January 18 (1897)

The Association Foot Ball League standings in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch show two of the most powerful St. Louis teams of the 1890s at or near the top of the six-team league. The St. Louis Cycling Club leads with 10 wins, 2 losses and no ties for 20 points, followed by St Teresa’s with 9 wins, 3 losses and no ties for 18 points. (The league only gave 2 points for a win instead of today’s 3 points.) St. Teresa’s used mostly local players, such as John “King” Finnegan, to win four consecutive city soccer championships from 1892-95. The Cycling Club recruits out-state and foreign players, such as future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Benny Govier. Govier, who was born in Scotland and grew up in Chicago, was “a midfielder who was considered the best player in American soccer in the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th,” according to the Society for American Soccer History’s website. The Cycling Club and St. Teresa’s will clash in a memorable match won by St. Teresa’s in south St. Louis on April 18, 1897, that will outdraw a Cardinals’ exhibition game played at the same time in north St. Louis.