60 seasons strong: looking back at the origin of the men's soccer program

The upcoming men's soccer season marks the 60th anniversary of the sport at Millersville University. While we wait for the current Marauders to return to the pitch, we take a look back at the student-athletes and administrators responsible for first bringing the sport into intercollegiate competition at the school.

The world was a very different place in 1960. The Beatles were just beginning to play music together. Muhammed Ali (still known as Cassius Clay) won a light heavyweight gold medal at the Summer Olympics. Dr. Seuss published Green Eggs and Ham and John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States. Another important moment (albeit on a smaller scale) occurred at the institution then known as Millersville State College: the men’s soccer program competed in its very first varsity campaign. 60 years and 59 seasons later, the state college has since become a university while the soccer program has earned 474 victories, five PSAC East titles, three PSAC championships, and has cemented itself as one of the most consistent and prominent programs in the entire Atlantic Region.

Yet intercollegiate varsity teams are not created out of thin air; it takes a vision and a commitment to that vision to bring them to life. Such was the case for the genesis of Millersville’s soccer program, occurring two years prior to that first varsity season, in 1958, when sophomore Bob Jones (a transfer from Elizabethtown College) gathered a group of like-minded players and helped set the wheels in motion to begin what would eventually become the Millersville varsity men’s soccer team.

Jones and the small collection of hopeful soccer players approached Raymond J. Runkle, who was Director of Athletics at Millersville from 1957 to 1965, and pitched the idea for an intercollegiate men’s soccer team.

“He was a very nice man but he was not too positive about being able to do that, for a lot of different reasons,” recalls Jones. “He went out of his way to be helpful to us and told us that we are going to have to prove ourselves and that the way we can do that is to start a club program.”

The student-athletes heeded Dr. Runkle's advice and the club team was created. The 1960 edition of the Millersville State College yearbook states that the club, affectionately nicknamed “the Booters”, had to serve at least a two-year apprenticeship before becoming a varsity sport due to local Council law. Jones remembers the formation of the team and the inclusion of talented local players.

“Lancaster and Lebanon County were pretty good and some had soccer schools where there was no football,” said Jones. “So we recruited a number of other people who were experienced high school players. We had enough for at least a team-and-a-half. We didn’t really have any uniforms or equipment-- if my memory serves me well we got leftover shin guards from the girls hockey team—but we had one common purpose and we worked towards that.”

Rich LaGrotte was one of the players recruited in those efforts, but unlike some of the other recruits he had never played organized soccer before.

“We didn't have it at our high school, and I just always remember this: Al Gambone talked me into playing,” said LaGrotte. “I said “Al, I've never played soccer,” and he told me it doesn’t matter. I did enjoy it. I liked learning the skills. I thought it was funny because he said that you run down the field, you get knocked down, you bounce back up again, and keep running. I could do that!”

The Booters accomplished those directives and quite a few more. Bob Jones used his contacts in the local soccer community to set up scrimmages with regional teams (including at his former school Elizabethtown College, which was quickly becoming a national power in Division III.) The Blue Jays were Middle Atlantic Conference champions and NAIA national runner-up in 1959—and Millersville scrimmaged them tough.

“I had contacted the coach up there, Dean Green, and I asked him if he would mind scrimmaging with us,” said Jones. “He agreed, and it was really quite a scrimmage because we got down to the last two minutes and the score was nothing-nothing. And at that time E-town was one of the best teams in the country, really. We didn’t win; they scored in the last minutes, but we kept them at bay and it was a good game. We played well and had many more games from there. I worked with a wonderful group of people and we were all just enthused about soccer.”

In 1959, the Millersville soccer club played in five scrimmages (against Elizabethtown, Franklin & Marshall, the West Chester JV team, and twice against Dickinson) and while they did not earn a victory, they earned respect and plenty of progress toward becoming an official varsity program.

“It was my first experience in a team sport,” said LaGrotte. “We played organized soccer and we had our positions to play. I was on the wing and I was just freewheeling, having fun. The other guys knew what they were doing and they told me what I should be doing. They were very welcoming. I was enjoying developing the skills and anytime I got to touch the ball I was very open. I do remember the first times I touched the ball—thinking what do you do with this thing when it’s at your feet? I knew I was supposed to kick it towards the center!”

“When I had first talked with Dr. Runkle he thought it would be at least five years until they could get the resources and we would be ready to start an intercollegiate team,” said Jones. “But I think he recognized our great enthusiasm, willingness to work together, and the quality of our play. We weren’t winning all these games, but we were in every game with these close scores, and I think from my vantage point the team did well. I was so proud of them.”

Due to the club’s determination, Dr. Runkle approved the promotion of the Millersville soccer club to an actual varsity intercollegiate program prior to the fall of 1960. 
 

Bob Jones, now entering his senior year, had been serving as a player-coach for the club, with another player (Ron Caulwell) as a co-captain, but a new leader was assigned by the University to supplement the fledgling program now that it was officially part of the athletics department. Jon Haser volunteered to take the job after playing the sport at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and he became the inaugural head coach of Millersville men’s soccer.

 “Given that he wasn’t a faculty member, he couldn’t always get the things that he and we needed,” said Jones. “But he persevered, and he was very helpful to us. We had a wonderful year. I had an ankle injury that kept me out of two games, but we were pretty decent for our first year playing intercollegiately.”

What the team lacked in intercollegiate experience they made up for with physicality and grit.  The men won their first-ever varsity contest (a 4-3 result against Mount St. Mary’s) and finished the season with a 4-5 overall record, earning additional wins over Lincoln University and twice against Susquehanna.

Current Marauders head coach Steve Widdowson made an effort a decade ago, during the program’s 50th anniversary in 2010, to reach out to former players like Jones and LaGrotte and make sure they were honored and remembered for blazing the trail and all of their hard work. Rekindling those relationships has benefitted everyone involved.

“It’s about timing: If I had gone to school 10 years later I would not have been on the team,” said LaGrotte. “And if Coach (Widdowson) didn’t reach out, Millersville soccer would have been part of my distant past. I really would not have given it much thought. All the credit goes to him. He has a respect for the history of the game and sort of brought it back into my present. I’ve been back multiple times now and it means a lot to me to be remembered for being there.”

“We achieved something,” said Jones. “More than individually, it was the team. I felt camaraderie and I couldn’t have been involved in a nicer group of people. It happened even faster than we and Dr. Runkle thought it would occur. We proved that we really wanted to do it and we were happy to be together to see it achieved.”