John Ingold had tremendous success as a coach at Goshen College.

That may be the understatement of the year.

While cleaning his basement recently, the 85-year-old Ingold found a track and field conference coach of the year award. He thought he had been the conference coach of the year in four sports, but that discovery boosted the total up to five. Ingold coached all seven men’s sports that the college offered at least once during his 34-year tenure from 1964 to 1998 as a professor of physical education. But the sport he had the most success with was soccer, and the 1973 team from 50 years ago had the best finish of any Goshen College national finalist in the sport.

Going into the 1973 season, the Maple Leafs had won the Mid-Central College Conference title three years in a row and had qualified for the NAIA National Tournament in 1971. However, they came into the year with many freshmen and sophomores, and Ingold acknowledged that the team would be lacking some of the maturity and experience that some of the past squads had.

The team finished the regular season with an 8-2 record with their losses at Indiana on the AstroTurf and at home against Grace, but they had a noteworthy 2-1 win at Notre Dame. Notre Dame’s only goal was a late penalty kick. Goshen formed a video crew that filmed the contest in South Bend and chartered a plane to fly the tape back to campus. There was a viewing of the game that evening in the Union Building.

In the seventh game of the season, the Maple Leafs set a school record by scoring 16 goals in a win against Saint Francis. They bested the previous record of 13 goals from 1965. Bob Gingerich scored four goals and Rich Clemens and Fred Driver had three apiece. The Leafs dominated the shots on goal department 41-3. They followed the drubbing of the Cougars ten days later with a strong 10-0 win at Indiana Tech.

Next was a pivotal game against Marion (now Indiana Wesleyan) at home. Goshen won 1-0 to keep their hopes alive to tie for the Mid-Central Conference championship. Driver scored the winning goal with less than five minutes to go in the game. GC scored five goals against Tri-State (now Trine University) in the regular season finale to tie with Grace for the league title. Marion had been forced to forfeit an earlier regular season game due to an ineligible player.

Now into the postseason, Goshen secured a 7-1 win against Manchester at home to advance to the District 21 Championship. Over 200 fans of the purple and white came to support the Maple Leafs at Marion. Rich Clemens scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win, which saw the Goshen fans storm the visitors’ field after play had ended.

But the Leafs had some convincing to do in order to play in the District 21 tournament, and now the NAIA tournament. They had listed three reasons as to why they should be allowed to participate in addition to listing the expected costs for the national championship.

1. In so doing, we are convinced that we will learn from other skilled college teams as we put our skill and hard work to a test greater than what we generally received during the regular season.
2. We are convinced that we will learn to know each other better as individuals through the preparation for the trip and through the trip itself.
3. Hopefully, we would be able to present the Christian ethic in our manner of conduct on and off the field.

The Leafs won both the Area IV semifinal and final matches at home and claimed one of the eight spots for the national tournament in Florissant, Missouri. Their first challenger would prove to be a tough one - Davis and Elkins College from West Virginia. The team had won the title in two of the past five years and finished in second place the other three years. Goshen was down 2-0 with 15 minutes left, but Davis and Elkins then rattled off five more goals to win 7-0 and put Goshen in the loser’s bracket. The highest the Leafs could finish now was fifth place.

Newark College of Engineering out of New Jersey was up next. Tied 1-1 after regulation, the teams still couldn’t be separated after two five-minute overtime periods and two more five-minute sudden death overtimes. The Leafs made all five of their penalty kicks, while goalkeeper Geoff Landis had a crucial save on Newark’s third shot, and Goshen advanced with a 5-4 result in PKs.

Now in the battle for fifth place, Goshen faced Pomona-Pitzer from California. Six inches of rain the night before made the conditions far from ideal. Puddles were ankle-deep and the game was described as a “muddy version of water polo.” Like the previous game, it was a tie after regulation. And again, it took penalties to name a winner, as they entered tied 3-3. This time it was a two-goal difference - the Maple Leafs won 4-2 in penalty kicks to win the game 4-3. The players “wallowed delightedly in the mud” at the conclusion of the game - finishing fifth in the NAIA. Jim Meiners of the Florissant United Soccer Club praised the team in Soccer America by saying GC was “well conditioned, hard playing, and tenaciously spirited.”

Fred Driver and Brent Gotwals made the 1973 All-State First-Team and Rich Clemens was on the Second-Team. Driver and Gotwals were even invited to consider playing for the Indiana Tigers in the American Soccer League. The accolades continued into the next year, as the team was invited by Indiana governor Otis Bowen to attend a reception honoring champion-status teams across Indiana in the State House in May.

Fast-forward to October 7, 2023. The 1973 team was recognized for the 50th anniversary since that memorable season. They took the field at halftime of the home men’s soccer game against #15 Indiana Wesleyan. The Maple Leafs and Wildcats ended the homecoming weekend game in a 1-1 tie. Goalkeeper Geoff Landis was celebrated as one of the school's two Champions of Character award recipients that weekend and the group reminisced about their 1973 team, fifty years from Florissant.