Sept. 1 (1915)

Christian Brothers College, then a school for elementary, high school and college males that fields highly successful soccer teams, says it likely will drop college football after suffering serious financial losses in the two preceding seasons. “If the college drops the gridiron sport, it probably will plunge on in soccer,” according to the Sept. 1, 1915, issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. CBC won the Municipal League amateur soccer championship earlier in 1915. A primary force in developing soccer in St. Louis, CBC first fielded a college soccer team in the 1880s. A CBC team with players under 16 years of age started playing other local youth teams in 1888. CBC developed numerous future professional players in the first 15 years of the 20th century, including future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famers Jimmy Dunn and Harry Ratican. (Ratican, a multisport athlete, scored a touchdown on a fumble recovery and kicked the extra point in CBC’s 20-7 loss to Notre Dame at Robison Field in St. Louis on Nov. 22, 1913. The legendary Knute Rockne played left end and captained the Notre Dame team.) CBC will opt to continue college football, but a fire will kill 10 people and destroy CBC’s campus on Cote Brilliante Avenue on Oct. 5, 1916. CBC will reopen as a secondary school on Clayton Road across from St. Mary’s Hospital in 1922. There, CBC will begin a new chapter as a high school soccer powerhouse that continues to this day at its current campus just west of the intersection of Interstates 270 and 64.