American soccer writing, history & data.
The St. Louis Major Soccer League returned for its 1952-53 again as the only professional league in the city. The American Soccer League of St. Louis had folded in September after its home venue was no longer available for use. The SLMSL returned to the North Side Sports Arena but the league did away with night games unless they became necessary due to postponements. In the prior season, most of t...
The American Soccer League of St. Louis was organized by Walter Giesler, secretary of the Missouri Soccer Commission and former head of the U.S. Soccer Football Association during 1948 and 1949. The league joined the four-year-old St. Louis Major Soccer League as the only professional soccer leagues in St. Louis during the 1951-52 season. While the leagues competed for soccer fans, there was littl...
After three successful seasons, the St. Louis Major Soccer League failed to make a profit for the 1950-51 season. In the offseason, Syl Raftery returned to the organization as the franchise owners elected him president. Ed Murphy was named commissioner. Neither had any connection with any club in the league at that point. In the 1950-51 season, Gene Thumm, co-owner of the Zenthoefer Furs, was pres...
Gene Thumm, co-owner of the Raiders franchise, was elected the new league president In the offseason before the 1950-51 St. Louis Major Soccer League to replace Ed Murphy who had held that position since the beginning of the league. Another founder, Syl Raftery, was not retained as commissioner; a position that was left open for the season. Also during the offseason, Joe Spica, longtime soccer pla...
Stability continued for the St. Louis Major Soccer League heading into the 1949-50 season. Two teams gained new sponsors. The Paul Schultes (former Raiders) became McMahon Pontiac and the El Reys became the Mike Breheny Furniture team. The Ray Dohles and Simpkins teams rounded out the league's membership. The SLMSL retained the split-season schedule of nine games each half and also continued th...
Following a successful inaugural season, the St. Louis Major Soccer League returned for the 1948-49 season with the same lineup of four teams. Two teams changed names after gaining new sponsors. The De Andreis Council team, regular season champions of the prior season, became the El Reys (named for a local brand of chili and sliced beef and gravy) and the Raiders became the Paul Schulte Motors. Fa...
During the offseason before the 1947-48 season a number of soccer figures, including Ed Murphy, owner of a North Grand Avenue cafe, and Syl Raftery, a retired painting contractor and former sponsor of a soccer team, made plans to organize the first professional soccer league in St. Louis since the St. Louis Soccer League folded in 1939. Four clubs were originally slated to join: Joe Simpkins (form...
A meeting was held on July 29, 1938 at the Marquette Hotel under the direction of newly-elected U.S.F.A. president, Harold S. Callowhill, in an effort to revive soccer interest in St. Louis. Marion F. Parker, a retired sports writer and delegate to the Central Council of the Municipal Athletic Association, Walter Giesler, Chairman of the Ozark A.A.U. Soccer Committee, John Scully of the Municipal ...
In the offseason after another problematic season, Johnny Marre took the initiative to keep the league going and associated with Charles DeWitt to re-establish the St. Louis Professional Soccer League for the 1937-38 season. The duo hoped to return to Sportsman's Park but were turned down because workers were putting up lights. Three teams were admitted to membership - Marre's team, formerly kn...
After the prior season had ended in disarray, the St. Louis Professional Soccer League held a reorganization meeting on September 3, 1935. Eleven friends and backers of teams in the league agreed to purchase stock in the circuit to assure a complete season and to cover any deficit which might occur. The group appointed Al Kaufman temporary chairman. They made plans to play week nights at West Side...
Prior to the 1935-36 St. Louis Professional Soccer League season, Phil A. Riley was elected president for the second straight year. A major shakeup in the traditional format was enacted as the league grew from eight to four teams. The first two teams to join were clubs from the Municipal League - the German Sport Club and the Spanish Sport Club. The latter team was located in East St. Louis, Ill. ...
During the offseason before the 1934-35 St. Louis Soccer League season, rumors began to circulate that the stockholders of the Soccer and Exhibition Co. of St. Louis which operated the league were considering quitting soccer. The stockholders reported those rumors were without foundation but the league looked to make changes in hopes of reversing the continued lack of interest in the professional ...
A number of changes occurred before the 1933-34 St. Louis Professional Soccer League season. Phil Kavanaugh's team, formerly Coca-Coal, found a new sponsor and played as the Minit-Rub Stars. Joe Hand, an outstanding fullback, replaced Johnny Marre as manager of the Anderson team. Willie Foley resigned as manager of the Ben Miller team and owner, George Miller, hired Eddie Croak to replace him. ...
Prior to the 1932-33 St. Louis Soccer League season, Winton E. Barker resigned as president of the league. Barker sold his stock in the Soccer and Exhibition Co. of St. Louis to Otto Schultz who was connected to the Stix, Baer & Fuller team. Don Anderson, sponsor of the Anderson team and president of the Missouri Amateur Golfers' Association, was elected to the post. Anderson was the first person ...
In the summer annual meeting prior to the 1931-32 season, Winton E. Barker was re-elected president of the St. Louis Soccer League after having resigned the previous December. Phil Riley was re-elected treasurer and elected as vice president. A.J. "Tate" Brady was also elected as secretary during that meeting but didn't stay in the office long. Soon after, John J. "Jack" Dwyer bought Tate Brad...
In April 1930, less than a month after the close of the St. Louis Professional Soccer League season, Phil Kavanaugh, manager of the Madison Kennel Club team, purchased that franchise from William and Frank Clark. The team, which Kavanaugh would continue to manager, would gain a new sponsor and be renamed as Coca-Cola. Along with the usual league schedule and National Challenge Cup matches, the SLS...
Two big changes occurred in the offseason before the 1929-30 St. Louis Professional Soccer League season. First, Tate Brady, owner and manager of the Wellston team, took $1500 from a new sponsor and renamed his team Hellrung & Grimm after a local furniture store. And, also, Phil Kavanaugh took over as manager of Madison Kennel Club replacing Jimmy Burke. Cold winter weather suspended the league...
During May of the offseason, Harry P. McCarthy, owner and manager of the Morgan Haulers team, sold his franchise to Dr. John J. Kehoe, reportedly the league's official physician. The transfer was not approved by the stockholders of the Soccer and Exhibition Co. of St. Louis reportedly because the league officers did not wish to have Harry J. Ratican in the organization as a manager. Ratican was re...
Prior to the 1927-28 St. Louis Soccer League season, J. G. Barrett, the long-time vice president of the Soccer and Exhibition Co. of St. Louis, sold his interests in the company to Willie Foley, manager of Ben Miller. Foley continued to lead the Hatters as well as being a director of the circuit. The season again played Sunday doubleheaders at Sportsman's Park. The league began being referred to a...
Following the failure of the Western Soccer Cup Association in mid-November 1926, the officials of the Soccer and Exhibition Co. of St. Louis reorganized the St. Louis Soccer League. Sunday doubleheaders were to continue the next Sunday after WSCA play ended but the matches at Sportsman's Park on November 21 were postponed due to snow. The league schedule for the 1926-27 season began on November 2...
In August, 1926, soccer officials from Chicago and St. Louis organized an inter-city league. The four St. Louis Soccer League teams and the four Chicago Soccer League teams joined to create the Western Soccer Cup Association. The schedule called doubleheaders each Sunday in St. Louis and Chicago. The four Chicago clubs were the Bricklayers, Canadian Club, Sparta, and Thistles. The four St. Louis c...
In the summer prior to the 1925-26 season the Soccer and Exhibition Co. of St. Louis, formerly the St. Louis Soccer League, held a meeting and decided to sign player to contracts for a weekly salary with guaranteed minimums of $10 for a win, $7 for a tie, and $6 for a loss. The franchise owners were bound under a league agreement to pay players at least this fixed amount but were at liberty to pay...
During the summer of 1924, the St. Louis Soccer League began publicly referring to itself by its formal business name - the Soccer and Exhibition Co. of St. Louis. The business entity that operated the league since its inaugural season was usually made up of seven stockholders: the four team owners; president, Winton E. Barker; vice president J. G. Barrett; and treasurer, Phil Riley. This chang...
The same teams returned for the 1923-24 St. Louis Soccer League season. The only organizational change was that Harry Ratican took over as player-manager of the Ben Millers. As Ratican had again been hired as the soccer coach for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, his brother, William, directed affairs at Ben Miller for the first two months of the season. The league returned to the tradition...
The offseason prior to the 1922-23 St. Louis Soccer League again brought team name changes. While the teams and managers again stayed the same, two clubs changed their names in late September. After only one season as the De Andreis team, Willie Foley was compelled to change the team's name due to the supreme body of the Knights of Columbus having voted to prohibit the use of council names in prof...
With Cardinal Park no longer available, the St. Louis Soccer League played at High School Field, the renamed old Federal League Park, for the 1921-22 season. The four SLSL clubs drew first round National Challenge Cup byes and the inter-league NCC matches again counted in the league standings. While the same teams continued from prior seasons, the Innisfails underwent a name change. In late Sep...
In early July, 1920 a team of 12 St. Louis and six eastern players, including captain Harry Ratican, sailed from Montreal for a Scandinavian tour. The tour delayed the opening of the 1920-21 St. Louis Soccer League season. The players returned on September 30 and the league opened its schedule on Sunday, October 10 with doubleheaders at Cardinal Park. The St. Louis Cardinals baseball club had left...
The 1919-20 St. Louis Soccer League was the first full season since the end of the Great War and could arguably be seen as the greatest season of soccer in St. Louis up to that point. In early July, league president Winton Barker announced that the four SLSL clubs would enter the National Challenge Cup that season instead of one picked organization representing St. Louis in the competition. It was...
Although an estimated 65% of players from the prior season were now in some branch of service, president Winton Barker announced in early August that the St. Louis Soccer League would open its 1918-19 schedule as usual. The same teams and managers returned from the previous season but with two major changes. The first was the loss of the St. Leo's name from the ranks of professional soccer. At ...
Little changed internally for the 1917-18 St. Louis Soccer League season, but external factors had an impact on the organization. The United States' entry into the Great War put the country on a war footing and the draft meant many of the SLSL players left the league due to military service. St. Leo's player-manager "Bull" Brannigan was drafted into the army so Harry McCarthy took over the team...
The 1916-17 season of the St. Louis Soccer League was the picture of stability as all four clubs and managers returned from the prior season. The league again played Sunday doubleheaders at Robison Field and all the officers were re-elected during the offseason. That returned results at the turnstiles as 3000 attended the opening doubleheader on October 15, 1916. On Christmas Day, 6000 were on ...
The rival factions of the St. Louis Soccer League (the Robison Field league) and the Federal Park Soccer League ended their war after the 1914-15 season and, in the spring, organized a new St. Louis Soccer League made up of the best two clubs from each league. Ben Miller (managed by Pete Ratican) and St. Leo's (under new manager Billy Monahan) joined from the FPSL while Columbus Club (managed by ...
After a financially dismal 1913-14 season, both professional soccer leagues in St. Louis began moves towards peace. Each league had two strong teams and two weak teams. The common wisdom was to create a peace plan where the leagues would be reorganized into one league with the two best teams from each current league joining. To help its situation the Athletic Park league needed to acquire a lea...
During the offseason after the 1912-13 season, Bill Klosterman returned as manager of St. Leo's. In mid-September of 1913, Klosterman reorganized the St. Louis Soccer Football League, under the direction of Tim Cavanaugh, owner of Athleic Park, who allied himself with Klosterman after the disruption last winter and refused to allow the SLSFL managers from the prior season to renew their lease on t...
Internal problems during prior season continued to build during the 1912-13 St. Louis Soccer Football League season. Prior to the start of the season, the four managers could not agree on a venue for the coming season. Willie Foley of the Innisfails and Billy Klosterman of St. Leo's voted to stay at Athletic Park but "King" Finnegan of Columbus Club and Ed Houlihan of the Irish-Americans voted to ...
The Blue Bells withdrew and were replaced by the Irish-American A.C. prior to the 1911-12 St. Louis Football League season. Dr. Alexander Murray was again re-elected president of the league - a position he had held since the SLSFL's organization. The league paid its players on the cooperative plan with the winning squad receiving 60% of the gate receipts and the losers 40%. Each player received...
Prior to the St. Louis Soccer Football League 1910-11 season, Phil Riley, manager of St. Teresa's, changed the name of the team to the Grand-Athletic Soccer Football Club. But, two weeks before the start of the season, internal strife led to the league officially dropping the Grand Athletics from membership. The Columbus Club, representing a team of Knights of Columbus players and managed by John ...
The St. Louis Soccer League continued as the top professional league in St. Louis for the 1909-10 season. The four teams remained the same from the prior season with only a couple of minor changes. The Thistles were renamed the Blue Bells and the West Ends, managed by Dan Broderick, became a new Innisfails team. St. Teresa's almost withdrew from the league in late January due to manager Phil Riley...
The old Association Football League of St. Louis disbanded following the 1907-08 season. City champions, St. Leo's, jumped from that league to the professional St. Louis Soccer Football League. Both of these changed made the SLSFL the top soccer league in St. Louis. In the offseason, Thomas Cahill left the SLSFL and helped organize another professional league, the St. Louis Soccer League. Innis...
St. Louis did not have a fully professional league during the 1906-07 season. The St. Louis Soccer Football League was organized for the 1907-08 to fill that void. Dr. Alexander Murray was elected president and Thomas Cahill was secretary of the new league. Cahill did not desire peace with the top league at that team, the Association Football League of St. Louis, and was no shy in inducing players...
During the offseason, Phil Kavanaugh, former St. Louis soccer star and long-time referee, took over the management of Kulage's Park. He led the organization of a new St. Louis Soccer Football Association for the 1912-13 season which played doubleheaders at the renamed Pastime Park. The venue's grand stand and bleachers were overhauled and modernized and a new dressing room was installed. Winton...
Following the demise of the St. Louis University Soccer League and the St. Louis Association Football League, a new league playing matches at Kulage's Park, the American Soccer Football League, organized to compete against the now-dominant St. Louis Soccer Football League. The teams involved were St. Teresa's (from the St. Louis University League), New Cathedral (from the Triple A League), O'Leary...
After the St. Louis University Park stadium was completed in 1910, the St. Louis University Soccer Football League was organized on September 27 to play doubleheaders every Sunday for the 1910-11 season. Teams in the league were the St. Teresa junior squad (champions of the amateur league the prior season), St. James, Immaculate Conception (from the Hibernian League), and Duwell A.C. (from the pri...
When the St. Louis Soccer Football League decided to drop the Grand Athletics (formerly the St. Teresas) after the 1909-10 season, manager Phil Riley moved to organized a new league to play at Kulage's Park along with Hibernian A.C.. The Grand Athletics disbanded before the season started but the St. Louis Association Football League was organized with the Hibernians, O'Learys (formerly the Kinloc...
When the St. Louis Soccer League ended after a single season, Henry Kulage organized a new Association Football League of St. Louis to play doubleheaders at Kulage's Park. Buck Chapman was elected president and Thomas Cahill as secretary. The four teams admitted as members were Holy Name, Knights of Father Matthew, Keen Kutters (previously in the Saturday Afternoon League), and Duwell Athletic Clu...
With the demise of the Association Football League of St. Louis, Thomas Cahill left the St. Louis Soccer Football League and organized the St. Louis Soccer League for the 1908-09 season. Cahill was elected to his traditional position of secretary and Winton E. Barker was named president. The league would play Sunday doubleheaders at Kulage's Park. Teams included the New Tariffs (virtually the SLSF...
The Association Football Soccer League of St. Louis returned for the 1907-08 season but had a new competitor for the top league in the city in the newly-organized St. Louis Soccer Football League. St. Leo's was the only team to return from the previous season. The champions were joined by Kinloch (formed from most of the Parish League champions St. Matthew's), Shamrocks (mostly the Nugent players ...
Prior to the 1906-07 season, the Amateur Association Football League was renamed as the Association Football League of St. Louis. During the prior season, unlike most St. Louis leagues, the AAFL played out its schedule and fulfilled its obligations. The only noticeable change other than the name was the league eliminated the A.A.U. from its affairs due to the difficulty in finding players that fit...
Many changes occurred for the 1905-06 Amateur Association Football League season. C.B.C. sold its lower campus which meant the school wouldn't allow the AAFL to play there any longer. C.B.C. dropped out of the league and the priests of the various parishes prohibited the names of churches to be used on the AAFL teams since the games would not be at C.B.C. As such, the league went through a reor...
The Parish League of St. Louis became the Amateur Association Football League before the 1904-05 season. St. Ann's, C.B.C. and St. Rose's returned with St. Alphonsus replacing Holy Name. Games where again played on the C.B.C. campus. The first matches where held on November 13, but league play was put on hiatus to enable C.B.C. and St. Rose to take part in the St. Louis Olympics. Galt F.C. from...
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; a...
With the disbanding of the Association Football League of St. Louis, the St. Louis Football Association was the sole professional soccer league operating in the city for the 1905-06 season. Four clubs made up the league as the schedule opened on October 29th: North End A.C.; Shamrocks; South Ends; and West End A.C. The league split matches each Sunday at South Side Park and Sportsman's Park. Cycli...
The St. Louis Football Association was launched for the 1904-05 season as a rival professional league to the more established Association Football League of St. Louis. Four clubs made up the league: Cornets; Leacocks; Rawlings; and Sportsmans. The league played doubleheaders each Sunday at Sportsman's Park. After eight weeks, the league had a month's worth of postponed matches due to cold weath...
A new Association Football League of St. Louis was organized for the 1904-05 due to the unpleasant ending of the former professional league at the end of the 1903-04 season. The four-teams league would play doubleheaders every Sunday at Kulage's Park. The league's opening matches were on November 6, 1904 and the clubs taking part were Ben Miller, Diels, Woman's Magazine, and Thistles. The latte...
C.B.C. and Diels resigned as members of the St. Louis Association Football League prior to the 1903-04 season. Rawlings and Spaldings, managed by Thomas W. Cahill, were selected to fill the vacancies. The league season began October 18, 1903 with double-headers held every Sunday at Sportsman's Park. After the January 10th gameday, the franchise held by the Sportsmans was transferred to the R. J...
On November 16, 1902, soccer enthusiasts met late in the soccer season at Christian Brothers College to permanently organize the St. Louis Association Football League. The competition replaced the prior soccer league in hopes of cutting back on rowdy play and spreading the better players among the teams rather than being concentrated on one or two. Four teams, C.B.C., Diels, Kern's and Sportsmans,...
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