| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Leonard Paul Oliver | ||
| Date of birth | (1933-11-03)November 3, 1933 | ||
| Place of birth | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | ||
| Date of death | July 24, 2022(2022-07-24) (aged 88) | ||
| Place of death | Washington, D.C., U.S. | ||
| Position | Half back | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Lighthouse Boys Club | |||
| 1951–1954 | Temple University | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| Philadelphia Nationals | |||
| 1955–1957 | Uhrik Truckers | ||
| 1957 | Ludlow Lusitano | ||
| 1959–???? | Baltimore Pompei | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Leonard Paul Oliver[1] (November 3, 1933 – July 24, 2022)[2] was an Americansoccer player who played as ahalf back in theAmerican Soccer League (ASL), having earlier playedcollege soccer for theTemple Owls. He was a member of theNational Soccer Hall of Fame.
The younger half of a set of twins,[1] Oliver was born in theKensington neighborhood ofPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania,[3][4] in 1933.[5] His father, Jim,immigrated to the United States from Scotland a decade earlier.[3][5] Oliver attendedNortheast High School in his hometown.[6] He played soccer for the Kensington Blue Bells andLighthouse Boys Club, winning the 1948 and 1949 U-19 National Championships with the latter.[7] He also played for thePhiladelphia Nationals of theAmerican Soccer League (ASL) in 1946–47, scoring thirteen goals in eighteen games.[8] He attended college atTemple University, playing for theTemple Owls from 1951 to 1954. In 1951, Oliver was selected as a second team All American as Temple claimed to be the national champion. This claim rests on dubious grounds as multiple schools had a legitimate claim to the title in the disorganized state of college soccer at the time.[9] However, the confusion was reduced when in 1953, Oliver was selected as a first team All American and Temple was named the national champion.[10] He was selected for the second year in a row as first team All American in 1954, his senior season, while concurrently serving as captain of the baseball team.[4]
After graduating from Temple in 1955,[4] Oliver began playing as an amateur withUhrik Truckers in the ASL. The Truckers took the 1955 and 1956 ASL championships, but Oliver broke his leg during the 1955–56 season. He was then drafted into theU.S. Army in the middle of 1956.[11] Being stationed inLudlow, Massachusetts, he played half a season with theLudlow Lusitano, the local ASL team. He was then transferred to San Francisco, where he played for the amateur San Francisco Mercury, an ethnic Russian team. He was subsequently stationed in West Germany and featured on the U.S. Armed Forces all-stars.[12] Following his discharge from the Army in 1959, he briefly returned to the Truckers before signing withBaltimore Pompei.[5] Oliver was a 1960 All Star, but Pompeii folded the following year.[11] He subsequently played for the Central Valet in Washington.[5] He also played for theU.S. soccer team, which finished 0–4 at the1963 Pan American Games.[4][13] Oliver later recounted how he suffered his worst head injury at the competition, which necessitated eight stitches.[14]
In his later life, Oliver also became an USSF 'A' license coach and referee, and regularly trained new coaches in the Washington, D.C., area.[4][5] He also continued to play soccer until he was sixty.[14] After his playing career ended, he completedpostgraduate studies at theUniversity of Maryland and was awarded aDoctor of Philosophy by theUniversity of Chicago.[4] He went on to work for theNational Endowment for the Humanities, establishing local programs in allAmerican states andterritories. After a decade in that role, he started his personal public policy consulting firm – Oliver Associates – which promotedstudy circles in public education programs and guided trade union leaders.[4][15] His work in the former area led him to author the bookStudy Circles: Coming Together for Personal Growth and Social Change (1987),[15][16] as well as co-found the organization Everyday Democracy.[15] Oliver was inducted into his alma mater's hall of fame in 1981.[4] He was subsequently enshrined in theNational Soccer Hall of Fame in 1996, the Philadelphia Old Timers Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Virginia-DC Soccer Hall of Fame in 2001.[4][12][17] He announced in 2016 that he was going to donate his brain after his death towards concussion research.[14]
Oliver was married to Eleanor Wahlbrinck for 60 years until his death.[4] He proposed to her in 1961, after an away game against theNewark Portuguese in which she was the sole traveling fan.[18] Together, they had two children: Erika and Britt-Karin.[4]
Oliver died on July 24, 2022, inWashington, D.C., at the age of 88. He had suffered a stroke prior to his death.[4][12]