Something special happened to our beloved club on January 14, 1976. In Suite 101, at the team offices at 10151 SW Barbur Boulevard, Portland Timbers General Manager Don Paul put down his still-lit Winston long enough to press the talk button of a white Western Electric Trimline conference telephone and speak the name John Smillie, officially making the franchise’s first-ever draft pick.

In the spirit of Match Day* coverage for previous matches, Green Is the Color continues our Season Preview* series of the 2026 campaign through the eyes of its 1976 counterpart, with the help of the Oregon Journal’s 1976 pullout and the Portland Timbers’ 1976 Season Guide. This entry’s focus: The College Draft.

Our beloved Major League Soccer turns 30 this season, and what many will call MLS 3.0 started out much more humbly, on the coattails of the 1994 men’s World Cup, as told through the MLS origin story of Darren Sawatzky, who, before he was a 2001 Timber, was the 1996 MLS 8th Round New England Revolution selection, borrowing a friend’s University of Portland library sign-in information to refresh the draft online in the university’s library computer lab. Sawatzky recounts the making of MLS through combines and the moment he found out he was drafted (taken from Podcast Episode 49):

In addition to Sawatzky, four other players with Portland college ties had their names called in the inaugural Major League Soccer draft in 1996:

And none of this is to forget a trio of eventual Timbers who played under Clive Charles—Andrew Gregor2 (1998 by Columbus Crew), Chris Brown (1999 by Kansas City), and Brian Winters (2000 by Columbus Crew)—and our very own One-T, the guest from Podcast 17: Scot Thompson (2003 by Los Angeles Galaxy).

For those yearning for the days of a soccer clock counting down, you can relive Year 1 of MLS and enjoy, quite frankly, everything about this:

The USL/A-League era is admittedly under-studied on this page—so far. But thanks to the work of Portland Timbers Chief Communications Officer Collin Romer, who in his first iteration with the club put together yearly comprehensive team media guides, we do have the full list of post-NASL-pre-MLS college drafts.

Vadim Tolstolutsky (Seattle Pacific): Much like the club’s first-ever draft in 1976, the 2001 version featured a Seattle Pacific University Falcon (see: Kit Zell, 1976). Tolstolutsky, the club’s lone 2001 draft pick, played 24 matches over 2 season for Portland.

The Timbers may not have an MLS campaign hat trick, but, on January 13, 2011, the club did fill out a special trio as Darlington Nagbe (MLS) joined John Smillie (NASL) and Vadim Tolstolutsky (USL) as the first Timbers’ draft picks for the club’s league of their respective era.

Mention of Nagbe brings to mind another group of three: draft-pick-first-MLS goals that are absolutely stunning. Currently, our MLS era is bookended by Nagbe’s 2011 MLS first and, from this last season, 2024 pick Gage Guerra’s and 2025 pick Ian Smith’s account-opening moments.

Though it’s too early to tell how things will go for the three college players selected in this years’ MLS SuperDraft, something tells me the 2026 draft room was a little better on the lungs than its 1976 counterpart. Below, Technical Director Jack Dodd reaches out to Timbers’ first-pick midfielder Justin McLean from North Carolina State.

Welcome to the club Justin, Colin, and Lucas!

Which brings us back to where it started: Portland’s first-ever draft 50 years ago. Below are the four picks, in order by round (1-4), with some audio recollections from the the very first Timber ever drafted and PR Director Dennis O’Meara, who was in the room that day.

In this clip from Podcast Episode 55, then-Portland Timbers PR Director Dennis O’Meara talks about the 1976 Draft:

All in all, the 1976 College Draft was just the beginning to and odd3, special season we’ll look at more in this short Season Preview* series. Until then, stay strong Portland!

#RCTID