THE HEART OF COLLEGE SOCCER

Written by Hannah Boxerman

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The highest honor in college soccer lives right here in St. Louis, just blocks away from CITYPARK.

The Hermann Trophy – a ten-pound, glistening crystal soccer ball – is an honor awarded to the nation’s top male and female collegiate soccer players each year. It lives at the Missouri Athletic Club on Washington Avenue and is awarded at the annual MAC Hermann Trophy banquet.

There, finalists are joined by hundreds of college soccer stalwarts, members of the community, fans, and legends of the sport to receive and marvel at the Heisman Trophy of the soccer world.

The Trophy’s journey to St. Louis was a fateful one. In 1967, National Professional Soccer League president (and St. Louis native) Robert Hermann established the award to annually recognize the top male collegiate player in the sport. The late Hermann was a prominent local businessman who worked tirelessly to contribute to the success of soccer in the United States. The women’s award was created in 1991.

In 1986, the Missouri Athletic Club, which had a decades-long legacy of celebrating outstanding athletic achievement, created its own college soccer award. That MAC award and the Hermann Trophy merged officially in 2001 to form one definitive honor – the most prestigious in collegiate soccer.

The MAC continued its tradition of honoring winners with a celebratory banquet, and decided to expand the guest list to include all finalists – representing more colleges, inviting the media, and continuing Robert Hermann’s vision of elevating soccer in the United States. 

Jim Wilson, Director of Communications at the Missouri Athletic Club, has been managing the Hermann Trophy since the 2001 merger.

“The goal was to give college soccer a bigger stage,” he said. “The idea was that with St. Louis being the soccer capital of the U.S. and having this rich soccer history, it just made sense. And it made sense to host the awards banquet at a premiere venue like the MAC that honors the great legacy of Mr. Hermann and all of his important contributions to the game of soccer.”

In its decades of existence, the Hermann Trophy has been awarded to now-famous players from John Kerr, Al Trost, and Alexi Lalas to Crystal Dunn, Tisha Venturini, and Mia Hamm. Many of these players come back to the MAC banquet to serve as keynote speakers and rub elbows with the next generation of soccer stars. For honorees in attendance, which includes the Missouri high school state champion teams, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet their soccer idols.

“The year Crystal Dunn won from the University of North Carolina, Mia Hamm was our featured speaker – also from North Carolina,” he said. “Crystal Dunn had the honor of wearing #19, which at North Carolina was Mia Hamm’s number. It’s the biggest honor you can get when you play there, and she sat right next to her hero at the banquet.”

Wilson describes the MAC Hermann Trophy as something of a launching point for collegiate soccer players’ careers; they may go on to pro leagues, or play in the Olympics, or coach an NCAA team. Being there for the start of their success, he says, is exciting – and rewarding.

“These are outstanding young athletes, the top in the college games, but they’re not really getting national headlines yet,” he said. “We’re getting them on the way up, we’re not getting them when they’ve made it. It’s Crystal Dunn before she’s become Crystal Dunn on the national team; honoring them on the way up is exciting. We’re thrilled to ride the wave of their future success, and any future success that they have only raises the prestige of our award. It’s a big deal for them to come here and get national recognition, and it’s very exciting to be a part of that and do it in a first-class manner.”

As a native St. Louisan and soccer lover – he’s both a former player and coach of his daughter’s club team – Wilson is a staunch believer that St. Louis is the obvious choice for the MAC Hermann Trophy’s home.

“A lot of it goes back to the St. Louis tradition of soccer,” Wilson said. “St. Louis University has won more championships – ten – than any other college soccer program. With the number of players that St. Louis has produced, and all the passion within the soccer community here, it just made sense. Just as with the Heisman Trophy and how they worked with the Downtown Athletic Club in New York, we’re doing our own thing here for soccer and elevating it to the proper stage it deserves.”

Missouri Athletic Soccer Club co-chairs Greg and Annie Beekman wholeheartedly agree.

“No other city in the country has a more well established or richer soccer culture and history than St. Louis, particularly with respect to amateur and college soccer,” they said. “The fact that St. Louis has been the home of the Hermann Trophy since 1967 is another indication of how our city has been celebrating and elevating the game of soccer in the United States long before it caught on in the rest of the country.”

St. Louis has always been a soccer hub, Wilson says, citing the 1950 U.S. Soccer Team that enjoyed a major upset against England and boasted multiple St. Louisans on the roster. That kicked off our town’s status as a soccer city to watch and was followed by the growing success of St. Louis University, the birth of the St. Louis Stars, and the towering presence of Robert Hermann as North American Soccer League president. Women’s soccer shone here too; the first-generation women’s teams played at Soccer Park in Fenton, and the second generation played at Busch Stadium to a crowd of 40,000.

It always made sense. But now, the presence of CITY brings the story of soccer in St. Louis –and that of the MAC Hermann Trophy – to even greater heights.

“We’re totally embracing everything CITY is doing,” Wilson said. “It’s going to raise the profile of the MAC Hermann Trophy here locally, and we’re going to continue to collaborate with them and build that relationship. Also, the Missouri Athletic Club and CITY are downtown partners. It totally makes sense. There is so much we can align on: supporting athletics, supporting downtown St. Louis, supporting the business community. There are a lot of partnership opportunities, and CITY and the MAC Hermann Trophy are going to continue to grow together.”

The relationship is already flourishing. CITY organization members, including Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel and team President & GM Diego Gigliani, were present at this year’s Hermann Trophy banquet. The Hermann Trophy also made the trip to CITYPARK, where fans of all ages took photos with the award and learned about its history. And one very special CITY fan made an appearance: soccer legend Al Trost, who won the Hermann Trophy in both 1969 and 1970.

The Beekmans say that the CITY organization has supported the Hermann Trophy from the very beginning, including a commitment to learning about the award’s significance and the history of St. Louis soccer.

“The fact that CITY made the Hermann Trophy part of the game day experience for the Kansas City match and continues to promote the award to its fans goes to show how deeply invested the organization is in growing and supporting all aspects of soccer in St. Louis, and we greatly appreciate it,” they said. “For our part, the Hermann Trophy is administered by the Missouri Athletic Club’s Sports Foundation, and our members are passionate about both supporting the CITY team and helping the St. Louis community. We look forward to working with the CITY organization and supporting its community outreach efforts.”

Wilson says the future looks bright for soccer in St. Louis – something aided greatly by CITY’s success on and off the field.

“CITY has exceeded expectations, and it’s been phenomenal,” he said. “We are excited to see the franchise do well and continue to grow, and the MAC will be part of that any way it can. A vibrant MAC helps CITY, a vibrant CITY helps us. Our goals are perfectly aligned, and it just makes sense that we have a partnership and grow it.”

Game days at the MAC are electric; during each home game, an enthusiastic and bustling crowd arrives at the Washington Avenue space to take advantage of the shuttles to CITYPARK.

Wilson says the MAC is eager to continue the club’s long history as a destination for soccer fans, and his team is enjoying the sport’s rise in popularity across the US.

“It’s in our blood,” Wilson said. “We just want to continue to grow soccer on the national level. Things like the success of MLS will elevate us. Having that here locally – huge. As the league continues to grow, it helps all of us as a launching pad for players. The US hosting the World Cup in 2026 will be another great touchpoint for soccer in the US, and we just want to be a part of all of it. We want to celebrate these great athletes and give them a stage.”

To learn more about the MAC Hermann Trophy, and information about next year’s banquet, visit machermanntrophy.org.