Ex-Penn star lives a soccer dream

John Borozzi was forced to leave Penn early to try out for the 1976 Olympic team As John Borozzi hitchhiked his way from Philadelphia to Springfield, Mass., one Friday afternoon twenty years ago, he probably wondered why he was doing it. As a United States Olympic hopeful, he was on his way to trying out for the U.S. national team. Although he realized the team was a longshot to qualify for the Montreal Olympiad, he wanted to try. "We knew it was an uphill battle," Borozzi said. "The high was making the team." After an elaborate tryout process, Borozzi was one of several collegiate players selected to represent the United States. The U.S. played home and away series against several North American teams, all of whom were chasing a single berth in the Games for the region. However, as in past years, Mexico was too strong for the rest of the North American field. It was the Mexicans who emerged as the best team in the region and who traveled to Canada in 1976. Much of the American downfall can be attributed to serious disorganization within the team. Shortly before the qualifying tournament for the Olympics began, the American coach was fired and replaced by Detmer Kramer of Germany. Kramer overhauled the team, getting rid of most of the collegiate players and replacing them with players from the North American Soccer League. Borozzi was able to continue playing until he missed one game against Bermuda. After that he was not invited to continue playing on the U.S. squad. As a student at Penn, Borozzi was forced to miss many of his classes and pay his own way onto the Olympic team. He petitioned the University for financial assistance, but was denied and forced to support himself. He saved money by hitchhiking to tryouts until he made the team. Unfortunately, because of the difficulty of traveling so frequently, Borozzi never finished his academic career at Penn. He dropped out in 1976, during his senior year, and did not complete his degree until 1988, when he graduated from Towson State. "I was no great student and it was difficult being away for a week here and a week there," Borozzi said. After Borozzi's stint with the Olympic team and his time at Penn, he went on to play professionally for 4 years in the NASL. That made him one of few American nationals to make an impact in the league during its heyday of the 1970s, when international superstars like Pele and Johan Cruyff were plying their trade in the United States. Borozzi's resume also includes one year playing indoor soccer, as well as managing a pro team in the NASL before the league folded in 1984. Currently he is the Marketing Director for the Columbus Crew, one of the ten teams in the newly formed Major League Soccer. He must be doing something right in Ohio, since the Crew have regularly been playing to crowds of 20,000 or more. As the United States has become more of a threat on the international soccer scene, Penn has declined as a national power. The Quakers were ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation in the early 1970s and drew more fans than any other college to playoff soccer matches at Franklin Field during Borozzi's freshman campaign of 1972. But by his senior year the Quakers had fallen out of the top 20 and have never regained the powerhouse status they once enjoyed. Although the Quakers are experiencing soccer difficulties at present, the U.S. national soccer scene is growing by leaps and bounds. And although Borozzi may not have fully realized his Olympic dream in 1976, he is still a large part of the soccer world today.