The St. Louis Man Who Invented 'Soccer'

St. Louis is not to American soccer what Cooperstown, New York, is to baseball or Springfield, Massachusetts, is to basketball. The sport had already gained a foothold in the northeastern U.S. decades before a St. Louisan named Thomas W. Cahill became the primary force for the sport's American emergence. But Cahill did more than just about anyone in the U.S. to popularize the game — and St. Louis became one of its most significant, and longstanding, hotbeds. Without Cahill, we wouldn't have soccer as we know it today.