Toronto Blizzard

Toronto Blizzard is a name given to two former professional soccer teams based in Toronto who played in two now defunct leagues, and briefly in a third that changed its name.

NASL Blizzard

The original Blizzard played in the North American Soccer League from 1979 to the last year of league operations, 1984. The Blizzard were runners-up for the league championship in 1983, losing two games to nil to the Tulsa Roughnecks, and in 1984, losing to the Chicago Sting again 2–0. The club was coached in these final two years by Bobby Houghton and featured Roberto Bettega, David Byrne, Cliff Calvert, Pasuale DeLuca, Charlie Falzon, Sven Habermann, Paul James, Conny Karlsson, Victor Kodeija, Trevor McCallum, Colin Miller, John Moller, Jimmy Nicholl, Patrick Ntsoelengoe, Randy Ragan, Neill Roberts, Derek Spalding, and Bruce Wilson in its lineup.

The team qualified for the play-offs for the championship just two other times, in 1979 and 1982, losing in the first round each time. Players that featured in the first four years included Clyde Best, Jim Bone, Drew Busby, Cliff Calvert, Tony Chursky, Duncan Davidson, Cohn Franks, George Gibbs, Graham Hately, Sam Lenarduzzi, Ivan Lukacević, David McQueen, Willie McVie, Rob Prentice, Jomo Sono, Gordon Sweetzer, Blagoje Tamindrić, Jose Valasquez, and Gordon Wallace.

CSL Blizzard

The name 'Blizzard' was brought back as a name for the Toronto franchise of the Canadian Soccer League, which was established in 1987. In 1990, despite finishing the regular season on top of league's Eastern Division standings, the Blizzard were eliminated in the first round of the play-offs for the championship. In 1991, the Blizzard lost in the finals of the play-offs to the Vancouver 86ers, who won their fifth straight league championship. Promenent players for the CSL Blizzard included Carl Fletcher, Iain Fraser, and Pat Onstad.

APSL Blizzard/Rockets

The CSL Toronto Blizzard joined the American Professional Soccer League in 1993. The team went by a different name for the 1994 season, the franchise's last, the Toronto Rockets.

The 1993 Blizzard finished fifth in the regular standings (10wins and 14losses), failing to make the play-offs. The team featured Fernando Aguiar, Eddy Berdusco, Paulo Ceccarelli, Ian Carter, Carl Fletcher, Amadeo Gasparini, Kevin Holness, Frank Lofranco, Hector Marinaro, Sean Samuels, and Nigel Sparks.

The 1994 Rockets finished last in the league (5wins and 15losses). Key Rockets players included Eddy Berdusco, Carl Fletcher, Lucio Ianiero, Jens Kraemer, Dino Lopez, Tony Nocita, Pat Onstad, Peter Sarantopolous, and Patrick Sullivan. (The APSL has since become the United Soccer Leagues First Division)