By Adam Hicks
 
Championship teams take on their own unique characteristics and only one thing is for certain: being ordinary doesn't equate to reaching the pinnacle of success.
 
Fifty years ago, the USF men's soccer team, under the direction of fifth-year head coach Steve Negoesco, captured the first of five NCAA titles, providing the spark that launched one of the most prolific dynasties in collegiate soccer history.
 
During halftime of USF's game against Portland on Friday night, USF's 1966 NCAA championship team and Negoesco will be honored in this the 50th anniversary of their national championship season.
  
While the Dons magical 1966 season has stood the test of time in USF's long and rich soccer history, the true legacy of the team can be measured more by the character of the individuals that embodied the ideals of the University and mirrored the ethnicity of the diverse city they called home.
 
The team that tallied a then-NCAA Championship game record of five goals in the title game against Long Island also combined to produce 10 players who received either a master's, Juris Doctor or Ph.D's among its 18-man roster. Those players who helped pave the way for USF's illustrious championship soccer tradition also went on to become physicians, attorneys, physicists and professors.
 
"They were smart kids that wanted to go to school," said Negoesco. "I wasn't instrumental in making them, they were good. They got an education and they contributed."
 
A 1966 Sports Illustrated article heralded the Dons' championship with the headline, "USF Wins One for the U.N." – referencing the seven players born in Germany, Guatemala, Hungry, Indonesia, Poland and Russia along with their Romanian coach. However, every USF player with the exception of one lived in San Francisco year-round. While born in foreign lands, nearly all of the players grew up and played youth soccer in San Francisco, many under the tutelage of Negoesco.
 
"I raised a lot of those players," said Negoesco, who had started up the San Francisco youth soccer program a few years prior. "A lot of those players were kept off the street because of what we were able to do with them."
 
"We were a family," said Jorge Fernandez, a junior fullback that year who helped anchor a defense that allowed just seven goals throughout the regular season. "We were really close knit. Everybody was from the neighborhoods, junior teams or high school teams. We all knew each other."
 
That familial bond made for a cohesive playing style that allowed Negoesco to let his players' instincts on the field flourish.
 
"Individually, we were good players, but as a team we were great," noted Michael Laurel, who as a sophomore was the starting left fullback and was the only American-born starter on that team.
   
"Steve allowed you to play the game, and he respected the players on the field and allowed the players to react," said Pat Pressentin, a senior walk-on defender and a Seattle native who was the lone member of the team that didn't come out of the San Francisco area. "He had great faith in the players to follow through."
 
USF breezed through the 1966 regular season, going 7-0-1 and outscoring opponents 37-7. The Dons' lone blemish came with a 1-1 draw against Cal in the regular season finale.
 
In the NCAA Tournament – USF's third appearance in four years – the Dons posted a 2-1 win over San Jose State that set them up for a quarterfinal date at St. Louis, a perennial power which had knocked USF out of the tournament in each of their previous four appearances. On a rain-soaked field, USF prevailed 2-1 when Eduardo Rangel scored the game-winning goal in the fifth overtime period.
 
"I think St. Louis was surprised that we were so good in the mud," said Laurel, who credits the team's weekly training sessions at Ocean Beach for preparing the Dons for the nasty conditions.
 
"I remember making a wager with several of my friends on the St. Louis team that USF would win the national championship before I graduated," said fullback Al Tsacle, who played with many of the St. Louis players, including Billiken head coach Bob Guelker, on the U.S. U19 National Team.
 
"We had to go and play in St. Louis and that was the big win for us – you never beat St. Louis at home," said Negoesco.
 
A win over St. Louis in the quarterfinals earned the Dons their first trip to the national semifinals, now called the College Cup, which was held in Cal's Memorial Stadium. The Dons shutout Army, 2-0 behind second half goals by Luis Sagastume and Sandor Hites, along with rock-solid goalkeeping by Mike Ivanow. The Dons then used a hat trick by Hites to rout Long Island, 5-2 in the championship game, giving USF its first NCAA men's soccer championship.
 
"At first is like a dream, like the first time you went to Disneyland," said midfielder Henry Lopez-Contreras, a senior that year. "But then it becomes real and you feel great about such an accomplishment, for ourselves but especially for the University and coach. The national limelight was placed on USF's soccer program."
 
"I think that experience and all my years playing for USF reinforced a success-oriented approach to life in general," said Laurel. "The downside is when you are so successful, you are expected to win, so that created a lot of pressure in subsequent years."
 
The 1966 title did more than give those players a championship on which to hang their hat, it paved the way for their futures as professionals and family men.
 
"Going to USF was the best decision that I ever made," said Kevin Carey, class of 1968. "The education as well as the total experience helped me in so many ways that it is difficult to express. It is interesting that three of my five children have gone to USF, either as an undergraduate or in graduate programs."
 
"Right off the bat it paid off when in my job interview with Lockheed we talked more about my athletic accomplishments then my engineering know how," said Jerry Katzeff, a junior sweeper on that team. "Bottom line, I got the job.
 
"On a career level, you learn that to win games, one must be a team player. This acquired attitude followed me into my career as an engineer and helped in various working environments."
 
Thus the legacy of that 1966 team has been cemented, 50 years later - champions on the field and off.
 
Where Are They Now
Al Aramendia - Real estate sales and leasing specialist
Kevin Carey - Sales representative with the California State Automobile Association; lives in San Bruno, Calif.
Henry Lopez-Contreras - Professor of Latin Studies at California State University, Stanislaus
Rudy Dekkers – Unknown
Jorge Fernandez - Owner, Ideal Auto Repair in San Francisco
Sam Gerzowski - Worked for a number of banks, including Wells Fargo, The Riggs National Bank of Washington D.C., Far West Federal S&L, U.S. Bank and finished with Pendum, an armored car company; lives in Portland, Ore.
Sandor Hites – Dentist in Berkeley, Calif. inducted into the USF Athletics Hall of Fame in 1983.  
Mike Ivanow – Played with the U.S. in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games before enjoying an 11-year pro career that included eight seasons in the North American Soccer League and three in the Major Indoor Soccer League. After his playing career, he got into the car sales industry. Inducted into the USF Athletics Hall of Fame in 1983.   
Jerry Katzeff – Retired after a 35-year career as a research engineer for Lockheed Missiles and Space Company.
Mike Laurel – Retired after a 38-year career teaching economics and social sciences in Cupertino, Calif.  
Terry MacRenato – Served seven years in Vietnam with the U.S. Marine's ultra-elite 3 Force Recon Company before eventually earning a master's in history and a Ph.D. in Latin American history. Retired from the San Diego Community College system after teaching history, political science and Chicano studies at San Diego City College.
Lothar Osiander - Spent a three-year stint as the head coach of the U.S. Men's National Team from 1986-1988. Inducted into the USF Athletic Hall of Fame in 1990.
Pat Pressentin – Became an attorney in Seattle and has been very involved as a member of the USF Alumni Board of Directors.
Istvan Pribilovics - Unknown
Eduardo Rangel - Lives in North Carolina and is among the inductees into this year's USF Athletics Hall of Fame class.
Gary Royce - Became an attorney.
Luis Sagastume – Coached soccer at the high school and collegiate level, including two years at San Francisco State (1978-79) before going on to a 28-year career at the Air Force Academy, where he retired in 2009 with a career record of 303-196-43.  
Manny Suffle - Became a physician.
Al Tsacle – Worked as an associate engineer at Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. for five years with teammate Jerry Katzeff. Spent a year at Hewlett-Packard and then entered academia as a professor with California State University before retiring from California State University in 2015 as Emeritus Professor of Computer Information Systems.
 
Adam Hicks joined USF's athletic communications team in the summer of 2015 and covers men's and women's soccer along with women's basketball for the department.