SA Trivia: Former college head coaches who won MLS titles

How many of the 24 MLS championship teams were coached by men who previously served as college head coaches, and can you name them?

Answer: Since the league's 1996 launch, 12 of the 24 MLS champions were coached by six men who had previously been collegiate head coaches:

5 Bruce Arena (D.C. United 1996, 1997; LA Galaxy 2011, 2012, 2014)
Puget Sound (1976), Virginia (1978-1995)

2 Sigi Schmid (LA Galaxy 2002, Columbus Crew 2008)
UCLA (1980-1999)

1 Bob Bradley (Chicago Fire 1998)
Princeton (1984-1995)

1 Thomas Rongen (D.C. United 1999)
Nova Southeastern (1991–1995)

1 Bob Gansler (Kansas City 2000)
Wisconsin-Milwaukee (1984-1988)

1 Steve Sampson (LA Galaxy 2004)
Santa Clara (1986-1990)

1 Caleb Porter (Portland Timbers 2015)
Akron (2006-2012)

college men, mls

2 comments about "SA Trivia: Former college head coaches who won MLS titles".

Ric Fonseca, February 9, 2020 at 4:48 p.m.

FYI.... both Steve Sampson and Sigi Schmid were at one time during the late 70s/early 80s, classmates at UCLA and then much later, Coaching-mates with WCUSA 1994 with Bora Milutinovic and Ralph Perez.

Reply
Ric Fonseca replied, February 10, 2020 at 3:04 p.m.

And I failed to mention that Ralph Perez, former HC/AC with the Galaxy and Chivas USA, hailing from NY, also coached Whittier College in the LA area then went on to coach at Cal State Los Angeles for several years, where he coached Carlos Juarez, and I believe several others who entered the MLS ranks and are now working in some capacity as evaluators, coaches, managers, etc., with academies, as assistant coaches and MNT assistants, both independent and MLS related. After Perez, Berhane Andeberhan, a UCLA alum, also coached Cal State University and also joined the ranks of young MLS coaches, as well as US Soccer Coaching lensensing schools.