1971 Howard Bison men's soccer team

In the first round of the NCAA playoffs, the Bison defeated West Virginia 1–0 at home.[9] In the next round, also at home,[1] the Bison beat Navy 3–0, setting up a quarterfinal matchup with Penn State.[9] Howard was leading 3–0 by halftime and easily won 8–0, led by a Keith Aqui hat-trick and two more goals from Alvin Henderson.[9][1] Their semifinal opponent was Harvard, and a late Ian Bain goal sent Howard through 1–0.[1]

Facing the Bison in the NCAA championship final were the Saint Louis Billikens, who had won the NCAA tournament the previous two years, and eight of the previous 12 years.[2] The Billikens were the top seed in the tournament and favored to win.[2] Saint Louis went up in the 18th minute, and the Bison equalized through Alvin Henderson three minutes later.[1] The Billikens scored again in the first half, leading Phillips to substitute Keith Aqui—who had been sitting out with a fever—into the game.[1] The Bison would equalize with a Mori Diane goal just before halftime and then score the go-ahead goal midway through the second half.[1][8] When the game ended 3–2, the Bison became the first HBCU to win an NCAA Division I national championship.[6]

On January 26, 1972, the NCAA received a letter from an anonymous source requesting the NCAA look into the eligibility of Howard's players.[6] The investigation lasted throughout the year, as the NCAA interviewed players, coaches, and the football associations of both the United States and Trinidad and Tobago.[6] Despite losing key players throughout the 1972 NCAA playoffs,[6] the Bison still reached the semifinals, where they lost a rematch with Saint Louis in overtime.[9] A few weeks later in January 1973, the NCAA officially announced that the Bison had violated three rules related to player eligibility: a rule related to academic eligibility for first-year students, a rule governing international students, and a rule limiting students to five years of eligibility from their first admission to any college.[6] In particular, Keith Aqui drew attention as a 25-year-old collegiate athlete.[10]

The first violation stemmed from the NCAA's "1.6 rule", which required incoming athletes to score highly enough on the SAT or ACT to predict a 1.6 GPA.[6] Some of Howard's international players had been admitted with scores from other exams (such as the General Certificate of Education) that Howard believed were sufficient to meet this rule.[6] Because of previous lobbying from Ivy League universities,[11][12] the 1.6 Rule was repealed the same month as the NCAA announcement; however, the change did not go into effect until the 1974–1975 season.[6] The second violation stemmed from an NCAA rule that limited schools from admitting older international players with athletic experience in their home countries.[6] One Howard player admitted playing in the Port of Spain Football League for three years, but argued that the league was not professional and was more similar to "guys from the neighborhood playing ball".[6] The application of this rule was later found to be unconstitutional, as it penalized international students for participating in amateur leagues that American students were able to play in.[6] The final violated rule limited player eligibility after enrollment at academic institutions in their home countries. In Aqui's case, Howard argued that the relevant school, Mausica Teachers’ College on Trinidad, did not grant four-year degrees and thus should not count as a college for the purpose of this rule.[6] Based on these violations, the NCAA vacated the 1971 national title and the 1970 semifinal appearance, and banned the Bison from the 1973 playoffs.[6] According to the NCAA, the Bison were the first national champions in any collegiate sport to have their title vacated.[13]

Howard immediately protested the punishment, arguing that the NCAA rules were ambiguous[14] and that the team had been targeted because of its success in the largely white collegiate soccer world.[2][6] Sports journalists have argued that many schools were in violation of these rules, and Howard felt that the enforcement was unequal.[2][8] Coach Phillips accused the NCAA of "practicing racism",[6][2] and said in a speech that, "It's pretty evident that a black school is not supposed to win."[14] Howard president James E. Cheek released a statement saying, "We feel that it is simply because we are a black institution that the NCAA was requested to investigate."[14] The school filed a lawsuit against the NCAA alleging discrimination; although they were able to get the rule governing international student eligibility overturned as a violation of the 14th Amendment, the title was not reinstated.[14][6]

The punishment led the team to embrace the civil rights movement and the African diaspora.[8][14] Mori Diane said that the team "stood knee-deep in the civil rights struggle",[2] and the team adopted a motto based on a William Cullen Bryant quote: "Truth, crushed to Earth, shall rise again".[6] In 1974, the Bison went 19–0–0 and outscored opposing teams 63–6 on their way to another NCAA tournament final appearance.[2] The final, taking place at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, again matched them against the Saint Louis Billikens.[6] They defeated Saint Louis 2–1 in four overtimes for their first recognized national title.[6]