The Football Tragic

A brief perusal of Pittsburgh sport forums is enough to confirm that "Stan" Terlecki became a beloved idol during his time playing for the Pittsburgh Spirit. The parochial Pennsylvania mining town had always cherished its sporting teams, and the slender Pole with his machine gun of a right foot provided some memorable moments in between the (American) football, basketball and ice-hockey.

But with glasnost and perestroika offering hopes of greater political freedom in Poland, and his wife Ewa missing her homeland dreadfully, Terlecki decided to head home in 1986 after his final season with the Spirit. It was too late to make a claim for a spot in the 1986 Polish World Cup squad, but Terlecki's old club LKS Lodz welcomed the former rebel back for two more seasons.

Now past 30, Terlecki might have been expected to settle down in his old digs. But the restlessness that had characterized his life kept him on the move for the next few years, first to Legia Warsaw where he won two Polish cups, then to America again for a season with St. Louis, then back to LKS, and finally to Polonia Warsaw where he ended his career. Touchingly, he hung on long enough at Polonia for his son Maciej to join the squad, and father and son briefly shared the field in the father's last season.

Post-football, in the uncertain years following the break-up of the Soviet bloc, Terlecki turned to business, using his American connections to secure a job as the representative of an American concern in Poland. But when the company went bust, Terlecki was left in the cold. He started a business venture of his own, which ended in disaster.

The former student activist ran for politics as well, but unlike his erstwhile national-team colleague Grzegorz Lato, he experienced no success in that arena. The expense involved in a political campaign, on top of his earlier business disappointments, had its inevitable financial effect. Terlecki had returned from the United States a relatively wealthy man, but the money dried up as this restless stone kept on rolling. He returned briefly to football, running an academy of sorts, but again without success.

Health problems began to appear as well, as Terlecki approached his half-century. Friends indicated that the former international preferred to treat his ailments with alcohol rather than the heart medication he needed. 

Terlecki's final years were difficult ones. Holding a mundane municipal job at a sports centre in Lodz while collecting a meagre state pension, in between stints in hospital, he was a forgotten figure. His cardiac troubles worsened, and his heart finally gave out on December 28, 2017. Stanislaw Terlecki, once a hero on two continents, a man who played with Franz Beckenbauer and against Diego Maradona, who befriended Pelé, and who played a small part in the series of revolts that helped to break up the Soviet empire, passed away in his sleep at the age of 62.

# posted by Mike Salter @ 9:21 AM