William Jeffrey, who learned soccer as a boy in Scotland, coached the Penn State men’s soccer team from 1926 to 1952 and won ten national championships. Jeffrey Field, home of the men’s and women’s soccer teams, is named for him.
Jeffrey emigrated to the United States in 1912, joining the Pennsylvania Railroad shops in Altoona as a mechanic. In 1923 he became player-manager of the railroad factory team. Two years later, when his team played an exhibition match against Penn State, Athletic Director Hugo Bezdek was so impressed that he offered Jeffrey a job. Coaching the soccer team was only part time, so Jeffrey also was an instructor in the Industrial Engineering Department.
In the 1920s, about twenty American collegiate soccer teams played six to eight games during a season. A committee of the Intercollegiate Soccer Football Association (ISFA) chose the national champion based on the records of the teams.
During his first season in 1926, Jeffrey’s team had a record of five wins, one tie, and one loss. The ISFA national championship was jointly awarded to Penn State, Harvard, and Princeton. Three years later, the Nittany Lions won their first undisputed collegiate championship after being the only collegiate team to go undefeated. In 1933, Jeffrey led Penn State to its third national crown.
Jeffrey was an enthusiastic coach who sometimes used eccentric methods. To build team spirit, he would recite the work of the Scottish poet Robert Burns in his native dialect. “There’s no surefire formula for teaching soccer,” Jeffrey once told a reporter. “If I have been successful, it’s just because I like the game.”
From 1932 to 1941, Jeffrey led Penn State to sixty-five straight undefeated matches. From 1936 to 1940, the “Jeffreymen” as they were sometimes known, won five consecutive ISFA championships. During the World War II years, no national championship was awarded. By the late 1940s, Penn State had regained its stature as one of the top collegiate teams.
The Nittany Lions played in the inaugural Soccer Bowl in 1950. By this time, more than one hundred college teams fielded soccer teams, and the bowl game pitted the top team from the East against the top team from the West. Penn State tied the University of San Francisco 2-2. The following year, the Nittany Lions defeated Purdue in the Soccer Bowl to secure its tenth national championship under Jeffrey’s leadership.
Before then, Jeffrey coached the U.S. soccer team at the 1950 World Cup. The U.S. team defeated the heavily favored and powerful English team 1-0 in what is considered one of the great upsets in World Cup history.
Jeffrey retired from Penn State in 1952 with a record 154 victories, 24 defeats, and 29 ties. He coached thirty-seven All-Americans.
He moved in Puerto Rico to accept a coaching and teaching position at the University of Puerto Rico. Jeffrey returned to Centre County in 1959 and devoted his later years to promoting high school and youth soccer programs in the area. He died in 1966 at the age of 73.
In 1951, Jeffrey was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame. The United Soccer Coaches awards the Bill Jeffrey Long-Term Service Award to recognize coaches who devote their careers to collegiate soccer. In 1972, Penn State dedicated its soccer field in honor of Jeffrey.
Artifacts from Jeffrey’s coaching career, including a soccer ball from the 1926 ISFA championship team, are displayed at the Penn State All-Sports Museum.
Nathaniel Wanzer
Sources:
Lott, John. “Former Soccer Coach Jeffrey Dies at 73.” Daily Collegian, January 8, 1966.
Schmitt, Tom. “Jeffrey Deserving HOF Attention.” Altoona Mirror, August 31, 2023.
Thomson, Ian. “The Enduring Legacy of Bill Jeffrey.” Nutmeg Magazine, Issue 1, September 2016.
United Soccer Coaches. “Bill Jeffrey College Long-Term Service Award.” United Soccer Coaches, United Soccer Coaches, https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/awards/college-awards/bill-jeffrey-college-long-term-service-award/ (Accessed June 14, 2025).
“William Jeffrey.” National Soccer Hall of Fame, https://www.nationalsoccerhof.com/builders/william-jeffrey.html (Accessed June 14, 2025).
First Published: July 9, 2025
Last Modified: August 6, 2025