The University of St. Louis Billikens visit CIBER field tonight. They were the dominant force in men’s collegiate soccer during the late 1950s through the mid-1970s. The Billikens have won 10 NCAA Men’s Soccer Championships – the most of any men’s college soccer program. Also, according to Wikipedia, SLU also holds the record for most NCAA Tournament appearances with 44 – most recently in 2014. They were guided in the past by two coaching legends. Head Coach Bob Guelker led them to their first five championships while Harry Keough coached the last five championship teams  They hail from the Atlantic 10 conference. Their current record is 1-1-2 with an impressive win over Wake Forest (1-0 final) and ties with Tulsa and Marquette. Their loss came against North Carolina in Chapel Hill (0-3 final). 

The team’s mascot, the Billiken, is one of the most unusual in all of athletics. According to SLU.edu the Billiken is a mythical good-luck figure who represents “things as they ought to be.” Before he was Saint Louis University’s mascot, the figure was marketed commercially as dolls, marshmallow candies, metal banks, hatpins, pickle forks, belt buckles, auto hood ornaments, salt and pepper shakers, bottles and more.

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Drawing: This is the ‘inspiration’ for SLU’s current mascot.

While the Billiken figure might be funny, tonight’s match looks to be no easy task for head coach Jamie Frank’s Pioneers who have not lost a regular season game since October 2014.

Game start is 7:00 MT. Allow time to the stadium due to Korbel Dinner traffic and guest speaker Joe Biden.