Durgan was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington, where he attended
Stadium High School. In his first year in the league he started 28 of the Cosmos' 32 regular games. Showing what sportswriter
George Vecsey called "a controlled aggressiveness characteristic of a player far beyond his years", he was named the league's Rookie of the Year, beating Tacoma youth teammate
Mark Peterson of the
Seattle Sounders. In 1982, he was selected as a second team NASL All Star. Durgan won the
Soccer Bowl, the NASL championship, with the Cosmos in 1980 and 1982, but they lost in 1981 to the
Chicago Sting after a
penalty shootout. In 1983, the
U.S. Soccer Federation attempted to create a more successful
U.S. national team by entering the team into the NASL as a franchise, known as
Team America. USSF then invited players from throughout the NASL,
Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) and
American Soccer League to leave their teams to play for Team America. Although he expressed doubts about the new team, Durgan left the Cosmos and signed with Team America, who he captained. Many top players stayed with their previous clubs, something Durgan criticized, saying "let them come and help. You have to get off the fence." Team America ended the season at the bottom of the league and when USSF pulled the national team from the NASL at the end of the 1983 season, Durgan rejoined the Cosmos. In May 1984, the Cosmos asked Durgan and two other players to take a 20% pay cut, and another to take a 45% pay cut. When they refused to accept the cuts the team
waived them, and then re-signed Durgan and two other players for less pay after the other eight teams in the NASL declined to sign them under the terms of their original contracts. When the league folded after the 1984 season, the Cosmos moved to the MISL, but did not make it through the end of the 1984–1985 season before folding. ==F.C. Seattle==