January 12 (1977)

An indication of the high regard for St. Louis soccer talent is the number of St. Louis players selected in the 1977 NASL draft. Fourteen of 75 picks are from St. Louis or St. Louis schools. First-round selections include Bruce Rudroff (Seattle), Don Droege (Rochester) and Kevin Eagan (Tampa Bay). Rudroff will play three seasons with the Seattle Sounders. Droege will play seven seasons with six different teams. Eagan will play five seasons with three teams. A total of 101 St. Louis players will appear in at least one NASL game during the league’s existence from 1967-84. That equates to 4 percent of the 2,480 players who logged at least one game in the foreign-dominated league, the first national professional soccer league in the United States.