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What if the 1935 National Challenge Cup winning team was still active?
Posted on Aug. 28, 2025, 8:45 a.m. | Categories: St. LouisOne of the best stories from this year’s European football season is Royale Union Saint-Gilloise. The Belgian club ended a 90-year title drought by winning the 2025 Belgian Pro League. While the 2025 championship is USG’s twelfth top division title, it is its first since 1935.
The fractured history and structure of US soccer doesn’t allow a parallel in this country. But, the U.S. Open Cup (originally named the National Challenge Cup) does give us an opportunity to imagine a somewhat similar situation.
Ninety years ago, the Central Brewers of St. Louis won the 1935 National Challenge Cup in a legendary three-game series over Pawtucket F.C. As an interesting thought experiment, I wondered what the alternative history of the Central Brewers may have looked like if they won the 2025 U.S. Open Cup for the first time since 1935.
The team that would eventually become the Central Brewers began in October of 1910 when the Columbus Club joined the professional St. Louis Soccer Football League. Sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, the Columbus Club was organized by John H. “King” Finnegan. King was one of the great center halfbacks in the early days of St. Louis soccer. He served as captain and manager for the first couple of seasons of his Columbus Club team.
Columbus Club would finish second to the legendary St. Leo’s club in its inaugural 1910-11 season. The team would win its first league title in 1913-14 after the St. Louis Soccer Football League fractured into two warring organizations.
The end of the 1914-15 soccer season saw a peaceful merger of the two leagues. But, as part of that peace plan, King Finnegan along with Billy Klosterman, manager of St. Leo’s, agreed to both step away from the newly-formed St. Louis Soccer League.
The young star of Columbus Club, A. J. “Tate” Brady, took over leadership of that team as its player, manager, and franchise owner. The team found a new sponsor and was renamed the MIssouri Naval Reserves for the initial 1915-16 St. Louis Soccer League season.
Brady’s team struggled for three seasons but found success after signing a new sponsor for the 1918-19 StLSL season. With the deeper pockets of its new benefacor, the Scullin Steel Co. club went from worst to first, winning the team’s first StLSL title in 1918-19.
Scullin Steel would win three league titles in four years. Plus, it would capture a double in the 1921-22 season winning both the StLSL and capturing the club’s first National Challenge Cup. In an impressive five-year run, Scullin Steel would win three StLSL titles, one NCC title, and two NCC runners-up.
Tate Brady would retire as a player following the 1924-25 soccer season. As owner and manager Brady his team through half a dozen seasons with no titles. Two new sponsors, the Wellston Business Men’s League and the Hellrung & Grimm Furniture Co. backed the club before Brady stepped away from soccer.
Jack Dwyer bought Tate Brady’s team before the 1931-32 StLSL season and signed Stix, Baer & Fuller as its sponsor. While Stix struggled again in league play, the team, led by player-manager Bill Lehman, returned to the National Challenge Cup final. Stix tied the American Soccer League’s New Bedford F.C. in the match 3-3 with both teams scoring in extra time. But the rematch saw New Bedford, owned by Sam Mark and stacked with an all-star roster, win the NCC title 5-2.
The financial collapse of the ASL during the summer of 1932 was a boon to the owners in the St. Louis Soccer League. Starting with captain Alec McNab, Jack Dwyer signed a number of former New Bedford stars including Werner “Scotty” Nilsen, Bill McPherson and the legendary Billy Gonsalves.
In early December, Dwyer hired Tate Brady to replace Jimmy Burke as manager of Stix, Baer & Fuller after the latter had to quit soccer due to pressures from his business. Brady would lead the all-star Stix roster to a double that 1932-33 season. Stix would win both the StLSL and the National Challenge Cup. Brady’s Stix, Baer & Fuller team would duplicate that feat the next season.
The 1934-35 StLSL season brought a new sponsor, the Central Brewing Co., and a new all-star player. The Fall River great, Bert Patenaude, joined the Central Brewers after one season in the reorganized American Soccer League.
The Central Brewers would easily win a third straight StLSL title. They would also win a third straight National Challenge Cup title via another three game series over the Pawtucket Rangers. The 1934-35 season would be the team’s fourth NCC title and eighth league title. But it would be the final titles for the organization.
Jack Dwyer and co-owner Jimmy Burke, who joined as owner for the 1934-35 season, lost sponsorship from Central Brewing Co. prior to the 1935-36 season. Andy Frederick replaced Tate Brady as manager. The team became known as the Democratic Country Club team as both Dwyer and Burke were associated with that organization.
Two weeks into the season, Dwyer and Burke, dropped out as owners of the Democratic C.C. team. The duo were temporarily maintaining the team out of their personal resources and did not want to continue that for an entire season. Andy Frederick acquired control over the franchise and the team played under a co-operative basis simply as “St. Louis” for the following week’s match.
The St. Louis Soccer League was struggling. It had expanded by a few teams but financial difficulties were impacting the organization. The league shed the new teams and moved to a smaller venue. It aborted the old season and started a new schedule on the first Sunday of November of 1935.
The following week, the St. Louis club found new sponsorship via a group of St. Louis sportsman acting on a non-profit basis. The team dropped out of the St. Louis Soccer League and was renamed Father Dempsey’s Shamrocks. The Shamrocks would play an independent schedule for the rest of the season.
As an independent, the Shamrocks made a fifth straight run to the National Challenge Cup final. But, the team was beaten by the top team in the ASL, the German-Americans of Philadelphia.
The St. Louis Shamrocks would play one more season as an independent team. And, again they would make a run to a NCC title. The 1936-37 National Challenge Cup final was the Shamrock’s sixth straight as an organization. But, as in the prior year, the Shamrocks would falter at the end to an ASL club losing to the New York Americans.
The Shamrocks would finally go under after the 1936-37 soccer season.
Alright, now for a bit of fun. The organization that began as Columbus Club and ended as the Shamrocks officially lasted from 1910 and ended in 1937. But, what might things have looked like if the club survived? My conceit will be to not replace any actual team in existence and attempt to place this fictional continuation of the team in the highest level league that makes the best sense. The idea is to create a continued history that will lead to that organization winning the 2025 U.S. Open Cup for the first time since the Central Brewers won in 1935.
The St. Louis Soccer League didn’t last much longer than the Shamrocks. It managed finish the 1937-38 season before folding after two games of its 1938-39 season. That final season officially only included two teams! So, in our alternate history, the Shamrocks rejoined the StLSL for its 1937-38 season and aborted 1938-39 season. Likely the Shamrocks would have crashed out to Chicago teams a few rounds into the NCC both years.
While the professional St. Louis Soccer League was top dog, the St. Louis Municipal Leagues held the vast majority of the area’s soccer scene. A myriad of small, park-based leagues would play each season under the Muny League umbrella.
So, in these years where there was no professional league in St. Louis, the Shamrocks would have continued as a purely amateur team playing in the Muny League. As an amateur side, the team would get booted out in the early rounds of the NCC but may have had some level of success in the National Amateur Cup.
Soccer had a short renaissance during World War II and its immediate aftermath. The U.S. Football Association attempted to ride that wave by expanding the professional American Soccer League to other parts of the country. It never really transpired although a few seeds were sown.
One of those was a proposed Midwest Division of the ASL. That quickly transformed into the North American Soccer Football League. The NASFL was a professional soccer league based in the Midwest. It’s first season in 1946 had five teams but none from St. Louis. The St. Louis Shamrocks would have been a perfect addition.
The league returned for a second season in 1947. The expansion St. Louis Raiders were added. The NASFL had two Chicago teams, so why not two St. Louis teams as well?
The NASFL went under during the end of its 1947 season.
The Raiders gives us a perfect template for what could have happened next to our fictional Shamrocks. Just as the NASFL was going under, professional soccer returned to St. Louis. The St. Louis Major Soccer League was the first professional soccer league since the St. Louis Soccer League folded in 1939.
The St. Louis Raiders, renamed simply the Raiders, moved directly from the NASFL to the StLMSL. The St. Louis Shamrocks, renamed simply the Shamrocks, would have done the same in our alternate history.
The Raiders gained different sponsors during its time in the StLMSL including Paul Schulte Motors and Zenthoefer Furs. The Shamrocks would have likely done the same. But, let’s just stick with Shamrocks for simplicity.
The final season of the StLMSL was 1952-53. For that season, the original Raiders were sponsored by, and took the name, Kutis, a local funeral home. Under that name, Kutis moved to the senior division of the Muny League starting with the 1953-54 season.
Three of the four St. Louis Major Soccer League teams joined the Muny League after the StLMSL folded. The Shamrocks would obviously do the same in our fictional timeline.
Soccer went into its postwar hibernation in the U.S. during the fifties and sixties. The Shamrocks would have played in the St. Louis Muny League, the National Challenge Cup, and the National Amateur Cup. Like most teams they would have toiled in relative obscurity to the general sporting public.
Things get complicated at the dawn of the North American Soccer League. So, in 1966 two competing professional leagues pop up: the United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer League. The former has FIFA and US Soccer sanctioning but launches a year early with teams wholly imported from other countries. The latter is an outlaw unsanctioned league, but has a television deal and actual independent teams.
The NPSL would be a better fit for our fictional Shamrocks. But, the NPSL already has the St. Louis Stars and the two league were completely opposed to multiple teams in one city. The USA didn’t have a St. Louis team but were all teams from other countries including one called the Boston Shamrock Rovers.
There’s not a great answer here. One option is to just have St. Louis have two teams in the NPSL. Another option is to have the USA give the Shamrocks a franchise that would start in 1967.
Just a quick note. The old American Soccer League was still kicking around as a semi-professional concern at this time. But, it wouldn’t expand to the Midwest until 1972. So, not an option for our fantasy Shamrocks.
The NPSL and USA merged after the 1966 soccer season. The new North American Soccer League was still opposed to having two franchises in one city. So, deals were struck. Some teams folded. Some were bought out. Some were merged.
The St. Louis Stars held a NPSL franchise which very easily became a NASL franchise. In our fictional timeline, the Stars held a NPSL franchise while the Shamrocks held an USA franchise. My option is to have the two franchises merge into one as the St. Louis Shamrock Stars.
The St. Louis Stars played in the NASL for ten years. Our Shamrock Stars will do the same. The Stars never won a NASL title and never won, or even played in, a U.S. Open Cup. At this point the USOC was seen as a purely amateur cup which the NASL clubs did not want to participate.
Prior to the 1978 season, the St. Louis Stars moved their NASL franchise to Anaheim, Cal. and became the California Surf. That team folded following the 1981 season.
In our timeline, the original ownership of the St. Louis Stars gets the NASL franchise to Anaheim and starts a new expansion California Surf. The original ownership of the St. Louis Shamrocks (USA franchise) retains the St. Louis NASL franchise. The renamed St. Louis Stars continues as a NASL franchise until the league folds following the 1984 season.
The original American Soccer League folded following its 1983 season. The active teams from that league started their own league in 1984 called the United Soccer League. That league continued into 1985 but fell apart before completing a full schedule.
The USL is the best option for our St. Louis Stars. The Stars would have moved over following the collapse of the NASL and played in the USL until that went under itself.
Options get really thin for our fictional St. Louis Stars in the late eighties. Indoor soccer is really the only option at this point. So, we’ll have the Stars focus on indoor soccer after the collapse of the USL.
The Major Indoor Soccer League was the big pro league at the end of the eighties. But, the St. Louis Steamers were already a franchise in the MISL for most of its run. So, our fictional St. Louis Stars will have to do with the lower level American Indoor Soccer Association for a couple of seasons.
The St. Louis Steamers lasted as a MISL franchise through the 1987-88 season. The league terminated its franchise following that. In our alternate history, the St. Louis Stars will have acquired the St. Louis MISL franchise and moved up from the AISA.
A workable regional outdoor soccer league finally opens up for our fictional St. Louis Stars in 1989. The Southwest Outdoor Soccer League was the inaugural outdoor season for what we now know as the United Soccer Leagues. The initial season of the SOSL included a team from Colorado so it’s more than fair that a team from St. Louis could have joined. Therefore, our St. Louis Stars will have joined this same league in 1989. And, it’s also very possible that our Stars could have entered the U.S. Open Cup for the first time since it joined the NASL in 1966!
The Western Soccer League and the new American Soccer League merged to form the American Professional Soccer League starting in 1990. Prior to that, neither league had any teams in the middle of the country. But, in 1990, the APSL had expansion clubs in Colorado and Salt Lake City.
In our alternate history, the St. Louis Stars move up from the amateur SOSL to the semi-pro APSL. It’s a bit more smooth sailing from here! And, I get to have a little more fun on when our Stars move up. Our Stars survive the merger of the APSL into the USISL through the end of the USL First Division in 2009.
The coming of NASL 2.0 created the need for US Soccer to mediate a Division 2 league to temporarily handle the situation. All the USL First Division teams joined the USSF Division 2 Professional League. In our alternate history, that would normally include our St. Louis Stars.
But, the actual D2 Pro League included the expansion AC St. Louis that was a NASL 2.0 franchise. In 2010, there was still big opposition to multiple teams in one city. But, because of the chaotic situation, let’s have our St. Louis Stars compete in the D2 Pro League with AC St. Louis.
In reality, AC St. Louis would fold following the 2010 season anyway. In our reality, St. Louis Stars won the St. Louis Soccer Warz of 2010 causing AC St. Louis to disband.
Our St. Louis Stars survive the competition with AC St. Louis and join NASL 2.0 for it’s initial 2011 season. Major League Soccer is in the middle of its expansion and is poaching legacy teams from Division 2. Our St. Louis Stars are no different and they announce their move up to MLS mid-season.
I could have promoted the St. Louis Stars in our alternate history anytime since 1995. But, it was more interesting to wait until the early 2010s. St. Louis made a couple of bids for MLS expansion in 2008 and 2009 but couldn’t put it all together. In our timeline, MLS sees St. Louis as viable more early on due to the Stars’ defeat of AC St. Louis at the beginning of NASL 2.0.
During the 2011 season, MLS approves Stars for an expansion franchise. The St. Louis Stars ownership group forms St. Louis Stars FC as the expansion team and folds the St. Louis Stars NASL franchise in order to facilitate the move. St. Louis Stars FC joins MLS for its 2012 season.
The Stars are a model franchise but just can’t get over the hump and win either a league or USOC title. That changes in 2025 when they make a historic run in the USOC and ultimately take home the cup. It’s the first U.S. Open Cup win for St. Louis Stars FC since its title way back in 1935!
This was something a little different but I thought that it was fun enough to put out there as a post. Hope you enjoyed it!
Last modified on Aug. 28, 2025, 2:34 p.m.