Benjamin Hochman Benjamin Hochman is a sports columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Follow Benjamin Hochman Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

The soccer boot atop the trophy is coated with bronze, but really it’s lathered with memories of Guelker and Keough and Umbros and Diadoras and bushy-haired St. Louis boys scampering about the Astroturf at old Busch.

The Bronze Boot was a glistening symbol of our area’s soccer culture — and soccer excess, with both St. Louis University and Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville winning national titles from both sides of the Mississippi.

The two schools met 27 times during 1971-1998, including some classic matches and NCAA soccer attendance records, including 20,112 fans in 1973 and 22,512 in 1980, during the heyday of local college soccer.

And now, many boys born around the time of the last game will play in the next game. On Friday at SLU’s Robert R. Hermann Stadium, the Billikens will host SIUE at 7 p.m. Some team is going back to campus to drink some Vess out of the Bronze Boot.

“Being from the area, I’ve always heard about this game,” SIUE midfielder Keegan McHugh said. “Throughout the years, that’s all everyone would talk about — and now that it’s scheduled and going to happen on Friday? It’s something special, you know? Everybody knows there’s going to be a big crowd and the winner gets the trophy, so a lot on the line and some braggin’ rights in the St. Louis area.”