History
Dick Cecil: A Pioneer, Historian, and Steward of Atlanta Soccer
Richard “Dick” Cecil was a transformative figure in Atlanta’s sporting history whose vision helped plant the earliest seeds of professional soccer in the region. In the mid-1960s, while serving as a vice president with the Atlanta Braves, Cecil was identified by Bill Bartholomew as the right leader to bring a professional soccer club to a city that had never seen one. In 1967, he helped launch the original Atlanta Chiefs, and in 1968, under his stewardship, the club captured the North American Soccer League championship, the first major professional sports title in Atlanta. From the beginning, Cecil believed that soccer could take root in this city if it was built with care, ambition, and community at its center.
Cecil’s influence extended far beyond results on the field. His legacy is as an orchestrator of what soccer in Atlanta is today, a man whose early work created the foundation for everything that followed, from youth leagues to Atlanta United and the modern era of the sport in the city. He understood that Atlanta’s soccer story had been overlooked for too long and that the culture of the game here deserved to be preserved, named, and celebrated. In his later years, Cecil took quiet pride in seeing the same blueprint he helped establish with the Chiefs echoed in the rise of Atlanta United and the city’s return to the center of American soccer.
What made Cecil unique was not only that he built teams, but that he kept the history. Trained as a historian with a master’s degree from the University of Nebraska, he maintained a documentarian’s eye throughout his career. In a converted garage office behind his home, he preserved an extraordinary archive of Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Chiefs memorabilia, championship trophies, photographs with global icons, and primary source documents chronicling the birth and collapse of the early professional leagues. In his final years, he donated these papers to Emory University, ensuring that the early history of soccer in Atlanta and the United States would not be lost. As one visitor put it, “Dick kept the receipts,” and in doing so, he safeguarded a chapter of the sport that few had taken the time to record.
Those who knew Cecil remember him not only as an executive, but as a generous, curious, and deeply warm presence. Even while battling cancer, he welcomed visitors into his office, eager to talk for hours about Atlanta soccer history, the beauty of the game, and the growth he was now witnessing. He took special joy in the expansion of opportunities for girls and women, seeing the growth of the women’s game as one of the most meaningful byproducts of his early efforts.
The Goalgetters Foundation exists in direct continuity with this legacy. Dick Cecil believed that soccer could bring people together, create opportunity, and shape communities for the better. From the first Chiefs to today’s generation of players, families, and supporters, the culture of the game in Atlanta traces back to his willingness to take a risk in 1966 and never give up on what it could become. By investing in grassroots soccer and access for all, the Foundation honors not only what Dick Cecil built, but what he believed the sport should always stand for.
