WASHINGTON – Fifty years after a phenomenal undefeated season and NCAA championship, Howard University’s 1974 men’s soccer team will be honored this weekend during a series of events.

Members of the team and head coach Lincoln Phillips will be on hand for an induction into the Howard University Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday and special dinner on Sunday emceed by alumnus Rock Newman. Remarks will also be delivered by alumnus Shaka Hislop (BS ’92), who played soccer for Howard from 1987 to 1991 and became an ESPN soccer analyst following his professional career. The ticketed event will take place at the Armour J. Blackburn Center Ballroom from 4 to 7 p.m.

Howard University’s storied soccer program gained renewed prominence in 2016 with the release of the documentary “Redemption Song.” The short film told the story of the University’s 1971 championship team – the first team from a historically Black college or university (HBCU) to win an NCAA national championship. Not long after the history-making feat, the title was revoked by the NCAA due to player eligibility violations. Despite the setback and sanctions imposed on the team, Phillips managed to keep the program on track, winning it all again in 1974 with a perfect 19-0 record, an accomplishment that has yet to be matched by another college team.

“To win a championship was one thing, but to do it without losing a game is something pretty amazing,” said Phillips, who coached the Bison from 1970 to 1980. “It’s an accomplishment that has never been equaled and, for that, I am both humbled and immensely proud.”

Phillips credits the 1970s Bison teams with helping to raise awareness of the sport in communities through the District of Columbia. In addition to the highly competitive play on the field, the players were available for young people to meet during clinics Phillips planned to help youth become more familiar with soccer.

“Back then, soccer was really a minor sport, but now, it has grown so much and so many people, including Black people, appreciate the game,” Phillips said. “What we were doing back in the 1970s was really setting the groundwork for the game to become what it is for our people.”

What we were doing back in the 1970s was really setting the groundwork for the game to become what it is for our people.”

Trevor Leiba (BA ‘78, MA ‘82, Ph.D. ‘01) was a freshman starting goalkeeper for the 1974 team and admits that as a young man from Trinidad, he wasn’t fully aware of the impact his team’s accomplishment would have on the culture.

“I knew it was something big, but now that I look back on it, I don’t think I realized just how big this was, for Howard and for Black people,” said Leiba, who served as a coach and administrator at the University before recently retiring. “I love meeting people who will say that they’re familiar with our team and it makes me very proud to be a part of a team that made history. It’s just very special to be the only HBCU team to win a national title.”

Under Phillips’ leadership, the 1974 team was a true force, sweeping through its regular season and outscoring opponents 63-6 before handling George Washington, Clemson, and Philadelphia universities in the NCAA Tournament en route to its final against St. Louis University. The match, played on December 7, 1974, was a rematch of the 1971 championship in which Howard defeated St. Louis 3-2, but had its national title stripped for using ineligible players. The 1974 win, a 2-1 victory for Howard, came in a four-overtime thriller.

The 1974 team was truly on a redemption tour, according to Phillips, who led the University’s legal challenge against the NCAA’s sanctions, a challenge that resulted in a ruling that the NCAA’s stance regarding foreign students’ eligibility was discriminatory, but did not restore Howard’s 1971 title.

“I look back on that time and I felt then what I feel now, truth crushed to earth shall rise again,” Phillips said. “We knew following the 1971 season that we were the rightful champions, and we fought to reclaim what was rightfully ours. That 1974 season – an undefeated season – was a true testament to claiming our rightful place in history.”