March 27 (1981)

In what some will later call the greatest indoor soccer game ever played, the St. Louis Steamers rally from 6-1 deficit after three quarters to defeat the Wichita Wings in the MISL semifinals at the Checkerdome before 16,236 fans, including a 700-strong contingent from Wichita. The Steamers’ Don Ebert ties the game 7-7 on a header with 69 seconds left in regulation. Silent for much of the match, the crowd erupts. “It was like 50,000 people were in that place,” Ebert says later. Although the Wings outshoot the Steamers 13-7 in overtime, neither team scores. The game goes to a shootout. The Steamers, shooting second in each round of the five-round shootout, are ahead 2-1 as the Steamers’ fourth shooter, Emilio John, steps up. The Steamers will win if John scores. John pushes the ball around diving goalkeeper Brad Higgs, who trips John as John chases the ball. John is awarded a penalty kick. Higgs sets up inches from the post to his right, giving John an empty opposite side for a target. John, a native of Nigeria and a first-team All-American at Quincy College in 1977, rifles the winner into the open side of the goal. Higgs, Wichita’s backup keeper, comes into the game thanks to a controversial play when starting keeper Mike Dowler suffers a knee injury in a collision with Ebert with 3:12 left in regulation. No penalty is called on Ebert. Only two penalties are called the entire game. The Wings are incensed at the officiating and alleged dirty play, although Steamers defender Tony Bellinger is hurt on a high kick from a Wings player in the third quarter and is unable to continue. “We will never ever believe that we should have lost that game,” Wings coach Roy Turner will tell writer Dave Lange in a 1985 story looking back on the match. Dowler will sum it all up, saying: “St. Louis made the greatest comeback of all time. But it still hurts. I try to forget that night.”