Steven Ralbovsky (1981) - Hall of Fame - Brown University Athletics

Steven Ralbovsky

Induction:
1981
Class:
1976

Steven Ralbovsky '76
Hometown: New York, NY
Sport: Soccer
Year Inducted: 1981

Steven Ralbovsky ’76, played left wing on the freshman soccer team in 1972, moved to midfield his sophomore year, and then became a sweeper back for the balance of his brilliant career. He played on three consecutive Ivy League championship teams and was a two-time All-American and the MVP at DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City. “He became an outstanding sweeper back, comparable to Pat Migliore, although their styles were different. Migs would break up a play and quickly clear the ball to his wings. Robo would prefer to dribble the ball around near his own cage, giving everyone a heart attack, especially our goalie, before putting his head down and taking the ball up field himself. Chuckling a bit, Stevenson adds: “The only thing Robo had to learn was that there was only one head soccer coach at Brown. There were times when he thought there were two, one named Ralbovsky.” Born in Yugoslavia, Ralbovsky could answer Coach Stevenson in one of five languages. He started playing soccer in his native country where he was five, and as a teenager he was good enough at table tennis to play for the Yugoslavia junior national team. In his senior year on College Hill, Brown finished third in the nation, losing to San Francisco in the semi-finals of the NCAA Tourney. Ralbovsky was picked as the outstanding defensive player in the tournament and later received the Robert R. Hermann trophy as the top college senior of the year, as selected by the college coaches. In the annual college soccer draft he was the number one college pick of both soccer leagues and is now one of the brightest professional stars as a midfielder for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the North American Soccer League.