Wherever you look, St. Louis is always included in the list of best sports cities in the United States, and for good reasons. It is home to a number of teams, both professional and collegiate, and it features a variety of sports, including Corkball, which was invented in this city.
Baseball
Major League Baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals has one of the most loyal and die-hard fans in the country. The team was founded in 1882 and has begun playing in MLB in 1892. It has won 11 World Series Championships, the first in 1926 and the most recent in 2011.
Football
The city has 4 National Football League franchises, which are:
- St. Louis All-Stars – founded in 1923 and got their first win in November of the same year.
St. Louis Gunners - St. Louis Gunners – an independent professional football team headquartered at the St. Louis National Guard Armory.
- St. Louis Cardinals – this team only played in St. Louis from 1960 to 1987.
- St. Louis Rams – founded in 1936 in Ohio and moved to St. Louis in 1995, the team has now been allowed to move to LA for the 2016 season.
Ice Hockey
The major team for Ice Hockey in the city is the St. Louis Blues. Named after the song “Saint Louis Blues” sung by W.C. Handy, known as the Father of the Blues, the team was founded in 1967 and has yet to win the Stanley Cup. Before them, however, the St. Louis Eagles was the first team to call the city its home.
Basketball
Before the merging of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA), the city was home to three basketball teams: St. Louis Bombers, St. Louis Hawks, and Spirits of St. Louis.
Soccer
Although St. Louis does not host any franchise from the Major League Soccer, it has been recognized as one of America’s soccer hotbeds and one with the richest soccer history in the country. Some of the most notable reasons are:
- Its Saint Louis University’s men soccer team has won a total of 10 national championships.
- There is at least one St. Louisian in every US team in World Cup History.
- The National Soccer Hall of Fame features 29 St. Louisians.
Corkball
This classic ball game that originated in this city is a mini-baseball game that uses a 1.6 ounce ball and a small bat. It is similar to baseball except it does not involve base-running. It was considered a street game in the 1900s until servicemen from St. Louis introduced it to fellow servicemen during the Korean War and World War II.
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