November 9 (1924)

Future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Joe Carenza Sr. is born. A Navy veteran of World War II, Carenza will prove to be a steady fullback for a number of St. Louis teams, including the two best local clubs of the postwar era, Kutis and Simpkins. But extensive injuries he will suffer in a construction accident will put him out of playing soccer for good. It will be during his post-playing career that Carenza will make important contributions leading to his induction into the national soccer hall of fame. He will serve as commissioner of the Khoury Soccer Association and will start men’s soccer at Washington University in 1961. Six years later, Carenza will follow another U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer, Bob Guelker, as Catholic Youth Council sports director. While with the CYC, Carenza and CYC director Monsignor Louis Meyer will team with Pepsi to upgrade the junior soccer program and with Anheuser-Busch to initiate the Busch Major League. At a time before youth select soccer, the Pepsi program will be responsible for training thousands of youngsters in soccer skills that will lead to college scholarships for many. Once in college, players who will stay in town—or close enough to drive in for games, as many will do from Quincy College and even from Michigan State—will maintain their off-season skills in the highly competitive Busch Major League. With seasoned amateur players in their late twenties and beyond, as well as current college players, the Busch Major League games often will surpass the quality of play at the college level. Senior soccer will be such a strong attraction that many highly recruited high school players will sign with local schools just so they can play in the Busch Major League. Future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Al Trost could have played college soccer outside St. Louis, but will elect to stay home at St. Louis University. The Busch Major League “was a one of the big draws for me staying here,” Trost will tell Dave Lange in a 2009 interview. “You knew going into every game that you were going to have a tough game.” After Carenza’s passing in an automobile-truck accident in 1981, St. Louis Globe-Democrat executive sports editor Bob Burnes will write that Carenza was “an honest soccer player. An honest soccer coach. An honest director of the CYC who gave thousands of hours of his own time to make the program run smoother and more successfully.”