The top St. Louis high school rivalries and why they still matter
Aisha Sultan | Post-Dispatch
March 1, 2026
This is an abbreviated version of the original, longer article:
Maybe St. Louis was just born to beef.
We’ve got a long history of profound divides. The city split from the county in the Great Divorce of 1876. The county fractured into 87 municipalities. And grown adults still sort one another by their high school affiliations.
There’s bound to be some deep-seated, long-running, super-heated rivalries. For more than a hundred years, the St. Louis high school sports scene has delivered that drama.
But where do the tangled roots of these feuds begin? Why are they so intense and how have they persisted for so long? We talked to students, alums, former star players, coaches and principals about their most memorable rivals.
Local historians shed light on how these contests evolved over generations and revealed the socio-economic, ethnic and religious layers these competitions are built upon. Our Post-Dispatch colleagues who cover high school sports offer some color commentary. Here are our picks for the region’s top rivalries.
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Designed for rivalry
Michael G. Tsichlis, a writer and researcher who studies demography, immigration and the history of St. Louis, says the unique fragmented design of the region feeds into its many local rivalries. A lifelong identification with a high school gives those who remain and those who come back a way to relive their own core memories.
Media coverage also built up these rivalries, which hit a peak when the Baby Boomers came of age, he says. PROM, a monthly magazine published for high school teenagers in St. Louis area from 1947 to 1973, covered the happenings within schools. It fostered the culture of competition.
City and municipal officials also encouraged adversarial matchups because it built a spirit of camaraderie and connection within their communities. The other elements that help create and sustain a rivalry include: well-matched teams that face off regularly, a history of close competition and geographic proximity. Add some racial, ethnic or class differences, and things are bound to get heated.
There are some programs, like East St. Louis High football, which has long been so dominant, they don’t have any true local rivals. And a once-great rivalry can wither if a program falters or ends altogether.
Tsichlis explains that the brand of a school is intensified by its rivalry. It gives students an identity — a sense of who they are. He recalled visiting a friend’s mother, in her mid-80s and suffering from Alzheimer’s. Nurses were testing her memory, and she couldn’t recall what year it was or who was president. But when they asked where she went to high school, she perked up and immediately said: Southwest High School. Longhorns forever.