Fifty years ago, in the fall of 1975, Ohio Northern University fielded its first men’s varsity soccer team.
The inaugural squad was a diverse group. Some were dedicated club athletes who had lobbied university leaders to elevate soccer to an official sport, while others were new to playing soccer at ONU.
Though the first team finished the season with a 2-8 record, they laid the foundation for what would become a proud and competitive tradition. Just one year later, the 1976 team turned things around with an impressive 9-3 record, establishing ONU men’s soccer as a rising force in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC).
Those early teams, led by pharmacy professor and first head coach, Dr. Amar Bhattacharya (affectionally known as “Doc B”), set the tone for decades of excellence. Their unity, grit, and passion still define Polar Bear soccer today.
Current Head Coach Chris Matejka, BA ’13, describes the program as “one big family.”
“You can put two players who played 50 years apart in the same room and they will feel a connection to one another,” Matejka said.
Randy Maltbie, BA ’77, goalie on the 1975 and 1976 teams, agrees.
“It’s a brotherhood more than a team,” he said. “You play as hard as you can for each other, and somewhere along the way, you realize you are going to be friends for life.”
From club to varsity
Soccer had long been a popular sport in Europe, South America, and Africa, before it began gaining traction in the U.S. in the 1960s and 70s.
At Ohio Northern, student and faculty soccer enthusiasts formed a club team in 1968, funding it themselves for seven years.
As a 1970 Northern Review article described: “Every afternoon about 4 p.m. a group of determined athletes gather in the large field across from Founders Hall. In the eyes of the University, they are a club, but to these men, it is a team in every sense of the word.”
At the time, the soccer club had no coach and each player had to contribute between $20-50 dollars of their own money to help cover expenses like referees for home games.
The article praised the team’s heart and predicted its future.
“These men are true athletes who play the game not for glory, but for the satisfaction they get out of participating,” the article continued. “This is a group worth supporting and one that will someday be a winning varsity sport.”
The article’s prediction proved accurate.
Recognizing the club team’s on-field success and the increased interest in the sport, ONU administrator designated men’s soccer a varsity sport in the fall of 1975.
Dr. Bhattacharya, the newly appointed head coach, would go on to lead the team for 23 seasons, until 1997. In 1999, ONU inducted him into the Athletic Hall of Fame, cementing his legendary status in the program’s history.
The rise of soccer
While ONU’s team was taking its first steps, soccer was gaining momentum across the U.S. By the mid-1990s, youth soccer clubs had sprung up across the country, most public high schools had established teams, and Major League Soccer (MLS) had been founded, solidifying the sport’s place in American athletics.
But back in the 1970s, ONU had to seek out players, often recruiting athletes from other sports who had never played soccer before.
“The first soccer game I ever saw in my life— I played in at ONU,” Maltbie laughed.
He recalled being approached at a campus fair by club team members who thought he had the physique to be a goalkeeper. Though Maltbie had only played baseball and basketball in high school, he reluctantly agreed to give it a try.
“And that’s how I ended up becoming the first goalie in the school’s history,” he said.
Maltbie played on the club team for three years, and then the varsity team for two years.
In addition to playing, Maltbie stored the team’s nets in his fraternity room. It was his job to put the nets on the field and make sure they were installed correctly before each game.
“We had to do tasks back then that today’s players don’t need to worry about,” he said.
Maltbie also recalled the soccer field changing locations each year. A teammate majoring in engineering would map out the field from scratch with surveying tools. One year, the soccer field was in the middle of what is now the Tundra.
Honoring the legacy
In August, Maltbie and four of his teammates from the 1975 inaugural team— Laszlo Bujdoso, BSBA ’79, Dan Depperman, BSME ’78, Jeff Taylor, BSPh ’78, and Tom Winslow, BSPh ’78, JD ’83, —returned to ONU’s campus for a 50th year celebration of ONU men’s soccer. Additional players from 1970s club and varsity teams also attended: John Brandt, BSPh ’81, Paul Conway, BSPh ’75, John Hanson, BA ’75, and Steve Smith, BSBA ’80.
They remain strong supporters of the program, and are honored to have helped launch a sport that now enjoys a rich, storied tradition at ONU.
When Maltbie attends ONU events and meets current players, he looks them in the eye and leaves them with a message:
“I tell them, ‘You are going to be alumni a lot longer than you are going to be players. Fifty years from now, you guys need to be the ones standing here in our place, keeping the history and tradition alive.’”
