Joe Ulrich is a retired U.S.

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

defender. He won the 1982

Hermann Trophy The Hermann Trophy is awarded annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the United States's top men's and women's college soccer players. History In 1967, Bob Hermann, the president of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) and the ...

as that year's top collegiate soccer player. He also played three seasons in the Major Indoor Soccer League.

Youth and college

Ulrich attended Arlington High School. After graduating from high school, Ulrich played soccer at

Ulster County Community College SUNY Ulster (Ulster County Community College) is a public community college with its main campus in Stone Ridge, New York, in Ulster County. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The college also maintains facilities in K ...

in New York for two years. In December 1980, he was selected by the

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Champions ...

in the first round of the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

draft. Instead of signing with the Rowdies he continued his education and transferred to

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

in 1981. While at Duke University, he played on the school’s men's soccer team in 1981 and 1982. In 1981, he was named the

ACC ACC most often refers to: * Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US *American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular spec ...

Player of the Year. In 1982, the Blue Devils went to the

NCAA Championship The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

game where it lost to

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

in eight overtimes. That year, Ulrich won the

as the top collegiate player of the year. In his two years at Duke, he scored 13 goals, despite playing as a defender. In 1999, Duke inducted Ulrich into its Athletic Hall of Fame.

Professional

In December 1982, the

Chicago Sting The Chicago Sting (1974–1988) was an American professional soccer team representing Chicago. The Sting played in the North American Soccer League from 1975 to 1984 and in the Major Indoor Soccer League in the 1982–83 season and again from 1 ...

drafted Ulrich in the first round of the

draft, but did not sign Ulrich.''STRIKERS DRAFT BILL MCKEON'' Miami Herald, The (FL) - Wednesday, December 15, 1982 That year, the New York Arrows drafted Ulrich in the first round (12th overall) of the Major Indoor Soccer League college draft. The Arrows signed Ulrich for $28,000 per year for two years. He spent two seasons with the Arrows, until they folded at the end of the 1983-1984 season. He then signed as a free agent with the Dallas Sidekicks on September 11, 1984. He appeared in only sixteen games with the Sidekicks during the 1984-1985 season before the team released him on March 7, 1985.

Post playing career

After retiring from playing professionally, Ulrich was hired by IBM.

References

External links

Sidekicks bio

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulrich, Joe 1961 births Living people All-American college men's soccer players American men's soccer players Men's association football defenders Duke Blue Devils men's soccer players Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) players New York Arrows players Dallas Sidekicks (original MISL) players Sportspeople from Poughkeepsie, New York Tampa Bay Rowdies draft picks Soccer players from New York (state) Hermann Trophy men's winners