This is OUR City (eBook)

INTRODUCTION

ST. LOUIS: WHERE GREATNESS HAPPENS

After a long, tedious, wait—it happened. St. Louis got its MLS team. St. Louis City SC has arrived!

St. Louis is overwhelmingly familiar with professional sports franchises. As most people know, St. Louis—where the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers join—has been a flourishing sports city over the years, with the St. Louis Cardinals (second all-time in World Series titles with 11), St. Louis Blues (Stanley Cup champions, 2019), previously the St. Louis Rams (Super Bowl champions, 2000), St. Louis Hawks (NBA champions, 1958), and the Spirits of St. Louis (who didn’t accomplish much other than kick starting the career of Bob Costas, who called games for KMOX radio). It’s a city that has embraced traditional sports with the best of them. I like to call baseball, basketball, and football the “Big 3” of traditional American sports. St. Louis, Missouri, has thrived in each.

As for other sports, you might not think of St. Louis right away. You might not think of St. Louis and tennis in the same sentence, yet, the great champion of the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open, Jimmy Connors, hails from East St. Louis, Illinois, a Metro East suburb. In the world of “non-contact” sports, such as bowling, St. Louis has sat atop the mountain, with Pete Weber, who was born in St. Ann, leading the way. Interestingly, in the world of chess, also normally a non-contact sport,* St. Louis hosts the distinguished Saint Louis Chess Club located in the Central West End. As for bocce ball, well, St. Louis has some catching up to do.

Regardless, soccer, which in recent years has turned from a non-traditional anomaly to one of America’s go-to feature attractions, has gone hand-in-hand with St. Louis as no other city. It’s almost law that kids play youth soccer in St. Louis, in leagues such as the CYC, Catholic Youth Council; SLYSA, St. Louis Youth Soccer Association; and SISL, Southern Illinois Soccer League. For all intents and purposes, St. Louis is known as the king of soccer. We’ll elaborate on this title in due time. But hold on. There’s something very interesting to discuss.

JUST LIKE A NEUTRON STAR

Years ago, in 1982, astronomers made a remarkable discovery far off in the universe—a neutron star spinning 642 times per second! Then, as reported in 2006, according to Maggie Mckee in New Scientist, astronomers found a neutron star rotating even faster! “The fastest-spinning neutron star ever found has been discovered in a crowded star cluster near the centre of the Milky Way, a new study reveals. The star rotates 716 times per second—faster than some theories predict is possible—and therefore may force researchers to revise their models.”1 “The previous record holder, which spins at 642 Hz, was discovered in 1982.”2 There are various neutron stars (by the way) that spin at slower, but still amazing, rates such as “...thirty-three revolutions per second,”3 as Martin Rees pointed out. However, the report of 716 spins per second is a mind-boggling concept. To think such a thing had been sitting there, in all its brilliance, rotating at a speed that defies logic, just waiting to be discovered.

In a way, St. Louis soccer—which has a magic all its own—has been sitting there, waiting to be discovered by new soccer fans in the US and around the world. As you’ll see, St. Louis soccer has been spinning off into space with fantastic teams, players, passion, results, records, organization, and high-quality for generations.

Let’s start with the 1950 FIFA World Cup in which the United States miraculously defeated England in the famous 1-0 match. Five of the starting 11 US players were from St. Louis! That should be it; that should be “case closed,” “thanks and good night,” followed by “story’s over.” Five players? Five players? Yet there’s more. Much more.

Within the world of club soccer, St. Louis teams—Seco, St. Paul, Kutis, St. Philip Di Neri, Imo’s, Busch, Scott Gallagher, among others—have won a large number of national championships. In fact, St. Louis has been a leader in this regard, which we’ll touch on later. For now, just remember this: In 1958, St. Louis Kutis was so good that it was called upon to play as proxy for the US national team. (Were there a couple of guest players? Sure. But that actually happened. And that’s unheard of.)

In terms of Missouri high school soccer state championships, it’s no contest. St. Louis leads the pack. St. Thomas Aquinas-Mercy, CBC, Vianney, St. Mary’s, De Smet, and others who we’ll touch on in a bit, have been the dominant schools in Missouri for decades now. Missouri, by virtue of the dense forest of talent in St. Louis, along with worthy competition from Kansas City and Cape Girardeau, is considered one of the nation’s top high school soccer states. St. Louis has also contributed a substantial number of high school All-Americans.

Let’s briefly talk college soccer, shall we? To this day, St. Louis University is the reigning all-time NCAA Division I champion with an amazing 10 titles. As a result, coaches Bob Guelker and Harry Keough† helped to shape American soccer. But that’s not all. Many people are unaware of the incredible year 1973 in which St. Louis colleges garnered all national championships (SLU in NCAA Division I, UMSL in NCAA Division II, and Florissant Valley Community College in NJCAA Division I). When a city runs the table like that, something’s going on—something very special. Furthermore, one can’t forget the 1979 NCAA Division I championship earned by SIUE (located in the Metro East suburb of Edwardsville, Illinois), coached by the aforementioned Bob Guelker, one of America’s early soccer innovators.

St. Louis has been a longtime leader in American professional soccer. St. Leo’s, way back in the early 1900s, is credited with being an early pioneer in professional American soccer. From the 1960s onward, the St. Louis Stars competed in the NASL with many St. Louis players in the lineup (a bold move at the time). Some notable players from the Stars era included Bob Kehoe, Pat McBride, Jim Leeker, John Pisani, Gary Rensing, Al Trost, and Dennis Vaninger. (Bob Kehoe, a St. Louis legend, was a player and coach for the Stars and also the USMNT.) With all due respect to St. Leo’s, the Stars were truly the pioneers of pro soccer in St. Louis (and America at large, along with fellow NASL teams). After the Stars joined the NASL, the result was massive. Subsequently, the Stars, in part, played a crucial role in the increase of youth, high school, and collegiate players around St. Louis, and, arguably, around the country. Following the Stars came a gradual inundation of professional indoor teams that included the St. Louis Steamers, St. Louis Storm, St. Louis Ambush (1995 NPSL champions), St. Louis Illusion, and Illinois Piasa, along with the professional outdoor teams, St. Louis Knights, AC St. Louis, Saint Louis FC, and, most recently, St. Louis City SC.

Still, that’s not all. How about just a handful of players that have represented the USMNT? You have Harry Keough, Bob Kehoe, Pat McBride, Al Trost, Denny Vaninger, Ty Keough, Greg Villa, Steve Pecher, Steve Trittschuh, Mark Santel, Mike Sorber, Matt McKeon, Steve Ralston, Chris Klein, Taylor Twellman, Brad Davis, Tim Ream, Josh Sargent, and many others who we’ll cover in a bit.

It’s been a long, interesting history. Sure, St. Louis hasn’t exactly spun around 716 times per second (that would make it a neutron star and I don’t think the mayor would allow such a thing, wink-wink), but, nonetheless, it’s been achieving things in soccer that demand a second, third, and fourth look.

I know what you’re thinking, New Jersey guy, California guy. Ye of little faith. For that matter, Liverpool guy and Munich guy might be thinking similar thoughts: Yeah, so there’s been soccer in St. Louis—what’s the big deal? Sure, your initial thought—likely laden with a vague assortment of disparate information—is a valid one. Certainly, the quality of soccer in New Jersey, D.C., California, and elsewhere throughout America, has been quite significant with respect to accomplishments and the overall growth of the sport nationwide. Though, without a doubt, regardless of how important the aforementioned places—and others—have been in the culture of American soccer, St. Louis has been the cradle, the hub, the headquarters—essentially ground zero.

MLS LAUNCHES IN 1996 WITHOUT THE KING

In brief, we’ve gone over the broad historical points of St. Louis soccer. Yes, we’ll get into much more, later. (There’s so much more!) Whether a seasoned St. Louis soccer aficionado or newcomer, one should find this very interesting. In 1996, when Major League Soccer launched its first season there were 10 teams...10 original teams. St. Louis was not one of them! This was odd. Bill McDermott—a former NCAA national soccer champion with SLU, a radio and TV announcer known as “Mr. Soccer” in St. Louis (a name bestowed on him by Bob Costas)—said, “If there’s going to be a professional soccer league in the United States, it’s almost mandatory that St. Louis play a part.”4 This has been the sentiment in the soccer community for ages. Yet, back in 1996, even Kansas City had a team while its neighbor and soccer stronghold, St. Louis,...