This article is supported by shared photographs from Ted Bondi’s family. Ted Bondi maintained a scrapbook of his athletic career, and combined with newspaper clippings, Bondi’s goalkeeping career is pieced back together for this article. Thank you to the Bondi family for sharing the photographs. All pictures are from the scrapbook, unless noted as newspaper clippings.
Like many great American goalkeepers before him, Theodore “Ted” Bondi was a first-generation American. After his parents Peter and Philomena Chiara Bondi immigrated to the States in 1912, the Italian couple welcomed Ted Bondi to the world in 1929. The young Italian-American grew up in Geneseo, less than an hour south of Rochester, New York. Bondi worked at the Birdseye Factory in Lester harvesting vegetables throughout high school, where he eventually met World War II German POWs who taught the game to Bondi.
Bondi attended Geneseo High School from 1944-1947 and was an all-around athlete, lettering in basketball, baseball, track, and soccer. In a 1999 interview, Bondi explained how he stumbled into playing goalkeeper for the high school team, “Our goalie wasn’t too good so if we were ahead, my coach put me in goal in the second half to protect the lead.” Bondi’s junior year at Geneseo featured a 2-1 win over Spencerport before ultimately falling in the Class A championship game, losing 4-2 to John Marshall High School.1
Bondi’s senior year ended in a close semifinal loss to Brighton in late October of 1946. Although Bondi’s specific contributions in his final contest with Geneseo High are not documented in available newspapers, Bondi’s soccer career had much more in store. The 5’10” multi-sport athlete was just at the beginning of his storied athletic journey. For years to come, Geneseo was proud to boast of its local All-American stalwart’s efforts, on and off the field.
Bondi, bottom left, with Geneseo High. The Times-Union, November 6, 1945
Bondi (middle, back row) at Geneseo High, 1946
Bondi at Geneseo High. Likely 1947 or 1948.
Pctures of Bondi from his childhood.
Bondi Heads to Brockport State
Various clippings from Bondi’s first year at Brockport
Bondi attended Brockport State, just 30 miles north of Genseo. Brockport State immediately welcomed the spry goalkeeper as Bondi was named the starter in his first year, replacing outgoing goalkeepers Joe Costello and Ed Stackwick. In his opening match, a 2-0 win over Buffalo State, Bondi was complimented for making “many nice stops, feinted deceptively, and kept himself out of trouble with long accurate boots and tosses.”
In the third match of the season, Bondi seemed to have made a name for himself despite the team suffering a 2-1 loss to Cortland. “Ted Bondi’s sensational goal-tending feat will long be a favorite topic of discussion around college. Time after time he had the fans gasping as he made unbelievable saves, dashed out to intercept onrushing linesmen, and feinted past hard charging checkers. Yessir, Mr. Bondi was really terrific; ask anyone who saw the game.”
Bondi and Whaler featured in the all-star game following their freshmen years.
In the final match of the 1947 campaign, Bondi’s excellence was noted as something of common expectation. “Once again Ted Bondi was forced to demonstrate his good tending skill to the delight of the crowd.” Another article echoed the sentiments, “The Sampsonities broke loose to force Ted Bondi to again display his wares. To the delight of the fans, he gave another stellar exhibition of how a goalie should perform.”
With his exploits on full display, Bondi was awarded the second-team All-American award in his freshman year, as well as receiving high praise for his overall character. “Not only should Geneseo be proud of Ted for his playing ability but also for the spirit of fair-play and sportsmanship which he displays on and off the playing field. He is a fine example of ‘All-American Youth’. Keep up the good work, Ted, and may a lot more deserving honors come your way.”
The accolades for Bondi during his freshman year didn’t stop when the season came to an end. On November 23rd, 1947, Bondi and Howard “Weasel” Whatford - the college’s first two All-Americans in Brockport’s history - were featured in a collegiate all-star matchup between New England and New York. Despite hailing from the smallest school, Bondi and Whatford made Brockport proud as they were happy to punch up a weight class. Both players were thrilled at the opportunity and their performances, as Whatford was quick to compliment his teammate, “All of the fellows on our team cooperated well and didn’t try to be ‘heroes’. Every one of the players was good. Bondi really played a swell game and made several beautiful stops.”
1948 Olympic Tryouts
After an extremely successful freshman year, Bondi was invited to the tryouts for the 1948 Olympic team. The tryout process was built around small regions of teams playing one another and the best individual players would be invited to the next round, where larger regions would repeat the process until a final squad was assembled. Bondi was featured on the New England squad, who rolled the All-Connecticut Amateurs 7-0 on April 18th. As reported, the best players would “play the All-Amateur team from Massachusetts… This game will determine who will play on the All-North Team in a game at the Polo Grounds on May 8 against an All-South squad. From that contest will be determined the players who will be on the All-East team. That group will play an All-West aggregation (which has already been picked) and from that encounter the players for the Olympic team will be selected.”
What happened next is hard to piece together, although Bondi’s ire, understandably, burned decades after. Reports of Bondi’s inclusion in the Olympic qualifying extend through April 20th, with Bondi and collegiate teammate Whatford both making the cut for the next round to face the representatives from Massachusetts. On April 30th, the North Adams Transcript reported a 2-1 win for the Massachusetts squad, featuring players from the heralded amateur side Ponta Delgada SC. Although Bondi was not named specifically in the matchup, his rival Morton “Mort” Thau of Springfield College and another goalkeeper, Tony Almeida (Gremio Lusitano), were listed as making the cut to the new round.2 A later matchup between an all-New York squad and an All-New England squad on May 8, 1948 with Bondi once again not listed.3
In a 1999 article, Bondi recalled being told he and several other college players had made the Olympic roster at one point, but ultimately the federation pivoted to non-collegiate amateurs, mostly from St. Louis and Massachusetts. Bondi’s exclusion is even more odd as his peers who were featured in later rounds, such as Springfield’s Morton Thau and Navy’s Al Schaufelberger, were goalkeepers that Bondi was nationally recognized as at least on par with, if not better than. However, the final exclusion of nearly every collegiate player is the biggest head scratch of them all, especially considering the Olympics’ focus on amateur athletes. While common thought has historically stated the collegiate game was always lagging behind the rest of the country’s semi-pro leagues, the 1948 roster of America’s top amateurs excluded collegiate All-American Bill Sheppell, who would later receive 11 caps and play with the national team through 1954.
David Litterer wrote on his recap of trials in “This Year in American Soccer - 1948” of how the federation’s plans to bankroll the needed $14,000 for the tournament rested on ticket sales for the amateur trials fell short, which was unfortunately yet another failure on the federation’s efforts to be a good steward to the game. Whether it was fedeartion’s inability to move the needle in maintaining soccer in the 1932 Olympics, or the federation’s role in the America Soccer Wars leading to the dissolution of the country’s top league in 1933, or their fumbling of the momentum out of the 1950 World Cup, the federation was in a multi-decade long stretch of underserving the playerbase and 1948 was just another chapter in that story.
In August of 1948, the US Olympic soccer team finished dead last in the tournament, losing their one and only match 9-0 to Italy, who finished fifth in the Tournament. Bondi’s frustration at a limited opportunity through qualifying - especially seeing the team fall on their faces at the London Olympics - is one that would understandably still resonate 50 years later.
Democrat and Chronicle, April 20, 1948
Sophomore Stride
Never one to pout in a corner, Bondi’s persistence would pay off for the entire squad. Brockport kicked off their 1948 season in late September with a 6-0 win over Geneseo. On October 9th, Brockport won a match over the “Rochester All-Stars” 4-3, although additional reports on the match are unavailable. Brockport doesn’t cite the match in their official record for the year but the scheduled match gives a testament to the seriousness of the season.
1948 Brockport State Soccer Team
Various newspaper clippings from Bondi’s sophomore year.
Brockport welcomed an international challenge for their third match of the season with Western Ontario coming down to play on October 16th. The Democrat and Chronicle did their best to hype up the international matchup. “The visitors [Western Ontario], reported to be the strongest collegiate team in Canada, will provide the first major college competition for BSTC." (October 15, 1948) Unfortunately, the match did not live up to the billing as Brockport won the game handily, 6-0. However, the following schedule proved to be a tough ask for any college. With four games in eight days - all in different locations across New York state - Brockport had a mountain to climb to challenge for the title of National Champion.
After a 12-0 drubbing over Utica College - which saw four goals in the opening ten minutes and the first string quickly getting pulled - Brockport’s perfect run hit a bump in the road with a 2-2 tie at Hamilton on October 23rd. The fourth game in eight days was filled with a fair amount of drama. “As the score indicates the first encounter was a complete rout, the varsity tallying four goals in the first 8 1/2 minutes before being yanked. However, a poor playing field, bad breaks and one questionable decision, a refusal to give the penalty kick to Brockport on an unnecessary roughness violation within the Hamilton penalty area, by the official told the story.”4
With maintaining an undefeated season still on the line, Brockport traveled two hours east to Cortland State to seek their first win in program history against their in-state rival, losing to the Red Dragons twice in the previous two years. On October 27th, Bondi’s booters earned a 3-1 win over one of their fiercest rivals in a 3-1 win. Brockport captured their final two victories of the season with relative ease, the finale featuring a 9-0 win over Sampson Air Force Base, where Bondi would later be stationed in just a few years.
As one of the few undefeated teams in the nation, Brockport was undoubtedly in the conversation as a potential national champion. However an annual postseason tournament wouldn’t begin until 1959 and previously the ISFA (the governing body to the sport and precursor to the NCAA) would simply elect a national champion.5 The honors were given to the University of Connecticut after an astonishing 11-0 season, including a win over the previous year’s reigning champion, Springfield College. However, Brockport State shared many spoils as Bondi, Whatford, and Bob Rowan all notched All-American honors for their efforts in the season. The 1948 team finished with a 7-0-1 record with 44 goals scored and only 6 conceded.
On April 23, 1949, Bondi and the College All-Americans took on an all-star squad from New York and held the all-star squad to a 2-2 tie with a goal by the collegemen in the last thirty seconds to level the score. The spring and summer were otherwise quiet for Bondi’s soccer efforts, although it’s safe to say he was the first one cheering on Brockport teammate Howie Whatford during his first appearance wth the US Men’s National Team. In June of 1949 during a 4-0 loss to Scotland in front of 17,000 fans, Whatford received his lone career cap with the senior national team, marking yet another collegiate player to eventually represent the US on the international stage.6
The College All-Americans tied the New York All-Stars 2-2 in the spring of 1949.
1949: Junior Year, 7-1, 0.38 GA
Bondi’s junior year kicked off with a 11-0 drubbing over Geneseo State Teachers College in late September. For Brockport’s second match, the Golden Eagles hosted Buffalo State in a 4-2 win, with Whatford only playing the final quarter due to a lingering knee injury. The two goals conceded in this match would account for 2/3rds of all the goals conceded in the 1949 season. After back-to-back 2-0 wins over Hamilton and Panzer, Brockport’s chance at a claim for the national championship would be put to the test.
Seton Hall boasted one of the few collegiate players that had been named to the alternate list in the 1948 Olympic tryouts, just a year and a half prior: Bill Sheppell. Sheppell would later earn 11 caps for the national team, playing for the US until 1954. 1949 was the first of two meetings between Sheppell and Bondi’s universities, the second one ending in a 0-0 draw for both men’s senior year in 1950. However, in 1949, Seton Hall notched a 1-0 victory, scoring in the final minutes of the game. Unsurprisingly, Bondi was praised by the Democrat and Chronicle in the defeat: “Ted Bondi, stellar Golden Eagles' goalie, was outstanding for the Brockporters, staving off at least five possible Seton Hall goals with brilliant saves.”7
Brockport wrapped up three more shutout victories to close Bondi’s junior year with a 7-1 record, conceding only three goals across the eight competitions, with a 1-0 loss away at Seton Hall proving to be the only thorn in Brockport’s side.
Following his junior year, Bondi quickly returned to the field, this time with the Rochester Thistles, on December 18th to face the Buffalo Becks in the National Challenge Cup, the precursor to the US Open Cup. The Thistles had tied reigning champions Morgan SC earlier the year in a 0-0 draw but with the addition of Bondi, fans’ hopes skyrocketed. “The Thistles are considered much improved this year and are expected to make a better showing. Milt Pierce, Ted Bondi, Len Hackshaw and Les Mort are wearing the Orange and Black this year for the first time and have strengthened the Thistles to the extent that team followers have high hopes of a national championship”8
Unfortunately, the Thistles faced difficult conditions in the early round matchup. “The game was played in a sea of mud - on the Lexington Ave. Sports Club field. But despite the miserable playing conditions, it was a hard-fought battle, with tempers flaring on several occasions.” The Becks gained an early lead when “Eddie Adams, left wing, caught Thistle goalie Ted Bondi out of the nets after staving off one Beck scoring attempt.”9 Although Rochester leveled the score, the Becks were awarded a penalty with six minutes left and recaptured the lead to win 2-1.
1950: A New Decade With New Foes
True to his nature, Bondi would kick off 1950 in playing whenever and with whoever he could. In January, Bondi and the Rochester Thistles raised $351.50 (nearly $5,000 in 2026) for the Poli Fund in a muddy matchup against the Italian-Americans. The Thistles won 4-0 but “the contest itself, played in the mud, was much closer than the final score indicates and All-American Goalie Ted Bondi gets much of the credit for the Thistles’ victory. He repeatedly turned back Italian thrusts as his mates pecked away to build up their margin.”
Then on May 12, Bondi was selected to play on a Western New York all-star team against touring German squad Hamburg SV. Hamburg was not only the first German club to tour the US, but they were potent foe for any American or German squad. Hamburg had just steamrolled almost the entire competition in Germany, finishing top of the table in Oberliga Nord with a +62 goal differential, and reached the quarterfinals of the German Football Championship after a 7-0 drubbing of Union 06 Berlin. This was not any ordinary German squad, as Bondi and the all-stars quickly found out.
Although the Americans lost 7-2 in front of 4,000 spectators, Bondi was named as the most astounding American player the Germans faced on the tour and the German coach reportedly wanted Bondi to join their team. The Times-Union praised Bondi’s efforts, despite the high scoreline, “Now [scoring seven goals] is quite a trick, for Mr. Bondi is today one of the best goalies in the United States-in the opinion of local soccer officials and in the opinion of the Hamburg Sports Verein, which unanimously acclaimed his feats last night... The score could easily have gone into double figures had it not been for the terrific defensive play of Bondi.” Another newspaper praised Bondi for keeping the scoreline down as well, “Again Hamburg impressed, playing soccer with a chess-like precision. Had it not been for Northwestern goalie Bondi of the Rochester [Thistles], who stopped the most impossible balls during the first 30 minutes, the score would have run into double figures. About 4200 spectators filled the grounds completely and watched with ever-growing enthusiasm.”
Bondi’s Senior Year: Four in Four
Despite high expectations entering the 1950 season, the team struggled with the graduation of three-time All-American Howard “Weasel” Whatford in 1949, who later played for the US Men’s National Team. After going 14-1-1 over the previous two years, the Golden Eagles fell to 3-2-3 (W-L-T) to cap off Bondi’s time with Brockport. After a strong start to the season with a 4-0 win over Albany State, Brockport would turn around a day later in a difficult 2-0 loss to Rensselaer Poly, a national contender for the era. However, Bondi’s efforts would not go unnoticed in the loss, “Ted Bondi at goal and left half Don Thompson were outstanding for Brockport in a losing cause.” [[footnote]] (The Times Record, Oct 2, 1950)
A newspaper clipping from the 1950 contest between Seton Hall and Brockport (right). On the left, a picture from a baseball game against Oswego.
The early loss seems to have derailed the team’s momentum as Brockport squeaked by their next two opponents (2-1 over Oswego and 5-4 to Buffalo State) before tying the next three matches and losing the final match of the season, scoring only four goals in the final four matches of the season. Brockport’s season felt like it was akin to rolling snake eyes repeatedly, as even their last four matches all went to double overtime but the offense just couldn’t break the deadlock.
Despite struggling to notch their expected amount of wins, Bondi would still be praised for his performance in net. Against Seton Hall, in a 0-0 tie, “Seton Hall was robbed of what looked like a sure goal midway through the fourth quarter when Brockport's All-American goalie, Ted Bondi, made an outstanding save of the shot that was earmarked for the net from the time it left the toe of Seton Hall Forward, Johnny Kelly.” [[footnote]] (Democrat and Chronicle, October 22, 1950). The fierce battle led to many players being carried off the field yet the Eagles were given life from the homecoming crowd, which featured most of Bondi’s teammates from “the Thistles squad, amateur champions of Rochester”.
Norm McCarthy wrote in the Times-Union, “It's a joy to watch Bondi in front of the nets. His uncanny ability to anticipate the impending drive of the opposition and his quickness to recover after a brilliant save in order to be ready for a successive thrust makes the difference between him and the ordinary goalie. He's as quick as the trigger of a gun and is seldom caught off balance." [[footnote]] (October 28, 1950)
On November 3, 1950, Bondi played his last game with Brockport in a 2-1 loss to Cortland. However, the disappointing final chapter of his collegiate run didn’t stop Bondi from capturing more hardware for his trophy case. Most notably, Bondi captured his fourth All-American award, placing him into an elite category. Including time after Bondi, there have been three goalkeepers who won three All-American awards (including Kasey Keller, Winston DuBose, Andre Blake, and J. Crossan Cooper) yet no goalkeeper before or after has captured four All-American awards.
While a limited 7 or 8 game schedule couldn’t compete with the undefeated and more extensive schedules of rival schools at the time… Regardless of the limited travel budget, Bondi finished his collegiate career with a 77% win percentage and 16 shutouts.
During Bondi’s time at Brockport, he helped elevate the new program to the equivalent of a modern day top 25 program, as well as paving the way for Brockport to become a formidable force on the national scene for decades [[footnote]].
Life After Brockport
To add yet another accolade to his resume, Bondi rejoined the Thistles in mid-November to capture the Northwestern New York State Championship over the Buffalo Becks. On November 19th - less than three weeks from his last game with Brockport - Bondi held a 2-0 shutout against the Becks in the first of a home-and-home series. On November 26, 1950, Bondi captured another shutout to cement the Thistles as the area champs, marking their third successive year in capturing the trophy.
The Thistles returned to Open Cup play on December 3rd against Rochester Sports Club in a match with ankle-high mud, a fractured leg for Thistle left fullback Milt Pierce, and a 2-2 draw that prompted a replay to decide who would move on to the Western US Division Championship. A week later, the Thistles lost a 2-1 lead with a converted penalty after a handball eight minutes left in the game and a poor turnover by the Thistle defense, leading to a close range shot for the final goal against Bondi.
Bondi played with the Thistles in the Inter-City Soccer League through the spring of 1951, as well as featuring in another exhibition match up against a German side (this time Eintracht Frankfurt) during the middle of his baseball season with Brockport. [[footnote]]. In the fall, Bondi headed south to start his graduate degree in physical education at the University of North Carolina in the fall of 1951.
Despite the change in scenery, the near-lifelong New Yorker still circled back to the sport he had excelled so greatly at by coaching UNC’s freshman team. The young Tar Heels went 9-0, not conceding a single goal across their entire season. Bondi finished his degree over the two semesters at North Carolina, helping out with the swimming, baseball, lacrosse, and tumbling programs.
After a year at UNC, Bondi enlisted in the Air Force and returned to the Rochester area to briefly join the Rochester Celtics for the start of their 1952-53 season. In the Celtics’ first Inter-City Soccer League match, they could only field nine players but with Bondi in net, the Celtic held the opposing Italian-Americans to a 1-1 tie in their opening match on September 14, 1952. A couple weeks later, the Democrat and Chronicle praised Bondi for “again playing a whale of a game, including a save of a Sports Club penalty kick” in a 7-1 win in late September.
It was a short stint with the Celtics, as mid-October proved to be his last time with the team before joining the Air Force after a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Becks where Bondi “thwart[ed] any and all Buffalo threats to score by some pretty goal play… [the match] was the final for Celtics’ goalie Ted Bondi who leaves the pitch wars for a much bigger and more important war Wednesday as he joins the U.S. Air Force. The husky, brilliant goalie has been the fan’s favorite soccer player… A native of Geneseo, N. Y., he takes the best wishes of Rochester soccerdom to wherever his country finds the most need for him.” [[footnote]] The Times Union Oct 13 1952
Despite being enlisted, Bondi continued playing whenever he could with whatever base he was with. On October 25, 1952, the Sampson Air Force Base soccer team topped Union College 6-0. Union’s offense “was stymied by the stellar work of the Sabres’ goalie, Ted Bondi”. A later matchup against the same sides resulted in a 3-2 win for Union, with a personal note written next to the article in Bondi’s scrapbook, “I was on KP. Never again by orders of C.O.”
Sampson topped the Syeuben County All-Stars 7-0 as “Bondi turned in another exceptional game in the nets for the Sabres, saving better than half-a-dozen goals.” Bondi followed up the performance and led the team to a 2-1 win over the University of Rochester the following month as well.
Although Brockport would face the Sampson AFB squad each year from 1951-1955, it seems like Bondi just missed a number of the matchups, including Brockport’s 1955 National Champion squad. Joe Boorish, who played at Brockport from 1955-1958, recounts Bondi’s lasting legacy, “I played there from 1955 to 1958. The ’55 team was national champs yet all we heard about were the exploits of former goalkeeper Ted Bondi.”
Bondi was honorably discharged in late 1954 and the following year seems to be Bondi’s last time in goal. In April, Bondi was reported with the Polish-Americans in both Inter-City Soccer League play, as well as the Northwestern New York State Soccer Cup Championship. Once again, the two All-American teammates of Bondi and Whatford were on the same side. But in August, Bondi was back with the Celtics in what looks like both Bondi’s and Whaler’s last season on the field. But despite taking time off from regularly playing, Bondi would still be cited as having a positive impact on his team, “The return of goalie Ted Bondi to the Celtics’ lineup was noticeable in the team’s effective defense.” [[footnote]] (Democrat and Chronicle, August 28, 1955)
Bondi’s last recorded appearance in goal seems to be October 30, 1955, when the Rochester Celtics lost 1-0 to the Italian-Americans in the first round of the National Amateur Cup at Red Men's Field. The game was hyped as a defensive battle just days prior, “This game also pits two of the greatest goalie ever to play in the Rochester area, the Celtics' All-American Ted Bondi and the Italians' Al Nicolini.”
With one door closing, another one opened as Bondi met his future wife, Mary Lou Darling, in 1955. Returning to his hometown to begin his teaching career at Geneseo High, Ted and Mary Lou would marry a few years later and raise four daughters in Geneseo who, unsurprisingly, encouraged their four daughters to play soccer.
Lasting Impact and Continued Recognition
Whereas for most famous athletes, their story would conclude once they retired. The length of this article could easily be increased tenfold if we just discussed Bondi’s time in sports off the field. Although his playing days were a thing of the past for the 26 year old, Bondi quickly returned Genseo’s investment into him as he rejoined the high school as a science teacher, as well as a coach for the football, basketball, and baseball programs. Unfortunately, the boys’ soccer team ended in soccer, in favor of the school adding football as a program, and it wouldn’t be until 1979, with Bondi as the head coach and Athletic Director for the school, that the boys team would return.
In addition to spearheading the return of the boys soccer team, Bondi coached American football for 11 years in Geneseo Secondary Schools and led the high school basketball team to multiple county and sectional championships. He would later go on to join the Section V Athletic Council as well as be a part of the executive committee for the New York Public School Athletic Association. In fact, Bondi’s off-field exploits were so extensive that simply naming all the accolades and Hall of Fames he was inducted into seems to best sum up his impact on his community.
Brockport Hall of Fame, 1985
“Ted Bondi Field” dedication ceremony, October 20, 1990
Geneseo Sports Hall of Fame, 2002
Geneseo Central School Alumni Hall of Fame, 2005
Brockport Hall of Heritage, 2006
NY Section V Basketball Hall of Fame, 2008
NYSPHSAA Hall of Fame, 2009
NY Section V Athletics Hall of Fame, 2017
NYSAA Hall of Fame, 2018
In September of 2010, Ted Bondi passed away at the age of 81. A lifelong resident of Geneseo, Bondi left an immeasurable impact on his community as a constant not only in the athletics scene, but in his community at large. Whether it was being a cornerstore for Geneseo athletics or helping mend, Bondi would spend the majority of his as being affectionately known as “Mr. Geneseo” or serving as a steady force in dismantling long-standing prejudice against Italian Americans.
In October of 2011, the Ted Bondi field was rededicated to Ted and his family, honoring Ted’s legacy as the everyday sportsman who was in a tier of his own. His continued dedication to those around him - spanning his service to the country, as well as his commitment to his teammates on the field - not only makes him one of the greatest American goalkeepers to have ever played, but one of the most relatable goalkeepers as well. His loyalty to those who first supported him still resonates decades after he concluded the greatest collegiate career any goalkeeper has had in the history of NCAA Men’s Soccer.
References
[^] 1. Goals scored (excluding penalties) counted as two goals and Len Hackshaw scored the game-winner before joining Bondi at Brockport State.
[^] 2. Tony Almeida and Chicago-based goalkeeper Joe Silovsky were named as alternates to the eventual Olympic squad. Walter Romanowicz, who featured twice for the USMNT in 1947 turned down the invite to participate in the Olympic trials, despite winning three Naitonal Amature Cups with Ponta Delgada from 1946-1948 due to not wanting to travel. He would turn down an invite for a chance at the 1950 World Cup squad as well, citing work being a barrier.
[^] 3. Thau and Almeida faced goalkeeper Irvin “Buzz” Seymour (West Chester) and Al Schaufelberger (Navy) at the Sterling Oval. Schaufelberger and Almeida were selected to represent the East team in Saint Louis on May 18th. The West team featured Archie Strimmel (Pittsburgh) and Joe Silovsky (Chicago).
[^] 4. The Times-Union, October 27, 1948
[^] 5. After 1935, the ISFA had grown so large yet without enough common ground, the ISFA stopped electing national champions from 1936-1940 and instead named a list of "outstanding teams" to reward undefeated - or nearly undefeated - teams from the season. However, World War II and enlistment led to dwindling teams. (By 1945, there were only 22 teams left.) So from 1941-1944, no national champion was named due to these reasons. By 1945, the National Soccer Coaches Association (NSCA) named national champions, despite no playoff occurring until 1959. Cornelius R.P. Cochrane Jr.'s thesis, A Study of Intercollegiate Soccer Data in the United States From 1905 to 1961, details the ISFA's struggles to name a cohesive national champion over the decades, especially in the 1940s. No voting totals for the national champion were retained.
[^] 6. 1949 matchup against Scotland featured Howie Whatford starting for the USMNT
[^] 7. Democrat and Chronicle, October 20, 1949.
[^] 8. Democrat and Chronicle, Dec 14, 1949.
[^] 9. Democrat and Chronicle, Dec 19, 1949.
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[^] 13. Brockport became a Division III program in 1973.
[^] 14. The match against the Western New York All-Stars and Eintracht Frankfurt took place on May 11, 1951 in front of "some 3500 huddled under glistening umbrellas in the steady night rain". The match finished 13-1 to the German side as Bondi was subbed in when the game was around 6-0 after less than 20 minutes. At halftime, "while the All-Stars rested on the bench and caught their breath after 45 minutes of futile chasing, the Eintracht team scampered around the field, polishing shots and holding an impromptu practice session." (The Buffalo News, May 12, 1951)
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