Fred Taube, SUNY Cortland’s men’s soccer head coach from 1973-94 and a 2001 Cortland Athletics C-Club Hall of Fame honorary inductee, died on October 4, 2019, at age 84. A Brockport native, Taube graduated from Brockport High School in 1952. He earned a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Brockport in 1959 and was an all-state soccer player for the Golden Eagles.
The program’s all-time wins leader at Cortland, Taube’s teams posted a combined 247-88-36 record and made 11 NCAA Division III tournament appearances over 22 seasons. The Red Dragons also made three Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) playoff appearances, winning titles in 1973 and 1974.
Cortland won seven State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) titles during Taube’s tenure. He was voted as the SUNYAC Men’s Soccer Coach of the Year eight times – the most of any coach in league history since the award originated in 1968. Taube also was named New York State Coach of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) on four occasions. He was a long-time NSCAA member and served as the organization’s president in the mid-1970s.
Taube retired from Cortland in 1995, and was designated Professor of Physical Education Emeritus. He and his wife, Joan, were residing in Clearwater, Florida, at the time of his death.
“The biggest things I remember about (Fred) are how easy going he is and what a good time we always had in practice,” said former Red Dragon Frank Ciliberto ‘83, of Spencerport, right before Taube’s retirement. “Everybody’s out there to have a good time, and that’s what Fred was all about on the soccer field. You had players who just wanted to play for him, and that’s why I think he had good teams.”
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