Sports in St. Louis
The city of
St. Louis has three major league sports teams. The
The most recent team to begin play in St. Louis is St. Louis City SC, a Major League Soccer expansion team that started play in 2023. St. Louis has an extensive history in soccer, contributing at least one participant to each FIFA World Cup contested by the United States men's team. The city is the birthplace of corkball.
Current teams
Major league teams
| Team | Sport | League | Established | Venue | Championships |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis Blues | Ice hockey | National Hockey League | 1967 | Enterprise Center | 1 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | Baseball | Major League Baseball | 1882 | Busch Stadium | 11 |
| St. Louis City SC | Soccer | Major League Soccer | 2019 | CityPark
|
0 |
Minor league and notable amateur teams
Baseball
- See footnote[5]
St. Louis is represented in Major League Baseball by the Cardinals, founded in 1882 and playing in the National League since 1892. The team won its first World Series in 1926 and its 11th and most recent in 2011. The team plays at the 43,795-seat Busch Stadium (the third ground to bear that name), which has a view of the city's Gateway Arch.
The 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game between the American League (AL) and the National League (NL)[6] was held on July 14, 2009, at Busch Stadium.[7][8] It was the first All-Star Game held in St. Louis since 1966.[9]
The St. Louis Browns played in the AL from 1902 to 1953.
The
Soccer
On August 20, 2019,
City SC's reserve side,
St. Louis is represented in the
St. Louis has long had a reputation as being one of America's soccer hotbeds, and is home to arguably the richest soccer history in the nation. The city has a strong tradition of prep and select soccer, which is followed very closely by many area residents. St. Louis has contributed at least one participant to each
In 2013,
Every U.S. team in men's World Cup history has included at least one St. Louisan on its roster, and 29 St. Louisans have been inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.[12] Five St. Louisans, including many from the historically Italian neighborhood of
St. Louis is the former home of several professional teams, including the
The Saint Louis Athletica competed in Women's Professional Soccer from 2009 to 2010. Athletica played its home matches on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and later moved to Scott Gallagher Soccer Park in west county. The team folded in May 2010 when donors did not continue to fund the team.
Club Atletico Saint Louis, a semi-professional soccer team, began play in 2018 after being founded as a youth clinic two years prior. The team competes within the National Premier Soccer League and plays out of St. Louis University High School Soccer Stadium.
The St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame, established in 1971, is located at the Midwest Soccer Academy and includes a museum with various exhibits.[14] The first annual dinner was held in 1971.[14]
Ice hockey
The St. Louis Blues are a professional
The first NHL team to call St. Louis its home was the St. Louis Eagles. The franchise moved from Ottawa in time for the 1934–35 NHL season. The Ottawa Senators had played in the NHL from 1917 to 1934. During that time the team had won the Stanley Cup in 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1920, 1921, 1923, and 1927. Following the Cup win in 1927 the team went on a sharp decline and in December 1933 rumors surfaced that the Senators would merge with the equally strapped New York Americans. This information was denied by Ottawa club president Frank Ahearn, who had sought financial help from the league. The team played the full 1933–34 season, transferring one home game to Detroit. Near the end of the season, reports surfaced that the club had entered into a deal with St. Louis "interests" to move the club. The team lost its last home game by a score of 3–2 to the Americans on March 15, 1934, before a crowd of 6,500. The final game of the season was a 2–2 tie with the Maroons at the Montreal Forum on March 18, 1934.
The Eagles would survive only one season, as the team continued to lose money due to high travel costs. At that time, the league only had nine teams, with St. Louis playing in the Canadian Division. The division consisted of two teams in Montreal (the Canadiens and Maroons), one team in Toronto (Toronto) and the New York Americans. The American Division hosted the Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Black Hawks and the New York Rangers. The Eagles would finish with a league-worse record of 11-31-6.
American football
St. Louis has been the home of four
The second franchise was the St. Louis Gunners. The Gunners were an independent professional football team that played the last three games of the 1934 National Football League season, replacing the Cincinnati Reds on the league schedule after the Reds' league membership was suspended. They won their first game against the Pittsburgh Pirates (now Steelers) 6–0, but lost the last two to the Detroit Lions (40–7) and the Green Bay Packers (21–14). Six of the Reds players joined the team for the last two games. The team was headquartered at the St. Louis National Guard Armory, which accounts for its nickname the 'Gunners'.
The third franchise was the
The fourth franchise was the
On January 13, 2016, it was announced that NFL owners voted 30–2 to allow Rams ownership to move the team back to Los Angeles for the 2016 season.[15][16]
In December 2018, it was announced the
Saint Louis University football coach Eddie Cochems developed the first modern passing offense in American football history in 1906. Cochems' star halfback, Bradbury Robinson, threw the first legal forward pass on September 5, 1906, in a 22–0 victory over Carroll College at Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Basketball
St. Louis was home to two
Corkball
St. Louis has several recreational corkball leagues. A variant of baseball, corkball is played with a 1.6-oz. ball and a bat whose barrel is 1.5" wide. It has many of the features of baseball, yet can be played in a very small area because there is no base-running. Invented on the streets and alleys of St. Louis in the early 1900s, the game has leagues around the country, thanks to servicemen who introduced the game to their buddies during World War II and the Korean War.[20]
Individual sports
St. Louis was home to four prominent twentieth-century boxers: Sonny Liston, Henry Armstrong, and brothers Leon and Michael Spinks. The Spinkses are the first of only two sets of brothers to have captured the heavyweight boxing title. Leon's son Cory Spinks has also held a world title.
The Gateway Cross Cup is an international professional competition in
College sports
The Metro East region, across the Mississippi River in Illinois, is home to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), whose teams play as the SIU Edwardsville Cougars in the Division I Ohio Valley Conference (OVC). Like SLU, SIUE does not sponsor football, but unlike SLU has never had a football program. SIUE is also known for its men's soccer program, and has an active rivalry with the Billikens. The men's soccer team joined the OVC, which previously sponsored soccer only for women, in 2023 when that conference launched a men's soccer league for the first time.
Lindenwood also operated a sister campus on the Illinois side of the river in Belleville from 2009 until that campus was closed in 2020. The Belleville campus had been a dual member of the NAIA and USCAA in its first season of varsity athletics in 2011–12, and then fully aligned with the NAIA, remaining in that organization until the campus' closure.
The University of Missouri–St. Louis, located just outside the city limits in St. Louis County, also has an NCAA Division II athletic program in the UMSL Tritons. All of the school's teams compete in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
In NCAA Division III, the Washington University Bears, representing Washington University in St. Louis, have won 18 national titles in four different sports.
In March 2005,
The
Since 2000, the Enterprise Center has hosted the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships nine times, most recently in 2021.[23]
Former teams
References
- Sporting News. Archived from the originalon August 16, 2000. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
- ^ Toler, Lindsay (2016-01-07). "Wall Street Journal: St. Louis Is the Top Sports City in 2015". www.stlmag.com. Retrieved 2019-04-20.
- ^ "MLB World Series Champions - Major League Baseball - ESPN". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2019-04-20.
- ^ "St. Louis Blues — History: Year-By-Year Records". St. Louis Blues. Archived from the original on 2008-10-04. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
- ^ Taylor, Phil (October 31, 2011). "Where's The Boo In Booster?". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
Redbird Nation's reputation as the most knowledgeable, loyal and, above all, friendly fans in the majors .... 'Our fans are the best because they're just as passionate as anywhere else...but they're probably a little more fair-minded,' says St. Louis manager Tony La Russa.
- ^ Leach, Matthew (2008-07-16). "Countdown begins for '09 All-Star Game". News. MLB.com. Retrieved 2008-07-18.
- ^ "St. Louis gets 2009 All-Star game". USA Today. Associated Press. 2007-01-16. Retrieved 2008-07-18.
- ^ ESPN news services (2007-01-16). "Selig signs off on 2009 All-Star Game for St. Louis". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2008-07-16.
- ^ Matthew, Leach (2007-01-16). "St. Louis awarded 2009 All-Star Game". News. MLB.com. Retrieved 2008-07-16.
- ^ "MLS Adds St. Louis as League's 28th Team". The New York Times. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ a b Sports Illustrated, Real Madrid dominates Inter to close American tour, August 10, 2013, http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20130810/real-madrid-inter.ap/?sct=sc_t2_a4
- ^ Homepage. St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame website. Retrieved 2011-06-05.
- ^ "Ambush return to St. Louis", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 22, 2013.
- ^ a b [1] webpage. St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame website. Retrieved 2011-06-05.
- ^ Hanzus, Dan (January 12, 2016). "Rams to relocate to L.A.; Chargers first option to join". NFL.com. National Football League. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
- ^ "Rams to Return to Los Angeles". St. Louis Rams. January 12, 2016. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
- ^ "St. Louis Surge Owner Shoots For More Women In Pro Basketball's Owner, Referee Ranks | STLPR".
- ^ "Proactive Plays Make for a Winning Relationship with the St. Louis Surge | Anders CPA". anderscpa.com. Archived from the original on 2019-05-17.
- ^ "St. Louis Surge owner stops by Show Me St. Louis". ksdk.com. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
- Esquire Magazine. Retrieved 2009-08-13.
- ^ NCAA Soccer, Men's Attendance Records, Annual Home Attendance Champions, http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_soccer_RB/2011/attend.pdf
- ^ Rugby Mag, 2012–2013 Preseason All-Division Men College Top 25, August 28, 2012
- ^ "DI Wrestling Championship History | NCAA.com". www.ncaa.com. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
- ^ "1985 St. Louis Slims".
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