Marcos receives top US Soccer honor
February 26, 2007 - USL First Division (USL-1) News Release
LOS ANGELES, CA -- It was announced Saturday at the US Soccer Annual General Meeting Awards Gala that USL founder and President Francisco Marcos was the fifth-ever recipient of the prestigious US Soccer Werner Fricker Builder Award, which is presented annually to an individual who has worked tirelessly in furthering the interest of the sport of soccer, without regard to personal recognition or advancement. The award was created in 2002 and is the greatest recognition bestowed by US Soccer on its membership.
"There are too many people responsible for this, but I would be remiss not to mention the involvement of two or three people that have made this journey possible," said Marcos. "First and foremost, my wife Beverly, who started out as my part-time assistant, became my first full-time employee, eventually my girlfriend, my wife and the mother of my son Julian. She accepted, perhaps without fully understanding, that soccer was such a passion that it was part of the blood mix - everything else would have to wait, which possibly explains why 16-year old Julian has a 61-year old father. I couldn't have done this without her."
The award is designed to honor those who have created or fostered programs that will outlast their own active involvement in the sport and that establish a lasting legacy in the history and structure of soccer in the United States.
"Francisco Marcos has been a close friend of mine for 20 years, so it is a great pleasure for me to see him being honored in this way," said U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati, who presented the award to Marcos. "Francisco has helped grow the sport of soccer at every level in the United States. Whether it be his grassroots outreach into scores of different communities across the country or the way in which he has helped develop our professional game, Francisco has given selflessly to the betterment of soccer in the United States. After five decades of activity, we are all the beneficiary of his long-term vision."
Marcos' impact on the game began early on as a student at Hartwick College under the tutelage of Al Miller. While still in school he started the Empire State Soccer League and launched the magazine Soccer Monthly, which would go on to become the official magazine of the US Soccer Federation. Shortly after graduating in 1968 he founded the first American company to develop soccer tours abroad for teams in the United States.
A few years later the North American Soccer League was founded and Marcos played a key role in and around the league alongside Miller, who had given Marcos his professional soccer administrative start with the Philadelphia Atoms in 1973. He went on to serve as the director of public relations and vice president of operations for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, the vice president of player personnel for the Dallas Tornado and helped launch the Calgary Boomers.
"Al was the man who helped me start this journey of building the game in this great country," said Marcos. "If he had not called me in to help the Atoms, I may never have done the things I did with the NASL and gone on to start USL when that passion for the professional game stayed in my blood when the league came to an end."
Just over a year after the collapse of the NASL, Marcos planted the seeds for what has become his biggest contribution to the sport in the US, United Soccer Leagues. Founded as a modest five-team indoor league in Texas and Oklahoma, Marcos' philosophy of incremental, sustainable growth saw the Southwest Indoor Soccer League expand, moving outdoors in 1989 and eventually growing to include 120 senior professional and amateur league teams and over 800 youth teams.
"Back in 1986, when the USL journey started as the Southwest Indoor Soccer League, it is equally true that this thing might never have gotten on the right tracks were it not for the support of the North Texas Association - particularly Bob Black and Pat Parker - and I am forever in their debt," said Marcos.
Along the way, USL took over the management of the then independent A-League (now USL First Division), launched the first-ever national women's league (W-League) and developed a national elite youth league (Super Y-League), creating a system of player development ranging from U13 to the professional game.
"To receive the Werner Fricker Builder Award is truly a prestigious honor. It is a distinction that helps personify a man whose dedication to the growth of soccer in the United States was unrivaled," said Sunil Gulati, the 2003 recipient of the award who was elected to the presidency of US Soccer earlier in 2006.
Werner Fricker himself was honored posthumously with the inaugural award in 2002, with his son, Werner Jr., accepting the award on his behalf. With US Soccer's Annual General Meeting moving from the summer months to March, no award was bestowed in 2004.
"Werner Fricker was a soccer builder extraordinaire, without whom the World Cup would not have come to the USA, even as he now possibly plots how to bring the first World Cup to Heaven," said Marcos. "I would hope that he considers me worthy of this great honor, and believe that I will be forever true to a motto that I believe we share, 'If you take care of the game, the game will invariably take care of you.'"
Werner Fricker is widely credited for his role in bringing the 1994 FIFA World Cup to the United States. Born in Yugoslavia and raised in Austria, he lived his adult life in Pennsylvania, where he was a star midfielder for the United German Hungarians of Philadelphia soccer club from 1954 to 1969 and was a member of the 1964 U.S. Olympic Team. He served as US Soccer President from 1984 to 1990 and was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y., in 1992.
The award returned in 2005, with the honor going to Michigan Soccer Association President Gerhard Mengel. In 2006, the award was given to Sal Rapaglia, president of the Eastern New York Amateur Soccer Association.
The President of US Soccer appoints a selection committee to review the nominations and select a winner. The selection committee appointees, which included chairman Marge Madriago, Bob Contiguglia, Stephen Flamhaft, Kevin Payne, Jim Hamilton and Werner Fricker Jr, are representative of US Soccer and all nominations are received from the membership.
WERNER FRICKER AWARD
Year Recipient
2002 Werner Fricker, Sr.
2003 Sunil Gulati
2005 Gerhard Mengel
2006 Sal Rapaglia
2007 Francisco Marcos
USL First Division Stories from February 26, 2007
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