Inaugural PAFL 1903-04 season

Dec. 13, 2021 |  Categories:  AFLSL   St. Louis  

Brother Elzear, director of athletics at Christian Brothers College, headed up the organization of the Parish Association Football League for the 1903-04 season. Clubs from eight St. Louis parishes joined the strictly amateur competition. Games were played on the C.B.C. campus starting in early November.

By mid-January only four teams remained in the league: St. Rose's; St. Ann's; Holy Name; and C.B.C. The latter team was made up of schoolboys in comparison to the other teams who had men on their rosters.

Before the final matches of the season Holy Name was one point ahead of St. Ann and the game between them would determine the PAFL championship. F.E. Miller, president of the league and manager of the Holy Names, called off the game due to bad weather. St. Ann's claimed that under the rules of association football that a game could only be postponed by mutual agreement of the two teams involved. At a league meeting, president Miller, as manager of Holy Names, refused to give St. Ann's a match for the league title and he was upheld by a vote of the league.