Golden Goal: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Babson’s First NCAA Championship
Fifty years ago, in late November, a group of unheralded men was building something special on the Babson campus. While national powerhouses Brockport and Ohio Wesleyan were already established, the 1975 Babson men’s soccer team was arriving on the scene.
Recording the lone unbeaten season in program history (17-0-1) while outscoring their opponents, 61-5, the Beavers (under head coach Bob Hartwell) would not be denied hoisting their first walnut-and-bronze NCAA national championship trophy.
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“Back then, it was more than just being on a soccer team,” says co-captain Steve Balicki ’76, P’08. “It was developing a program. When I came to Babson, I came to a program that was being built. And we had enough success to say that after a number of years we added to it incrementally.”
On October 4, during Back to Babson weekend, Balicki and several teammates returned to Hartwell-Rogers Field to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the College’s inaugural national title. The team also was recognized at the athletics milestone event the night before inside the Babson Executive Conference Center.
And, on that Saturday, the current Beavers team—led by Balicki’s teammate and current Babson Hall of Fame coach Jon Anderson ’75, P’04 ’08 ’13 ’13—mimicked the 1975 squad by shutting out Clark, 2-0. The 1975 team amassed 13 clean sheets.
“We could tell something special was brewing my senior year,” Balicki says. “Coach Hartwell, the administration, President (Ralph “Bud”) Sorenson, and others wanted to achieve something that hadn’t been done before. We began steamrolling and said as long as we keep playing well and don’t have anything terrible interrupt us that we should be in good shape.”
In good shape they were, as one of the most decorated squads in Babson history blanked Westfield State, 2-0, in the NCAA tournament opening round before edging Plymouth State, 2-1, in overtime in the quarterfinals. Next up was Ohio Wesleyan in the semifinals, and the Beavers won in dominant fashion, 5-0, to set up a bout with defending national champion Brockport.
In a title match that resembled more of a battlefield than a soccer pitch with poor weather conditions, it was a goal by Mark Paylor ’78 in the 42nd minute and a six-save shutout from goalie Shane Kennedy ’76 that proved to be the difference. Paylor and Kennedy would later join Anderson, Franz Grueter ’76, Francis Pantuosco ’79, and Jim Powers ’76, P’13 as Babson Athletics Hall of Famers.
“That team refused to lose,” Balicki says. “That phrase came from Babson as that group of men would not accept losing. It was one of the craziest victories and loveliest sporting events I ever witnessed.”
The Babson men’s soccer team went on to capture two more national championships in 1979 and 1980. And, Anderson, who graduated shortly after the title game, has now led the program as head coach for the past 40 seasons.
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