Struggles
One thing that Trinity struggled with was finding teams to play. Every team but one in San Antonio was a Latino team, and that other one was called Pearl International Soccer Club, made up mainly by individuals from the United Kingdom. In the aftermath of their first game, against Pearl International, Pritz was introduced to George Price, an Englishman in his early 30s who would go onto coach the team and lead practices. The University was unable to pay Price a monetary sum for his services, so ended up offering him six hours free tuition each semester to play the role of coach. Pritz explained this was “a big dream for a blue collar background Englishman!” Alongside Price, was team sponsor Anton Odeh. Odeh was of Jordanian descent and had a love of soccer. He worked in “one of the schools administrative offices… and was one of the few faculty or staff who had ever even seen a soccer match!” Pritz told me.
Whilst the leadership was being installed, Pritz struggled to organise games against other local universities. “Of those I contacted most did not have a soccer program,” recalled Pritz, “some of the larger schools (Texas, Rice, SMU, Texas A&M) did have teams – club teams boasting players from all over the world.” During the fall and winter months of 1965 Trinity set up and played their games in local Olmos Park. Their first encounter with the University of Texas is one Pritz said he will “never forget.” Another player on that team, Jonathan Foster, whose son, Trey, plays for Trinity today, said “great memories… I would not trade them. I ran my ass off all the time… and had to cover some 6 foot plus Nigerian player for Texas. Got head butted several times and kicked when the ball was somewhere else.” Suffice it to say the game was physical. Trinity actually shocked the Longhorns by taking the lead inside ten minutes. But the Longhorns and their “15-20 international players” roared back and won the game 10-1. The Tigers lost every game in that inaugural season. Not to be disheartened however, the Tigers focused on their next season with much enthusiasm.