December 13 (1896)

In a replay of the previous season’s city championship game, St. Teresa’s defeats Diels, 1-0, in a St. Louis Association Foot Ball League match before “one of the largest crowds that ever attended a game in this city,” according to the Dec. 17, 1896, issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Paid attendance is 1,832, and newspaper reports emphasize that “fully 500 of the fair sex” attended. Women are admitted free, which brings the total attendance to about 2,300. The victory gives St. Teresa’s sole possession of first place with a 7-1-0 record. Diels is 6-2-0 in the six-team league. The attendance at the match emphasizes “the popularity which this sport has sprung up in the last two years,” the Post-Dispatch writes. The rising interest in matches prompts the Association Foot Ball League to extend the 1896-97 season to the first Sunday in April. The 1895-96 season had ended in early February. St. Teresa’s, the first powerful Catholic parish team in St. Louis, will win four consecutive city championships. All but one of St. Teresa’s players are native St. Louisans.