ENID – Walking into Soccer World at 223 W. Randolph in downtown Enid, customers find what is expected – retail displays of soccer balls, equipment and apparel.
Store customers are usually greeted by Eva Habibi, who with her husband, Hamid Habibi, opened the store in 1994.
But walking past the retail area and its soccer paraphernalia, visitors will find offices for other businesses operated by the Habibi family, including Universal Management and Maintenance.
Matt Habibi, Eva and Hamid’s son, is president of Universal and operates the company with some help from his wife, Sara.
Universal provides cleaning services, building maintenance and remodeling services. In addition to Soccer World, the family operates an indoor soccer facility a short walk from the store east on W. Randolph past Napoli’s Italian Restaurant.
Each of the family members has a role. Eva operates the soccer store. Hamid provides remodeling services. Matt operates the cleaning and building maintenance business. Sara has been working part-time helping Matt while she has also been working for Wymer Brownlee Tax and Financial Management, which has offices around the corner from the soccer store at 110 N. Independence. She plans to join Universal full time this month.
“I started working here part time because the business was growing,” Sara said.
Universal was started in 1964 as Universal Custodial by Hamid’s uncle. Hamid purchased the business in 1985. Hamid came to Enid in 1976 from his native Iran to attend Phillips University, where he played soccer.
After he graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2006, Matt took over for his father in operating the cleaning and building maintenance business in January 2007.
“My dad wanted me to come back,” Matt said. “So I came back to Enid and took over the business. That freed my dad up to do other projects, especially the construction part.”
Home improvement services include home remodeling and installing patios, decks, steam showers and saunas.
“He does a lot of outdoor patios and remodels a lot of kitchens and bathrooms,” Matt said.
Since Matt took over management of the cleaning services and building maintenance services, Universal has grown.
“In 2007, we had 19 employees,” he said. “Now we have 36.”
Universal has approximately 35 contracts for cleaning and maintenance services. Some of the contracts are for multiple buildings, so services are provided to approximately 65 buildings. Customers include medical offices and facilities, law offices, banks, retail stores and industrial plants.
In addition to commercial and office cleaning, services include concrete cleaning and sealing, construction site cleanup, window washing, carpet and upholstery cleaning, water restoration and floor stripping, waxing and buffing.
Matt’s route from Enid to getting a degree in sociology with a minor in business from OU took six years and a couple of detours.
“There were probably six majors,” he said.
He finally decided to pursue a career in physical therapy but those plans changed when he returned to Enid to take over operation of Universal Management & Maintenance.
Matt left Enid in 2000 and enrolled at St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee on a soccer scholarship.
“In 2002, I tried to play soccer professionally in Germany,” Matt said.
An anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, tear ended his professional soccer efforts and he returned to Oklahoma an enrolled at Southern Nazarene University in Bethany. He later transferred to OU, where he met Sara, a native of Tahlequah.
Matt’s parents opened Soccer World in 1994 – the year the United States was the host country for the World Cup.
“My parents got a wild hair and opened the soccer store,” Matt said.
It is the largest soccer store in northwest Oklahoma, Eva said.
“We knew it was hard to buy soccer equipment here,” she said. “People had to go to Tulsa or Oklahoma City.”
When they opened the soccer store in 1994, Eva and Hamid purchased the building on Randolph.
The indoor soccer arena opened in 2008. The arena is used by youth and adult soccer leagues. The indoor soccer arena is also used by the YMCA and is rented for special events, including birthday parties.
Unlike her husband and son, Eva is not a soccer player.
“I have always been a soccer fan but I never played,” she said.