THE THEURKAUFS
As I previously stated, The MIT Varsity Soccer Team sometimes played the first game of the season against The Harvard University Varsity team. But we always played the final game against The Coast Guard Academy team, alternating between Cambridge Mass and New London Connecticut.
Tom Theurkauf was a member of the MIT team, and his mother was to my knowledge, the original Soccer Mom. She never missed a game either home or away.
Being the final game of the season, we ended up at their house, the game having been played nearby. This was the first time that we were at their house. I noticed that the toilet seat was loose and as we were in celebratory mode, I placed it around my neck and proceeded to sing some Hawaiian song or other.
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On the day when the game was scheduled to be played, I received a telephone call early in the morning from the Assistant Athletic Director. The game was to be played on the practice field as the New Steinbrenner Stadium named after George Steinbrenner, the father of the owner of the New York Yankees, who was I am told, an All American Hurdler, at MIT. was not yet completed and the field in question was waterlogged and I was to determine whether or not the game should be played.
There was no way I was going to call the game off, as I knew the field would be fine by the afternoon game time. But I inspected the field, along with the ground crew, before declaring game on.
The whole thing was Hush-Hush due to the delicate situation, but like everything else that is Hush-Hush, word got around and we had the largest crowd ever assembled, at least in my experience, for any sporting event at MIT.
I didn’t know what to expect. I knew that Russia was a soccer nation, but we were not playing against professional players, on the other hand, we didn’t have a very good team. However, we did win the game. Afterwards, with people from the Russian House acting as interpreters, we enjoyed a wonderful barbecue