Indiana University Athletics
Yeagley Featured in The NCAA News
6/6/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
June 6, 2007
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Former Indiana men's soccer coach Jerry Yeagley has been featured in the June 4 issue of The NCAA News. Greg Johnson's story, entitled "Soccer's Ultimate Pitch Man," profiles the legendary coach in the publication's Defining Moments feature.
The following is an excerpt from Johnson's story:
Jerry Yeagley put a professional lifetime of work into the Indiana University, Bloomington, men's soccer program.
Though it might seem hard to believe now since the program is synonymous with excellence on the pitch, it took 10 years of lobbying from Yeagley back then just to convince the university that the team should compete at the varsity level. Until then, Yeagley lined the field himself, his wife washed the uniforms and the players traveled to road matches in a caravan of cars.
"If I had known it was going to take that long, I might not have come," Yeagley said. "But looking back, those are some of my fondest memories. It made me a better coach down the line, because I learned not to take anything for granted. I learned all the details."
His patience was tested a few times during those club years when he entertained the thought of leaving the Bloomington campus, but finally in 1973, Yeagley's club team was granted varsity status. The rest of the Division I soccer community didn't know it, but one of the most dominant programs in men's soccer was in the making.
Over the next 31 years, the Hoosiers established themselves as perennial contenders for the national championship. Yeagley, who won 544 varsity matches, guided Indiana to a record 16 NCAA College Cups, where the Hoosiers captured six national titles. Every four-year player who wore a Hoosiers uniform during Yeagley's tenure made at least one trip to the College Cup, where the national semifinals and finals are conducted.
All of those accomplishments are defining moments in their own right. But while Yeagley's 41 years of work are still stamped on the program, the players on his last team gave him one more special memory during his final season in 2003 that truly defines the tradition-rich Indiana men's soccer team.
Click here for the rest of the story.
