Sept. 9 (1883)

In one of the early reports on soccer in St. Louis, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that the St. Louis Foot Ball Club defeats the Shamrocks at Compton Avenue Park after being challenged by the Shamrocks to play the game. The newspaper doesn’t give the score in the 37-word item that appears in its Sept. 10 edition, but writes that the Shamrocks issue another challenge after the game for a rematch. With the sport still developing in St. Louis — the first report of a soccer-like game appears in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat in May 1875 — there is no organized way to set up matches. One-off games are the norm for soccer in St. Louis in the early 1880s. Games are sometimes part of a larger slate of sports events at church festivals. At other times, games result from challenges between teams, as is the case for the St. Louis Foot Ball Club-Shamrocks matches. Adding to the chaotic state of the sport is confusion over the name of the game itself. In the 1880s, “foot ball” can mean either rugby or soccer, with the result that a team might show up for a challenge expecting to play soccer against an opponent ready to play rugby. The chaos finally lessens when the first soccer league known to exist in St. Louis, the Western Association, is formed in October 1884.