The history of college soccer is akin to a winding road. Some schools have ebbed and waned in their dominance on the national scene, while others have folded completely. But throughout its entire tenure, our top amateur players could often be found playing collegiate soccer.
In an attempt to not only document once-celebrated goalkeepers who never got a chance to leave a digital footprint, but also connect a more tangible thread to the position’s early beginning in America, the History of College Goalkeepers lists each year’s top goalkeepers in college soccer.
Prior to the NCAA, the ISFA ran for most of the first half of the 20th century. However, national champions were awarded by voting committees and the concept of a “Top 25” ranking for end of year polling was still decades away. To shed light on more goalkeepers, as well as putting a modern lens on past years in college soccer to better understand the levels, this chart has retroactively named a top four for every year in men’s soccer, excluding the first few years when there were limited teams playing.
Although the national tournament started in 1959, it would still be three decades until the tournament saw proper seeding for the top four teams entering the tournament. Prior to this, the tournament was split into four regions to help with travel, regardless of strength. The four seeds at this time are determined by Everybody Soccer based on record and strength of schedule.
Additionally, the ISAA Goalkeeper of the Year award was a prestigious goalkeeper award that began in the mid-1980s and was ended after 1995. As Everybody Soccer has given a yearly ranking of the top goalkeepers for ten years, the site’s rankings are considered a spiritual successor to the ISAA Goalkeeper of the Year award.
Lastly, the men’s chart condenses Third-Team All-Americans and All-American Honorable Mentions. There was no year where a third-team and an honorable mention were given out in the same year, so historically they were called different things at different times. For simplicity’s sake, they are listed all as third-team.