Hi, I'm Grant Wall, and welcome to the Planet Football Podcast, where I go in-depth with the most intriguing people in the world of soccer.

On today's show, newly inducted National Soccer Hall of Fame member, Dr. Joe McNich joins me to talk about his remarkable

soccer journey, including being traded in the 1960s from the New York Ukrainians to the Newark

Ukrainians who changed the eye in his name to

a Y to make him sound more Ukrainian.

Guys would come up to me and speak to me in Ukrainian. I had no idea what they were

saying. Most of the time I figured out they were asking me what the score was, you know, and then I learned the numbers in the Ukrainian numbers and was able to, you know, and sometimes they got it, sometimes they they didn't all that and more coming up

our guest today is one of the true renaissance figures in the history of American soccer

Dr Joe McNick is currently the soccer rules analyst for Fox Sports, but his past goes all the way back to being an all-American

goalkeeper at Long Island University,

a coach who led L.I.U. at age 23 to the 1966 NCAA title game, who coached ice hockey

and men's and women's soccer at the University of New Haven,

who was an assistant coach on the U.S. men's 1990 World Cup team,

a referee who worked the 1988 NCAA title game,

a FIFA match commissioner, a director of officials for three U.S.

pro leagues, and the creator of the popular number one soccer camps.

He was recently inducted as a builder into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Dr. Joe McNick, congratulations and thanks for joining me.

Wow, Grand, holy smokes.

I mean, that's a lot of history there.

And I don't know how you fit it all in,

but I guess 60 years you can

...