The Spirits of St. Louis originated as the Houston Mavericks, a charter member of the ABA in 1967. In 1969, they became the Carolina Cougars. In 1974 they moved to St. Louis. They folded when four fellow ABA members were accepted into the NBA in the summer of 1976.
The St. Louis Braves were an owned and operated farm club of the National Hockey League’s Chicago Black Hawks from 1963 until 1967. Chicago-based Hawks owners Arthur Wirtz and James D. Norris owned the St. Louis Arena during this era in addition to the Braves hockey club. The Braves were displaced by the arrival of the National Hockey League’s St. Louis Blues in 1967.
The St. Louis Ambush were a popular indoor soccer team during the that played a winter schedule at the old St. Louis Arena and later at the Kiel Center for eight seasons between 1992 and 2000. The Ambush were champions of the National Professional Soccer League in 1995.
The original St. Louis Steamers of the Major Indoor Soccer League were one of the most popular indoor soccer teams of all time. In the early 1980’s, the Steamers drew massive crowds to the St. Louis Arena, attracted by the team’s home grown American talent and exciting game production. At their peak during the 1981-82 season, the Steamers averaged 17,107 fans per game – the highest average in the sport’s history. By comparison, the National Hockey League’s St. Louis Blues drew 14,433 fans per night in the same building that winter. Declining on-field performance and a pair sales of the team to progressively weaker owners led to the Steamers’ sad decline in the latter half of the decade and eventual closure in 1988.
The St. Louis Slims competed for just one season in the Domino’s Pizza TeamTennis league during the summer of 1985. The co-ed Slims were backed financially by St. Louis Blues owner Harry Ornest and, like the Blues, played at the old St. Louis Arena. Ornest’s son Maury owned the league San Diego Buds franchise that same summer and the two teams would meet in the TeamTennis league championship match in San Antonio in August 1985. The intra-family showdown turned out to be the final appearance by both teams, as the Ornests disbanded both teams after the season.
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