San Jose Spotlight: Dave “Obie” Obenour goes from team trainer to Season Pass Holder

The club's first trainer is profiled as part of Willow Glen's Wells Fargo Neighborhood Night

By San Jose Earthquakes

June 8^th, 2018

Since 1974

Dave “Obie” Obenour was two years into his job as the physio at DeAnza College when he received a call from a gentleman named Johnny Moore. Moore was the first player ever signed by the NASL Quakes in 1974, the year of the club’s foundation, and also served as the assistant general manager.

“He said, ‘We need a physio and sports trainer,” Obie recalls. “I said, ‘I don’t really know a lot about soccer,’ and Johnny said, ‘I want to talk to you anyway.’”

Obie, who had experience with sports athletic training, but really did not know anything about soccer, was skeptical, but went to the interview anyway. After the interview, Moore introduced him to the club’s first general manager Dick Berg.

“I told Dick, ‘I really don’t know much about soccer,’ and he said, ‘injuries are injuries, and you can handle anything.” That really gave me a lot of confidence. Dick and Johnny were great salesmen.”

San Jose Spotlight: Dave “Obie” Obenour goes from team trainer to Season Pass Holder

A family Affair

As school semester was coming to an end and Obie had the summer off, he decided to take the opportunity as the NASL season only ran during the summer at that point.

“From April to late August 1974 was no doubt one of the greatest parts of my life. First of all, meeting so many nationalities, and to this day, so many of those guys, Johnny Moore, Art Welch, Davie Kemp and Krazy George, are still great friends of mine. Every year at Christmas I receive cards from all over the world, which is phenomenal. From that year I gained some great friendships, and I did learn the game of soccer.”

The Quakes became a family affair for Obie. His wife, Margaret, was pregnant at the time, and the wives at the club held a shower for her, and his kids would attend practice with him as the years went by, the NASL seasons got longer.

“All the players had other jobs because they couldn’t afford to live on the NASL salary at that time. Same with me. I worked all day at De Anza and went to practice at Spartan Stadium at 6 p.m. at night. I would go home, get something to eat and get in the car and go to Spartan Stadium. That is why my sons became such great soccer players, because they spent evenings next to daddy at practices.”

Renaissance man

Just as Obie’s relationship with the club grew, so did his responsibilities as the team physio, encompassing tasks that in the present day are covered by the equipment managers, team administrators and the public relations department.

“When I was a trainer at the Earthquakes, not only was I the physio, but they found out I had experience with travel arrangements, booking hotels, cabs, busses and airplanes. I did laundry on the road. I was a one-man show.

“When Gabbo* took over, he didn’t like to meet the press, and several times, like in Seattle and Portland, he would say, ‘Hey Obie can you go do the press conference.’ Johnny Moore would sometimes help me with that.”

Beyond the experience of the behind the scenes work of a soccer team, Obie also learned from figures that left a lasting impression on him and the club.

“Dick Berg was a tremendous promoter. I learned a lot from him, from painting the field to bringing in Krazy George.”

Berg was also responsible for naming the team the “San Jose Earthquakes.”

Juggling act

“One of the first coaches was a gentleman called Ivan Toplak. He was the coach of the Yugoslavian National Team and then their youth team. He spoke six languages, and on the first trip he said to me, ‘Obie, I want you to sit next to me on the trip. I want to explain my philosophy and teach you a bit of our language so when players come here, you can communicate with them.’”

Toplak taught Obie some words in his native tongue, and they have stayed with him to this day. He met a woman at a market in Willow Glen from Bosnia and was able to communicate with her. Obie learned not only a few worlds in many different languages from his time at the Quakes, he also learned about the different cultures and lifestyles from the players that came from all over the world.

“It made me more diversified with different people. At our community college we started to get people from different countries, and my experience at the Quakes helped my interactions with them.”

Obie left the Quakes in 1980. As the seasons got longer, the juggling act between his job at DeAnza and with the Quakes got harder to manage. He ended up working at DeAnza until he retired on Aug. 1, 2000 , which was 30 years to the day since he first started at the school. Since his departure from the Quakes, he has remained a loyal follower of the club and hasn’t missed a year.

Quakes for life

Now when Obie comes to Quakes games he sits with his friends from the days of the NASL Quakes, including Easy Perez and Christine Calloway, and Krazy George pays them a visit.

“The person I am, whether it be personality wise or what it may be, is because of this organization. First of all, I learned a lot about life and different lifestyles. I learned a lot about promotion and managing. Dick Berg was an icon in his business. Johnny Moore is one of my great friends today. It taught me a lot about how to treat people.”

*Momocilo Gavric, "Gabbo" as his nickname, was the second head coach in Earthquakes history, leading the team from 1974-77.

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