By The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. - Clive Charles, who coached the U.S. men's soccer team in the 2000 Olympics, died Tuesday. He was 51.

Charles also led the University of Portland women's team to last year's national championship while battling prostate cancer.

"We grieve for Clive's family and his thousands of friends at the university and around the world who have lost a generous and sensitive friend," the university's senior vice president, Rev. E. William Beauchamp, said in a statement. "Clive's life and work were gifts of extraordinary worth, and his impact as teacher and coach, friend and mentor, will be felt ... for many years to come."

Charles coached Portland's men's team since 1986 and took over as the coach of the women's team three years later. He had a combined 439-144-44 record and was one of five NCAA coaches to win more than 400 college soccer games.

He led Portland to 13 conference titles, 20 NCAA tournament berths and seven Final Four appearances as coach of both the men's and women's teams.

"I definitely owe my career and where I am today to that man," said Shannon MacMillan, the U.S. women's national team player who starred for Portland in the 1990s. "I didn't really have a lot of confidence when I came to Portland, and he helped me become a happy, confident person."

Charles fought prostate cancer for two years, yet still managed to coach both teams. During the season, he underwent weekly chemotherapy treatments to keep the cancer from reappearing.

"He was such an incredible person that it didn't change him at all," MacMillan said. "It only helped us see what an incredible fighter he was."

His playing career began when he was a teenager in his native England for West Ham United.

Charles played as a defender for 17 years, including stints with the North American Soccer League's Portland Timbers and Pittsburgh Spirit. His playing days ended in 1982 with the Los Angeles Lazers of the Major Indoor Soccer League.

In addition to leading the U.S. team to the semifinals at the Sydney Games, Charles was an assistant coach in 1998 for the U.S. squad at the World Cup that finished last.

Charles was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame earlier this month. The Timbers, now with the A-League, will retire his No. 3 jersey in a halftime ceremony next Friday during their final game of the season.

"No one in soccer has touched and enriched more lives in Portland than Clive Charles," Timbers general manager Jim Taylor said. "He was a tenacious defender on the pitch, a world-class mentor and coach and as kind and giving a man as you'll ever know."