Boc was born on 3 June 1946 in Vașcău, Romania and played football as a defender.[3][4][5][6] He was known for often using the "Oxford procedure" for the public's delight which was letting the ball pass over or past him, and when the forward was about to gain possession of it, he would reach back and take it with the exterior side of the foot.[3][4][5]
Boc (third from the left) during a Petrolul training session in 1966
Boc made his Divizia A debut on 11 October 1964, playing for Petrolul Ploiești in a 3–0 victory against CSMS Iași.[6] In the following season he helped Petrolul win the 1965–66 Divizia A title, as coach Constantin Cernăianu used him in 26 matches in which he scored one goal.[5][6][7] According to the Sportul newspaper, he was the player with the highest grade point average in the entire championship.[5] Boc also played three games for The Yellow Wolves in the first round of the 1966–67 European Cup against Liverpool which included a 3–1 victory in which he scored a goal, but they did not manage to qualify to the next round.[6][8][9]
Dinamo, Sportul and Rapid
Boc (third from the left, back row) with Dinamo București in 1968
He reunited with coach Cernăianu at Universitatea Craiova, their first performance was getting past Fiorentina in the first round of the 1973–74 UEFA Cup edition, being eliminated in the following one by Standard Liège.[3][4][6][16][17] In the same season he helped "U" win the first championship title in its history, as Cernăianu gave him 32 appearances in which he scored one goal.[3][4][6][7] In the last game of that season against Petrolul Ploiești which ended with a 0–0 draw, Boc received a grade 10 in the Sportul newspaper, as the team earned the point that mathematically made them champions.[3][4] Boc made his last Divizia A appearance on 10 December 1975 in a 3–0 away loss to FCM Reșița, having a total of 224 matches with 12 goals scored in the competition, and also totaling 22 games with two goals netted in European competitions.[3][4][6][18]
In 1969, during an evening spent at the Athenee Palace where he was staying with actor Cornel Patrichi, among others at a table, a man threw an empty cigarette pack in Patrichi's glass.[20][21][22][23][24][25] A verbal confrontation between them started and Boc intervened and punched the man.[20][21][22][23][24][25] Afterwards the man was beaten by other people, ending with his leg broken.[20][21][22][23][24][25] The person beaten up was a Securitate captain, so Boc confessed what happened and took all the responsibility of the situation on himself, relying on his status as a football player at Dinamo București to avoid consequences but at the trial Patrichi sided with the captain.[20][21][22][23][24][25] He was sentenced to a jail term of two years and a half, spending the first six months in a relaxed environment, having a telephone and a TV in his cell at the headquarters of the Militia Command in the center of Bucharest, where the minors were also imprisoned.[21][22][23][24][25] After that period he was close to obtaining a pardon from his conviction, but the Securitate found out about the light detention he had.[20][21][22][23][24][25] On 7 September 1970, the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party had a meeting to discuss his case where dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu himself participated.[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] The Committee decided that he would not be granted the pardon, as member Vasile Patilineț who found out that his wife had an affair with Boc, insisted for this outcome.[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] He was sent to the Văcărești prison, then moved to one of the toughest prisons in Romania, the Policolor colony where he was in an insanitary cell with many criminals.[4][21][22][23][24][25][26] Boc had to wake up each day at 4 a.m. to work and every three hours a black Volga car with members of the Central Committee would come to verify if he works, looking at his hands to see if they have calluses.[4][21][22][23][24][25][26] His teammates from Dinamo would send him food and money, Cornel Dinu personally going to deliver the packages to him.[4][21][24] However, because he was not allowed to go inside the prison, Dinu would come through the back, entering through a cornfield to reach him at the prison's yard.[4][21][24] After a total of 13 months spent in jail, Boc was released.[4][21][22][23][24][25][26]
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