University of San Francisco Athletics

After thirteen years of patient waiting a dream was fulfilled for Gus Donoghue, soccer coach on the Hilltop since 1941. The dream goes back to Donoghue's own playing days in 1936 when he led a group of Dons to the Pacific Coast Conference championship, and plans were made for that group to participate in a National Championship game against Penn State, the supposedly soccer powerhouse of the country. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the game was never played and Coach Donoghue began working to make his dream come true.

The opportunity to play for the national title never arose until this past season when the Done had annexed their second Conference title and Penn State found itself the leaders of the Eastern sector. St. Louis was chosen for the site of the post-season game and on January Ist. the first annual Soccer Bowl was held.

Entering the field an the underdogs, the Dons soon showed the crowd the type of ball that was played here on the Coast was of the same quality that they had in the East. The Lions were very much baffled by the style of play of the Dons and found themselves trailing 1-0 at the During the third quarter. Penn State scored a tying goal and not more than two minutes had elapsed before the Hilitoppers had scored again with the toe of Dick Baptista, who had scored the first goal. With this 2-1 lead, USF played a defensive game, the likes of which had never been seen before and victory seemed theirs until with only fifteen seconds to play a penalty kick was awarded to the Lions, who scored and ended the game in a tie 2-2 (TheDon).