There’s a bottom-line quality to Firmani’s 2 1/2-season tenure with the Tampa Bay Rowdies. He won immediately and won big, guiding the expansion Rowdies to the 1975 North American Soccer League championship, still one of the seminal moments in Tampa Bay area sports history.

In 1976, when the Rowdies were eliminated in the NASL playoff semifinals, Firmani was named NASL Coach of the Year.

Firmani, known as “The Golden Turkey’’ (for the way he ran with arms flapping), had a playing career in South Africa, England, and Italy (where he competed for that country’s National Team). He initially chose coaching the Rowdies over leading a more established club in Rome, Italy.

The 1975 Rowdies were stunningly good (16-6 during the regular season) and defeated the Portland Timber 2-0 to win the Soccer Bowl in San Jose, Calif. Firmani made a curious move by starting lightly regarded Arsene Auguste. It paid off when Auguste boomed in the game’s first goal.

“Just had a good feeling about Auguste,’’ Firmani said.

When it came to instincts, the man could coach.

Firmani managed 13 different clubs over 29 years, mostly in the United States, Canada, and the Middle East. In addition to the Rowdies, Firmani was also head coach of the NASL’s New York Cosmos, Philadelphia Fury, and Montreal Manic, while concluding his career with Major League Soccer’s New York/New Jersey MetroStars.