Sydney University Soccer Football Club
Established – 1946
Home grounds – Sydney University Football Ground (No 2 Oval), St Johns Soccer Oval and The Square
Current members – 36
Established in 1946, the Sydney Uni Soccer Football Club (SUSFC) is a leading pathway for student athletes, providing the foundations to support, promote and strive toward success in both sport and academia.
The first notable reference to soccer in the Fisher Library archives is in the minutes of an 'annual meeting' that was held on 29 March 1946.
Whilst there is no mention of the establishment of the club, the minutes record an address from the President of the Sports Union welcoming "Association Football" to the Uni sporting fraternity. It further infers this was first annual meeting of any formalised club.
While soccer was played at the University in some capacity prior to WWII - indeed the State (Gardiner) Cup Final was played at the University Oval way back in 1895 - it appears 1946 was the foundation date for SUSFC as it is known today.
Throughout this period the face of Australian soccer was rapidly changing. The massive influx of migrants into Australia predominantly from southern Europe, saw the standard of the game improve and with it came an increase in registrations, player payments and professionalism.
This in turn, led to the establishment of the NSW Soccer Federation (now Football NSW) in 1957, which SUSFC joined in 1959 where it has remained to this day.
The club’s men’s teams had their most successful period from 1996 to 2004, an era that saw a remarkable rise through the ranks of NSW Federation competitions from Division Four up to the NSW Super League. The top (non-Federation) squad joined the Sydney Amateur League in 1998 and in about 2003 this team re-joined the CDSFA in the over-35 competition where it has since remained.
The club added an over-45 team in CDSFA competitions in 2016, which it has continued to field until present.
In 2005 the elite and social teams of Sydney University Women’s Soccer Club and the men’s club merged into one, and the combined Club began fielding boys youth league teams in FNSW Competitions, with girls youth league and SAP teams following from 2010.
These highly successful ventures brought total club membership to over 500, with SUSFC playing numbers now approaching 600 across 35 teams in all competitions.
