Disaster struck last Wednesday when Roosevelt High School canceled the football game scheduled for Friday night, putting the Running of the Bills tradition in jeopardy. Through some skillful reorganization and last-minute adjustments, the Class of 2025 was initiated into the St. Louis U. High community, becoming the first class to participate in Running of the Bills at a soccer game since the event became a freshman tradition.

For the freshman class, the initial plan for their Running of the Bills seemed typical: freshmen participate in a fun day after school on Friday, don blue body paint, and run into the football stadium to cheer the Jr. Bill football squad onto a victory. Though Running of the Bills went on, it did not go on as previously planned, as a Covid outbreak that affected scheduled football opponents Roosevelt left the administration in a precarious position less than 72 hours before the scheduled kickoff time.

In the end, rather than canceling the event altogether and moving it back to the varsity football home matchup against Chaminade scheduled for Sept. 10, the decision was made to hold Running of the Bills at a soccer game.  

The change was formally announced on Thursday, but rumors that the football game was to be cancelled had already begun to spread by the end of the school day on Wednesday, which also came with musings about the fate of Running of the Bills. A number of members of the freshman class and their families viewed the late switch in venue for Running of the Bills negatively; throughout the second half of last week, a bombardment of emails to freshman class officials and comments on SLUH social media pages were aimed at getting Running of the Bills moved.

Chief among the reasoning for moving the event were that the freshman class was being cheated out of a traditional Running of the Bills experience and that, with the addition of the sophomore Running of the Bills the previous week taking the place of what would traditionally be the freshman game, that there would be no harm in further pushing the freshman event back.

However, moving such an intricate and heavily planned event was not a feasible option, so the Running of the Bills remained on Sept. 3, as originally scheduled.

“It was hectic, but a lot of careful thought, a lot of planning, and a lot of wonderful ideas and support from a lot of people in the building and outside the building helped give the freshmen and the whole community a really, really great night” said freshman class moderator Tim Curdt.

Despite what was at times often a negative reaction, the post-Running of the Bills sentiment from many freshmen was that the administration worked with what it had, and that the adapted event still felt as though it lived up to its name.

“I thought it was a great display of brotherhood and camaraderie,” said freshman Gus Talleur, “It lived up to the hype and the reputation that it has as one of SLUH’s great experiences. I was absolutely not let down, and I’m just really glad that Mr. Curdt and everybody could find a way to make this work.”

Still though, some members of the class felt as though a traditional Running of the Bills would have been better, simply due to the fact that, to most students at least, a football game is more interesting and engaging than a soccer game.

“Obviously I understand that it wasn’t really possible to move Running of the Bills to the Chaminade game, but I just wish there was another option,” said freshman Rick Jones. “I feel like football is a sport that a lot more people can get behind and pay attention to than soccer.  Though Running of the Bills still had a lot of the brotherhood and initiation rite type of feel to it, I just think the whole experience would have been better if it wasn’t at a soccer game.”

One group that certainly had no animosity towards the last-minute change in venue was the SLUH varsity soccer team, who were spurred on to a 3-1 victory against Glendale (Springfield, Mo.) by the sudden influx of spectators brought on by Running of the Bills.  

   “I think the crowd’s chants fired us up and definitely contributed to the win,” said junior midfielder Davis Ragan. “It felt great to play in front of a crowd like that and continue this tradition. It’s cool because a lot of SLUH soccer players would only dream to have the opportunity to play in front of the Running of the Bills ceremony, and we were the ones to have that rare opportunity.”

      The opening twenty minutes of the first half featured two Jr. Bill goals that occurred at the Oakland end of the field, right across from the freshmen; both of the team’s celebrations drifted over towards the near sideline and acknowledged the boys in blue.

“I think our first goal was the key moment,” said junior midfielder Sam Tieber. “Our celebration in front of the freshman holding the ‘U’ up will be a moment I will remember for the season and will definitely be a highlight for the year. I also got to experience my (brother Max’s) Running of the Bills at the same time as the game, which is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Although this year’s Running of the Bills did go on to be successful and proved that sports other than football could support an occasion of such magnitude, the tentative plan for next year is to move it back to the first home football game of the 2022 season.