
The author and Matt Sodl, April 2008
Matt Sodl '88 played his heart out during his four years at Columbia, and despite going 0-10 in his senior season, he was named to the All-Ivy First Team in 1987.
Once again, there's not much valuable that I could add now to an interview I did of today's subject, so here it is reprinted below:
Matt Sodl (No. 65) Makes a Tackle
Longtime readers of this blog are familiar with my special admiration for the seniors on the 1987 Columbia Lions football team.
They stuck with the team and worked hard, despite compiling an 0-30 record during their three-year varsity careers, (freshmen were not eligible to play varsity ball back then). Eleven players from that '87 team stayed with the program all four years. 
The 1984 Lion Cubs, Matt Sodl, No. 65, is in front
One of the best players on that team and the strongest was defensive tackle Matt Sodl. Matt came to Columbia in 1984 from rural Pennsylvania and made an immediate impact on the freshman team. By his sophomore season, he was starting at nose tackle, recording 59 tackles and three sacks.
But as a senior in 1987, Sodl truly broke out as a first-team All-Ivy player (unanimous selection), with 84 tackles, 5.5 sacks and 10 tackles for a loss.
During Matt's 0-30 varsity run, not many of the games were close. But two of the last three games of his career became some the most excruciating losses in Lion history.
Leading at home against Dartmouth by a 10-9 score, the Big Green pulled out a late FG to take the 12-10 lead, only to see the Lions return the ensuing kick-off very close to field goal territory.















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