In 1975 at Jeffco (Jefferson County) Stadium in the western suburbs of Denver, Colorado I saw for the first time the true magic of soccer. I had seen Pele in the 60s playing across the baseball infield of Fenway Park, but my seat was remote and the game an exhibition with the Santos team clearly superior and playing on the trot.

But this was the inaugural season of the Denver Dynamo as the North American Soccer League launched into the Mile High city.  The blue-shirted Dynamos took the field with an assortment of players from around the world, few that I can remember now 31 years later. There was Andy Lochhead, a balding Scottish man to whom, it seemed, every ball was flighted. There was the league required young American, Mike Flater, who had played in the local leagues, been on the 1972 Olympic team and held the NCAA Division II record for longest field goal in American football.

Then there was this lithe, thin, little, black player named Ace. He was superbly quick, had skills that awed, speed that marveled, and finishing power belied by the slim figure.  In tiny Jeffco Stadium the fans were tight to the sidelines and the players were “up close and personal.” I was mesmerized by the skill Ace displayed. I had grown up playing the rough and tumble primitive game where, it often seemed, the goal was to get the ball to the offensive end of the field as fast as possible, then chase the other guys until they coughed it up and our team scored. What a mess it was!

Ace showed me (and millions of others) over the course of his career in the NASL, an exciting style of soccer based on skill and tactics, not brawn and power. He showed us the soccer the rest of the world played in a way we had never seen before. He showed us that brawn could be a negative, could be tricked, and would be beaten by the smart, quick, skilled player that he was.

Ace opened my eyes to international football; to soccer as it should be. I am forever grateful for the vision of the game he gave me that day and over his years in Denver, Minnesota, and Toronto.

I was so excited to be in Oneonta, NY to welcome Ace to the Hall of Fame in 2003. He had for so long been a hero to me. But meeting heroes for the first time is a 2-edged sword. Now I would meet the person. Would he be the kind of person I wanted my hero to be? Or would he be one of those full-of-themselves cocky pampered athletes who appear on the sports page for their athletic triumphs and the front page for the human failings.

Ace was the best! A truly human hero, soft-spoken, seemingly without ego everywhere but on the soccer field, where he still showed tantalizing skill and magical vision. His speech accepting the honor of election to the Hall of Fame was the highlight of the Induction Ceremony. Speaking softly, he held the audience in his hands and when he said his was most proud of being the first black African player to be inducted in to the Hall of Fame, the enormity of the event suddenly grew beyond bounds. He was everything one could have wanted in the hero.

Thank you Ace for being the player who brought at least this one player and fan a new soccer and for being the person who would accept honor so humbly. To call Ace a role model sells him short. He is The Role Model. If one desires to be a great player and a great person, study Ace. You could find no better mentor!