From the Philadelphia Inquirer, March 17, 1912 Our series on inter-city games involving Philadelphia area teams and St. Louis teams in the 1910s continues.
When Tacony FC traveled to St. Louis in December of 1911 in one of the first tours pitting the largely immigrant-based East Coast teams against the largely native-born teams from the West, they had lost only three games in two years. The confidence they felt on departure proved to be premature and Tacony returned to Philadelphia with a 4–4 draw against St. Leo’s in the “soccer championship of America” on Christmas Eve, and a 3-1 loss to Innisfails on Christmas day.
Many factors—fatigue from the long train journey to St. Louis, playing on the road, the back-to-back match schedule—contributed to Tacony’s disappointing performance. But the prime reason was surely the fact nearly half of the players Tacony took with them on the brief tour were not actually on the team’s regular roster. Tacony was a “professional” team—its players shared in gate receipts—but the players did not make their living from playing soccer and five of its regular starters could not get permission to leave work to make the trip.
Tacony would soon have an opportunity to gain their revenge, however. Shortly after they returned to Philadelphia, it was announced that St. Leo’s would be embarking on an East Coast tour in March of 1912. done
