Nicolae Pescaru was born on 27 March 1943 in Breaza, Prahova County, Romania.[1] He started to play football at junior level in 1959 at Someșul Beclean, after one year moving at Progresul Făgăraș.[1] Pescaru started to play senior football at Chimia Făgăraș in Divizia B, afterwards transferring to Steagul Roșu Brașov where he made his Divizia A debut on 23 September 1962 under coach Silviu Ploeșteanu in a 4–2 home victory against Știința Cluj.[1][2] He spent a total of 19 seasons at Steagul of which about 13–14 of them he was the team's captain, being known for telling his teammates:"You have to defend the honor of being flagbearers!"[1][2][3] The highlights of this period being a fourth place in the 1964–65 Divizia A season and 11 games played in European competitions in which he scored a goal in the 1965–66 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 4–2 victory against Espanyol Barcelona and played in the 3–2 victory on aggregate against Beşiktaş at the 1974–75 UEFA Cup, also the club relegated twice to Divizia B, but Pescaru stayed with the club, helping it promote back to the first division each time.[1][2][3][4] He played his last Divizia A match on 23 November 1980 in a 3–1 away loss against Progresul București, a competition in which he has a total of 311 appearances with 62 goals scored, thus being Steagul's leader of appearances and goals scored in the competition.[1][2][3][5][6][7] Pescaru went to play one season for Divizia B team, Șoimii IPA Sibiu, after which he retired and became a junior coach, also coaching Steagul's senior team in two different periods, having a total of 70 Divizia A matches as coach.[1][5][8]
His father was also a footballer who played at Dinamo Brașov, advising Nicolae, when he was a child that if he should become a footballer, he should play for Steagul Roșu Brașov.[2]