Ronald T. "Ron" Coder (born September 14, 1928) is a former American

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 ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

who was a member of the U.S. team at the

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, whi ...

. Coder grew up in

Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Montgomery County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the third-most populous county in Pennsylvania and the 73rd-most populous county in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the county was 856,55 ...

, where he was a state champion high school track star. He entered

Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State became ...

in 1947.

Bill Jeffrey Sir William Alexander Jeffrey, KCB (born 28 February 1948) is a former senior British civil servant, who retired in the autumn of 2010. Jeffrey was educated at Allan Glen's School, Glasgow, and the Glasgow University. He joined the Home Offic ...

spotted Coder playing an intramural soccer game during Coder's sophomore year and recruited him into the school's soccer team. Coder and his teammates went on to win the 1950 and 1951 college championships. Coder graduated in the spring of 1951, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

and became a tanker pilot. In 1955, he joined the Armed Forces soccer team. As a result, he attended trials for the 1956 U.S. Olympic soccer team and was selected as the team's starting goalkeeper. Prior to the tournament in

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...

, the U.S. toured the Far East. In a game in Hong Kong, Coder broke his ankle when kicked by an opposing team's forward and he did not play in the lone U.S. game, a 9–1 loss to Yugoslavia. Coder continued to serve in the Air Force, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. His son, Ron Coder later played football at Penn State and with the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

References

1928 births Living people American men's soccer players Olympic soccer players for the United States Footballers at the 1956 Summer Olympics Penn State Nittany Lions men's soccer players American aviators United States Air Force officers Soccer players from Pennsylvania Men's association football goalkeepers {{US-footy-goalkeeper-stub

See also

References