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Saint Louis Billikens men's soccer

The Saint Louis Billikens men's soccer team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of Saint Louis University. The Saint Louis Billikens compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I. Soccer is the main fall sport at SLU, which has not sponsored football since 1949.

Despite the long soccer tradition in the city of St. Louis, the University did not field a varsity team until 1959, when the Billikens won the first NCAA soccer championship held. With Bob Guelker as coach, the team achieved a 11–1 record that season. They defeated the University of Bridgeport 5–2 in the championship game.

Noted for their dominance in men's collegiate soccer during the late 1950s through the mid-1970s, the Billikens have won 10 NCAA Men's Soccer Championships, the most of any men's college soccer program in Division 1. Despite this, the Billikens have not appeared in an NCAA national championship final since 1974, and have appeared in the college cup thrice since then: 1991, 1997, and 2025. Of their ten titles, nine were outright earned by the Billikens and their 1967 title was shared with the Michigan State Spartans.

During their dynasty run from the 1960s through 1970s, the team was coached by Bob Guelker during their first five championships, while Harry Keough coached the last five championship teams at SLU. Dan Donigan was the most recent head coach, serving from February 2001 until he resigned in January 2010 to accept a position at Rutgers. Presently, the Billikens are coached by Kevin Kalish.

Players

Current roster

Notable alumni

1950s–1980s

  • Mike Shanahan (1960) — Played on 1959 and 1960 championship teams
  • Carl Gentile (1965) — Played with the St. Louis Stars of the North American Soccer League; earned 6 caps with the U.S. national team
  • Pat McBride (1967) — Played 10 seasons with the St. Louis Stars of the North American Soccer League; earned 5 caps with the U.S. national team
  • Al Trost (1970) — Played with the St. Louis Stars and other teams in the North American Soccer League; earned 14 caps with the U.S. national team
  • Pat Leahy (1972) — Played on three of the school's national championship soccer teams; placekicker for the NFL's New York Jets from 1974 to 1992 & Jets' all-time leading scorer
  • Chuck Zorumski (1973) -- Played on two of SLU's national championship teams (1972, 1973); MVP 1973 ; goalkeeper for 1976 U.S. Olympic team ; voted into SLU's Half-Century Team
  • Joe Clarke (1975) — Played professional soccer for 7 seasons, including stints with NASL's St. Louis Stars and MISL's St. Louis Steamers
  • Jim Kavanaugh (1985) — Played in the Major Indoor Soccer League; co-founder and CEO of World Wide Technology.

1990s–present

Note: The number in parentheses indicates the year the player graduated from SLU; for those who didn't graduate from SLU, the number indicates the last year they played for SLU.

Coaches

Current staff

Head coaching history

Titles

National

Conference

Seasons

NCAA Dominance: 1959–1974

The following table shows the sixteen-year span from 1959 to 1974 in which SLU won 10 NCAA titles. In the six seasons in which SLU did not win, they finished second three times, reached the semifinals once, reached the quarterfinals once, and reached the round-of-16 once. In all 16 seasons, the NCAA tournament was either won by SLU or by the team that had beaten SLU.

Modern seasons

See also

References

External links