The St. Louis Storm was a

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

team based out of

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

that played in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL). They played from 1989 to 1992. Their home arena was the

St. Louis Arena St. Louis Arena (known as the Checkerdome from 1977 to 1983) was an indoor arena in St. Louis, Missouri. The country's second-largest indoor entertainment venue when it opened in 1929, it was home to the St. Louis Blues and other sports franchis ...

. The mascot for the St. Louis Storm was named "Colt Flash" (1990).

History

On July 13, 1989, Milan Mandaric announced the formation of the St. Louis Storm at the

Missouri Athletic Club The Missouri Athletic Club (often referred to as the MAC), founded in 1903, is a private city and athletic club with two locations. The Downtown Clubhouse is in Downtown St. Louis, Missouri, USA and the West Clubhouse is located in the St. Lou ...

. Mandaric, a Yugoslav-born technology businessman and mechanical engineer, had previously owned the

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional association football, soccer club based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. Origin ...

of the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

from 1974 to 1978. The club began play with the 1989–90 MISL season.

Don Popovic Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin * Don, Dang, a village and hill station in Dang district, Guj ...

, a Yugoslav native who had spent three seasons with the St. Louis Stars during his playing career, was hired as the head coach. Both the MISL and the Storm folded after the 1991–92 season.

Notable players

A notable Storm player was

Preki Predrag Radosavljević ( sr-Cyrl, Предраг Радосављевић; born June 24, 1963), better known by the nickname Preki (), is a former soccer player and coach. He is currently an assistant coach with Seattle Sounders FC in Major Le ...

, the Yugoslav born winger who stayed with the club until its demise in 1992, when he signed for Everton in the new

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

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. He later played for

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

before returning to the US to play in the newly formed

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

in 1996, the same year that he was first selected for the United States national soccer team. Other notable players include: * Scott Biason * David Brcic

Coaches

(1989–92) *

Fernando Clavijo Fernando Caetano Clavijo Cedrés (January 23, 1956 – February 8, 2019) was a Uruguayan-American soccer defender and former head coach of the New England Revolution and Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. He played three seasons in the ...

(1992)

Yearly awards

* All-Star team selection:

(1989–90) (1990–91) * Rookie of the Year: Terry Brown (1989–90) * Newcomer of the Year: Claudio De Oliviera (1989–90) * MVP:

(1989–90) (1990–91)

References

Defunct indoor soccer clubs in the United States

Storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstor ...

Soccer clubs in Missouri Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) teams 1989 establishments in Missouri 1992 disestablishments in Missouri {{StLouis-sport-stub