Thursday, July 17, 2008

Slobo Ilijevski, 1950-2008


I was sorry to hear about the passing of Slobo Ilijevski at the age of 58. Most people reading this will probably have no idea who he was but to guys my age who grew up in St. Louis, he was one of our most beloved St. Louis sports heros. Slobo was a goalkeeper for the St. Louis Steamers soccer team of the MISL in the 80's. He was the most exciting goalie in the league because not only did he make unbelievable diving stops in the net, often he would venture out far from his goal area and take the ball down the field, sometimes past the mid-field line. I was a huge fan of his too. In fact, I named my pet turtle "Slobo" after him. And when he crawled away, I named the next one "Slobo II".

(Photo from stltoday.com)

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