The Radford Highlanders Men's Soccer team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of Radford University, located in Radford, Virginia. The team is a member of the Big South Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The team was founded in 1975 as the result of the combined efforts of student-activist G. Thomas Lillard, University President Donald Dedmon, and Athletic Director Charles (Chuck) Taylor.
The Beginning
Tom Lillard played serious soccer both as a youth and as a student at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia. Upon graduation from Yorktown in 1974, he chose to attend then-named Radford College, knowing full well that the school did not have a varsity men’s soccer team, but that he still wanted to keep playing. At the time, Radford College was undergoing significant change. Formerly, it had been an all-women’s school, known particularly for its education and nursing curricula. Unfortunately, enrollment had been falling at Radford due to major expansion at nearby Virginia Tech, which had dropped a military requirement for men in 1964 and then actively started recruiting women and significantly increasing its student capacity.
When President Dr. Donald N. Dedmon arrived at Radford in 1972, one of his first improvements was to make the institution co-educational. Another was to expand and improve the entire scope of the school’s mission and instructional offerings, ultimately achieving University status. As part of the transformation, he included upgrading Radford’s athletic programs, adding men’s sports, and expanding the number of offerings for both women and men. Dr. Dedmon was intimately familiar with helping schools in need. He had come from the presidency of Marshall University where he had guided its recovery from a horrific plane crash on November 14, 1970. The crash killed 37 members of the varsity football team, eight coaches, and 25 school boosters. [Dedmon’s heroic actions to help the school recover from this tragedy were unfortunately not given the appropriate recognition he deserved in the movie, “We Are Marshall.”]
To the mix of Lillard and Dedmon, came the third party to the beginning of varsity men’s soccer at Radford University, Chuck Taylor. The first-ever Athletics Director in school history, Taylor made an everlasting mark on the “Hustling Highlanders.” After first arriving at the school as a professor, Taylor served as athletics director from 1974 to 1996, leading Radford on a remarkable journey from a six-sport, unaffiliated, small-college program to NCAA Division I. Today, the Highlanders sponsor 16 varsity sports and have proudly played at the Division I level since 1984. During his tenure, Radford Athletics was nationally recognized as a leader in opportunities for women and minorities, as well as in graduation rates for student-athletes. This is a legacy that continues to this day. In competition, seven different programs achieved national rankings in his time guiding the Highlanders.
The scene and the set had been created, and the three main actors came together. Tom Lillard arrived with the intent of playing on a men’s varsity soccer team and Dr. Dedmon and Chuck Taylor were ready to oblige to create one. All three men were gregarious and outgoing. Even at 18-years old, Lillard had no problem approaching and meeting repeatedly with senior administrators to make men’s varsity soccer a reality. Dedmon encouraged success as part of his larger plan, and Taylor was always ready and willing to help anyone advance athletics. All that was needed were players and a coach. Fortunately, a club team was already in place.
The Club Team (1974)
Right at the beginning of school in the fall of 1974, Lillard joined the drumbeat of what would ultimately become the core of the first varsity team. In 1973, a group of guys had previously coalesced, first in front of Muse dorm and McConnell Library, and then on Radford College’s central student courtyard, “Moffett Field,” just to kick around because of their love of soccer. They were then recognized as a formal extramural club team and played other clubs and college junior varsity squads. It took well into the fall, but Moffett Field (sometimes called Moffett Lawn when not used for sports) was lined for soccer and would become home turf. Lillard knew that this was the group that was needed for varsity, intercollegiate, competition and Lillard promoted their readiness to Dedmon and Taylor. A graduate student, Ivo (John) Ravnik, had been the club coach (assisted by Bob Ola) and the team had demonstrated through scrimmages, exhibitions, and full games – both at home and away – that they could perform. Coach Ravnik, who had left his native Yugoslavia as a teenager, played soccer in high school in America and later at San Francisco State University.
Coach Ravnik recalls how it all began: “I was born in Europe on the borderland of Slovenia and Italy, but the area ended up under Italian control. So, my parents decided to emigrate to California where they knew some friends near San Francisco. I was then about 13 years old and had played some soccer in our town youth leagues. I began teaching Political Science courses, then under the History Department, at Radford College in 1972. Readers in the audience may recall that the College had recently changed to a co-ed program and young men began to then attend the college in large numbers. They obviously needed some sports outlets and one of them was soccer. Walking through the campus, I noticed a group of young men playing a game of soccer. Being young then, I joined them. During our discussion afterwards, they impressed me that they would like to form a regular college team.
Very soon this need reached President Dedmon and he was most receptive. He called Mr. Taylor, head of the Sports Department. He ordered all the equipment needed for some 15 players thus far, and the boys designed their own uniform! I was sent off for a week at the US Soccer Federation coaching camp somewhere in Delaware. Fortunately, I did qualify for a C License – not bad for an amateur! We then played some of the neighboring colleges, which were already well established. We did not do well, but we did get better and learned how to play more as a unified team. A couple of years into the soccer program, I was lucky to have Peter Howes, a good, British footballer, join the program and he did an excellent job with all of the many details needed. He was especially well organized with a practice system that would push the boys into some real teamwork. So, thanks Peter Howes.”
Following his success with the club program, Chuck Taylor asked Coach Ravnik if he would be willing to stay on as the first varsity coach, and Ravnik agreed.
Roster
Coaching staff Position Name Head coach Andy Cormack Asst. Coach Ryan Palmbaum Asst. Coach John White
Statistics in the NCAA Tournament Year Round Opponent Score 1999 Play-in Furman 0–1 2000 Play-in Furman 0–2 2015 First Round Charlotte 1–2 2016 First Round Coastal Carolina 1–2
References
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