MANY talented Jamaican athletes have, over the last five or six decades, received sport scholarships to United States colleges and universities to pursue studies, while competing in various collegiate athletic disciplines.

Of these Jamaicans, quite a few have won NCAA Division One Championship titles. Several have set records which have endured for many years before being matched or broken. Further still, only a handful of such talented student/athletes have seen their record stand the test of time, lasting for decades. One such record that was established a few months shy of 40 years, still stands today.

That happened with the invincible 1974 Howard University soccer team that recorded a perfect season’s record of 19-0-0. Since then, no other university/college soccer team has completed a season unbeaten or untied in the NCAA Division 1 Soccer Championships.

That team, the class of 1974, has been included among the list of inductees to be enshrined in the Howard University Sports Hall of Fame 2014 Class today in Washington, DC.

Seven Jamaican footballers were members of that historic record-setting 1974 Howard University soccer team.

Notably, there was a pair of brothers among these seven ‘Yardmen’, and during their tenure at Howard, they both played significant roles on that team. One is Richard Davey, who represented Jamaica College, Wolmer’s Boys, Cavalier Football club and the Jamaica national team. The other is Michael Davey of St George’s College, Cavalier and Jamaica.

The five other Jamaicans included in that 2014 Hall of Fame class are Bertram Beckett (Excelsior and Cavalier); Mario ‘Zero’ McLennan (Kingston College, Boys’ Town and Jamaica); Lincoln Peddie (raised in England); Paul ‘Pep-up’ Pringle (Wolmer’s Boys and Santos football club); and Keith ‘Barnaby’ Tulloch (Wolmer’s Boys, Santos and Jamaica).

Brothers Richard and Michael started all four years for Howard in the team coached by Trinidadian Lincoln ‘Tiger’ Philipps. The Daveys contributed mightily to the Howard victory in the December 1974 Championship game, as documented in the Soccer America magazine in reporting on that historic final.

The magazine described Richard as the “architect” of the team who dribbled cunningly past several St Louis University players to actually “set-up the winning goal on a platter”. Tribute was also paid to the impenetrable defensive play of Michael, featuring him on the cover of that Soccer America magazine.

The entire Jamaica should feel especially proud that the island has produced two who have carved out such an incredible feat and one cannot help but wonder if the incomparable Usain Bolt’s records will withstand the test of time for as long as this record of these seven ‘Yardmen’.