1966 NCAA National Champions
1966 West Coast Intercollegiate Soccer Conference Champions
Head Coach: Steve Negoesco
Overall Record: 12-0-1 WCISC Record: 4-0-0
All-WCISC Team: George Fernandez, Mike Ivanow, Eduardo Rangel
Most Goals: Eduardo Rangel (21) Goalie: Mike Ivanow
USF Hall-of-Famers: Luis Sagastume, Mike Ivanow, Eduardo Rangel, Lothar Osiander, Sandor Hites, Steve Negoesco
The Dons under head coach Steve Negoesco made the NCAA national semifinals for the first time since the tournament started in 1959. Michigan State, Army and Long Island all completed in the soccer Final Four held at Berkeley on a muddy morass.
Negoesco and his Dons met Army in the national semifinals at wet and foggy Memorial Stadium. The field was a mess, forcing many of the West Point booters shot attempts to sail off target. Negoesco and his talented Dons, who played their two previous games in the mud, were better prepared. The Dons dominated in the swamp like conditions, to defeat Army as second half goals by Luis Sagastume and Sandor Hites gave USF the victory. Olympian Mike Ivanow recorded the shutout at goalie.
The following day USF faced Long Island University which had scored a surprising 6-5 win over Michigan State in the semifinals. Led by Hites outstanding effort, the Dons scored a championship game record five goals en route to a 5-2 win over LIU and USF’s first NCAA title. Hites accounted for three of the five goals and was named the tournament’s outstanding player. It was the first of four NCAA crowns under Negoesco, as the Hilltoppers finished the season at 12-0-1. The 1966 Dons outscored their opponents 54-13 with five shutouts. Their defense was so dominant that during one 10-game stretch they allowed only five total goals.
Quite a bit was written about the Dons International connections as a Sports Illustrated article about the championship game was titled "USF Wins One for the U.N.” referencing the seven Dons players born in Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, Indonesia, Poland and Russia along with their Romanian coach. However, every USF player except for one player from Seattle lived year-round in San Francisco.
"I raised a lot of those players," said Negoesco, who had started up the San Francisco youth soccer program a few years prior. "A lot of those players were kept off the street because of what we were able to do with them."
"We were a family," said Jorge Fernandez, a junior fullback that year who helped anchor a defense that allowed just seven goals throughout the regular season. "We were really close knit. Everybody was from the neighborhoods, junior teams or high school teams. We all knew each other." That familial bond made for a cohesive playing style that allowed Negoesco to let his players' instincts on the field flourish. "Individually, we were good players, but as a team we were great," noted Michael Laurel, who as a sophomore was the starting left fullback and was the only American-born starter on that team (USFAthletics).
