40 years ago the UCLA Bruins won their first-ever NCAA title, capturing the 1985 NCAA championship with an overtime win over American University in a game that changed the landscape of college soccer forever.
The game required eight overtimes before Bruins’ defender Andy Burke netted the game-winning goal to secure the title. Now, the Bruins will honor the team on Sunday, August 24th at the Bruins’ home opener against Cal Berkeley.
Despite the classic matchup, the NCAA opted to change the rules following the elongated championship game, changing the rules that after two 10-minute overtimes teams will head straight to a shootout, meaning that we’ll never see another 166 minute college soccer game.
Delan Bruce of UCLA magazine wrote about the classic game earlier this year to help begin the 40th anniversary celebration.
“When the match staggered into its eighth overtime, it surpassed the 159-minute 1982 NCAA final between Indiana and Duke as the longest in college soccer history. The teams soldiered on; American’s best player was cramping up, effectively leaving the team with just nine players to put up a defense against mounting Bruin attacks (they had already been deprived of one player, due to a red card offense in an earlier overtime). American’s defense finally wilted when UCLA’s substitute sophomore Andy Burke ’89 blasted a left-footed drive into the net, sealing the win. Bruins head coach Sigi Schmid would attribute the victory to his team’s superior conditioning, which might have been true; it didn’t stop senior defender Paul Krumpe ’86 from telling the Los Angeles Times after the match, “I’ve never been this tired.” Bruce wrote back in April.
Even with the extreme exhaustion, the Bruins reigned victorious in a game that remains unmatched four decades later.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: UCLA won NCAA title 40 years ago in longest college soccer match of all time
Reporting by Dylan McNeill, UCLA Wire / UCLA Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
