St. Louis Gaelic Athletic Club
| St. Louis | ||
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2002 | |
| County | North American | |
| Division | Chicago Central Division | |
| Nickname | Sons of Liberty | |
| Colours | Red/Black/White | |
| Grounds | St. Vincent Park | |
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The St. Louis Gaelic Athletic Club (STLGAC) is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting club primarily focused on promoting Gaelic games in the St. Louis, Missouri metro area. The club was founded as the St. Louis Hurling Club, but changed its name to better reflect the club's participation in its two main sports; hurling and Gaelic football.
The club was founded in the Summer of 2002 on the south side of Tower Grove Park, by three former Milwaukee Hurling Club mates, Paul C. Rohde, Dan Lapke, and Patrick O’Connor. The vision included introducing the sport of hurling to the metro St. Louis, Missouri area, creating opportunities to play the sport, developing better hurlers, and developing strong St. Louis representation in nationwide competition. Through targeted recruiting and promoting the sport, potential Hurlers continued to join, and in Autumn 2002, small scrimmages were being held at the southwest corner, and eventually the northeast section of Tower Grove, to allow for the continued growth.
In March 2003, the downtown and AOH-Dogtown St. Patrick’s Day parades saw hurling represented for the first time in the history of St. Louis. On April 26, 2003, St. Louis played its first national match at Chicago’s Gaelic Park, defeating the University of Notre Dame 3-9 (19) to 2-3 (9). A follow-up loss to Atlanta in the tournament placed St. Louis a respectable 2nd place in its first outing as a Club. Two subsequent matches against Milwaukee rounded out national competition for St. Louis in 2003.
In May 2003, the St. Louis Hurling Club was honored, one year ahead of their objective date, with the rare invitation to join 21 other American cities aligned with the North American County Board (NACB). NACB is overseen by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), the governing body of hurling at its top level in Ireland. The St. Louis Hurling Club is the first association of American-born hurlers ever invited to join NACB in a club’s first year of organization, and is the second-largest club of primarily American-born hurlers in North America. A seven-members executive committee was formed on May 22, 2003 for two year terms, with the founding president’s term serving as four consecutive years.
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