Oct. 17 (1896)

Future U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame journalist Dent McSkimming is born. “The Senor,” as he will be called by his newspaper peers because of his fluency in Spanish, will become a legendary soccer journalist, primarily with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covering the sport at all levels for more than 50 years. He will pay his own way to the 1950 World Cup, and will be the only U.S. reporter to witness the epic U.S. upset of England, with five St. Louisans in the starting lineup. “Dent McSkimming wasn’t just a soccer writer; he was THE soccer writer,” Monsignor Louis Meyer will tell Dave Lange in a 2010 interview. Meyer will grow up in the1920s and will know McSkimming during Meyer’s many years of supporting soccer in St. Louis. Known for sitting alone in a far corner of the stands while covering a match — McSkimming wanted no distractions from those chatting nearby — his soccer stories will tell it like it is, warts and all. Val Pelizzaro, who will play for the powerhouse Kutis teams of the 1950s, will remember McSkimming’s comments about Pelizzaro in an interview with Lange. Writing in the Post-Dispatch on Nov. 9, 1953, after Pelizzaro’s first match with Kutis following Pelizzaro’s discharge from the Army, McSkimming will observe: “Val Pelizzaro, playing his first game since his return from Korea, was not on good speaking terms with the ball.” McSkimming will die on July 13, 1976, having seen all the great St. Louis teams and players from St. Leo’s of the 1910s to U.S. Soccer Hall of Famers Pat McBride and Al Trost in the 1960s and 1970s. St. Louis native and former U.S National Team player Steve Pecher is McSkimming’s great nephew.