Soccer loop recognizes Nigrin
Cosmopolitan League includes doctor among initial Fame inductees.

It was only befitting that when the Cosmopolitan Soccer League, which has been in existence for, say, a billion years, got around to honoring its first Hall of Fame class, Staten Island icon Dr. Gabriel Nigrin would be among its initial inductees.

Synonymous with Island soccer, the good doctor, retired from pediatrics/endocrinology but still a volunteer at St.Vincent's in Manhattan, was just what Staten Island needed in its infancy soccer days.

Back in 1970, if you wanted to kick the spotted ball, you could do so in Fred Muche's Kiwanis League. For a few weeks in the fall. Until age 12. Outside those lugubrious parameters, you played football or checkers or read.

"I felt children should be able to play more often, at all ages and all levels," said the original maven, who introduced the game to his own sons. "Initially, I was just looking for an outlet to allow my children to play."

So began the early moments of the Silver Lake Soccer Club, which begot the Staten Island Soccer League, and we all know what kind of monster that has become.

Nigrin sent those embryonic Silver Lake teams to the Cosmopolitan where they became forerunners for all of today's travel teams.

You just have to glance at Miller Field on a Saturday/Sunday or walk into any store and see a kid sporting a soccer uniform to see Dr. Nigrin's product.

He's been the force on Staten Island, says ex-Staten Island Academy coach Pete Rapp, who has watched a battalion of local players get their Cosmo battle scars. "He got soccer rolling and enabled Staten Islanders to play off the Island and improve their skills."

Do you think for a moment that schools like Monsignor Farrel, St. John Villa, Notre Dame Academy, or St. Joseph by-the-Sea make it to those CHSAA state finals -- or as quickly -- without his impact?

Humility and Dr. Nigrin reside in similar neighborhoods. Selfless and benevolent, his drive has always been to help others, lessons he learned early as a boy in Istanbul.

"I didn't do any of this to be recognized or chosen, " said the nearly-octogenarian who still plays an active hand in the Cosmopolitan operation but admits nothing would have been possible without the yielding support of his wife Dolly.

Of course, in his humble and humane manner, Dr. Nigrin is not a collector of plagues or medals. He's been bestowed (an Advanced Service Award winner in '94) so many times before.

But it was the gathering of friends, colleagues, and associates from the Cosmopolitan League at the Tavern on the Green (Queens) that certified Dr. Nigrin's emotions. "Having a big reunion of all those people was the highest honor to me" he allowed.

Staten Island Advance column 'Name Game' written by Danny Colvin