring Training. American-style football was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, 103-94 in overtime at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. This was the 2nd and last season of the Hornets' temporary part-time relocation to Oklahoma City, necessarily contractually even though the New Orleans arena now known as the Smoothie King Center had been fully restored. That season, the Hornets played 6 games in New Orleans, and their remaining 35 "home games" at the Ford Center, which is now named the Paycom Center.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 86-82 at the Continental Airlines Arena in the Meadowlands.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Chicago Bulls, 112-108 in overtime at the United Center in Chicago. LeBron James scored 39 points.

* And the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 99-86 at the Rose Garden (now the Moda Center) in Portland.

And there were 10 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-4 at the Wachovia Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Ottawa Senators, 5-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* The Atlanta Thrashers beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2 at the TD Banknorth Garden (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Washington Capitals, 5-2 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Nashville Predators, 4-2 at the Gaylord International Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-4 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Anaheim Ducks beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-2 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. Andy McDonald scored the winning goal, only 25 seconds into overtime.

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Minnesota Wild, 2-1 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* And the Calgary Flames beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.