March 8 (1931)

The Ben Millers’ hopes of winning the National Challenge Cup (today’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup) are dimmed considerably in a 7-2 loss to the Chicago Bricklayers at Sportsman’s Park in the first of the best-of-three-games Western final. The Western winner will play the Eastern winner in the Cup finals. The Ben Millers, who captured the first national soccer title for St. Louis when they won the National Challenge Cup in 1920, score twice on their first three chances to open a 2-0 lead after 15 minutes on a field described by future U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame journalist Dent McSkimming as “a sheet of ice here, mud there, and water everywhere.” The Bricklayers draw even by halftime, then dominate the last 45 minutes, prompting many of the 3,500 fans on hand to head to the exits early. Dave Coutts scores three goals for the winners. Before the game even begins, several Bricklayers are attacked on their way to the Sportsman’s Park dressing room, allegedly by Jimmy McCarthy, a center forward with the Schenbergs team in the St. Louis Municipal League.  Bricklayers player Hughie “Hill wore a big bruise under his right eye,” McSkimming writes in the March 9 edition. “He says he was kicked after being knocked down.” No reason is given for the attack. The Bricklayers will win the second game, 1-0, in Chicago on March 15, but will lose in the finals to the Fall River (Mass.) Marksmen. Ironically, many of the Marksmen, such as future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famers Alec McNab, Billy Gonsalves, Bert Patenaude and Werner Nilsen, will migrate to St. Louis and will form the backbone of St. Louis teams that will win three consecutive Cups starting with the 1932-33 season.