1952 Northern California Intercollegiate Soccer Conference Champions
Head Coach: Gus Donoghue
Overall Record: 10-0-1 NCISC Record: 9-0-1
Goals Against Average: Bill Cox (0.45)
All-NCISC Team: Maurice Beattie, Bill Cox, Mashood Danmole, Jose Leon, Adrian Manzano, Olifumni Osibogun, Manny Ortiz, Brian Pike
USF Hall-of-Famers: Maurice Beatty, Bill Cox, Olifumni Osibogun, Gus Donaghue
The powerful 1952 team won the Northern California Intercollegiate Soccer Conference for the fifth consecutive season, extending its unbeaten conference record to 46 games. The Dons outscored their opponents by a 45-5 margin and registered eight shutouts along the way.
The Dons opened the season handling San Francisco State 4-0 and then blanked Stanford 5-0 and City College of San Francisco 3-0. In fact, it wasn’t until the fourth game of the season that USF finally gave a up a goal as Santa Clara got on the board twice in a 7-2 Dons win over the Broncos. Another shutout came next – 5-0 over California, followed by a 1-1 tie with Stanford. Four more shutouts followed as USF blanked City College of San Francisco 3-0, Santa Clara 8-0, San Francisco State 2-0 and California 3-0.
The Dons closed out the season, defeating the conference All-Stars for the fifth consecutive season and then accepted an invitation to play Temple for the second straight year for the mythical championship in the Fourth National Soccer Bowl in St. Louis on December 28, a contest that was subsequently cancelled because of playing site difficulties and travel issues.
Did You Know? USF and Temple were supposed to meet in St. Louis in December of 1952 in the Fourth National Soccer Bowl, but the game never materialized. Temple was looking forward to another bowl bid as the Owls had defeated USF 2-0 the year before in the Third National Soccer Bowl. However, in 1952, neither team could afford to travel to St. Louis, so USF offered to host the game at Kezar Stadium and cover some of Temple’s travel costs. But Temple's athletic director informed his team that USF's subsidy offer was too low, and Temple couldn't afford to send the team to the West Coast. The Dons tried to find a sponsor to cover flights and hotels costs, but came up empty, thus a champion wasn’t officially crowned at the end of the 1952 campaign.
They Said It: "We wanted very much to have a rematch with Temple, but we couldn't find a sponsor to cover the cost of the trip,” USF Head Coach Gus Donaghue.
