Six letters. His name is only 6 letters. Or two fewer than the number of siblings he had growing up. Short name, meat and potatoes name. In a way, that's consistent with the nature of the man who is perhaps the greatest football player of all time to come out of Springfield. In other ways, the real Ted Eck was and is the exact opposite. Ginseng, wheat germ, and a touch of patchouli might be a better description. All of this is blended with a no-nonsense Midwestern work ethic.
“He was about 10 years ahead of everyone as far as health is concerned, as everyone is doing now,” says former coach and Western Illinois University Soccer Hall of Fame alumnus Dave Dill. “Everything was organic, healthy and environmentally friendly. He oxygenated the water in his '90s. Everyone else was drinking tap water.”
Ted Eck, 57, is a graduate of Griffin High School (now Sacred Heart Griffin) and Western Illinois State, and has a 14-year career as a professional soccer player, with 13 caps for the U.S. Men's National Team. There is. The youngest of Ed and Eloise Eck's nine children (five brothers, three sisters), he spent his days and nights out and about, after fighting to keep the last scraps of food on the dinner table. We played makeshift pickup soccer with the rest of our family and neighbors. A field designed by his father.
The Eckes were “hobby farmers,” with many livestock and a garden full of food options. Eloise instilled a belief in living off local food and avoiding most modern medicines in favor of holistic treatment, but nothing has changed. Today, Eck and his wife Talitha help run Rainbow His Kitchen on Maui, where he lives with his two young daughters.
Rainbow Kitchen serves organic, plant-based food, salads, and smoothies and has become a favorite among locals, but it's not easy for mainlanders. During the wildfires that devastated parts of Maui last year, Rainbow Kitchen provided more than 1,000 free meals to evacuees.
The fact that very few people outside the local community know anything about it is purely an Eck thing.
“He always put the team first, and he could help the team win,” said Dill, who played goal for the Western Illinois Leathernecks from 1980 to 1981. “I'm not at all surprised to learn that Ted and his family were among the people most willing to help after the fire.”
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Even though he now lives thousands of miles away, traveled to more than 30 countries, and hasn't returned in several years, Eck's heart and mind are never far from Springfield.
“It was a great place to grow up. I think that's where I learned the value of working really hard and making the most of what you have,” Eck said. . “If there was something we wanted in our home, we knew we had to get it.”
Eck's older brother Joe, 69, still lives in Springfield after a stellar playing career at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina and then coaching at Sangamon State University (now the University of Illinois at Springfield). However, he said this. Good – in a good way of course. He played with a lot of older players, so I think that's where he started getting better at the game faster than kids his age. ”
Despite having a successful football career at Griffin, he did not receive a scholarship offer from any college when he graduated in 1984. However, he joined the Leathernecks as a walk-on that year and played as a center midfielder until 1987. From there he played for Buxton FC, essentially a semi-professional team in England, and played well enough to attract attention after that. He played there for three years, also playing for the then-Canadian League's Ottawa and the North American Soccer League's Toronto Blizzard.
He probably would have been selected for the U.S. national team for the 1990 World Cup, but he was under contract with the Comets at the time, and the Comets needed him for a playoff spot. If Eck has a career regret, it's probably not getting enough shakes on that U.S. team, but otherwise he had a long and successful professional career. And no one can take away this goal. In a 1990 US “friendly match” against AC Milan at Chicago's Soldier Field, Eck came on as a substitute for Erik Wynalda and scored the team's only goal.
“I'll never forget the look on my parents' faces at that time,” Joe Eck said.
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He won two American Professional Soccer League championships with the Colorado Foxes in 1992 and 1993 and scored the game-tying goal in '87.th In the first minute of regulation in the 1993 APSL Championship vs. LA Salsa, they ultimately won 3-1. He was selected third overall in the first round of the 1996 Major League Soccer draft by manager Dallas Burn.
“Some people may have looked at me strangely when I took him third overall,” Dill said. “But with Ted, I knew what I was getting. We eventually moved him from center mid to the backfield and he never complained and was great in that role. He made a great play.”
Although his playing career ended in 2001, Eck continued to coach and manage various professional soccer organizations until deciding to live a more off-the-grid, more off-the-shore lifestyle on Maui. Ta.
“Teddy was a player who brought that lunch-pail work ethic from Springfield into his daily job. What was in that lunch box was probably a little different than most other players,” the Foxes said. said Chris Spaulding, who knew Eck in Denver when he worked in management. “Now, Teddy is enjoying the karma of a fulfilled life. Teddy is a rare individual who is an even better person than he was as a player.”
Ms Eck said: Springfield will always be my home. ”
The U.S. Men's National Team will face Jamaica in the CONCACAF Nations League semifinals Thursday at 6 p.m. at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Adrian Deiter is a freelance writer for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached through the sports department at sports@sj-r.com.
