Stix, Baer and Fuller F.C. was a U.S. soccer club which played in the

St. Louis Soccer League The St. Louis Soccer League was based in St. Louis, Missouri and existed from 1915 to 1938. At its founding, it was the only fully professional soccer league in the United States. The league was founded from two teams from the St. Louis Soccer F ...

from 1931 to 1934. The team was known as Hellrungs from 1929 to 1931, St. Louis Central Breweries F.C. from 1934 to 1935 and St. Louis Shamrocks from 1935 to 1938. During its short existence, it won two

National Challenge Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in that country. The 2023 U.S. Op ...

titles and two league championships as Stix, Baer and Fuller and one National Cup and league title as St. Louis Central Breweries.

History

Hellrungs

Teams in the St. Louis Soccer League depended on corporate sponsorship. As a result, the teams would frequently change names as their sponsor changed. The team, sponsored by the Hellrung & Grimm House Furnishing Company, was established as Hellrungs in 1929 as a member of the St. Louis Soccer League (SLSL).

Stix, Baer and Fuller

In 1931, it came under new sponsorship from the

Stix, Baer and Fuller __NOTOC__ Stix, Baer and Fuller (sometimes called "Stix" or SBF or the Grand-Leader) was a department store chain in St. Louis, Missouri that operated from 1892 to 1984. Founders and History Originally called the Grand-Leader, the original centra ...

, one of the largest St. Louis department stores. Hellrungs had finished the 1930-1931 season third out of four teams in the SLSL. Stix, Baer and Fuller (SBF) would not improve on Hellrungs’ performance, finishing third in the 1931-1932 standings. However, they found considerable success on the national level as they went to the

finals. In the semifinal series, they won the first game against Chicago's

Bricklayers and Masons F.C. Bricklayers and Masons F.C., also known as Chicago Bricklayers, was a U.S. soccer team based in Chicago, Illinois which joined that city's Association Football League in 1914. Over the next twenty years, Bricklayers won two Peel Cups and was the ...

3-1, before losing 2-0 the second game. As the series was tied, the two teams played a deciding game, won by SBF 1-0. In the National Cup finals, SBF ran up against the

New Bedford Whalers New Bedford Whalers was the name of three American soccer teams based in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The first Whalers played in the Southern New England Soccer League between 1914 and 1918. The second Whalers played in the American Soccer Leag ...

of the American Soccer League. Whalers was stocked with future Hall of Famers. Despite that, SBF played them to a 3-3 tie in St. Louis before losing 5-2 in the second game, both played in St. Louis.
/sup> The Whalers folded after the National Cup series and five of its players moved west to join SBF. Bolstered by the influx of talent, SBF ran to the top of the table in the 1932-1933 SLSL season. They also won the National Cup with two victories, 1-0 and 2-1, against the

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. SBF then went on to play the Toronto Scottish in the “North American Soccer Championship” and occasional game which pitted the National Challenge Cup and Canadian championship teams. Toronto won the game 2-1 despite a goal for SBF from

Billy Gonsalves Adelino William Gonsalves (August 10, 1908 – July 17, 1977) was an American soccer player, sometimes described as the "Babe Ruth of American Soccer". He spent over 25 years playing in various American professional leagues and was a member of t ...

.
/sup> SBF continued both its league and National Cup success in the 1933-1934 season. They finished at the top of the SLSL table and won the National Cup over the

Pawtucket Rangers J. & P. Coats was an American soccer club founded in 1900 as the team of the Pawtucket, Rhode Island branch of the J. & P. Coats threadmaking company of Paisley, Scotland (following a 1952 merger this firm became part of the Coats Group). The clu ...

in three games, a 4-2 victory, 2-3 loss and a 5-0 third game.

Central Breweries

Following their National Cup victory, the team again changed sponsorship, this time to St. Louis Central Breweries. The newly renamed team continued to find success, winning both the 1935 SLSL and National Cup titles.

Shamrocks

In October 1935, the team changed sponsorship, starting the season as Democratic Country Club. In mid October the sponsors James A.Burke and John J.Dwyer dropped their connection with the team and for the next month were known simply as St. Louis soccer club. Without financial backing and some of the players otherwise unemployed they considered disbanding. It was in mid November that they withdrew from the league and began an intercity schedule out of Sportsmans Park under the name Father Dempsey's Shamrocks with the backing of Phil A.Riley who had resigned as league president to head up the management of this experimental attempt to run an independent pro team. However, the core of the team remained and the Shamrocks went to the 1936 and 1937 National Cup finals, only to fall to the Philadelphia German-Americans and

, respectively.
/sup> In April 1936 the Shamrock played two matches against the visiting Botafogo FR, Botafogo FC from

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

with stars like

Leônidas da Silva Leônidas da Silva (; 6 September 1913 – 24 January 2004) was a Brazilian professional footballer who played as a forward. He is regarded as one of the most important players of the first half of the 20th century. Leônidas played for Bra ...

and

Carvalho Leite Carlos Antônio Dobbert de Carvalho Leite (June 25, 1912 – July 19, 2004), best known as Carvalho Leite was a Brazilian Association footballer who played as a striker. Leite was born in Rio de Janeiro. In a career that spanned 15 years be ...

. The Shamrocks won the first match 1-0 and in the second one held the visitors to a 3-3 draw.Pedro Varanda:
Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas - Jogos Internacionais
',

RSSSF Brazil The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

, 1 December 2011. In October 1936, the team was without USFA affiliation which was rectified when they joined the Illinois State FA. The Shamrocks continued to compete as an independent playing out of their new grounds at Public Schools Stadium playing their first game of the season October 11 against Oak Park Acorns of Chicago winning 4-0. In November 1936, Shamrocks played the St.Louis League All Stars in the league all star game. Shamrocks won, 3-0, with one local newspaper writing, "The series was well worth while but it only strengthened the belief that no combination of Pro League players could be put together to give the Shamrocks a real test. Even a bit off form, as the Shamrocks were yesterday, they are far superior to any team the league officials might put on the field.”
/sup> In 1938, the Shamrocks folded after several players left the team to sign with St. Patrick. Shamrocks sued for player tampering, but the team collapsed and the remaining players signed with

South Side Radio South Side Radio was a U.S. soccer team in St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a po ...

.
/sup>

Record

Honors

:* Winner (3): 1933, 1934, 1935 :* Runner Up (3): 1932, 1936, 1937 League Championship :* Winner (3): 1933, 1934, 1935

References

External links

Open Cup champions by year

{{USSoccer Association football clubs established in 1929 Association football clubs disestablished in 1938 Defunct soccer clubs in Missouri Soccer clubs in St. Louis St. Louis Soccer League teams 1929 establishments in Missouri 1938 disestablishments in Missouri U.S. Open Cup winners Works soccer clubs in the United States