Englewood Technical Prep Academy
| Englewood High School (Chicago) | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
|
6201 S. Stewart Ave. Chicago, Illinois 60621 United States | |
| Information | |
| Type | Public Secondary |
| Opened |
1873 1979 (new building) |
| Closed | 2008 |
| Oversight | Chicago Public Schools |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Gender | Coed |
| Number of students |
151 (2007–08; the last class of Seniors) |
| Color(s) |
Purple White |
| Fight song | "Our Englewood" |
| Athletics conference | Chicago Public League |
| Mascot | Eagles |
| Accreditation | North Central Association of Colleges and Schools |
| Yearbook | Purple And White[1] |
Englewood Technical Prep Academy High School or sometimes referred to as simply Englewood High School, was a public four-year high school located in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, United States. It was a part of the Chicago Public Schools system. The school graduated its last class of 151 students in June 2008. Englewood was closed as an action in the CPS Renaissance 2010 program.
Athletics
Englewood competed in the Chicago Public League (CPL) and was a member of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA). Their team name were the Eagle's. The boys' track team were state champions four times (1895, 1897, 1901, 1905); and were Public League champions in 1976.[2] The boys' cross country team were Public League champions (1933, 1934; 1936–37, 1950–51, 1953–54, 1955–56, 1957 and 1968). The boys' football team were Public League champions six times (1914–16, 1918–20). The boys' basketball team were Public League champions two times (1917–18, 1926–27) and Regional champions in 2007–08.
Art Folz and the 1925 Chicago Cardinals
Prior to the 1933 season, the National Football League team with the best record in the standings at the end of the season, was named the season's NFL Champions. In 1925, with the Chicago Cardinals trailing the Pottsville Maroons a half game lead in the standings, two extra games were scheduled by the Cardinals against the inferior Milwaukee Badgers and Hammond Pros, both of which were NFL members at the time, to close the standings gap. Art Folz, an Englewood High School graduate and a substitute quarterback for the Cardinals, convinced four players from Englewood High School to join the Milwaukee Badgers for the game under assumed names, thereby ensuring that the Cardinals' opponent was not a pro caliber club. The Cardinals later defeated Milwaukee 59–0.[3] NFL President Joseph Carr later learned that high school players had been used and told reporters the 59-0 Cardinals win would be stricken from the record. However, the league had never got around to removing it. The game is still a part of the NFL records. The Cardinals' owner, Chris O'Brien, was also fined $1,000 by Carr for allowing his team play a game against high schoolers, even though he claimed that he was unaware of the players' status. Badgers' owner Ambrose McGuirk was ordered to sell his Milwaukee franchise within 90 days. Art Folz was then barred from football for life.[4]
However prior to the 1926 season, Folz's lifetime ban was lifted, however he chose not to return to pro football. The $1,000 fine against O'Brien was rescinded. McGuirk though had already sold his Badgers franchise to Johnny Bryan, a fullback with the Chicago Bears.[4] The Englewood players were also forgiven, and two of them, William Thompson and Charles Richardson, earned high school all-star recognition at the end of the season. Folz reportedly told the high schoolers that the game was a "practice game" and would in no part affect their amateur status.[5]
School song
- "Our Englewood"
All voices raise in songs of praise for Englewood
Our flags unfold and banners hold for Englewood
For many friends throughout the land
With joyful hearts all willing stand
To shout her praise for dear old Englewood.
O Englewood, our Englewood,
How many times before
You've taught us how to faithful be
You're turned defeat into victory
O Englewood, our Englewood,
We'll stand by you today
Hurrah for the Purple and White
Hurrah for the Purple and White.
Then here's a cheer for schoolmates, dear hurrah, hurrah,
And here's a hand for teachers, grand hurrah, hurrah,
Our loyalty we pledge to thee
We'll work for what we hope to be
All honor then to dear old Englewood.
Oh, tell me of a high school
Where I should like to go
Where jolly pupils gather
And seek life's work to know.
Oh, tell me is there sunshine
In class and hall and heart
For I should like to join that school
And try to do my part.
Violence and school rivalries
In 2002, 18-year-old Englewood senior Maurice Davis was shot to death at a bus stop located in front of the school. He was the seventh student killed in or near a public school in Chicago.[6] Before closing, this school was a participant in one of the oldest rivalries in the United States against Hyde Park Career Academy.[7]
Closing and building uses
The school board decided in 2005 that, due to its poor performance, Englewood would be phased out over a three-year period to allow the freshmen who had entered to be the final class to graduate. Many reasons were behind the closing of this school. It was one of the worst performing public schools in the US for the end of 2008.[8] There are two new schools currently using the same building: Urban Prep Academy, a public charter high school for young men (opened in 2006); and TEAM Englewood, a public coed charter school that opened in 2007. Team Englewood still uses the Englewood High School team name "The Eagles".
Notable alumni
- Charlie Bachman (1892–1985) – player and coach in College Football Hall of Fame.
- The Barrett Sisters – legendary gospel trio.
- Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) – winner of 1950 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, the first African American to do so; Poet Laureate of Illinois.
- Oscar Brown, Jr. (1926–2005) – singer, songwriter, playwright, poet, and civil-rights activist.
- Buck Brown (1936–2007) – Playboy magazine cartoonist.
- George Robert Carruthers (born 1939) – physicist, space scientist
- Gene Chandler (born 1937) – singer, best known for his 1962 number-one song "Duke of Earl".
- Merri Dee (born 1936) – WGN anchor/reporter, television personality, victims' rights advocate and philanthropist.
- Sam Greenlee (1930–2014) – African-American writer, best known for his 1969 novel The Spook Who Sat by the Door.
- Lorraine Hansberry (1930–1965) – author of 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun, first African-American female playwright to have work produced on Broadway.
- Harold L. Ickes (1874–1952) – U.S. Secretary of the Interior under presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
- Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr. (1935–1967) – Air Force pilot and first African-American astronaut.
- Robert W. ("Bob" or "Tiny") Maxwell (1883–1922) – football player, coach, and official; sports editor; namesake of the Maxwell Football Club and the Maxwell Trophy.
- Milton Mayer (1908–1986) – journalist, educator, and author of the influential book They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45, which let ordinary German citizens tell their stories of how the Nazi Party rose to power.
- Walter McCornack (1875–1939) – football player at Dartmouth and football coach at Dartmouth and Northwestern.
- Archibald Motley, Jr. (1891–1981) – jazz age artist.
- Willard Motley (1909–1965) – author.[9]
- Carl Nicks (born 1958) – former NBA player; star player at Indiana State University; selected as member of Centennial Team, Missouri Valley Conference.
- Geraldine Page (1924–1987) – Academy Award-winning actress for The Trip to Bountiful, Emmy winner and four-time Tony Award nominee inducted in American Theater Hall of Fame.
- Joe Williams (1918–1999) – Grammy Award-winning jazz singer who sang with Count Basie's orchestra.
References
- ↑ Re-print; Englewood High School 1961.
- ↑ Chicago Englewood High School.
- ↑ Bob Carroll. "Red Equals Green" (PDF). Coffin Corner. Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–6. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 26, 2012.
- 1 2 Joe Horrigan (1984). "Joe Carr" (PDF). Coffin Corner. Professional Football Researchers Association. 6 (5–6): 1–4. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 17, 2009. Retrieved August 14, 2009.
- ↑ Pruter, Robert. "The Greatest High School Football Rivalry in Illinois". Illinois H.S.toric Article. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
- ↑ "Chicago Cops Investigate High School Shooting". FoxNews.com. Fox News. April 11, 2007. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
- ↑ List of High School Football Rivalries over 100+ Years.
- ↑ "Top 100 Worst Performing Public Schools in the U.S." TurkishWeekly.net. Turkish Weekly. May 12, 2009. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
- ↑ Biography – Willard Motley
External links
- Alumni website
- WGBH Boston website gives a brief history of Englewood
- Profile from the Illinois High School Association