Nov. 1 (1896)

St. Teresa’s, the dominant soccer team in St. Louis for much of the 1890s, gets off to a 2-0 start in defense of its St. Louis city championship by blasting the Cappells, 6-0. The St. Louis Association Football League match “wound up in a wrangle that resulted in the Cappells leaving the field,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch will report in its Nov. 2 soccer wrap-up. The Cappels (the newspaper spelled the team’s name two ways, with one l and with two ls; the St. Louis Globe-Democrat spelled the team’s name “Kappels”) say the referee favors St. Teresa’s with his decisions. The Cappels protest by walking off the field midway through the second half. “As it was growing dark, the game was called,” according to the Nov. 2 St. Louis Globe-Democrat. The game ends and goes in the books as a 6-0 victory for St. Teresa’s. The league’s other matches include the Cycling Club blanking the Jokersts, 2-0. St. Teresa’s and the Cycling Club have markedly different philosophies: all but two of St. Teresa’s players are native St. Louisans. The Cycling Club recruits outstate and foreign players such as future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Benny Govier, who grew up in Chicago. Govier and the Cycling Club will go on to unseat St. Teresa’s as the St. Louis city champions for the 1896-97 season.