Haverford became the first intercollegiate men’s soccer program in the country to record 700 all-time wins with a 7-0 victory against Neumann on September 7, 2002. The Fords reached the 800 win mark during the 2016 season with a 5-4 win at Muhlenberg on October 15, 2016.
The oldest organized college soccer team in the nation, the Fords’ rich tradition began over a century ago when Richard Gummere ’02 entered a club from the College in a local league. The soccer program soon gained national prominence when Haverford defeated Harvard University, 1-0, in the first modern-day intercollegiate soccer match on April 1, 1905. The Crimson’s team had been started by Haverfordians who went to Cambridge for graduate school.
Haverford was one of the top teams in the nation in the first half of the century, often winning the national title over an essentially Ivy League schedule. The 1945 team was undefeated. The soccer squad was a regional power in the 1950s under its great Scottish mentor, U.S. Olympic coach and Soccer Hall of Famer Jimmy Mills. As late as 1960, two Fords, Harold Taylor and Gyula Kovacsics, both ’61, were named to a first-team All-American eleven that included players from major universities.
In the mid-’70s, Haverford became a frequent NCAA tournament qualifier and won the Middle Atlantic Conference Southern Division five times between 1976 and ’82 under coach Dave Felsen ’66, former headmaster at Friends Central School near Philadelphia, and Stanley “Skip” Jarocki ’69.
Joe Amorim became head coach in 1983 and won three more MAC South titles, and knocked off undefeated national No.1 Elizabethtown in the 1988 MAC final. A key player for the championship team, NCAA Postgraduate Scholar alternate Chris Lee ’89, got his master’s degree at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and was a reporter for the Washington Post who now works as the Senior Communications Officer for the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Haverford won a then school-record 17 games in 1992 and has been a regular contender for the Centennial Conference title. Four-time All-Centennial forward Frank Adamson ’98 scored 49 goals to pass Phil Zipin as Haverford’s leading career scorer, but was eclipsed himself by former teammate, three-time all-conference first-teamer and NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipient Rich Billings ’00. In April 2000, Billings’ classmate and roommate, defender Mike Newshel ’00, was named the inaugural Centennial Conference Sportsman of the Year.
Bill Brady took over the reigns of the program in 2009. In 2010, the Fords recorded their first winning season (8-6-2) since 2000. The team received the 2010 National Soccer Coaches Association of America's (NSCAA) Bronze Team Ethics Award.
In 2011, under then interim coach Shane Rineer, the team ended the season on a nine-game unbeaten streak. The team pulled off an upset of host and No.1 seed Johns Hopkins in Centennial Conference men's soccer tournament semifinal action before bowing to Dickinson on penalty kicks in the program's first-ever appearance in the conference final. The successful season also earned Rineer a promotion to head coach of the program.
The 2012 squad added a new chapter to the storied history of Haverford College men’s soccer when the Fords made a thrilling run through the Centennial Conference tournament to capture the conference championship for the first time. Third-seeded Haverford claimed a pair of 1-0 upsets in the conference semifinals (Dickinson) and final (No. 10 Swarthmore) to secure the title. The Fords continued to make their mark in the NCAA Division III men’s soccer championship as they got past Wesleyan (Conn.) University, in penalty kicks, 4-2, to advance to the second round of the national tournament.
Haverford has maintained in national prominence in the recent years as the Fords have hosted the Centennial Conference Tournament four times in the past six seasons, hoisting the conference championship on Walton Field three times in the past four seasons (2015, 2016, 2018). Haverford broke the storied program’s record for wins in a single season during an 18-4 campaign in 2015. In addition to winning a program-record 16 straight matches, the Fords went 9-0 in Centennial Conference. After earning a No. 1 overall seed in their bracket and first round bye, Haverford was a 2-1 winner over Washington and Lee and a 2-0 victor over St. Lawrence to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time in program history where a 1-0 overtime defeat to SUNY Oneonta ended the historic season.
Haverford became the first team in Centennial Conference history to win both the regular season title and tournament championship in back-to-back seasons when it repeated those same feats in 2016 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament before being eliminated on penalty kicks. With Shane Rineer stepping down following the 2017 season, Zach Ward took over the program and immediately led the program back to the top of the conference in 2018 behind eventual two-time Centennial Conference Player of the Year and All-American Nick Jannelli ’20. Jannelli, also the conference rookie of the year and a four-time All-CC selection at the conclusion of his career in 2019, became just the second player in conference history earn player of the year honors in back-to-back seasons. The Fords earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after that 2018 championship, but were unlucky in penalty kicks, falling to NYU in the opening round of the national tournament.