#Sports teams chicago 1930 professional#

#Sports teams chicago 1930 professional#

In 1900, the American League was organized, and professional baseball started to attract considerable interest. In 1876, organized baseball put in an appearance and the Chicago team was one of the charter members. Yachting also took a start, and expanded rapidly in the next few years. Brown, a nationally-known amateur athletic official, was a member of that club. In the early nineties, the Farragut Boat Club, located at Thirty-first Street and the lake, sponsored most of the events. Rowing was indulged in, but not on an extensive scale. The tandem and the “quad” were frequent sights on the boulevards on Sundays and holidays, when all riders turned out the same as do the motorists of today.

Then there were the usual Pullman road race and various events sponsored by the many cycling clubs in Chicago. Bicycles of all kinds, even the high, front-wheel and small, back-wheel, were ridden in those events. Aside from the six-day “go as you please” races held in the old Coliseum at East Sixty-third Street near the Illinois Central tracks, and those held in Tattersall’s arena, there were the usual long grinds from Milwaukee, Elgin, Aurora and other cities, to Chicago. Washington Park Race Track on Derby Day, circa 1894įollowing the Fair of 1893, “bike” racing was at its peak. They attracted thousands of spectators who stood in the bitter cold to watch the spirited racing. Generally took place on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The fastest trotters and pacers were matched, and “cutters” were used instead of wheel sulkies. During the winter months, trotting races were held on Grand Boulevard on the south side, starting at East Thirty-fifth Street. At that time there were several other tracks near Chicago, including those at Hawthorne and Roby. McChesney, a big, black horse, won many a stake there. The track was the scene of the great trotting races between Joe Patchen, the pacer, and Star Pointer, the trotter. On Derby Day, there was one continuous stream of fashionably-dressed women seated in horse-drawn conveyances of various kinds. That famous track was noted for its colorful gatherings. The eastern boundary was Cottage Grove Avenue and the western, South Park Avenue. It was bounded on the north by Sixty-first Street and on the south by Sixty-third Street. Highball won the last American derby at this famous course, considered one of the great ones of the world. Horse racing flourished in Chicago until 1906 when the famous Washington Park race track was closed by city officials because of irregularities.

Soldiers Field in Grant Park Has a Seating Capacity for 200,000 Persons

That is the reason why so few good athletes were developed in the preparatory schools, universities and colleges. They had no toboggan slides, the snow on the lagoons in the parks seldom was cleared away, and the youngsters had to make the best of those conditions.

There was no incentive for them to practice or train. The boys and girls had to shift for themselves. The rising generation was given little or no encouragement. Thirty years ago, sports of various kinds were looked upon as events for the grown-ups. Over the span of years since the World’s Fair of 1893 was held, there has been a vast improvement in sports, professional and amateur. Sports Get Liberal Support From Chicagoans Eckersall, football player, official, and sportswriter for the Chicago Tribune. The following article is from Chicago the World’s Youngest City published in 1929, written by Walter H.