The Intercollegiate Soccer Football Association (abbreviated ISFA) was a sports governing body that ruled the practice of college soccer in the United States from 1905 to 1958.

Before the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) held its first men's National Collegiate Soccer Championship in 1959, national champions were selected by a committee of the ISFA based on season records and competition. In addition, the College Soccer Bowl tournament was held from 1950–1952 (following the 1949–1951 seasons) for the purpose of deciding a national champion on the field. The Soccer Bowl was a one-site competition involving four teams selected by college soccer administrators. However, the ISFA committee continued to select the national champion in those three years (in 1950 selecting as champion a team that did not participate in the second Soccer Bowl).

History College soccer started in Northeast colleges and at private schools in the late 19th century, while club soccer was mostly played in the Midwest and the South. In the West, Stanford started up a soccer program in 1911, University of San Francisco in 1932, and UCLA in 1937, playing largely amateur teams. In 1945, at the end of the world war, the ISFA had only 22 member college teams. This grew to over 50 by 1947.

From 1905 through 1925, the Intercollegiate Soccer Football League (an Ivy League forerunner) determined an annual champion in college soccer. The league was dissolved after the 1925 season when Harvard and Yale threatened to resign citing dissatisfaction with the organization and scheduling saying it took players away from their educational studies too frequently.

The former league pledged to create a new representative soccer association that could help govern the sport at a collegiate level. Soon after the Intercollegiate Soccer Football Association was born offering an annual Outstanding Soccer Team award, the mythical national soccer championship, through 1935 and from 1946 through 1958.

Member Schools Source:

Team City Joined Brown Providence, RI 1931 Columbia New York, NY Cornell Ithaca, NY Dartmouth Hanover, NH Franklin & Marshall Lancaster, PA Harvard Cambridge, MA Haverford Haverford, PA Lafayette Easton, PA 1928 Lehigh Bethlehem, PA MIT Cambridge, MA 1931 Navy Annapolis, MD Penn Philadelphia, PA Princeton Princeton, NJ Penn State Centre County, PA 1926 San Francisco San Francisco, CA Springfield Springfield, MA 1931 Swarthmore Swarthmore, PA Temple Philadelphia, PA West Chester West Chester, PA Yale New Haven, CT

ISFL / ISFA National Champions College champions were determined by various methods over the years as listed below. They are all considered unofficial.

Ed. Season Champion 1904–05 Haverford 1905–06 Haverford 1906–07 Haverford 1908 Haverford Yale 1909 Columbia 1910 Columbia 1911 Haverford 1912 Yale 1913 Harvard 1914 Penn Harvard 1915 Haverford 1916 Penn 1917 Haverford 1918 no competition held 1919 Penn 1920 Penn 1921 Princeton 1922 Princeton 1923 Penn 1924 Penn 1925 Princeton 1926 Penn State Princeton Harvard 1927 Princeton 1928 Yale 1929 Penn State 1930 Penn Yale Harvard 1931 Penn 1932 Penn Navy 1933 Penn State Penn 1934 Cornell 1935 Yale 1936 Penn State Princeton Syracuse 1937 Penn State Princeton Springfield 1938 Penn State 1939 Penn State Princeton 1940 Penn State 1941 No selection 1942 No selection 1943 No selection 1944 No selection 1945 Haverford 1946 Springfield 1947 Springfield 1948 Connecticut 1949 Penn State San Francisco 1950 West Chester 1951 Temple 1952 Franklin & Marshall 1953 Temple 1954 Penn State 1955 Penn State Brockport 1956 Trinity 1957 Springfield City College of New York 1958 Drexel

Soccer Bowl Ed. Season Champion Score Runner-up 1949 Penn State San Francisco 1950 Penn State Purdue 1951 Temple San Francisco Notes

Source:

ISFL / ISFA titles by team Team Titles Winning YearsPenn State 1926, 1929, 1933, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1949, 1954, 1955Penn1914, 1916, 1919, 1920, 1923, 1924, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933Princeton1921, 1922, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1936, 1937, 1939 Haverford 1904–05, 1905–06, 1906–07, 1908, 1911, 1915, 1917 Yale 1908, 1912, 1928, 1930, 1935Harvard1913, 1914, 1926, 1930Springfield1937, 1946, 1947, 1957Columbia1909, 1910Temple1951, 1953West Chester1936, 1950Navy 1932Cornell 1934 Syracuse 1936Connecticut 1948San Francisco 1949Franklin & Marshall 1952Brockport 1955Trinity 1956City College of New York 1957Drexel 1958

References

External links College Champions, 1904-1958 The Year in American Soccer: 1958 by Dave Litterer American College Soccer, 1946-1959: The Postwar era