The Saint John's University soccer program was established in 1967, and over the course of their first seven seasons, the Johnnies compiled a respectable record of 31-32-4.
Then Mike Lilly '78 arrived on campus.
"He was one of those players who inspired the other guys around him," recalled Matt Sikich '73, the head coach during Lilly's first three seasons at SJU. "He was always positive. He was a happy player who loved the sport and that was contagious. Everyone caught fire with the same spirit that Mike brought with him."
That showed on the field where the Johnnies compiled a combined record of 38-9-11 during Lilly's four seasons in Collegeville. That included two NAIA District 13 titles (1974 and '76) and one MIAC championship (1976).
Lilly himself was a four-time All-MIAC and all-district selection, who in 1977 was also named to the NAIA Area III All-American team.
He remains the school's all-time leading goal scorer with 62 – including a single-season school-record 20 in 1976. His goals are enough to make him SJU's leader in career points, even without factoring in assists -- a statistic that wasn't closely tracked during Lilly's career with the Johnnies, making it hard to say exactly how many points he really totaled.
"He was the best field player we've ever had here," said Pat Haws '72, an assistant coach during Lilly's senior season in 1977 and the Johnnies' head coach from 1978-2009. "There's no question about that. Just look at the number of goals he scored and the success the teams he was a part of had. The numbers speak for themselves."
Lilly, who died of a pulmonary embolism at age 41 in 1997, came from a family with deep ties to SJU. His father LeRoy '55, who died in 2017, was a football and baseball standout for the Johnnies who was part of legendary football coach
John Gagliardi's first team at the school in 1953.
But Mike and his younger brother, Pat '79, eventually gravitated toward soccer and tennis (a sport in which Mike also excelled at SJU). Another younger brother Dan '84, also played soccer for the Johnnies for four years. Younger sisters Colleen '81 and Mary both played tennis at the College of Saint Benedict in the 1980s.
"My dad had been a Johnnie and we both started out playing the sports that he played – football, basketball and baseball," said Pat Lilly, who followed his brother to Collegeville and earned All-America honors on the soccer field as well.
"Mike didn't really play soccer for real until he was a sophomore in high school. He and some of his buddies got tired of getting beat up playing American football and decided to give the other football (soccer) a try."
It proved a wise choice as Lilly quickly demonstrated an aptitude for finding ways to put the ball in the net.
"He was so smart," his brother Pat said. "I don't know how he did it, but he always seemed to be around the goal. The goalie would bobble the ball and Mike would be right there to put it past him.
"What made his goal scoring numbers even more amazing was the fact that he didn't take the free kicks. Usually, guys are able to get a lot of goals or assists off those. But Mike never took them at Saint John's. They wanted him up there at the goal, attacking."
Perhaps the most memorable moment of Lilly's college career came during a game at Saint Mary's in October of 1976. The Johnnies needed a victory to clinch just the second MIAC title in program history and Lilly made sure they got it – scoring a single-game school and MIAC record seven goals in an 8-0 victory.
"That was an interesting game," Sikich said. "By that time, everyone knew Mike was good for a goal or more a game for us, and one of the Saint Mary's defenders tried to rough him up pretty good. That really made him mad, but he didn't take it out on the player. He decided he was going to get his revenge by putting the ball in the net every time he touched it. And he really did.
"After a while, Saint Mary's didn't know what to do. Our players started to catch on to what was happening and they made sure they kept getting him the ball. You could see him looking up at the scoreboard and smiling after every goal he scored. It was crazy. I've never seen anything like it."
That 1976 team defeated Augsburg (a perennial MIAC power in those days) 2-1 in two overtimes in the district championship game on a cold night at Macalester in St. Paul. Lilly scored the winning goal off an assist from John McHale '79. The Johnnies then defeated Wisconsin-Parkside 4-3 before falling 5-0 at NAIA titan Quincy (Ill.) – the same team that had defeated SJU in the 1974 NAIA playoffs.
Quincy won 11 NAIA national titles between 1966 and 1981, including three in a row from 1973-75 and five straight from 1977-81.
"They outclassed us," Lilly told
The Record afterward. "They were quick and had good defense. We had two very good chances to score in the first half, but we couldn't quite put them in."
Lilly had another stellar season as SJU finished 8-3-3 in 1977 and graduated with a degree in social science the following spring.
He had a tryout with the Minnesota Kicks of the North American Soccer League, but soon settled into a long career as a buyer for Fairview Hospitals in the Twin Cities. But he never lost touch with the game, playing in summer leagues right up through the summer before his death in 1997.
He also helped coach high school soccer at Wayzata and Robbinsdale Armstrong, worked youth soccer camps, served as an official in the MIAC and was a member of the Minnesota Soccer Association board.
"He loved the game," Pat Lilly said. "He played with a lot of the younger guys who came after him at Saint John's in leagues over the years.
"Every year, he'd say 'I think I'm going to give it up. I'm not at their level anymore.' But everybody else would say 'Are you kidding? We've never had a guy as good as you!' He was still a very good player right up to the very end."
Lilly died on Christmas Eve of 1997, leaving behind his wife, Barbara. But the success he had as a player at Saint John's established a high standard for a program that went on to make six national tournament appearances and win six MIAC titles in the years between 1978, when he graduated, and 1990.
And the Lilly family athletic tradition continues to this day. His nephew Michael Wozniak – who was named after his uncle - is an All-America defensive lineman on the SJU football team.
"He really put SJU soccer on the map in Minnesota," Pat Lilly said of his older brother. "His success helped give the program a lot of enhanced credibility. You look at what happened after him in the 1980s and they were dominant. He helped set the tone for a lot of that."
