1951 Northern California Intercollegiate Soccer Conference Champions
Head Coach: Gus Donoghue
Overall Record: 11-1-0 NCISC Record: 10-0-0
All-NCISC Team: Jimmy Diaz, Jose Leon, Olifumni Osibogun, Manny Ortiz, Ike Ozigbu
Most Goals: Jose Leon (16)
USF Hall-of-Famers: Maurice Beatty, Bill Cox, Olifumni Osibogun, Gus Donaghue
Sporting a record 28 games without defeat and three consecutive Northern California Intercollegiate Soccer Conference crowns, the Dons started the 1951 season with high hopes. The Hilltoppers opened the season handling San Francisco State 4-0 and then proceeded to roll past City College of San Francisco, Stanford, California and Santa Clara as they finished the first round of league play at 5-0-0. Second round play saw the Hilltop Horde again assert their supremacy as they once more swept through the league unscathed to finish the regular season at 10-0-0.
The conference crown earned the Dons a shot at Southern California titlist UCLA, for the Pacific Coast Championship, and USF prevailed 2-0. The Third National Soccer Bowl was next and a match-up with powerhouse Temple. The Owls came into the game at 7-0-1, winning most games by lopsided margins and tying only Penn State in a bruising battle of unbeaten teams at State College.
The championship game was scheduled for December 27 in St. Louis, but because of a snowstorm in the Midwest, the game was postponed to early February and moved to Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. It was the first time a college soccer team ever flew coast-to-coast, as Temple made the 18-hour trip out west on a TWA propeller plane.
There was much excitement about the contest as the newspaper headlines in San Francisco read “U. S. Soccer Title Game at Kezar," and "Temple and Dons Clash." The headlines created a great deal of interest in the game and over 13,000 fans packed into Kezar Stadium for the highly anticipated match-up. The Owls Ed Tatoian took all the drama out of the contest when he scored two goals in the first 15 minutes. Temple then spent the final 75 minutes of the game playing defensive-minded as they formed a impregnable wall of fullbacks around the net and held on for a 2-0 win over USF.
The 1951 Dons were led by Jose Leon with 16 goals and Ike Ozigbu tallied nine goals, with Manny Ortiz contributing eight goals. Two Dons, Olifumni Osibogun and Jimmy Diaz were named honorable-mention All-Americans.
Did You Know? All-American Olifumni Osibogun made the team as a barefoot walk-on freshman back in 1949. As the Dons were going through a September practice that year, a rather shy, diminutive young man approached Coach Donoghue and asked him if he could try out for the team. At first, the veterans of the Hilltop eleven poked fun at the newcomer from Nigeria because he wasn’t wearing any shoes. But their friendly snickering was quickly replaced by gasps of amazement when, with his bare feet, he drove the ball into the corner of the net from forty yards away. From that day on Osibogu distinguished himself as one of the truly fine soccer players in USF history. He was inducted into the USF Hall of Fame in 1959.
