January 10 (1915)

Future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Harry Ratican scores all three goals to lead the Ben Miller Hat Co. to a 3-1 win over Compton Hills in the professional Federal Park Soccer League at Federal Park, Grand and Laclede avenues. The game is played during the second season of a professional soccer war in St. Louis. Hostilities began before the 1913-14 season when disgruntled teams left the St. Louis Soccer League to form another professional league with the nearly identical name of the St. Louis Football League. Confusion reigned as befuddled soccer fans tried to distinguish between the warring leagues. The St. Louis Football League blinked first and changed its name to the Federal Park Soccer League for the 1914-15 season. Each league pays players with proceeds from ticket sales. The pay can be quite good, sometimes more than professional players make in England, where soccer wages are capped at 4 pounds per week. But pay isn’t so good during the soccer war because of falling attendance. The leagues’ organizers and players realize that peace must come to bring prosperity. The war ends after the 1914-15 season with the demise of the Federal Park Soccer League, whose top two teams return to the St. Louis Soccer League for the 1915-16 season. One of the few certainties during the soccer war is that Harry Ratican is the top player in St. Louis, no matter where he plays. Considered the best player produced in St. Louis before the 1960s, Ratican will be noticed by powerful teams in the northeastern United States and will play there starting in 1916 for much of a playing career that runs to 1928.