Sioux Falls Soos

The Sioux Falls Soos, based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, played four Class D seasons from 1920 through 1923 and were leading the league outright when it collapsed underneath them. The nickname was a clipped, phonetic take on the city's own name.

Sioux Falls was the natural anchor of the South Dakota League when Michael Cantillon organized it for 1920. At roughly 25,200 people it was the largest city in the state, and the other seven charter members were all considerably smaller towns in the eastern half. Cantillon, who had run the Minneapolis Millers from 1907 to 1918, required each owner to post a $1,200 deposit as a promise to finish the schedule, and ran the whole operation out of a Minneapolis office.

The Soos went 58-40 in that first season, finishing second behind the Mitchell Kernels by three and a half games, and finished second to Mitchell again in 1921. That year's star was right-hander George Stueland, who led the league with 22 wins and 168 strikeouts and finished the season in the National League with the Chicago Cubs, going 9-1 for Chicago in 1922. Sioux Falls was 55-42 in 1922. The 1923 season was their best and shortest: the Soos sat in first at 35-22, half a game up on Aberdeen, when the league folded in mid-July. Home games were played at Nelson Field.

The Soos name was one of several the city used. Sioux Falls fielded the Canaries in 1902 and 1903, returned to the Canaries name in 1924 and carried it through the 1953 season, and later played as the Packers from 1966 through 1971. The Canaries name is in use again today.