When Lincoln Phillips Came to the District of Columbia in 1968, he was tasked with taking Howard University’s soccer program to the next level. And while he did just that — coaching the team to national prominence — he also helped set the foundation on which decades of success would be built, exposing people in communities throughout the city and across the country to a sport that was not traditionally popular with Black Americans.
The University’s team became one of the nation’s top programs in the 1970s — becoming the first HBCU to win a national title in 1971. That championship was stripped by the NCAA as part of controversial sanctions around recruiting violations, but the resilient coach guided the team back to the national stage in 1974, going 19-0 en route to winning another championship. That team remains the only collegiate team to have a perfect season.
“Back then, soccer was really a minor sport in the U.S.,” said Phillips, who coached the Bison for a decade before retiring in 1980. “What we were doing back then was really setting the groundwork for the game to become what it is for our people.”
Because of the team’s on-field success as well as commitment to community engagement, which included the planning and execution of soccer clinics throughout the District that truly taught the game to children, Phillips believes Howard University did for soccer what it has done for so many fields and disciplines — create opportunities for others to engage in the sport while demonstrating excellence through competitive execution.
“What we did then and even what (the University is) doing now has made the awareness of and support for the game amongst Black people grow,” Phillips said. “So many people would tell me back then that they appreciate the game because of the success we had in the 1970s.”
For generations, soccer has been an immensely popular sport in countries around the world and there is no denying that one of the greatest and most beloved players in the sport’s history is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, a Brazilian soccer star better known by one name — Pelé. But, in the United States, it is no stretch to say that Black Americans have been more present in American football or basketball. However, soccer’s popularity has grown in the nation just as the program has emerged on campus.
In 1996, the same year that Howard University started its women’s soccer team, the country’s first professional soccer league — Major League Soccer - started. And over the last decade, the women’s program has achieved remarkable success. In 2014, its first season in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), the women’s team began an impressive run of three SWAC regular season championships, three SWAC Tournament championships and two NCAA appearances over a six-year span. And this past fall, the team, which joined the Northeast Conference (NEC) in 2021, won its first-ever NEC title, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Soccer Tournament, where they fell to perennial powerhouse and No. 1-seeded Duke University in November in the first round.
“Soccer isn’t necessarily a sport that comes to mind when you think of HBCU athletics,” said women’s captain Melea Earley, whose sister, Moriah excelled at the sport while a student at the University of Southern California. “Howard may not be viewed by some as a top soccer program, but because of what we’re doing here, we are putting Howard on the map when it comes to women’s soccer and I know we’re showing girls who look like me and are interested in soccer that you can compete at a high level at an HBCU.”
Trevor Leiba (B.A. ’78, M.A. ’82, Ph.D. ’01), who was the freshman starting goalkeeper for the 1974 team and a longtime faculty member at the University, agreed with Earley, adding that both the women’s and men’s programs can be proud of their respective legacies.
“All these years later, I enjoy meeting people who say they were introduced to soccer because of the 1974 team. I knew it was something big back then, but looking back, I’m not sure I quite realized just how major of an accomplishment that was,” said Leiba, who was in the net for the December 7, 1974, match against St. Louis University, a 3-2 game won by Howard in four overtimes.
Leiba, whose son Brent has served as Howard’s women’s soccer head coach since 2014 and was named the 2024 NEC Coach of the Year, believes that both Howard’s women’s and men’s soccer teams will have a lasting impact for years to come.
“Legacy is synonymous with Howard in so many things and, when it comes to our soccer programs, there is so much that has been done to firmly establish Howard as a leader in the game and an inspiration for so many,” Leiba said. “I’m grateful to be a part of this rich history and, as someone who has loved the game my entire life, I’m extremely proud to know others will grow to love the game because of the successes we’ve seen here in the past and what continues to happen with our talented and accomplished student-athletes.”
Article ID: 2206