April 13 (1961)

The St. Louis Archdiocesan Catholic Youth Council reports that the CYC is fielding 352 soccer teams with 6,620 players in eight age groups. The St. Louis CYC will grow to be the largest soccer organization in the United States by 1966 with 447 teams. The youth soccer network established by the CYC and the Khoury League is a key to the dominance of St. Louis players in the U.S. Junior Cup for boys (known today as the McGuire Cup for 19-and-under boys) and U.S. men’s college soccer. St. Louis teams will win 19 U.S. Junior Cups for boys from 1956-84 and 33 NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA men’s national championships from 1959-81 (including 11 won by Quincy College, whose players were predominantly from St. Louis). Although the CYC athletic program was not officially formed until 1941, CYC soccer traces its roots to the establishment of the Sodality League in St. Louis in 1893. Parishes fielded men’s and boys’ soccer teams in leagues earlier than the Sodality League at least as far back as 1888, when Christian Brothers College (then a school for elementary, secondary and college male students) started an in-house league for its boys’ students.