NickNicolas.jpg

Nick Nicolas was one of the only Americans on the 1975 Portland Timbers. Here he is pictured in 1975 (left) and today (right).

(Courtesy of Nick Nicolas)

In 1975, when the Portland Timbers entered the North American Soccer League, Timbers coach Vic Crowe filled out the majority of his roster with players from England.

But the NASL required that the Timbers also sign at least three players from either Canada or the United States.

Nick Nicolas, an American who was born on the Island of Cyprus and grew up in San Francisco, had been a member of the San Jose Earthquakes reserve team heading into the 1975 NASL season. When the Earthquakes decided to disband their reserve team, the fullback drove to Portland for an open tryout.

Nicolas ended up being one of just three Americans on Portland's roster that season and returned to the Timbers once again in 1976.

After his two years in Portland, Nicolas returned to San Jose and played in semi-pro leagues in the San Francisco area for another 10 years. He continues to play soccer in an over-50 league today.

Nicolas ended up going into business with another former Timber, John Smillie, who was drafted by Portland ahead of the 1976 season. The two former teammates founded Peninsula Visa & Passport in the 1970s and the company is still going strong today.

The Oregonian/OregonLive recently sat down with Nicolas to discuss his experience as one of the few Americans on the 1975 Portland Timbers, what it was like to play under Crowe and his memories of the old Civic Stadium.

How did you end up coming to Portland in 1975?

I was on the reserve team of the San Jose Earthquakes before coming to Portland. We played two or three games in San Jose and then they decided to get rid of the reserve team. We heard that Portland was having tryouts, so I went there to try to make the team. They were eliminating players from tryouts every day. (Timbers coach) Vic (Crowe) was looking for guys that had experience playing for teams in the NASL...On the final day of tryouts, Vic called me over and told me that he wanted to sign me and he needed me to be in Portland by that Tuesday afternoon. I was still enrolled in graduate classes at San Jose State at the time, so I drove back to San Jose to figure that out and then flew to Portland a few days later.

What was your living situation like in Portland?

We all lived in the same area, in the same apartment complex. We weren't making much money. They paid for our apartments and they did furnish them, though sparsely. You had a couch, a coffee table and a bed and you had one set of sheets, one dish, one cup and one set of silverware... Because we were all living in the same place, I think we all just clicked really quickly. Most of the guys were from England and many of them had played for Vic before. So, those players bonded immediately. Everyone had respect for everybody else.

What was it like playing in Civic Stadium?

When we were playing, I thought the stadium was a nice stadium. I didn't like the turf. It was tartan turf and tartan turf looks like a Brillo Pad. It looked like a carpet and it was hard as rock and you had the baseball field on it, so there was little cut outs where there was dirt. They wouldn't water the field in those days. When you slid on that turf it would take all your skin off. People would train in their tracksuits to try to keep themselves from getting bruised, but as soon as you went down you'd rip the tracksuit. You would get unbelievable raspberries. If you went into a slide tackle, you came away with a burn. You had to worry about the trainer coming to find you because the antiseptic hurt more than the burn. Guys would hide in the showers to keep away from the trainers.

With the Portland Timbers set to begin their 40th anniversary season in 2015, The Oregonian wants to tell the story of the people behind the team with our 'Timbers at 40' series. Fans, players, coaches or anyone involved with the Portland Timbers are invited to contact us with their tales of the Timbers and how soccer in the Rose City has impacted their life. If you would like to share your story with Timbers beat reporter Jamie Goldberg, please send us a note.

There were very few Americans on that team. What was it like to be one of the few Americans?

In that season, the NASL had a rule that you had to have three players that were from America or Canada on your roster. Vic was able to fill the maximum amount of players from England and then there us three Americans...Even though we were winning, all the games were close in 1975, so you're playing your top players. Vic was playing to make the playoffs. He was playing to be successful. A coach can't think any other way. Roger Goldingay was another American and his first appearance didn't come until we were on the road in Hartford and we were already winning 3-0 and then he only played the last 10, 15 minutes. Even though you weren't playing, it was still a great experience. I liked all the guys and we bonded and we just keep working hard.

You never actually got into a game?

After we made the playoffs we had one game left in Los Angeles and that game was a game that I was supposed to play in. A couple of the players did something they weren't supposed to do the night before, so Vic played them as a punishment. I was warming up for the game and was on the bench, but I didn't play...Vic marched to his own drum. He worked us hard. Even the days before games, he worked us hard. I've never been as fit in my life. The kind of work that we did, I had never seen that type of workout. And guys like me, that were on the edge of the team, worked even harder. We were always trying to impress.

What stood out to you most about Vic Crowe's coaching style?

He wanted to win every game. It didn't matter if it was an exhibition game or not. Even in the scrimmages we'd do in practice, he was ruthless. He would play in our scrimmages. I remember I took the ball away from him once and the next time I went by him, he put his elbow in me. He was a mean player and he wanted his teams to be tough and hard like him. I think the team was successful because all of them kind of knew each other and they had a couple of guys that had played in the top level in England and were respected guys. All the coaches in England knew Vic was going to get the best out of the players and keep them fit. They knew it would be the same type of coaching they were getting at home. He had no favorites. He drove everybody. You could be the captain and he would drive you just as hard as he drove me.

You were one of the few players that came back in 1976. Why did so many of the players leave?

Those 14 players, with the exception of three or four of them were on loan from teams in England. Those players had to go back to their teams. Our season was supposed to be over after the last game of the season in August, but we qualified for the playoffs. Management had promised the teams in Europe that their players would be back by the beginning of August because that was when they are starting training over there. The teams told their players to come back to England when we made playoffs, but the players stayed and the clubs in England were really mad. When Vic went back to these clubs the second year and asked if he could borrow players again, they didn't want to give the players back. Vic couldn't get the same standard of players the next year. You had two or three players that did come back, but the leaders were gone. Peter Withe didn't come back and he had been our leading scorer. We could never really hit the level of play that we had in 1975 again.

How do you think the 1975 season impacted the fandom for soccer in Portland today?

None of us have ever lost the feeling of that summer. I really do think 1975 had a lasting impact. That first night in 1975 when you had 6,000 people show up in the pouring rain to the game, we were thinking, 'Can you imagine what it will be like when it's nice outside?' From that game on it just built and built and built. That last game against St. Louis in the playoffs, I just couldn't believe how many people were there and how they packed them all into that stadium that was supposed to fit something like 18,000... Every management in the league wanted to emulate what they did in Portland. Later on when the NASL went away and the Timbers reincarnated in other forms, there was still that fan base. That fan base is responsible for MLS coming to Portland.

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the Portland Timbers, The Oregonian/OregonLive will be running a Q&A series this year with the players that competed for the Timbers during the club's inaugural 1975 season. This is the third installment of our 1975 Portland Timbers Q&A series.