There’s never been a better time to be an Indiana University sports fan with an undefeated football team, a promising basketball season for both the women and men, and a BIG Ten regular season soccer championship. Swimming was once all the rave, basketball has since gotten the most attention, but it’s been decades since a National Championship, and football could go 9-0 for the first time in history, but it’s been soccer that has had the most consistent winning ways. Here’s the back story: 

In 1976 IU soccer beat Hartwick 2-1 in the semifinals and lost the final to San Francisco 1-0 in Coach Jerry Yeagley’s first trip to the College Cup in Philadelphia. His son Todd was there; he was four years old. 

In 1978 the Hoosiers topped Philadelphia 2-0 in the semifinals but lost to San Francisco again 2-0 in the final. San Francisco went on to defeat IU for a third time in the 1980 finale 4-3. Finally in 1982 the soccer Hoosiers beat SIU-Edwardsville 1-0 and Duke 2-1 in eight overtimes for the school’s first-ever soccer national title and Jerry Yeagley’s first. His son Todd was once again there, only 10 years old.

The second title came in 1983 over Virginia 3-1 in the semis, followed by an overtime thriller against Columbia 1-0. They returned to soccer’s version of the Final Four in 1984 but lost to Clemson 2-1 after defeating Hartwick 2-1. Four years later in 1988 came the third title, won in Bloomington, over both Portland and Howard by the same 1-0 scores. 

Santa Clara beat them in 1989, 4-2 in the semifinals and again in 1991 2-0. It was son, Todd Yeagley’s, freshman year as a player. In his 1994 final game as a player, they lost to Virginia 1-0 after a decisive win against UCLA 4-1. The Bruins came back to haunt them in 1997, a 1-0 semifinal loss in three overtimes. 

Although coach father and player son did not win a national title together, a fourth title for the Senior Yeagley happened in 1998 over Stanford 3-1, and a fifth the following year over Santa Clara 1-0. This was after a four-overtime 3-2 marathon over UCLA. Back-to-back championships for the first time!

It wasn’t until 2003 that Jerry achieved his sixth and final trophy as head coach, following a couple years of disappointment. In 2000 they had lost the semifinal match to Creighton 2-1 in three overtimes and 2001 the title game to North Carolina 2-0. Victory was sweeter as father and son enjoyed #6 on the sideline together, Todd as an IU soccer volunteer assistant. It was Jerry’s 554th and final win at Indiana, an NCAA record. Mike Freitag, who played at Indiana, and was Jerry’s assistant for 11-years, took over the program in his place and claimed the second back-to back title and seventh overall by defeating Maryland and then UC-Santa Barbara on penalty kicks.

I guess you could consider the next seven Yeager-less years to be a draught – not just for soccer but for IU sports in general. The basketball banners were gathering dust, the 2007 Insight Bowl was a football bust, and Hoosier basketball didn’t even make the NCAA tournament from 2009-2011. There wasn’t much to cheer for until Todd Yeagley was named head soccer coach in 2012. He proceeded to win his first national title and the team’s 8th over Georgetown 1-0 in 2012. The Yeagley magic was back! However, it took him five more years to get back to the College Cup. The Hoosiers lost to Stanford 1-0 after two overtimes after beating North Carolina 1-0 in the semifinals. 

In 2018, I went to the Santa Barbara College Cup to watch them fall short to Maryland 2-0. The 2021 team beat Pittsburgh 1-0 in the national semifinals but lost to Marshall 1-0 in overtime in the title game. That season was played in the spring because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten-years had passed since a championship when they defeated Pittsburgh 2-0 in the 2022 national semifinals and lost to Syracuse on penalty kicks 7-6 after 2OT periods tied at 2-2. They were the first team since Maryland (2018) to make a championship game without conceding a goal throughout the NCAA Tournament and the seventh team all-time to achieve that feat. More misfortune followed in the 2023 Elite 8 loss to Notre Dame on PKs 5-4 after a 1-1 tie.

The 2024 Indiana Hoosiers just claimed their 35th Big Ten Championship, 19th regular season title, and fifth league crown in seven seasons. They have a final game against Trine before the tournaments start. They are ranked 16th and hungry to end a bad streak of five College Cup losses in the last 12-years without that 9th national championship. Will they ride the football and basketball momentum to victory at last?