May 26 (1957)

Future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Bill Looby provides all the firepower Kutis of St. Louis needs to clip Schwaben of Chicago, 2-1, in the second game of the two-game U.S. Amateur Cup semifinals at Winnemac Stadium in Chicago. Looby picks up the slack left by the absence of injured forward Bob Rooney by scoring both goals. Kutis, which had won the first game by the same score in St. Louis, plays without another of its stars, Herman Wecke, also out with an injury. Leroy Franks and Bill Eppy play critical roles in holding Schwaben to one goal. Goalkeeper Franks “dove at the feet of Walter Juengling to avert a sure score,” according to a report in the next day’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch. At another point in the match, Eppy “caught Gene Mayer from behind to halt a clean break-through,” according to the Post-Dispatch story. The victory puts Kutis, which had already won the U.S. Open Cup championship, into the Amateur Cup finals and positions Kutis to pull off a rare “double” by winning both of the nation’s major soccer championships. Another laurel comes Kutis’ way after the game in Chicago when the U.S. Soccer Football Association designates Kutis as the U.S. representative in two World Cup qualifying games against Canada in June and July.