St. Louis

## Eulogy 1

*By Cam Cain*

St. Louis is the second largest city in the state of Missouri

It is known as the Gateway to the West, as it was the starting point for Lewis and Clark’s journey. This is symbolized with the city’s famous Gateway Arch

The city’s NFL team embodied this spirit when they vamoosed to California

Notable companies based in St. Louis include Anheuser-Busch and Wells Fargo

MLB players from St. Louis include Yogi Berra, Max Scherzer, and Ryan Howard

This is one of the best flags in the entire world. The squiggly lines depict the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. The fleur-de-lis represents the French heritage of the city. The North American Vexillogical Association ranked it the fifth best US city flag

## Eulogy 2

*By Zach Betron*

St. Louis is a city in eastern Missouri, bordering the Illinois via the Mississippi river.

The city was founded by the French in the 18th century and sold to the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Due to its rich history as the origin of Lewis and Clark's expedition and as a common starting location on the Oregon Trail, the city became known as the "Gateway to the West." This moniker is commemorated by the Gateway Arch, which resides on the U.S.'s smallest national park and is the tallest human-made monument in the Western Hemisphere.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some important points on St. Louis' global status in the early 1900s. As the city's economy boomed with westward expansion in the 1800s, they were awarded the rights to host the the World's Fair in 1904, and subsequently leveraged their position to effectively steal the 1904 Olympics from Chicago. To put it mildly, these Olympics were a disaster for too many reasons to put in this vexilleulogy, but if you're interested in learning more, I suggest watching Jon Bois' video on the 1904 Olympic Marathon.

St. Louis has a complicated history with professional sports, most notably with football. The St. Louis All-Stars played to a 1-4-2 record in 1923, their only NFL season before folding, and the St. Louis Gunners played three games in 1934 after the Cincinnati Reds (no, not those ones) had their NFL membership suspended. The St. Louis Cardinals (no, not those ones) stuck around for longer, playing in the NFL from 1960 to 1987 before moving to Phoenix, and the St. Louis Rams played in the city from 1995 to 2015 before moving to Los Angeles. The St. Louis Battlehawks competed in the second and third iterations of the XFL, and currently play at the Rams' old home, The Dome at America's Center.

Outside of football, the baseball Cardinals play in St. Louis and have won 11 World Series championships, the most in the NL and second in the MLB to only the New York Yankees. They compete at Busch Stadium, where I attended yesterday as they lost to their superior rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 10-3. The St. Louis Blues are a hockey team that plays at the Enterprise Center in downtown St. Louis and beat the Boston Bruins to win their first Stanley Cup in 2019.

Prominent St. Louisans include Jayson Tatum, Nikki Glaser, Matthew, Brady, and Taryn Tkachuk, and myself from June 10 until August 5.

## Tournament

As the 51 seed, St. Louis was defeated by Laos in Round 2 Matchup 77 of FlagVote 2 after previously defeating Rivercess County. As the 170 seed, it was defeated by Montenegro in Round 3 Matchup 96 of FlagVote 3 after previously defeating Nepal.

## Results

### FlagVote 2

**Round 1:** Win over (462) Rivercess County 7-0

**Round 2:** Loss to (206) Laos 4-2

### FlagVote 3

**Round 1:** BYE

**Round 2:** Win over (343) Nepal 8-2

**Round 3:** Loss to (87) Montenegro 6-5