Billiken fans in attendance for Saturday night’s men’s soccer contest against Charlotte were treated to a 2-1 double-overtime thriller in addition to an appearance from one of Saint Louis University Athletics’ most esteemed alumni, Brian McBride.
McBride starred in his time spent in a Billiken uniform, which lasted from 1990-1994, and he left his mark on the SLU record books. The striker tallied 72 goals and assisted on 40 more en route to setting the all-time mark for points in SLU history (184). McBride earned spots on numerous collegiate All-American teams in his four-year career at SLU.
After stints in the English Premier League, Major League Soccer and on the United States National Team, McBride opted to retire from the game of soccer earlier this year.
McBride’s first trip back to campus since retiring conjured up more than just memories of his dazzling goals and pinpoint passes on the pitch.
“I think probably some of things I took away were the fact that school was very much on the front burner,” McBride said. “Even though soccer was a large part of what I was doing here, I put a lot of focus on the class side of things.”
McBride recalled the small class setting, with sometimes as few as four students in them, as one of the reasons why he flourished academically and was able to earn his degree in secondary education from SLU.
Clearly, it was not all books and no soccer balls for McBride. He did not reach the pinnacle of the game’s competitive level by sitting in a classroom all day, and it certainly was not an individual effort.
“The best thing when you talk about memories at SLU are the friendships and the people that I met,” McBride said. “I was lucky to be a part of the team and the coaching staff, and I love it when my wife gets a chance to see those guys and meet them more because they’re all such first-class people and great people to have in my life.”
Now that he has hung up the spikes from the professional ranks, McBride has had a chance to relax and spend more time with his family. He and his wife have settled back in their hometown in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with their family. While soccer has played such an influential in McBride’s past, it looks like it will continue to do so in his future. He has his sights on coaching at some capacity, ideally at the professional level.
“At the moment, I’m feeling things out, looking at each situation and trying to make the best decision,” McBride said.
He returned back to the facility where he once trained to coach a camp for 8 to 12 year olds. He enjoyed the experience and got a lot of positive feedback, but he wants to have a steadier day-to-day influence his pupils, as opposed to coaching them in hourly spurts.
With a degree in education, a grade-A soccer pedigree and an emphasis on the building meaningful relationships, McBride has all the credentials to coach the future stars of soccer.
