My Quakes Hall Of Fame – Front Office
By: Sean | August 10th, 2008Been tossing this idea around for a while now, figured I would flesh it out a little bit here. Note: this is MLS only.
Today’s Entry: The Front Office
Front Office
Peter Bridgwater
I’ll let his Wiki page do the talking: “He had been involved with professional soccer in San Jose since 1984, when he was named general manager of the original San Jose Earthquakes of the North American Soccer League. Bridgwater later bought the Earthquakes franchise, and then after the NASL ceased operations in 1985, he founded the Western Soccer League, forerunner to the American Professional Soccer League– later known as the A-League and now the USL First Division. Bridgwater was also venue director for World Cup 1994 at Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto, California. The success of World Cup ‘94 sparked the formation of the MLS and The San Jose Clash. Since 1984 Bridgwater did more to keep soccer alive in San Jose, California than any other person.”
Johnny Moore
While most of his accolades reside with the NASL Quakes (first player signed, assistant coach, general manager), Moore also was the general manager of the Quakes during the successful 2002 and 2003 seasons. As he states in this interview from the past May, his passion has always been the growth of soccer in America. Also, very interesting that Moore mentioning Arturo Alvarez and his good play. Hmm..
Alexi Lalas*
I’ll let J.J. Schuster handle this one: “As a die-hard ‘Quakes fan, I want to publicly thank Alexi Lalas for all his efforts to help San Jose. “Thank you, Alexi” for sending Frank Yallop back to us. We have the best coach in MLS. Too bad you hired someone who knows next-to-nothing about American soccer. And “Thank you, Alexi” for no longer being our GM & President. Not only will the Galaxy not make the play-offs, my Quakes will finish higher in the standings.”
*Juuuuust kidding
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Category: Wishful Thinking
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Sean, what about Lynne Meterparel? It was her work in 1999 as GM of the Clash that kick started the name change to the Earthquakes, (the name Nike wouldn’t let us have when MLS started!!!). Unfortunately, her research also showed that people would rather wear blue than red, so we didn’t get our original colors back. Still, I think she deserves a mention.
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Touche Gavin. I had thought about that change, and the people responsible, but I feel like that change was inevitable and would happen at some point, regardless if Lynne was around or not. That and the level of play on the field was too poor for that to make up for it. But she does deserve an honorable mention, and you gave it to her.
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Great choices!
I’d also add in Tom Neale, the Earthquakes’ GM in 2001 who was a leading force in turning the franchise around.
Backed by then-investor/operator Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment (SVS&E), Neale hired a then-unknown head-coaching quantity in Frank Yallop, successfully stood up to the league when it tried to “massage” a deal to send the rights to Landon Donovan (which the Quakes had just landed after having been at the front of the league allocation line for about a year) to the Galaxy in exchange for Luis Hernandez, and basically stood out of Yallop’s and Dominic Kinnear’s way as they constructed what was to become the greatest on-field era ever in San José pro soccer history (2001-2005).
Though he moved to New York just before the conclusion of the 2001 season to marry his then-fiancée (whose family was over there), he left a blueprint that was ably continued and advanced by Johnny Moore (2002-2003), and Kate McAllister & Ken Freccero (realistically 2004-2005, even if they’re officially listed only as 2005 interim GM’s).
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