September Pickups Thread

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by Rob D.

Chicago could be considered one of the top teams in the Western Conference, which became the Big Ten Conference, in 21 of the 29 seasons from 1896 to 1924.

From 1925 on, for the most part Chicago could best be described as poor to fair in football.

Rob, you prompted me to look into the demise and reinstatement of football at U. Chicago....The internet is fantastic...all this information now at our googletips!!!...Turns out football at U.Chicago was banned by a football hating University President in 1939, then reinstated 30 years later in 1969 thru unusual circumstances of a mass meeting of students to support a deposed Marxist professor.....I know....sounds strange LOL....but ESPN writer Jon Greenberg wrote a good story on it you can read here below expserpts

"Old Stagg Field, which once sat 50,000 fans, is most famous for being the site of the first-ever nuclear chain reaction in 1942. Football was too barbaric for the school president Robert Hutchins, who called it "an infernal nuisance" when he banned it after the 1939 season. The atom bomb? No, that was fine.".....

"What Nelson didn't know at the time was that this sit-in was a rare occasion at the school, one that lumped thousands of students in one place. A couple of guys on Walter Hass' club football team took the opportunity to start a petition to bring back varsity football after a 30-year absence. They got 1,500 signatures and presented them to the faculty committee, the deans and the board of trustees, according to a Chicago Tribune story. Nelson said he thought the school was looking for some positive publicity in a time of upheaval.

Hass had been the Athletic director since 1956 and tried in vain to get football reinstated for years, waiting for the right time. This was it.

"It was a million-to-one shot," Hass told the Tribune, "but I guess sometimes, stubbornness pays off.".....