April 12 (1914)

The St. Mathews Saints win the Municipal League soccer championship with a 2-1 victory over the Claxtons at Fairground Park. Tied 1-1 after 90 minutes, the teams play 8-minute overtime periods until a goal is scored. Outside left Bill Kerr scores his second goal of the game near the end of the fourth overtime. The Claxtons, playing under the name of the Blue Wings in 1913, also lost in that season’s Muny League final. The Muny League title is considered to be the amateur soccer championship of St. Louis. An estimated crowd of 15,000 watch the 1914 final, played on Easter Sunday. “People were standing six to eight deep clear around the field,” Ignatius M. Hilpisch writes in the next day’s St. Louis Globe-Democrat. “Those who could not get a good place to see went to neighboring houses and camped on the roofs, while others crowded on a bridge which spanned a lake a short distance from the field.”