St. Louis Frogs

The St. Louis Frogs were an American soccer club. The Frogs were owned by Giesler Sports Enterprises and given sanction to enter the American Soccer League's newly-formed Midwest Conference by the United States Soccer Football Association at the 1972, summer meetings in Anchorage. The team played only one season and was coached by Pete Traina, with Walter J. Giesler serving as general manager. Their colors were green and white, and they played their home matches at Giesler's Sports Village.{{cite news |title=St. Louis Frogs Take Plunge In Soccer Circuit|date=July 7, 1972|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/140236516/?terms=Frogs|page=5C|accessdate=November 15, 2018}}

Team name

In a newspaper interview Giesler stated that the team named stemmed from a cast iron frog that had been found during a remodeling of his sporting goods store. Construction workers told him that it was an old good luck tradition of contractors to place a frog of some sort inside a wall during construction. The frog wound up becoming a decoration on his desk. Originally he had wanted to call the team the Missouri Mules, but the name had already been taken. As he struggled to come up with an original name, he realized the answer was sitting right on his desk, and thus the St. Louis Frogs were born.{{cite news |last=Hummel|first=Rick|title=NBC Keeps Giesler Hopping|date=July 17, 1972|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/140240287/?terms=Mules%2Bsoccer|page=2C|accessdate=November 16, 2018}}

Year-by-year

class="wikitable"

!Year

!League

!Record

!GF

!GA

!Position

!Playoffs

!U.S. Open Cup

1972

|ASL

|2–6

|13

|16

|5th, Midwestern

|Did not qualify

|Did not enter

=Final conference standings=

class="wikitable" \|Midwest Conference	G	W	D	L	GF	GA	PTS
style="background:#cfc;" \|Cincinnati Comets	8	6	1	1	19	7	13
Cleveland Stars	8	6	0	2	23	10	6
Detroit Mustangs	8	2	2	4	13	28	6
Pittsburgh Canons	8	2	1	5	11	18	5
St. Louis Frogs	8	2	0	6	13	16	4
bgcolor=lightgrey \|Chicago Americans*	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

*Chicago Americans played only a few games

Game-by-game

= Friendly results =

class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:center"

!Date!!Opponent!!Venue!!Result!!Goal scorers!!Ref

bgcolor=

|{{left}}July 12, 1972

|{{left}}SV Falke-Steinfeld (West Germany)

|1–1

| Gary McBrady

|{{cite news |title=Frogs Bounce Back To Tie Germans, 1-1|date=July 13, 1972|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/140238459/?terms=Frogs|page=5C|accessdate=November 15, 2018}}

= Regular season results =

class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:center"

!Date!!Opponent!!Venue!!Result!!Goal scorers!!Ref

bgcolor="#ffdddd"

|{{left}}July 15, 1972

|{{left}}Cleavland Stars

|0–2

| –

|{{cite news |title=Frogs Start ASL Season With 2-0 Loss|date=July 16, 1972|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/140238929/?terms=soccer%2BFrogs|page=6B|accessdate=November 15, 2018}}

bgcolor="#ddffdd"

|{{left}}July 22, 1972

|{{left}}Pittsburgh Canons

|2–3

|Gary McBrady, Paul Pisani, Jim Niehoff

|{{cite news |title=Frogs Nip Pittsburgh On Niehoff's Late Goal|date=July 23, 1972|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/140240965/?terms=frogs|page=6B|accessdate=November 15, 2018}}

bgcolor="#ffdddd"

|{{left}}July 30, 1972

|{{left}}Cincinnati Comets

|0–1

| –

|{{cite news |title=Frogs 'Terminated' In Brawl|date=July 31, 1972|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/140245335/?terms=soccer%2BFrogs|page=3C|accessdate=November 15, 2018}}

bgcolor="#ffdddd"

|{{left}}August 12, 1972

|{{left}}Cincinnati Comets

|3–0

| –

|{{cite news |title=Frogs Lose To Comets|date=August 13, 1972|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/140244444/?terms=Frogs|page=3B|accessdate=November 15, 2018}}

bgcolor="#ffdddd"

|{{left}}August 13, 1972

|{{left}}Detroit Mustangs

|3–1

|Frank Fischer

|{{cite news |title=Frogs Not Croaking About Returning Home|date=August 14, 1972|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/140245938/?terms=Frogs|page=13A|accessdate=November 15, 2018}}

bgcolor="#ffdddd"

|{{left}}August 20, 1972

|{{left}}Cleavland Stars

|0–4

| –

|{{cite news |title=Punchless Frogs Punched Again|date=August 21, 1972|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/140690391/?terms=soccer%2BFrogs|page=3C|accessdate=November 15, 2018}}

bgcolor="#ffdddd"

|{{left}}August 27, 1972

|{{left}}Pittsburgh Canons

|0–1

| –

|{{cite news |title=Frogs Outshoot Pittsburgh, But Take 1-0 Loss|date=August 28, 1972|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/140693039/?terms=soccer%2BFrogs|page=7C|accessdate=November 15, 2018}}

bgcolor="#ddffdd"

|{{left}}September 4, 1972

|{{left}}Detroit Mustangs

|9–0

|Mike Villa (2), Niehoff (2), McBrady (2),
John Deinowski, Tom Beaver, Jack Blake

|{{cite news |title=Frogs Close Season With 9-0 Victory|date=September 5, 1972|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/139433990/?terms=Frogs|page=4B|accessdate=November 15, 2018}}

References

Frogs

Category:Defunct soccer clubs in Missouri

Category:American Soccer League (1933–1983) teams

Category:1972 in sports in Missouri

Category:1972 establishments in Missouri

Category:Association football clubs established in 1972

Category:1972 disestablishments in Missouri

Category:Association football clubs disestablished in 1972