Seasons of the early professional soccer league based out of St. Louis, Missouri
The following is a list of seasons for the St. Louis Soccer League. The league ran from 1915 to 1938 was America's only professional soccer league at the time of foundation. This list also includes seasons from 1907 to 1915 for the St. Louis Soccer Football League.
St. Leo's won the 1909–10 Athletic Park League.[2] The weeks leading up to the 1909–10 season saw the arrival of the Pilgrims club from England. This team, on a tour of the United States, played several games against local opponents. The season began the first week of November 1909.[3] All games were played at Athletic Park which used to sit at the intersection of Garrison Avenue and Market Street.
League standings for the 1912–13 season as of December 23, 1912 for the Athletic Park League.[6] The St. Leo's team withdrew in January and were replaced by Compton Hills. The League reset and started anew on January 26, 1913.
This season, the league experienced a split caused by St. Leo's success the past few seasons. St. Leo's was the only fully professional team in the league which led to its domination. When the other teams attempted to ban professionals, St. Leo's left the SLSL and set up the St. Louis Football League playing out of Athletic Park.[7] The other teams formed the St. Louis Soccer League playing out of Robison Park.[8]
The St. Louis Soccer League had split into two competing leagues, the Federal Park League and the Robison League, before the 1913–14 season. This season, the Robison League played two halves with a mid-winter break. At the end of the season, the champions from each league played against each other for the city championship.[9]
Innisfails defeated St. Leo's. The first game of the three-game series ended in a 2–2 tie with Innisfails taking the second game, 4–2. The third game never materialized because of conflicting events and unavailability of players.[11]
The St. Louis Soccer League was reestablished this season after the league had split into two competing blocks of teams during the previous two seasons.[13][14]
The season concluded with Ben Millers and Innisfails tied at 23 points each.[19] A one-game playoff was needed to break the tie which was won by the Ben Millers.[20]
This season the St. Louis Soccer League, headed by president Phil A. Riley, decided to try a new format. The idea was to make an eight team league[32] instead of the usual four with 50 cent admission playing out of two fields. Four 'old pros' comprising the national champion Centrals, (Johnny) Marre's, Ben Millers, and Hellrung Grimms would be combined with four 'graduates' in the German Sport Club, George McGann's Schumachers, Ed Delaney's Hermanns, and Sociedad Espanola (Spanish Sport Club).[33] The two fields used were Sportsman's Park and South Side Park, aka National Softball Park.[33] The referees enlisted were Oscar Mossman, Jimmy Dunn, Ribby Murphy,[33] and Charley LaBarge. The league played three rounds beginning on October 6 before problems arose in the fourth week. The standings for the first three weeks are below.
Beginning with the fourth week (October 27) admission was reduced to 25 cents with ladies free. Two of the games were called off at South Side field because of weather conditions. The games at the other field were played after a delay due to the assumption that the games would also be called off for the same reason. The delay caused the games to be shortened and were played without a break with some players having left as well. It was decided that these games would be considered exhibitions and not count in the standings and the entire round replayed. This never happened because by the next week the Schumachers, Hermanns, and German Sport Club withdrew from the league.
St. Louis 5
On November 3, prior games were scratched from the record and the league restarted with five teams: Ben Millers, Hellrung & Grimm, Spanish Sport Club, and St. Louis Soccer Club (formerly Democratic Country Club). In the first round St. Louis Soccer Club toppled Ben Millers 6-1 while Spanish Sport Club shutout Hellrungs 4–0, Marre's had a bye.
St. Louis 4
The following week (November 10) the league restarted a third time having returned to four teams and one field.[34] The league would play at National Softball Park while the 'St. Louis 1' soon to be Father Dempsey's Shamrocks would be a league of their own at Sportsman's Park to entertain intercity competition. The next week (November 17) the St. Louis Soccer Club played their first games as the Shamrocks against the Maccabees of Chicago, winning 4–2. The Spanish Club also played their first game as Burke's and went on to win the first half with a perfect record. First half season standings below.
Last season's 'double winners' as the Centrals began the current season under the sponsorship of the Democratic Country Club only to lose it a month later to become simply the St. Louis Soccer Club. They may have been able to repeat the double but did not participate in the remainder of the league season and finished runner up in the National Challenge Cup competition. When they were competing in the league they were undefeated but found stiff competition from the also undefeated Burke's, the Shamrocks had the edge only in goal differential. Their toughest intercity opponent proved to be Heidelberg. They commenced independent play on November 17 as Father Dempsey's Shamrocks. Their games were played at Sportsman's Park with an admission fee of 55 cents which was more than twice than what the St. Louis league was charging yet they drew many more fans. Below are their results including goal scorers.
November 17 Shamrocks 4-2 Chicago Maccabee (Patenaude (3), Gonsalves)
November 24 Shamrocks 2-2 Slavia-Bartunek (Gonsalves)
December 1 Shamrocks 3-2 Chicago Sparta (Watson, Patenaude, Roe)
December 8 Shamrocks 2-4 Heidelberg (Gonsalves(2))
December 15 Shamrocks 7-0 Milwaukee Deutscher SC (Patenaude(3), Gonsalves(3), Watson)
December 22 Shamrocks 5-1 Cleveland Graphite-Bronze (Patenaude(4), Gonsalves)
December 29 Shamrocks 4-1 Cleveland Slavia (Garcia, Patenaude(2), Gonsalves)
January 1 Shamrocks 2-2 Heidelberg (Patenaude, Gonsalves, Lehman(og))
January 5 Shamrocks 2-0 Heidelberg (Nilsen, Gonsalves)
January 12 Shamrocks 10-2 Chicago Olympia (Gonsalves(3), Patenaude(2), Roe(2), Nilsen(2), Egan) -game postponed from December 25
February 23 Shamrocks 3-0 Burke (Patenaude(2), Roe)
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