The St. Louis Hurling Club was founded in the Summer of 2002 on the south side of Tower Grove Park, by three former Milwaukee Hurling Club mates, Paul C. Rohde, Dan Lapke, and Patrick O’Connor.
The vision included introducing the sport of hurling to the metro St. Louis area, creating opportunities to play the sport, developing better hurlers, and developing strong St. Louis representation in nationwide competition.
In autumn 2002, small scrimmages were being held in the park.
On April 26, 2003, St. Louis played its first national match at Chicago’s Gaelic Park, defeating the University of Notre Dame 3-9 (19) to 2-3 (9).
In May 2003, the St. Louis Hurling Club was honored, one year ahead of the Club’s objective date, with the rare invitation to join 21 other American cities aligned with the North American County Board (NACB). NACB is overseen by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), the governing body of hurling and Gaelic football.
The St. Louis Hurling Club is the first association of American-born hurlers ever invited to join NACB in a club’s first year of organization; its membership is primarily American-born.
In September 2004, the hurling team attended the NACB tournament in Boulder, Colo., and won the inaugural Junior C Division championship.
While St. Louis did not repeat as Junior C champions in the 2005 NACB tournament in Philadelphia, the team did send a Junior B division team as well.
2005 marked the inaugural appearance of the St. Louis Gaelic Football team, which advanced to the NACB Junior D Division football finals after defeating Phoenix with an exciting triple-overtime win.
In 2010, the STLGAC sent its first camogie team to the NACB tournament.
In 2011, the STLGAC Junior C hurling team won the Junior C Hurling Championship at the NACB tournament, which sends them to the Junior B level for the 2012 season.
In 2013, the STLGAC Junior D Gaelic football team won the Junior D Gaelic football Championship at the NACB tournament.
Gateway Cup winning teams (hurling league championship)
- fall 2003, McGurk’s Black Shamrocks
- spring 2004, Black Thorn Sons of Liberty
- fall 2004, Celtics
- spring 2005, Llywelyn’s Dragons
- fall 2005, McGurk’s
- spring 2006, McGurk’s
- fall 2006, McGurk’s
- spring 2007, McGraughs
- fall 2007, Black Thorn
- 2008, Black Thorn
- 2009, McGurk’s
- 2010, Tower Pub Crusaders
- 2011, Tower
- 2012, Midwest Mortgage Capitals
- 2013, O’Shay’s
- 2014, Tower Pub
- 2015, McGurk’s
- 2016, St. Charles Ancient Order of Hibernians
- 2017, St. Louis Ancient Order of Hibernians
- 2018, Flora Ave.
- 2019, St. Charles Ancient Order of Hibernians
