Sept. 5 (1928)

Future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Bob Annis is born. He will be one of six St. Louisans on the 1950 U.S. World Cup team that defeats England, 1-0. Annis will not appear in any of the 1950 World Cup matches. His soccer resume will include being a member of the 1948 U.S. Olympic soccer team, which will lose its only match of the tournament to Italy, 9-0. A defender, Annis will earn his only cap for the United States when he plays the entire game in a 3-1 defeat of Israel in a friendly at the Polo Grounds in New York on Sept. 26, 1948, before a crowd reported by the Associated Press to number 35,000. He will play for Simpkins Ford, a team consisting mostly of players from the Italian Hill neighborhood in St. Louis. He will help Simpkins win the 1948 and 1950 U.S. Open Cups. Speaking of Annis and his unheralded role as an unused substitute on the 1950 World Cup team, Simpkins teammate Bill Lange tells Dave Lange (no relation) in a 2023 interview: “The guy who got overlooked was Bobby Annis. He was a hell of a player. He started out as a forward and he had speed. They made him a fullback and he could cover you like there was no tomorrow because he was so quick.”