Does SASH Build TIFO?

Does SASH build tifo? 

No. But SASH helped inspired one at a Minnesota United game in early August. 

Wonderwall—the collective of Minnesota United supporters groups that includes Dark Clouds, Red Loons, and True North Elite—hoisted a large TIFO featuring Gil Heron over the crowd in celebration of Black Excellence Night on August 1 at Allianz Field.  

SASH didn’t create the tifo. But Kalalyna Murphy, the senior art director at the branding studio Knock who designed it, says SASH played a role. 

A coworker of Murphy’s who was on the Wonderwall TIFO committee reached out to her to see if she would be willing to create something that celebrated both soccer and black excellence. She had previously done pro bono work centered around the African American community, so she was all in. 

Murphy’s first thought was to seek out black pioneers in soccer in the United States, people whose stories might connect the history of the game with the history of black achievement. Although Gil Heron’s impact on soccer in the US was centered on his time in Detroit, particularly with the professional North American Soccer Football League and later with Glasgow Celtic, his name came up early in her research. It was a familiar name, but she was confused. She knew of the musician, poet, and hip-hop pioneer Gil Scott–Heron, but who was Gil Heron? Murphy quickly realized Gil Heron was the father of the musician.  

SASH was one of the first places Murphy found information about Heron the soccer player. Brian D. Bunk wrote two pieces in 2020 for the SASH site on the Jamaican-born player, a profile titled “Gil Heron,” and another looking at Heron’s playing style that includes photos of him published in the July 1947 issue of the magazine Ebony. In February 2026, Jermaine Scott, Maxwell Murray, and Chuck Carlson presented a SASH Session titled “Gil Heron and ‘Pito’ Villalon: Black Players Breaking Barriers in US Soccer.” Roger Allaway has written about the North American Soccer Football League.

The silhouette of Heron from one of the Ebony Magazine photos can be seen in Murphy’s tifo. He gained the nickname “The Black Flash” while playing for Celtic. 

SASH doesn’t build tifo but it does work to tell the story of US soccer history. The Heron tifo is an example of how the story of one player uncovered through articles on the SASH website can find a new audience’s trying to make connections to the past.