ASU men's soccer history

[scatman77]

I don't post this to make a statement but rather to show everyone just how good Mountaineer soccer was in the beginnings of national prominence. I was in school during these times and the players recruited by Vaughn Christian were phenomenal athletes and even better students.

http://thesportdigest.com/2020/09/in-me ... uPZZJUpN88

[AppGrad1]

I was at ASU during these times and was fortunate to watch these guys play.
We played Duke in the playoffs one of those years (they were ranked I believe in the top 5) and it rained cats and dogs. They let us sit in the sky box because of so much rain. I think we lost that game.
Most of our players I couldn't pronounce their names and most were olympians from their country it seemed. In sure I exaggerated a little bit here.

[scatman77]

I remember one cold night uncheat came to Conrad. The west stands were full and it was a battle royal. In the late minutes there was a goal by us, but there was also a foul committed by the holes inside the box on the goal. Understand that most of us didn't know soccer rules very well at the time but we were smart enough to know that a) we just scored or b) no goal but we'd be awarded a penalty kick. The referees gave us neither and after the overtimes the match ended in a 0-0 tie. Campus security had to be called so escort the officials to their vehicles; there were a lot of PO'ed Mountaineer fans who knew we'd just been screwed but no kiss.

[Rekdiver]

Thompson Usyian and Emanuel Udogu were the two studs on our best teams and I believe the only international players on the team. Thompson went on to play in the NASL in Montreal or Toronto I think. I believe Emanuel followed his dads footsteps in diplomatic service.

[ASU84]

I followed and went to all the home soccer games. Also went to Clemson to watch us beat them on their home turf!! What a great time!!

[Apptiger]

Thompson Usyian and Emanuel Udogu were the two studs on our best teams and I believe the only international players on the team. Thompson went on to play in the NASL in Montreal or Toronto I think. I believe Emanuel followed his dads footsteps in diplomatic service.

There were more. Emmanuel Igbeka, Kingsley Esabeman, Keith Layne and I think maybe one or two more.
I lived in Bowie hall with them my freshman year. We taught Tommy how to play basketball and he taught us how to play soccer. Mr. Black Saturday can confirm, he was there too. Tommy owns a tax service business in California and Emmanuel is in Nigeria running a non profit. At least last I heard......

There have been different stories but my memories of how Bugler's Dream got started....Several of the guys were on Nigeria's Olympic team. They didn't get to go and play because of the Russia boycott. Several members of the pep band came to the games and played it when the team came out to honor those guys and to make them feel welcome. It got so popular it transitioned to football toward the end of the 1977 or beginning of the 1978 football season. It was played on every kickoff, receiving or kicking.

[Apptiger]

I don't post this to make a statement but rather to show everyone just how good Mountaineer soccer was in the beginnings of national prominence. I was in school during these times and the players recruited by Vaughn Christian were phenomenal athletes and even better students.

http://thesportdigest.com/2020/09/in-me ... uPZZJUpN88

Good read and a great story. I think the scholarships got cut because they were short of funds (always) and because there was political pressure to use more USA players to help develop the sport locally.
I was at that GW game, sort of. I couldn't afford a ticket so I watched from the fence at the back porch at Owens. Funny story, we had a consultant come in at work a few years later. Seems he went to GW, seems he played soccer, seems he played center fullback. As you can imagine, we had a conversation about that game. He said he went from anger, to humiliated to awe.

[TurfMonkey]

I'll always remember the SI article. Coach said his recruiting line was "Come to America, eat big Lion"

[scatman77]

Thompson Usyian and Emanuel Udogu were the two studs on our best teams and I believe the only international players on the team. Thompson went on to play in the NASL in Montreal or Toronto I think. I believe Emanuel followed his dads footsteps in diplomatic service.

There were more. Emmanuel Igbeka, Kingsley Esabeman, Keith Layne and I think maybe one or two more.
I lived in Bowie hall with them my freshman year. We taught Tommy how to play basketball and he taught us how to play soccer. Mr. Black Saturday can confirm, he was there too. Tommy owns a tax service business in California and Emmanuel is in Nigeria running a non profit. At least last I heard......

There have been different stories but my memories of how Bugler's Dream got started....Several of the guys were on Nigeria's Olympic team. They didn't get to go and play because of the Russia boycott. Several members of the pep band came to the games and played it when the team came out to honor those guys and to make them feel welcome. It got so popular it transitioned to football toward the end of the 1977 or beginning of the 1978 football season. It was played on every kickoff, receiving or kicking.

There were also some pretty good home-grown talent: keeper John Ward, Frank Kemo, Dave Ralston, Tony Suarez. Tony later played in Charlotte for that pro team. Unfortunately he passed many years ago.

[NewApp]

Wasn't Thompson Usayin on the faculty at USC for a while?

[AppGrad1]

If I'm not mistaken I think our keeper was from England.