University of San Francisco Athletics

The 1949 Dons completed the regular season at 9-0-0 and accepted an invitation to appear in the first ever Soccer Bowl. The postwar system of selecting a soccer champ was arbitrary at best as the Intercollegiate Soccer Federation declared the "mythical national champion" based on seasonal records and the level of competition teams had faced during the regular season. This was, at best, a subjective judgment open to challenge, much like the modern college football polls. In an attempt to determine a true national champion the Soccer Bowl was created.

After the completion of the 1949 season, USF faced Penn State at the inaugural Soccer Bowl on January 1st, 1950 in St. Louis to decide the national championship. But the game ended in a 2-2 tie as Dick Batista scored both goals for the Dons, and thus USF shared the national title with the Nittany Lions.

The Dons opened the season with Santa Clara, disposing of the Broncos 6-3. Wins over California and San Francisco City College followed, and then USF crushed UC Davis 9-1. The Dons then blanked San Francisco State 2-0 behind starting goalie Angelo Carmassi, and easily handled Stanford to close out the Northern California Intercollegiate Soccer Conference slate at 6-0-0.

USF defeated UCLA 3-1 to capture the West Coast Collegiate soccer title. The following day the Dons played an exhibition contest against the leading professional team, the Los Angeles Aztecs and pulled off a surprising 2-2 tie. In the final game prior to the St. Louis trip, the Dons took on the NCIC All-Stars, composed of the best players from the other colleges in the conference. USF scored four goals in the first 10 minutes then played 80 minutes of defensive ball to win 4-0.

Did You Know? Controversy surrounded the ending of the 1950 Soccer Bowl held in St. Louis. The Dons held a 2-1 lead as the 90th minute was completed. The referee then allowed the game to continue another 6 ½ minutes beyond regulation time. Coach Donaghue and team manager Joe Gumina had kept the time carefully on the sideline. At the end of regulation time Gumina yelled to the referee that time was up. After six minutes of extra time, the referee gave a penalty kick for a questionable handball call that went against USF in the penalty box. Several Dons players near the play said no one touched the ball with their hands. Penn State made the penalty shot to tie. The Dons bench erupted in protest demanding to know when the game would end. USF and team captain Steve Negoesco then refused the referee’s request to continue play and the game ended in a 2-2 tie. At that point one ref said, “You’re lucky they tied it or you’d still be playing.” Many years later Coach Donaghue recalled, “The way that game ended still bothers me.”

They Said It: “We felt we were a special group, united as one. Individually we were average players, but when we played as a team we were unbeatable,” goalie Angelo Carmassi. Carmassi also recalled an incident before the championship game, “We arrived three days before the game and entered our hotel and went to dinner. The waiter refused to serve Olifumni Osibogun our black Nigerian player. Coach called a meeting to explain that Fumni could not eat or stay there, so we all decided to move to a different hotel.” Over the next few days the team and coaches decided to eat in an East St. Louis restaurant for black people. This was 1950 in St. Louis with its Jim Crow laws.