The big guys have names.
There’s Big Lou and Louie Biggs. And don’t forget Jumbo Rivers, either. Big City also just arrived in town. You’ll meet him soon.
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These flags—that’s right, they’re flags—are room-sized, printed-polyester behemoths, each of them an original creation of St. Louis soccer diehard Jimmy Blood. For the past several years, Blood has designed, produced, waved, and named these enormous, 18- or even 20-foot-wide ensigns to support the region’s professional soccer teams. It’s a heartfelt endeavor that began as a way to cheer on Saint Louis FC, and continued this past fall to welcome St. Louis CITY2. In the coming weeks, you will see Blood and his hulking swaths of cloth at CITYPARK celebrating CITY’s inaugural season in Major League Soccer.
For Blood, a graphic designer by trade, creating these flags is the most fitting way he can show the size of his love for the city and the sport. He also hopes that his big flags serve as a small step toward building a vibrant fan culture and an unparalleled home-field advantage as CITY’s first campaign kicks off.
“I know it might seem silly that a flag could do so much, but for me, a flag has always been a giant beacon for the supporters’ section,” Blood says. “Nowhere else in American professional sports do you see stadiums and clubs allowing fans to do these kinds of things. One of the reasons I love soccer is that element of really being able to express yourself as a supporter.”
While the many flags Blood has designed over the years are original to him, the inspiration for this annual project stems from his love for Borussia Dortmund, a perennial contender in Germany’s Bundesliga. Years ago, while visiting a former German exchange student his family had hosted in St. Louis, Blood attended a BVB match and experienced the club’s renowned supporter section, the Yellow Wall, up close. There, he witnessed the unique, fan-organized theatrics and heard the unwavering chants that are part of the fabric of European football. He also saw the flags—dozens and dozens of them, flapping in lockstep with the action on the pitch.
When Blood attended his first Saint Louis FC match in 2015, he immediately hatched an idea. The St. Louligans fan crew was already a regular presence at FC contests. They were loud and proud, but Blood saw an opportunity to contribute in his own way. He put his graphic design skills to work and mocked up some concepts, then found a China-based wholesale vendor that was willing to make his custom flags for a reasonable price.
From there, Blood began showing up at matches with his banners and earned a nickname from his fellow Louligans: “Jimmy Big Flags.”
“This was, essentially, one element that I could help with,” Blood says. “Other people were doing their part, so I just figured that this is my role. I had the freedom to do what I wanted and I thought, ‘Hey, you know what? We need a 20-foot flag in our section.’ And now we have a 20-foot flag in our section.”
Consider that 5-by-3 feet is the standard size flag you might fly outside your home. For match days, Blood wanted something a little more eye-catching. He started by bringing a custom-designed 10-by-6 foot flag to Saint Louis FC games. Gradually, this artistic endeavor kept growing. And growing. And growing even still.
“Bigger is better,” Blood says.
You better believe he lives by that motto.
Big Lou, an 18-by-15 foot green and blue banner branded with the Louligans’ slogan “Silly Since 2010,” was Blood’s first large-format flag for FC games. It might remain his favorite, even several seasons later. His largest flag is Louie Biggs, a 20-by-18 foot Louligan-branded Jolly Roger that came not long after Big Lou.
Big City, which just arrived as part of Blood’s 2023 preseason flag order, measures the same as Big Lou and features CITY SC’s official colors and a design inspired by the City of St. Louis flag.
“I feel like our city flag is probably one of the best city flags there is in the world,” Blood says. “St. Louisans love it. I know I always love to see it. It’s amazing how much I can manipulate that to create a different design for every single year.”
The design process is but one part that Blood must factor. Actually waving one of these beasts requires some practice.
Blood jokes that the first time he brought Big Lou to a Saint Louis FC match, he nearly fell over from trying to give it some sway. Besides building upper-body strength, the key to sustaining quality flag movement for 90 minutes is finding a reliable pole. Blood now buys carbon fiber poles from a German manufacturer that he says specializes in sturdy equipment for soccer fans eager to wave weighty flags like his.
“I have a harness that I wear around my waist, and that’s a massive help,” Blood says. “Without that, I don’t think I could do it as long as I do. Now, I can do the 20-foot flag one-handed and drink a beer while I’m doing it. But still, to do that for 90 minutes is quite the effort, that’s for sure. I’ve definitely had a few nights where my arms were very sore the next day.”
And yet, Blood keeps waving. And creating. Besides the flags, he also helps the Louligans with designs for shirts, scarves, and other accessories. Those Louligans specialty kits you’ve probably seen in bars across the region? They’re the work of “Jimmy Big Flags.”
Still, the flags mean as much to Blood as anything. He develops new concepts annually, and he can’t wait to wear that harness and put Big City to work at CITYPARK for the first of many seasons to come.
“I can’t stop,” Blood says, “And I don’t think I ever will stop.”
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