McCrath deserved better

Published 9:38 am Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Seattle Pacific University officials pushed soccer coach and icon Cliff McCrath out the door this month.

Yes, the same Cliff McCrath, 71, who led the Falcons to five NCAA Division II national titles, 10 title games, 30 post-seasons and 37 straight winning seasons. The Cliff McCrath who piled up a 512-190-87 record at SPU, best in Division II history. Overall, he coached 49 seasons. That’s not a typo: 49 seasons. In that time, his record was 597-233-95, the second-winningest college coach regardless of division, nine wins short of the record held by longtime Wheaton (Ill.) College coach Joe Bean.

In 1993, McCrath was inducted into the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame. More important, he’s univerally thought of as a prince of a human being who tirelessly promoted the game in this area. Every kid who plays youth, club, prep and college soccer owes McCrath big-time.

So what happened? He was called into a meeting with the athletic director and the school president and told that he didn’t have the fire anymore, that his services were no longer needed. The Falcons finished 7-6-7 this past season.

That’s it. That’s how they treated this man.

Cliff McCrath is soccer’s Joe Paterno or John Wooden. He deserved to go out on his own terms, not this way. The athletic budget at SPU is so bare-bones that coaches have to pitch in and help raise funds. No one did that like McCrath did.

No one in the country did more for soccer than Cliff McCrath. SPU bigwigs should be ashamed of themselves.