“It wasn’t much of a party for the team from New York,” said Eppy, who made his living as a machinist for the South Side Machine Works while doing his part in Kutis’ many successes “I remember they didn’t really have a chance in the game. It probably wasn’t the most exciting Final ever played.”
What Eppy remembered best were the differences from his day to today. “The game’s so different,” he said. “I see guys today passing the ball around their own penalty area. The last thing I wanted to do was jack around with the ball near my own goal. You make a bad pass back there and it’s Good Night Irene. If I played around with the ball back there, back then, I would have heard it from Harry.”
Keough – the Man, the Myth & the Legend…
That Harry is one Harry Keough, legend of the American game and a teammate of Eppy’s in that outstanding Kutis team of 1957. Such was the quality of soccer coming out of Saint Louis at the time, five members of the Starting XI of the USA’s 1950 World Cup team – the one that famously beat the English – came from their local league.
“Back then we played with four attacking players and we had some really good forwards,” Eppy remembers, not laboring much on the celebrations and the lifting of the Cup or the one-sided 6-1 scoreline in the ‘57 Final.
“I don’t remember lifting the trophy, but I can bet you it’s back there in Kutis’ funeral parlor with all the rest,” said Eppy, who himself was laid to rest at Kutis,’ like so many of his former teammates, in 2021.
“My dad isn’t the kind of guy who talked too much about his achievements,” said 57-year-old Joe Eppy, one of Bill’s six kids and, just for good measure, an Open Cup Champion with Kutis in 1986.
“He [Bill Eppy] was there at the Saint Louis Soccer Park [the venue hosted six straight Open Cup Final Fours from 1984 to 1989] when we won it in ‘86 and he came down on the field after it was over,” said Joe.
“He didn’t say much except to congratulate me and say we had a good team and that we did a fine job,” the younger Eppy remembered. “But thinking back, it was a pretty amazing thing to climb the same mountain he did.”
The 1986 Open Cup trophy still sits on proud display in the late Sam Kutis’ funeral parlor – operated now by his own kids and grandkids. “It’s there. The Cup with the game ball stuck inside it,” said Joe Eppy. It’s not far from where trinkets of his own dad’s glory days still sit in pride, behind glass and taken out only for a respectful dusting now and then.
Joe Eppy doesn’t remember a wild celebration after the 1986 win over San Pedro’s Yugoslavs. “We played two games in two days and we were pretty gassed. Plus it was a Sunday and we all had work the next day,” he said, remembering back.
“But I think I remember going into work with a hangover on Monday,” he said. “I think a lot of us did.”
Fontela is editor-in-chief of usopencup.com. Follow him at @jonahfontela on Twitter.
