The American Eagles men's soccer team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of American University. The team is a member of the Patriot League of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. In 1985, the team reached the national championship game, losing to UCLA after eight overtimes.
History
Early history (1949–1968) American University kicked off its varsity men's soccer program in 1949 as a member of the Mason-Dixon Conference in the NCAA College Division, the predecessor to Division II, but suspended it after just two seasons when a study by the board of trustees decided the school was too small to field a competitive team (the Eagles had compiled a 2–10 overall record) and the sport was too expensive to fund. It was revived, however, in 1954, with the hopes of replacing the role of the football program (ended by the Board in 1942) as the centerpiece of homecoming weekend and a source of school spirit.
The program had achieved a modicum of success under six different head coaches by the mid-1960s when AU made the decision to move to Division I (the then-University Division), announcing in the spring of 1966 that it would join the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC), the largest in the nation, for the 1966–67 collegiate year. That left no time, however, to schedule enough conference opponents to be eligible for the MAC's soccer championship, so the Eagles continued to compete in the Mason-Dixon Conference in soccer for one additional season. Since the other schools in the MAC's University Division did not operate as their own division until the 1969 season, this effectively enabled AU to use the 1966–1968 seasons to transition to Division I. The Eagles compiled a 2–14 record against other D1 schools (while going 6-14-3 against D2 opponents in the Mason-Dixon Conference and MAC College Division) over that time under the tenure of tennis coach Larry Nyce for two seasons, then Ned Boehm.
Move to Division I (1969–1971) The 1969 season marked the beginning of MAC University Division soccer and AU's real foray into Division 1 under Coach Boehm, with the team compiling a 3–4–1 record against D1 opponents, going 1–3–1 in conference play against the rest of the MAC University Division's eastern section (tying Hofstra at home, beating La Salle on the road, then losing to West Chester at home as well as road games against St. Joseph's and Temple). Junior defender Jeff Wood and freshman forward Fahad Al-Rajaan were named to the all-MAC eastern team, while senior defender Chris Kalavritinos and junior goalkeeper Ira Kamens were named to the NCAA's all-South region team.
In 1970, Boehm left the athletics department to accept a job as assistant director of admissions. His replacement was Sidwell Friends head coach Dick Stimson, who had won three high school championships in eight seasons there, including going undefeated in 1967. The 1970 Eagles would have compiled a 3–5–1 record against D1 competition but for a bizarre game at Reeves Field against new conference foe Drexel. It was a wild affair, with the Eagles blowing a 2–1 lead after trailing 0–1, Al-Rajaan scoring a hat trick on AU's first 3 goals, and junior Jim Tate tying the game 5–5 (after he had previously tied it at 4 on a goal off a corner kick) with just seconds remaining in regulation. With two minutes to play in the second overtime period, Drexel head coach Don Yonker was ejected from the game for assisting one of his players whose leg had cramped despite the referee not stopping play. But he refused to leave the field, so the game was called a forfeit.
AU soccer's coaching carousel would continue in 1971 with Stimson's departure. But Boehm helped recruit Scottish-Canadian John Kerr Sr., a member of the Canadian Men's National Team and professional player in the NASL (at the time for the Washington Darts), who had coached Georgetown's freshman team to an undefeated record in 1970. The student-athletes immediately responded to Kerr's experience as a professional international soccer player who was willing to practice with them and share techniques. Most importantly to the Eagles, Kerr nurtured the sudden interest in soccer by sophomore Kurt Kuykendall, who had been cut from the varsity basketball team after his freshman year and threw himself into learning how to play goalkeeper—a position that was open on the team after the graduation of Kamens. Though the 1971 Eagles’ 2–5–1 record against D1 opponents appeared to be a step backward, the team's play was much improved qualitatively. Four Eagles were named to the all-MAC eastern team: Al-Rajaan, junior defender Kenny Davidson, junior midfielder Mark (Lowenstein) Grabow, and sophomore forward Alan Ross. (Kuykendall, Lowenstein and Ross would all play professionally in the NASL for the new Washington Diplomats after graduating.) However, the Darts moved to south Florida over the winter (where they would eventually be reborn as one of the key franchises of the NASL's glory years, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers) and Kerr's contract was sold to the New York Cosmos. Another coaching change was yet again in the works for the Eagles, but few could have guessed the 20 years of stability and unprecedented success (for AU athletics) that coach would bring.
The Mehlert era begins (1972–1973) Pete Mehlert was born in Shanghai; raised in Hong Kong, London and Bethesda; and played soccer at Walter Johnson High School and Boston University, where the aggressive, combative—if undersized—midfielder was twice named to the All-New England region team. A year after graduating BU, he was hired as American's first full-time soccer coach. Inheriting four all-conference players, in 1972 he guided the Eagles to a 3–5 record against D1 competition, including two wins against conference foes (including the program's first-ever against 1961 NCAA champion West Chester thanks to a shutout by Kuykendall and a dramatic header by freshman forward Mark McDonough.) Senior forward Brian O’Neill, Kuykendall and Lowenstein all were named to the all-MAC University Division east team, with Lowenstein being named eastern section MVP.
The Eagles continued to improve in 1973 with their first-ever winning season against D1 competition and a .500 record against MAC conference foes, including road wins in Philadelphia against La Salle and Drexel. Al-Rajaan (as a fifth-year senior – he sat out the 1972 season for personal reasons), Kuykendall and Ross were again named to the MAC University Division eastern all-star team. In a move that would foreshadow his trademark penchant for lining up the best opposition in the country, Mehlert scheduled a year-end match under the lights at Washington & Lee High School in Arlington against St. Louis University—who had won the NCAA championship nine of the previous 14 seasons and would win their tenth a few weeks later. Despite outshooting the Eagles 26–8, the Billikens only won 1–0 thanks to Kuykendall's 22 saves. In December he would be named an honorable mention all-American. The capstone to Kuykendall's collegiate career would occur in January 1974, when the NASL expansion Washington Diplomats drafted him with the #2 overall pick.
While the Mehlert era was off to a great start, big changes loomed: In 1973, the NCAA created its current three division structure. For 1974, 12 of the 13 MAC University Division schools (all except Gettysburg) decided to form their own new multi-sport Division I conference—the East Coast Conference—rather than continue in the MAC's multi-division structure. (The rest of the MAC would shortly move to Division III status.) How would AU adjust? And how would Mehlert replace the best player in school history to date in the critical position guarding the nets?
New conference, familiar foes (1974–1976)
The East Coast Conference (ECC) retained the MAC University Division's east–west sectional alignment—which reflected more of a big market-small market division than geography, with West Chester moving into the West Division (along with Bucknell, Delaware, Lafayette, Lehigh and Rider) and AU remaining in the East with the four Philadelphia schools (Drexel, La Salle, St. Joseph's and Temple) and Long Island-based Hofstra. But not wanting to lose such a high-quality regular opponent, Mehlert would continue to schedule the Golden Rams until they would eventually leave Division I in 1982. The 1974 season would also see AU's first game against the University of Maryland, a 2–3 loss in College Park, beginning another top-notch annual local rivalry. Unhappy with his three candidates to succeed Kuykendall at goalkeeper, Mehlert asked senior midfielder John Rachlin to try the position after watching him “fooling around” in the nets during practice. Despite not having ever previously played the position in a competitive game, Rachlin would help the Eagles attain a 3–4–2 record against D1 opponents and a 1–2–2 mark in the ECC East, beating West Chester at home and earning shutouts against Hofstra on the road in his first win and Georgetown at home to end the season. After a shaky start that included AU's first loss to local rival George Washington in 6 years, the selfless Rachlin earned enthusiastic support from his teammates and praise from Mehlert.
There are many differences in the rules of college soccer compared to the professional and international game, including the ability of substituted players to re-enter the game (with certain limitations) and a game-clock that counts in the wrong direction (backwards). Another critical difference is the treatment of regular-season ties, which the NCAA over the decades has tried various ways to resolve, using overtime periods of different durations under both timed and sudden-death rules. If college soccer was played like soccer in the rest of the world, the Eagles would have been undefeated against D1 opponents in 1975, but officially were 5–2–3 (thanks to a 1–2–3 record in their 6 overtime games, including a heartbreaking own-goal loss to West Chester on the road and a home overtime loss to Temple—the closest the Eagles had come to beating the traditional-powerhouse Owls in 10 tries). They also had their first-ever winning record in conference play, going 3–1–1 including their first win over St. Joseph's (they were previously 0–7–2 against the Hawks). Junior goalkeeper Jack Cassell (a name very familiar to the AU community) brought stability in the nets for the Eagles, recording four shutouts against D1 opponents. In recognition of their most-successful season to date, four Eagles were named to the all-ECC East Division team: defender Ted Nussdorfer (junior), midfielder Mbakiso "Reggie" Dambe (senior), and forwards Alex Chambers (senior) and Aidan Cunningham (freshman).
The 1976 season would see the Eagles continue to play very competitive soccer under Coach Mehlert, going 6–4–1 against D1 opponents and 2–3 in the ECC East. The schedule would see AU compete in its first-ever regular-season tournament, the Old Dominion Classic hosted by ODU, in which the Eagles tied Princeton 1–1 in their first game against an Ivy League foe, and defeated East Carolina in overtime 7–3 thanks to a 4-goal explosion in less than 12 minutes by senior forward Chuck Banknell, giving him an AU D1-record 5-goal performance. Senior goalkeeper Cassell suffered a separated shoulder in an early-season loss to La Salle, opening the door for sophomore transfer Tony Vecchione (from Montclair State) to post two shutouts in a 3-day period. Vecchione would share the position with Cassell after his return from injury and go on to become one of the great AU ‘keepers and later coach local rival George Washington. As a defunct conference, the ECC’s archival records are difficult to find for verification, but AU records say that at least freshman midfielder Luis Calderon was named to the all-ECC's East Division team.
Welcome to the post-season! (1977–1979)