Josip (Joe) Pavicic just happens to be one of those individuals born to do it well, whatever the endeavor.
For openers, he’s enterprising , quick to identify an opportunity and is equipped with the necessary entrepreneurial skills to follow through.
He’s certainly not short on confidence and demonstrated that when some years ago a visitor to his impressive Likro company in Mississauga – which he launched in 1980 to manufacture precision parts engineered mostly for the aviation industry – asked what the reject rate was in production.
“ None“, he responded.
The affable, Croatian-born, Zagreb University-educated Pavicic is not short of being on the receiving end of many accolades, having been honored a number of times for his varied achievements in the aerospace and aviation engineering industry and in his community. But it’s his presence in Canadian soccer, which is not as well-known, that is now drawing attention as he steps down after serving 10 years as president of Toronto Croatia, a team in the Canadian Soccer League.
It didn’t take long for Toronto Croatia to be on top after Pavicic took over in 2006. His team won the CSL championship the following year, losing just one game in the five-month long campaign. Toronto Croatia also won the 2007 inaugural Croatian World Club Championship between Croatian teams from Austria, Germany, Australia, the United States and France. The win was repeated in 2011. Toronto Croatia continued under Pavicic to win the CSL title in 2011, 2012 and 2015.
Joe Pavicic is proudly Croatian, and is always quick to point out – proudly Canadian. On January 14, 2014 he staged a premiere showing of a documentary film: Toronto Croatia – a Great Croatian Story, which captured before a full audience in Mississauga the memorable 1976 North American Championship victory by Metros Croatia, a team formed when Toronto Metros of the North American Soccer League and Toronto Croatia of the National Soccer League partnered just a year earlier.
” I think the game has moved well forward in Canada since Toronto Croatia was launched in 1956, but there is a need for more soccer facilities to push it along, it deserves to be one of the mainstream sports. Mississauga is a great community with a population almost 800,000 but we still lack a soccer stadium,“ Pavicic said recently.
Pavicic will be spending more time attending to business interests in Canada and Europe, but his presence in soccer will continue while taking part in events that commemorate the anniversary of Metros Croatia winning this continent’s soccer championship 40 years ago. He’ll also be celebrating Toronto Croatia’s 60 years in professional soccer in Canada.
This is a year too, when Toronto FC is going to honour Metros Croatia with new white kits with a touch of red and blue, designed with the championship victory in mind, while bringing attention to professional soccer’s past in the city.
It’s a part of soccer history that Joe Pavicic and Toronto Croatia have been very much a part of.
