I’m very sad to hear that Stan Terlecki passed away in his native Poland after a long illness.
Terlecki played for the Pittsburgh Spirit indoor soccer team from 1981-83 and 1984-86. He was an electrifying talent with a maddening attitude, but the former mostly obscured the latter. A wacko, but brilliantly so. Terlecki had pace, touch, skill, craft and an assassin’s finishing.
Terlecki scored 74 goals in 43 games in 1981-82, earning co-MVP honors in the Major Indoor Soccer League. Wikipedia says Terlecki had 184 goals in 148 games during his Spirit career. (The MISL folded in 1992, so “official” statistics are difficult to unearth.)
For a time, the Spirit was serious business. In 1983-84, the Spirit drew an average of 8,228 fans per game to the Civic Arena. The Penguins' figure that same year was 6,839.
But then Mario Lemieux showed up.
Terlecki was one of indoor soccer’s brightest stars, eclipsed only by Steve Zungul, with whom he shared that MVP (and who won it five other times). He remains one of Pittsburgh’s greatest athletic talents ever.
Stan Terlecki, RIP.