Content deleted Content added
m cleanup |
mNo edit summary |
||
Line 25:
'''Farrukh Quraishi''' (born in [[Tehran]], [[Iran]]) is a retired [[Iranian-American]] [[Football (soccer)|football]] player who played for [[Tampa Bay Rowdies]] and [[Calgary Boomers]]. He usually played as a [[Defender (football)|defender]]. He also has served in executive positions for numerous U.S. soccer teams and organizations.
==Playing career==
Quraishi was born in Iran, but grew up in London, England. In the late 1960s, Fransico Marcos, who later founded the [[United Soccer Leagues]] (USL), was an assistant coach at [[State University of New York at Oneonta|Oneonta State]] and a fledgling soccer entrepreneur. He had created American International Sports Exchange to coordinate overseas soccer tours for U.S. teams. On one of these trips in 1971, Marcos met Quraishi and convinced him to attend and play soccer at Oneonta State. Over his four years with Oneonta, Quraishi developed into one of the era's best college defenders. He was a member of the 1972 Oneonta team which lost to [[Southern Illinois University Edwardsville|SIU-E]] in the NCAA Division II championship game. That year he was selected to the 1972 State University of New York Conference All Conference team, an honor he repeated in 1973 and 1974. Although the team did not advance as far his junior and senior year, he was showered with accolades, being named a [[Division I First-Team All-American (soccer)|first team All American]] in 1973 and 1974. He capped this when he was named the 1974 [[Hermann Trophy]] winner as the best collegiate player in the nation.
Line 31 ⟶ 32:
Quraishi struggled with injuries, including a broken ankle, which had a severe negative impact on his career. While he played 21 games as a rookie, he never again saw that many games in a season. In 1976 he played 15 and in 1977 fourteen games. He lost the entire 1978 season but came back strong in 1979, seeing time in eighteen games. However injuries again reduced his playing time and he entered only nine games in 1980. He then moved to the expansion [[Calgary Boomers]] for the 1981 season, but never played a game. At the end of the season, he retired from playing professionally and moved back to Tampa Bay.
==Administrative career==
While playing with the Rowdies, Quarishi had also served as the team’s assistant director of community relations. In this capacity he got his first taste of managing and developing a team’s infrastructure. While the players are the natural focus of any sport, these players are supported by owners, executives, managers, salesmen, etc. Quarishi gained valuable exposure to this side of soccer at an early point in his career and it served him well for the rest of his life. As part of his duties in community relations, Quarishi developed soccer leagues and soccer camps throughout the Tampa Bay area. When he returned to Tampa Bay, Caspers Company, a McDonald’s franchise, hired him as its director of public relations. As part of his duties, he placed the McDonald’s name and logo into the public’s awareness through charity and youth events. Among these was the establishment of the McDonald's Sun Bowl International Youth Soccer Tournament. He remained with the company until 1992 when he re-entered the soccer world full time as [[Orlando, Florida]]’s venue director for the [[1994 FIFA World Cup]].
| |||