St. Louis soccer legend Pat McBride dies at 81

Pat McBride, the Hall of Famer who helped establish St. Louis soccer as a player, coach and athletic director at the community college, college and professional levels – indoor and outdoor – has died. He was 81.

The first player signed by the St. Louis Stars and the first American-born player to join the National Professional Soccer League, McBride also played on the U.S. national team and in Olympic qualifying matches. He’s a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame and the NJCAA Soccer Hall of Fame.

“A lot of things fell into place for me over the years,” McBride told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “As a player, I felt that coaching was my future, so I watched and I learned. As a coach, I was keen on giving the American players an opportunity to show what they could do and was lucky enough to coach some great ones.”

Playing career

McBride won his first championship with the CYC team at Holy Rosary Parish in north St. Louis. He went on to play for St. Louis University High School, then St. Louis University. While he was there, the Billikens won NCAA titles in 1963 and 1965 under famed coach Bob Guelker. Twice in college, the high-scoring midfielder was named a first-team All-American. McBride totaled 46 goals and 38 assists for the Billikens.

When the Stars began play in 1967, McBride became the groundbreaking American signed to an outdoor league and team filled with players from countries where soccer reigned. The Stars were a mix in several ways.

Wayne Pratt

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St. Louis Public Radio

“We had a bunch of guys from Yugoslavia to go along with guys from England, Germany and Poland,” McBride later said, adding, “We had players who were first-year pros, guys in the middle of their careers and others who were finishing up.” McBride considered that season, which he called an exciting period, his professional apprenticeship.

“The guys on the team were great,” he said, but communication was difficult. Seven of his teammates, McBride told St. Louis Magazine, couldn’t speak English. “But you didn’t really need to to play soccer,” he said. “The game was the teacher — and the unifier, in terms of accepting different personalities and styles.”

On the field, the energetic midfielder was a disrupter.

“Pat McBride was like a little buzz saw,” said John Carenza, a teammate on the Stars, per Dave Lange’s “Soccer in St. Louis.”

“You couldn’t stop Pat. He was always running around causing havoc somewhere. If he got beat, he got back and covered again. When I moved from playing forward to center back, I saw more of it and realized Pat’s value.”

McBride was a first-team all-league selection in 1972 and picked for the second team twice in his nine seasons with the Stars. He scored 36 goals in 175 games, according to the U.S. Society for American Soccer History, then retired as a player in 1976.

On the sidelines

Coaching began the same year. “With my playing career winding down, I knew coaching was what I wanted to do,” McBride told the Post-Dispatch. “I loved playing — that was the most fun — but for me, coaching was the next best thing.”

In 25 years as a community college coach, McBride won a national championship at Meramec as he was selected as national coach of the year. He took Forest Park to the nationals in 1995 and 1996.

When the Major Indoor Soccer League came to St. Louis in 1979, McBride became the Steamers’ first coach. The team was a hit with fans from the beginning, averaging crowds of more than 14,000 the first season at the Arena while compiling a losing record. ''I think the people really respected what we were trying to do,'' he said, per the Post-Dispatch. ''We wanted the nucleus to be St. Louis players.''

He was named MISL coach of the year in 1979-80 and in 1982-83, when he was with the Kansas City Comets.

McBride counted St. Louisan Ty Keough among the outstanding players he coached during the excitement of the Steamers’ early years.

“Those were some special times,” McBride said.