The man who started up the San Jose Earthquakes back in 1974 is still involved in the game he loves, even if it's across the pond.       And here's some more about the man.       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
      Nope, "Grizzly Adams" was one of the players. Mandaric was the owner back then.       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Goodsie, when you post a picture like that, you ought to have it captioned telling us who all those guys are.
      That's a picture of the 1977 San Jose Earthquakes.       "Grizzly Adams" is sitting in the front row, owner Milan Mandaric is in the back row (third from right), and coach Gabbo Gavric is in the back row (furthest to the right).       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
From memory, here is the team: 14 - John Rowland 24 - Matt Hewitt 10 - Paul Child 4 - Mark Demling 3 - Laurie Calloway 2? - Buzz Demling (next to Laurie) ? - Johnnie Moore (middle of front row) 13 - Davey Kemp 7 - Tony Simones (?) - Art Welch (not in uniform next to John Rowland) Ah the memories, we sat on the East Side of the stadium. Notice the size of the crowd. The games were almost always well attended...
I saw Gabbo Gavric in Scotts Valley last year at a German VW shop. He looked great. In fact, he looks better now than he did in that picture. Gabbo is THE Rock. He looked so good, I couldn't believe it was him. I was doing a quick calculation in my head trying to figure out if it was him or not. And was thinking it just couldn't be because the guy I was looking at was very fit. His Nose was the giveaway!! If you know how Gabbo looks like, then that is pretty funny.
For those just tuning in, I'll try to test my addled brain: BACK ROW: Paul Gizzi (GK), Leroy DeLeon, (14) John Rowlands, (24) Mike Hewitt, (26) Borut Skulj, (10) Paul Child, (23) Geoff Davies, Iljia Mitic, Milan Mandaric, Dr. Mayfield Harris, Gabbo Gavric MIDDLE ROW: Mark Belmont, (16) Alan Birchenall, (18) Tibor Molnar, (4) Mark Demling, (3) Laurie Calloway, (2) Buzz Demling, (21) Miro Pavlovic, Dave Obenour FRONT ROW: (19) Tim McKeown, (6) Grizzly Adams, (8) Johnny Moore, (13) Davie Kemp, (7) Antonio Simoes Oh, yeah, Grizzly Adams' real name is Trevor Hockey.
Ex-Quake Owner sighting MM is on page 112 of the November issue of FourFourTwo magazine. There's an article on Portsmouth. Tony
You beat me! I only screwed up on thinking Leroy was Art Welch. I used to love watching Mitic. He wouldn't move around the field much. However, he would get to the top of the penalty box, receive the ball, and put the ball in the back of the net.
"A happy Portsmouth chairman, Milan Mandaric after watching his team defeat Nottingham Forest 2-0 - Soccer - Nationwide League Division One - Portsmouth v Nottingham Forest" Where in the world are these places at? That picture is awesome. The bellbottoms are way cool... TRANSFORM MARI
Milan Mandaric is the current chairman of Pompey (Portsmouth FC), he is currently taking portsmouth on a crash course to the premiership here in the UK. He has signed established stars such as Paul Merson and Steve Stone, and youngsters such as Vincent Pericard (French) and Matthew Taylor (The solution to England's Lefty Side)
Milan Mandaric Here's a link to a story about the owner of the original Quakes: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/2003/02/11/mandaric_portsmouth/
      There is a short article about Milan Mandaric on page 70 of the latest issue of Soccer America magazine (the March 24, 2003 issue).       Unfortunately, I couldn't find a link to the article.       While the article mainly reports about what he's up to now, it does call him a "San Jose businessman" and mentions his forming the NASL Earthquakes back in 1974.       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
      Thanks JBell! That was an interesting article.       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
      Could the Earthquakes use the soccer business savvy of Mandaric right about now?       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Not sure you could lure him away from a Premier League-bound club... but in any event, I wish him all the best next season with the big boys. Any advice he can give to the current incarnation of the Quakes I'm sure would be appreciated. (and maybe he might take a page from his fellow countryman, Sacramento Kings center Vlade Divac, and do some more investing locally...) Play up Pompey!
>>Could the Earthquakes use the soccer business savvy of Mandaric right about now?<< Sure. Ask the fans of the St. Louis Storm, San Jose Grizzlies, and Florida Thundercats, all franchises he owned and sold down the river, about his soccer business savvy.
      It seems like there was a slight chance that Mandaric could have been an MLS Investor/Operator (perhaps even for San Jose, depending on whether he was asked during Dan Van Voorhis' involvement with the forming of MLS or after Van Voorhis had left)!       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
      After the San Jose Grizzlies' demise at the conclusion of the 1995 season, I had read somewhere that one of the reasons Mandaric decided not to continue with the Grizzlies was because of the coming of MLS into San Jose.       Even if that's true, I'm sure there's a whole lot more to the story than that. Anyone here know more about this?       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G