During his many years as the sharp-minded goalkeeper on the Dutch national soccer team, Jan van Beveren was notoriously bad at remembering people’s names. That changed, his wife, Toosje, recalled, once he started coaching soccer in Beaumont, Texas, where he never forgot a pupil’s name. “That told me that he loved it,” she said.
Born in Amsterdam in 1948, van Beveren began his professional career as a soccer player in 1965. In 1970, he transferred to PSV Eindhoven, Holland’s most prestigious club, and helped it win three league titles in the course of a decade. The 6-foot-2-inch van Beveren was considered a “shot stopper of the old school,” said The New York Times, and could defend against almost any penalty kick.
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