Football, with its violent clashes of bodies on the field, has always been the one game in the high schools and colleges that could elicit the greatest passion and enthusiasm from their students. And thus for more than a century schools have defined themselves in part by the success of their athletic teams, because triumph on the gridiron reflected glory on the school; and defeat, humiliation. And to triumph over or lose to one's closest rival raised the stakes even further. Classic football rivalries are thus where one can find the richest and most evocative elements of school competition.
The greatest football rivalry in Illinois (some would say in the nation) is that between two Chicago high schools, Hyde Park and Englewood, who have been fighting their football wars since 1889. A survey of these annual contests is more than a look at one of the most richly storied rivalries in high school athletics. It is also a look at how football itself has evolved as an extracurriculum during the last hundred years and how it was used as an element in community and high school identification.
As was college football in the 1890s high school football was likewise a vigorous cultural expression of the middle to upper classes and the ethos and values of secondary schools students were thus closely patterned after what they saw in the universities and colleges among their older brothers and sisters. One of the most dramatic aspects of this football culture in the high schools was the traditional game rivalry with the neighboring school or crosstown rival. Among the colleges and universities the annual football contest between Harvard and Yale was the preeminent one in the nation, and while across America there were many other traditional rivalries no other even came close in capturing the interest of the populace. The day after the Harvard-Yale game newspapers would devote front page and multi-page coverage to the event.
The Harvard-Yale game and its attendant public interest did not go unnoticed in the high schools. As high school athletic programs evolved, football rivalries between neighboring schools began to emerge. Students thought of these as "Harvard-Yale" games, and, as the rivalry between the Ivy League universities enthralled the country, these local contests captured the imagination of the local communities. The East Coast developed most of the notable rivalries. In Boston, the ultimate contest was between Boston Latin and Boston English. In Philadelphia, it was between Central High and Central Manual High; in Brooklyn, between Brooklyn High (later called Boys') and Brooklyn Polytechnic; on Manhattan, between DeWitt Clinton and Commerce; and in Baltimore, between City College High and Polytech High.
In Illinois, schools across the state by the end of the 1890s were conducting their own "Harvard-Yale" rivalries, and by far the most notable of these was that between Hyde Park and Englewood. The two schools were located on Chicago's South Side and up to 1890, when their communities were incorporated into the city, they were suburban schools, and of the most prestigious sort. Hyde Park was more like the Harvard in the rivalry as it was considered one of the elite schools in the state, and was nationally known both for its academics and athletics. It not only had the biggest academic reputation but its students were considered to be at the higher economic and social plane than those from other schools. (At the late date of 1958 Hyde Park still led the state in the total number of graduates who went on to get their Ph.D.s.) Englewood was located in a more solidly middle class community and more of its students were considered a step lower in social standing. But like Yale in its relationship to Harvard, Englewood was considered second-best in prestige but was the stronger athletic power.
The two schools during much of the 1890s and early 1900s were often the two largest in the state. Whereas Hyde Park and Englewood could boast of enrollments of more than a 1,000 students each, the large schools elsewhere both in the suburbs and downstate rarely could boast more than 500 students; most had enrollments around 200-300 students. In Chicago, West Division and Lake View had comparable enrollments with Hyde Park and Englewood, but rarely did they have comparable graduation rates. With regard to graduation numbers, a 1906 report showed that Hyde Park had led the city in the number of graduates for six consecutive years, and Englewood took second in the previous five. Thus with their greater enrollments, their higher graduation rates, and a large middle class/upper class student body that had leisure time to play football, Englewood and Hyde Park were both demographically favored to field the strongest teams in the state.
The Cook County League was formed in the fall of 1889 and was the first year that the Blue and White of Hyde Park and the Purple and White of Englewood met in football. In the league's inaugural season only four schools — Hyde Park, Englewood, Lake View, and Chicago Manual — participated, although all Cook County schools were eligible. The games were played in the city's parks, and the South Side schools usually played at Washington Park. Other early playing areas were the Wanderer's Cricket Grounds (37th and Indiana; after 1893, 39th and Wentworth) on the South Side, Lincoln Park on the North Side, and Douglas Park on the West Side.
Englewood only played football for the first time in 1889. The school credits one of its teachers, Frank Holton, who taught biology and was a Harvard grad, with introducing the game in Englewood. This first year he shared the job of coaching with the team's captain, Bernard Jordan. In subsequent seasons, however, Englewood like most Chicago schools during this era relied either mainly on the team's captain or an alumnus to coach its team each year. Such a situation left every season something of an ad hoc situation with regard to coaching, as high school elevens searched for recent grads in local colleges to direct the team for the season and often from game to game.
Hyde Park had a history with the game going back to 1885, when the game was just beginning to be adopted in the high schools, although prior to 1889 football was more of a haphazard and unorganized affair. Hyde Park, led by Captain Roger Sherman, swept through the four-team league undefeated and unscored upon. In the final game of the season Hyde Park beat Englewood 26 to 0 at Washington Park.
In 1889 the newspapers barely noticed the games of the league and for the next several years the Hyde Park-Englewood contest was not even reported in the city-wide newspapers. But during this time a rivalry was building. In 1890, when West Division won the Cook County title, Hyde Park beat Englewood 10 to 6 to open the season on October 16th. As usual in those days the game ended in a wrangle. The Hyde Park yearbook reported "after playing about thirty minutes, a dispute arose about some slugging, and the Englewoods refused to play any more, leaving the game to the Hyde Parks." Later in the season Hyde Park walloped Englewood 44 to 4.
In 1891, Englewood took the Cook County title with their first big star, Walter McCornack. They defeated Hyde Park 22 to 12. McCornack after graduation in 1893 attended Dartmouth, where he became a star. Later in the decade he served as one of the alumni coaches at Englewood, and then went on to coach at Dartmouth and then Northwestern. Hyde Park was coached by its captain, William Bennett, who took over as the team's third captain after two previous ones dropped out of school. The yearbook lamented, "the team of this year was probably composed of the best material the school ever had, and if they had been trained hard by a competent coach they would have had few equals in the country."
In 1892, Englewood, with McCornack as captain, beat Hyde Park, 34 to 4. However, in a game against the University of Illinois McCornack was injured and was unable to play in the game against Lake View, which Englewood lost. Lake View went on to win the title. In the 1893 season, Englewood had an inexperienced team, but Hyde Park was weak as well, and Englewood managed to win the annual contest 12 to 6 at Washington Park. A budding star on the Purple and White was freshman Clayton Teetzel. Lake View again took the Cook County title.
The fall of 1894 saw the emergence of the Englewood and Hyde Park dominance of the league. The schools met twice during the year. In October, the Blue and White defeated the Purple and White 6 to 0 at Washington Park, but in late November, Englewood turned the tables, defeating Hyde Park 16 to 8 at Lincoln Park. The winner of the game won the right to meet Lake View for the Cook County championship. This was the first year where the intensity of the rivalry between Hyde Park and Englewood became manifest. Hyde Park put in a claim to the championship and accused the other teams in the league of conducting a "secret meeting" where Hyde Park was "defrauded" by awarding Englewood a disputed game.
Englewood met Lake View at Washington Park and beat them 16 to 0. This was the first year that the city-wide newspapers gave solid coverage to the high school games, and in the Chicago Tribune report on the title game the paper devoted a full column. The star of the Englewood team was sophomore Teetzel.
Hyde Park won the Cook County title in 1895, and in its opening game on October 9th defeated Englewood 12 to 0 at Washington Park before 2,000 spectators. Englewood was without the services of Teetzel, who decided that year to attend Orchard Lake Military Academy in Michigan. Hyde Park went on to win all the remaining games of the season and the Cook County championship. The star of the team was Ralph C. Hamill, who went on to play at University of Chicago and earn Walter Camp All American recognition in 1899. A. G. Spalding donated to the league a "magnificent silver cup," which was awarded to Hyde Park as league champion. If Hyde Park could win it for two more season the school would gain permanent possession of the trophy. It was not to be.
In 1896, Teetzel, apparently in love with the high school football wars in Chicago, returned to Englewood his senior year. He joined a splendid team captained and quarterbacked by Will Talcott. Teetzel's presence made a difference as Englewood went on to win the Cook County conference with an undefeated record. The Englewood-Hyde Park rivalry was at its fiercest, and in the last game of the season both schools were undefeated which made for a season-ending fireworks. It was the first year in which the contest was held at University of Chicago's Marshall Field, beginning a tradition as the Englewood fans filed into the west stands and the Hyde Park fans filed into the east stands. The Englewood school newspaper reported: "The final game with Hyde Park...was the greatest of all. To defeat our ancient rivals was the happiest ambition of the team. The defeat of '95 still rankles in the breasts of seven of the team, and they were determined to do or die. 'It was a glorious victory,' the score being 38 to 6, when time was called because of darkness with ten minutes yet to play." Elevating the annual contest as an "ancient rivalry" after only seven years of play and the florid language of the battlefield is most typical of how high schoolers viewed football in the 1890s.
Englewood High gave a victory celebration to its team on the Monday following the Hyde Park game. During the ceremony the Englewood team was presented with the A. G. Spalding silver cup trophy, the removal of which from Hyde Park's trophy case must have truly rankled. Englewood tried to assuage the pain by expressing "sympathy and [to] congratulate Hyde Park upon the splendid feeling that is mutual between the schools."
Teetzel was lauded in the school newspaper: "Clayton Teetzel, at Right Half Back, deserves considerable more space than we can allot to him. He is as good a player as Englewood High School has ever turned out, and is capable of playing on almost any college team in the country. A swift runner, dodger and exceedingly difficult to tackle, he hits the line with almost irresistible force. All the praise and flattery that he gets fails to make him conceited, which amount to a virtue in his case. He probably has carried the oval more yards than any other high school player in the country this year." Teetzel went on to play with distinction at Michigan and in the next decade worked as an assistant coach to Fielding Yost at Michigan.
As Hyde Park and Englewood represented the two powerhouse football programs in the midwest so did the universities of Michigan and Chicago. These institutions thus looked to those two Chicago schools for football material, and beginning in the mid-1890s began recruiting from those schools athletes whose forebears in previous years had gone to Brown, Dartmouth, and other eastern schools. Following graduation, for instance, Teetzel enrolled in Michigan along with other Englewood mainstays Will Talcott and James Henry (Henry would later transfer to Chicago and captain the team there).
The 1897 season was probably the roughest in the history of the Englewood-Hyde Park series. The circuit had grown to twelve teams and to get through the season the teams had to play twice a week on each Wednesday and Saturday. These games were played at the height of the "red-meat" era, in which football with its mass plays accompanied by fisticuffs was at its meanest and roughest. Also, the games began later in the season — the first game was usually mid-October — so there were no mild-weather September games. Near the end of the season Hyde Park inflicted on Englewood — which was being coached by alumnus Wallie McCornack — its first defeat, 14 to 8, at Marshall Field. Officials were from the University of Chicago, Phil Allen as umpire and famed coach Amos Alonzo Stagg as referee.
The defeat of Englewood left a three-way tie for first place between Englewood, Hyde Park, and Evanston, all with 10-1 records. Englewood ended up as the league champion, but not because the school won any game on the field. Through some sort of league politics it was determined that Evanston would play Hyde Park in a playoff to determine which school would meet Englewood in the title game. Hyde Park defeated Evanston the following week, but politics further intervened when the league barred two of Hyde Park's players from the upcoming Englewood game. The Tribune sounding not at all neutral on the issue reported the league voted to "debar two of Hyde Park's players who had played during the entire season without protest from other schools and under the rules governing the league. When it came to the deciding game the league passed a rule specifically to hit the two men and debarred them. It was called a case of ex post facto ruling at the meeting, but it was passed nevertheless. Hyde Park has suffered similarly on other occasions, and refuses longer to accede to the demands of Englewood." Here the Englewood-Hyde Park parallel with the Harvard-Yale rivalry is most evident, in which Harvard for years was driven to fits by Yale, whose representative on the intercollegiate rules committee, Walter Camp, seem to prevail in so many disputes.
In a long open letter to the newspaper several days later an Englewood student dripping with sarcasm gave the Englewood side of the story: "The facts are these: Wednesday: Nov. 3. Hyde Park was beaten by Evanston 12 to 4. Englewood having previously beaten Evanston 12 to 0. Monday, Nov. 8, two young men named Marcuse and Calliger entered the Hyde Park High School. They became bona fide students. In the course of a few days it was discovered, quite by accident, that they could play football. One of them, who had previously some slight experience on the [Chicago Athletic Association] C.A.A. team, developed with marvelous rapidity into a star end; the other proved to be a valuable back, which was particularly fortunate, as the team had just lost its best half back. With the aid of these men Hyde Park on Nov. 20 defeated [Englewood] by a score of 14 to 8." The letter writer while rightly correcting the Tribune article also tried to justify a bit of the jiggling of the rules by the league to get the players barred.
Hyde Park chose not to play Englewood and the title was awarded to Englewood by default. Hyde Park also announced that it was withdrawing from the league to form a new league with the two Aurora schools, Joliet, Bloomington, and other schools that "support first-class high school elevens."
Hyde Park apparently licked its wounds and got over the alleged mistreatment and rejoined the Cook County League for the 1898 season. Hyde Park met Englewood twice during the season. In the first game on November 5, the Blue and White defeated the Purple and White 27 to 0 at the Chicago Athletic Association Field. Two weeks later at Marshall Field the schools were again playing for the championship. Englewood prevailed, but just barely, winning 6 to 0. Hyde Park taking second for the third year in a row to Englewood must have felt like the Buffalo Bills' four-time Super Bowl losers in the 1990s.
Englewood in 1899 was at the peak of its athletic power. The team boasted a 6 foot-5 inch giant in Tommy Webster, such superior players as Charles Kennedy, James Wishart, and Fred Indermile, and two future All Americans in Robert Maxwell and Herbert Graver. Kennedy and Maxwell both went on to play at University of Chicago; Graver at Michigan. Hyde Park was developing some great new material, however, notably quarterback Walter Conner and future Hall of Famer Walter Eckersall (who would play at Chicago) and future All-American Tom Hammond (who would play at Michigan). Eckersall, a freshman, weighed only 118 pounds and at this point in his career was only a substitute end. A half back on the team was one Walter H. Lillard, who would go on to play at Dartmouth, and in 1909 coached Dartmouth, which was then a major Eastern football power. Thus the two meetings of the schools would involve four future All-Americans (two who would become Hall of Famers) and a future major university football coach. Few matches in the history of high school football could equal this extraordinary collection of talent.
In the first meeting of the season on November 11th Hyde Park upset Englewood by a score of 6 to 5 before 2,000 fans at the Wanderers Cricket Grounds. The second game on December 2nd at Marshall Field was reported as being for the league championship. And what a spectacle the game had become. Reported the Tribune:
"The natural rivalry which has existed between the two teams for years was the occasion for as much enthusiasm as when the University of Chicago shows in its games. Headed by a German band of four pieces and two drums the Englewood crowd entered the field yelling for their team. Hyde Park came on with hundreds of girls armed with big cow bells. Far up in the grandstand the high school boys had rigged up an immense fog horn to which they applied a pair of bellows and pumped it up until it screeched and brayed during the entire game.
The Englewood crowd was an uproarious one. Alderman Badenoch of Englewood fame led the cheering of the crowd in the west bleacher, and when the enthusiasm died down he raised his cane and started yelling once more."
As far as the game itself, Englewood prevailed 10 to 5, in a game that the Tribune deemed as the best in years. Englewood thought they had won the league title for a fourth year in a row, but for once league politics went against them. The league required that Englewood meet a new power, English High and Manual Training, and the following week lost to them in a shocker.
The rivalry of Hyde Park and Englewood, and their success in athletics, was the envy of other schools in the Cook County League. Ernest E. Quantrall, a star athlete at North-West Division who would later star at the University of Chicago, wrote for his school newspaper in 1900: "More than fifty per cent of the success of Englewood and Hyde Park high schools in athletics can be attributed to the wonderful spirit that is exhibited by their teachers, athletes, and pupils. Whenever there is a contest of any kind that these two schools are connected with, the students place confidence in their teams, and almost 'yell' them to victory, while the athletes never show any discouragement at defeat, but always go into competition with the 'never die' spirit that is so characteristic of America's most successful universities in their athletic work. You can hardly find a student in these two schools who will not defend his team to his utmost power, even after victory has been swept away."
The annual contests between Hyde Park and Englewood after 1899 began to lose its luster as new powers began to steal the limelight and the newspapers of the day concentrated more on college games. The first Englewood-Hyde Park contest of the new century, on October 28th, reflected some of the new realities. The Tribune, opened its story thus: "With the usual amount of wrangling, fumbling, and disputed decisions Hyde Park and Englewood high schools dragged slowly through a tie game yesterday morning at Marshall Field, ending with a score of 6 to 6." Hyde Park featured some outstanding underclassmen, Walter Eckersall, Tom Hammond, and Sam Ransom, that showed the team had a promising future. Englewood was in decline.
In early November following the death of one of its players in a scrimmage against the scrub team in preparation for a game against North Division, the Englewood team disbanded for the season. North Division beat Hyde Park for the title in 1900. It would not be the first time that one member of the team, Robert Maxwell, would experience the brutality of "red meat"-era football. Maxwell after his stay at Chicago played football at Swarthmore, where he made All American. At Swarthmore he was the subject of national attention following a game against Pennsylvania on October 7, 1905. The huge 250-pound, 6'4"-tall Maxwell was considered the principal threat by Pennsylvania which assigned three players to gang up on him on every play. He took a merciless beating, and finally had to leave the game with his nose broken, his eyes swollen shut, and his face a bloody mess. A photographer took his picture, and after it appeared in newspapers shocked President Theodore Roosevelt so much that he threatened to abolish football unless reforms were carried out. Maxwell would eventually be elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.
The year 1901 Hyde Park was roused for a championship season. Eckersall, now a junior, was made captain and the team was ready to romp. The game with Englewood attracted 3,500 spectators, probably a majority Hyde Park fans anticipating a massacre of their hated rivals. They weren't disappointed. Hyde Park won the game 33 to 0. By the end of the season the school had won the Cook County title.
The following year was an even more joyous one for Hyde Park. On November 23rd they met Englewood at Marshall Field and smashed them 57 to 0. The Tribune, which gave the game a large amount of ink, reported "the largest crowd which ever witnessed [the] annual contest between the two south side high schools saw Hyde Park run up the biggest total ever recorded against Englewood by a school eleven." Hyde Park went through the season undefeated and later claimed the national championship after besting Brooklyn Polytechnic 105 to 0 at Marshall Field in December. Eckersall went to Chicago and made first team All American in 1904, 1905, and 1906. Hammond went to Michigan and made third team All American in 1905.
Although North Division won the Cook County title in 1903, the Englewood-Hyde Park rivalry remained unabated. Englewood got its revenge for the two previous years humiliations, defeating Hyde Park 5 to 0. Alumni help as usual was forthcoming, as the Inter Ocean reported: "Stories which have been circulated in relation to the intense bitterness existing between two old Hyde Park stars were set a naught when, previous to the game, Tom Hammond of Michigan and Walter Eckersall of Chicago were seen on the side lines instructing the members of the team that they had done much to make famous, last year. Hyde Park during the game used the famous Yost shift." Refereeing the game was Englewood's old star, Wallie McCornack, who said the paper "declared the game to be the best he had ever witnessed either between high schools or smaller colleges."
In the next several years North Division, champion in 1905 and 1907, and newcomer Oak Park, champion in 1908, were gathering much of the ink. Hyde Park in 1906 sneaked in to win the title but its program made nobody forget its 1902 team. Englewood and Hyde Park fought to an unsatisfactory tie on a muddy and rain drenched-field in 1906. Many of the athletic programs, particularly that of Hyde Park's, were severely damaged by the Board of Education's campaign to stamp out fraternities beginning in 1904, and many top athletes were forced off teams.
Englewood returned back to its old form in the 1908 and 1909 seasons winning the Cook County League both years. In 1908, Englewood failed to beat their old rival, however, losing to them 10 to 5. The 1909 season followed form when the league champs beat Hyde Park 21 to 6 at Marshall Field. While not giving attendance figures, the Tribune reported in a scene reminiscent of the 1890s glory years: "a crowd that set a record in high school football history gathered at the scene of battle. The west side of the field, in which the Englewood rooters massed, was entirely occupied, and the Hyde Park stand on the east contained practically the entire roll of students." On that team Englewood team was future Hall of Famer Charles Bachman. He was a great all-around athlete while at Englewood, where he gained a fistful of state championship medals as well.
During the next three seasons, from 1910 to 1912, Oak Park under the tremendously innovative coach Bob Zuppke dominated league competition, and the Englewood-Hyde Park rivalry was reduced to a sideshow. The 1910 Hyde Park team, whose cast included their future coach Arthur "Butch" Scanlon, tied Englewood in 1910, and beat them the next two years. In 1910 and 1911, Englewood still sported the talented Bachman, but his supporting cast was obviously not up to snuff.
The 1913 season was the first for the newly formed Chicago Public League. Oak Park was no longer in the league, and no longer had Coach Zuppke, who had been called by the University of Illinois to do for its program what he had done for Oak Park. This set the stage for the next decade of domination by Hyde Park and Englewood in league contests. The 1913 squad of Hyde Park's was one of the best in the school's history with future all Americans and pros Captain Barnard Halstrom, Dunc Annan, and Lou Usher and had one of its all-time best seasons. The school won the conference title with an undefeated record and in the words of the Tribune reporter "Hyde Park's machine-like football completely crushed Englewood High, foe of a score of gridiron battles, 41 to 0." The game was played before 3,000 fans at University of Chicago's Stagg Field (the expanded Marshall Field).
From 1914 to 1919 Englewood while coached by Albert Barradell had splendid success. The 1914 team boasted the talents of center and future all-American Frank Coughlin, but that year Hyde Park did not meet Englewood because the team was ousted from the Chicago Public League. The school was still carrying on the tradition of using alumni to coach its team, which was a violation of the new league rules. Englewood repeated as the city public schools' champ in 1915, and utterly destroyed Hyde Park in their annual tussle, 44 to 6. Hyde Park was still without a faculty coach, and with the league's blessing relied on an alumnus, Jesse Smith (1900) to "oversee" the team's "work." The game was played at Stagg Field before a huge crowd of 5,000 fans. In 1916 Englewood, with star half back Bromstedt, again prevailed in the league, but was upset in a shocker by Hyde Park, 6 to 0, at Normal baseball park; for the first time in twenty years the game was not played at the University of Chicago.
In 1917 Arthur "Butch" Scanlon, who starred on Hyde Park's 1910 team, volunteered his services that year to coach the team. He took the team to the league title, and they did it in superlative fashion, completely destroying Englewood 55 to 7. In a return to Stagg Field, the game was played before a "couple of thousand high school boy and girl rooters along the sidelines." Among the outstanding players on this Hyde Park team was tackle Charles E. McGuire, a future All American at University of Chicago. Englewood had a budding star in half back Charles Palmer, however, who would lead them to the league title in the 1918 season. He went on to play pro football and in 1927 became Englewood's football coach (and later Fenger's longtime coach).
The 1918 season was devastated by a combination of war exigencies and an influenza epidemic that was closing down football games across the nation. Englewood's success was rankling to Hyde Park. When all the games in the fourth weekend of October were canceled by the school board preventing an Englewood-Hyde Park clash, Hyde Park requested a midweek game with Englewood. Hyde Park was eager to play before it would lose seven of its players who had enlisted in the tank corps and who were soon scheduled to be called up. Coach Barradall rejected the request and sniffed, "Let Hyde Park take its medicine and not play the baby act by trying to make us the goat. We will lose three men too, but we will play when we are scheduled." Coaches were not such gentlemen then.
The schedule was resumed in November and Englewood and Hyde Park managed to meet on November 23. Hyde Park, as it had feared would be the case, was crippled by the absence of several key players. Said the Tribune, "Hyde Park was a shattered semblance of the proud outfit which started the autumn as the title favorite, and its lineup was considerably improvised." Hyde Park lost the game by only a 6 to 0 score, and the paper commented, "it put up a splendid fight, which won approval even of the Englewood rooters."
In the 1919 and 1920 seasons Englewood was led by one of the most talented quarterbacks ever produced by the city, future pro Art Folz, and took both the conference and the annual clash with Hyde Park. The rivalry as ever was just as intense in previous years. In the 1919 game, which Englewood prevailed 16 to 0, the Tribune reported, "Both schools were backed to the limit by their respective student bodies and the cheering and songs rivaled those heard at 'Big Ten' conference games. Money, as well as a few fistic encounters also were in evidence backing the teams." In 1919 Hyde Park was without the services of Butch Scanlon, but had stars of its own, notably Roy Simmons and future pro Frank Hobschied, who was only a sophomore.
The 1920 encounter between the two teams, in which Englewood prevailed 7 to 0, was given lots of ink by the Tribune, which gushed "definitely one of the greatest prep battles ever seen in Chicago." The only score was made by Folz who after catching a punt made a "spectacular run of sixty yards" to bring the ball in for a touchdown. The custom of staging the annual contest at the University of Chicago ended with this game. Hyde Park still had coaching problems. For the 1920 season they hired Al Presslar — a semi-pro who knocked around the city playing football, baseball, and basketball — and it was not a good choice. On December 4th, Hyde Park traveled to Lansing, Michigan, and tied the team there. But they did it with a ringer, Roy Simmons, who had played for Hyde Park the previous year and was playing for the University of Chicago. Presslar was "dismissed and blacklisted as coach by the City High School League."
The 1921 season saw the return of Butch Scanlon as coach for Hyde Park and he brought an end to Englewood's reign as conference champion. With regard to the key match-up with Englewood at White City park, Hyde Park squeaked by Englewood 6 to 0 in a hotly contested game. The Hyde Park squad featured two future all-Americans, Austin McCarty and Fred Hobschied, both who went on to play at the University of Chicago. Folz was back for Englewood, but the latter was hobbled by an injury. Said the Tribune, "four thousand backers of the two high school elevens turned out to witness the game. Play was stopped several times to get the crowd off the field." Much was at stake, because Hyde Park went on to win the league title. The following year, again at White City park, Hyde Park beat Englewood 10 to 0 before a reported 6,000 fans and again went on to win the league title. The Hyde Park team included all-city all-star and future pro Phillip Brennan, and the Englewood team included Ellie Hasan, who would join the Hyde Park faculty in 1928 and become the football coach in 1930.
The Englewood-Hyde Park football dominance of the Chicago Public League ended after the 1922 season. Lane Tech took the championship in 1923, and thereafter new powers, notably Lindblom, Schurz, Tilden Tech, Fenger, and Austin dominated the league's football wars. Neither Englewood nor Hyde Park would ever win the top title, although both would later win a second division title. The newspapers reduced their reports on the annual Englewood-Hyde Park contests to brief one-paragraph wrap-ups, giving the bulk of their ink to the Lindbloms and Fengers of the league.
Englewood and Hyde Park both continued to draw some of the largest crowds, at least during the 1920s. In the 1923 season, for instance, the top five Public League schools in total attendance were Englewood (47,600), Tilden Tech (39,852), Hyde Park (34,200), Lindblom (26,500), and Bowen (26,486), all South Side schools. Tilden Tech was the South Section champ so its crowds were to be expected. These are huge numbers, in which previous and subsequent decades could not match. Englewood and Tilden Tech, for example, were averaging more than 5,000 spectators a game. The numbers for the North Side schools were not comparable; city champ Lane Tech totaled 20,423, but for other large schools, Schurz (5,481) and Senn (8,400) for example, they were dismal.
Englewood was able to garner headlines during the 1925 season, but they were not the kind the school wanted. Four of the school's players became involved in a sort-of reverse ringer case, in one of the most notorious scandals of the fledgling National Football League (NFL). The Chicago Cardinals were contesting for league championship with Pottsville, and as pro teams did in those free-wheeling days scheduled some easy extra games to boost their record to first place over Pottsville. One of the two extra games was with the recently disbanded Milwaukee Badgers. Englewood grad Art Folz, substitute quarterback for the Cardinals, lured the Englewood boys into joining the reconstituted Badgers for the game under assumed names, thereby ensuring that the Cardinals' opponent was not of pro caliber. The ruse was discovered, and the Cardinals were fined $1,000 by the NFL. The league had intended to nullify the game, which the Cardinals won 59 to 0, but never got around to it. Folz, for his role, was barred from football for life (the following season the ban was lifted but Folz chose not to return to pro football). The Englewood boys were forgiven, and two of them, William Thompson and Charles Richardson, earned Public League all-star recognition at the end of the season.
In the 1934 season, Hyde Park's interest in their team was briefly sparked when it looked like their eleven might be a bit competitive. Said the yearbook, "for the season of 1934, the Hyde Park football team played under a new deal presented to them by the students of the school. The attendance at the games was much greater than in the past few years, and the spirit that reigned in the years of Eckersall and the Hammond brothers, when the Blue and White warriors were supreme in the realm of high school sports, seemed to catch fire once more." With regard to the game against Englewood, "the Hyde Park student body, aroused by the evident championship caliber of the team, planned a pep rally to take place in Jackson Park the night before the coming game with Englewood. The school turned out three thousand strong, and songs were sung around a huge bonfire. The climax of the gala affair was a parade of cars and floats through South Shore, Woodlawn, Hyde Park, and Kenwood."
Ellie Hasan's team managed to beat Englewood 6 to 0, the first year for Englewood's new coach, Thomas Twomey. Unlike the days of yore, however, Englewood was no longer the team to beat to win the championship. The Chicago Tribune devoted only six lines of copy to the game. The old Blue and White did not even take the Central Division, losing to both Lindblom and Tilden Tech. The 1937 contest was the first in which the schools competed for the trophy that represented football supremacy between the two. It was formally called the Aitchpe Tribe-Englewood Lettermen's Club Plaque, but was more popularly called the Little Brown Shield. The original intention was to award the plaque to the first school to win four of the matches. Englewood beat Hyde Park 12 to 6 the first year, but Hyde Park took the next four contests to win the Little Brown Shield permanently. Thereafter another "Little Brown Shield" was provided to be awarded annually. Despite the growing sense of tradition in the contests, they did not garner even short reports during the late 1930s and early 1940s.
In the 1944 season, Hyde Park was led by a junior star, half back Jim Fuchs, a future Olympic champion and college standout at Yale, and the newspapers began taking notice. The Englewood-Hyde Park game in the Tribune got a headline, a large photo, and a solid write-up, but no mention of the traditional rivalry. The Herald-American made mention of the rivalry and noted the existence of the Little Brown Shield.
The following year the Tribune, beside commentary on the exploits of Jim Fuchs, discussed the historic rivalry. The reporter, apparently relying on information from the Hyde Park archives, gave an incorrect total of games won by each school, and an incorrect score for the very first contest (which appeared in an early Hyde Park yearbook). The newspapers in 1945 said it was the 61st game — Hyde Park with 31 wins, Englewood with 25 wins, and 5 ties. Evidence accumulated by this researcher suggests the following figures: 59 games, 28 Hyde Park wins, 27 Englewood wins, and 4 ties. The text correctly referred to the game as the "city's oldest prep football feature," but the photo caption made the dubious claim for it being the nation's oldest rivalry. Hyde Park took the contest both in 1944 and 1945, 13 to 7 and 3 to 0 respectively. The league was still dominated by Austin, Fenger, and Lindblom, but the newswriters began covering the Englewood-Hyde Park games in terms of historic significance rather than football significance.
The 1949 contest was one in which the two schools recalled their history. The occasion was the dedication of Walter Eckersall Stadium at Yates and 82nd. Before 3,500 spectators, most of them high school kids probably utterly mystified by the proceedings, various bigwigs and relatives of Eckersall held up the start of the game for a dedication ceremony for the former Hyde Park great. Watching the proceedings was Englewood player Bill Harden, who would later become the Public League's athletic director. The name Eckersall probably meant little in 1949, but it was laudatory of the city to schedule the dedication for the annual Englewood-Hyde Park match-up. Hyde Park won the game 13 to 0.
During the 1950s both Hyde Park and Englewood were relegated to the Blue Division, the lowest of the three divisions in the Public League. In 1953 a young man just out of Wisconsin University, Yosh Yamada, was appointed by the Englewood athletic director, Roy Quant, to replace Twomey. Yamada recalled, "When I came in the Hyde Park game was a big tradition. In fact they told me that if I won only one game, against Hyde Park, my first season would be a success. That's how important it was." The Hyde Park team was led by long-time coach Ellie Hasan. "During the time I worked with the team," Yamada remembered, "we used to average 600-700 fans at the games, which was a big crowd in those days. And the Hyde Park-Englewood game used to be a sell-out almost every time. Ellie and I used to exchange pep assemblies. He'd go over to Englewood with his captain and I'd go over to Hyde Park with my captain and we would attend each others pep rallies. And they were big pep rallies." The idea behind this exchange was to further sportsmanship between the two schools, but one would presumably believe that the presence of the enemy incarnate at each of the rallies was a spur to whip up crowd enthusiasm.
At the time Yamada came on board the series according to the press had Hyde Park ahead of Englewood, 34 to 28. It was a lot closer than that, Hyde Park with 31, and Englewood with 30, but Yamada of course did not know it. Said he, "Being behind Hyde Park kept me working. That was one of the goals I had to even the series between Hyde Park and Englewood." Near the end of the decade, in the 1958 season, Englewood not only beat Hyde Park, 18 to 12, but took the very first Blue Division title offered by the Public League.
The following year, Hyde Park beat Englewood and took the Blue Division title. Thereafter the two schools were never again to take another title in Public League football. Englewood completely dominated the series in the 1960s, taking every game against Hyde Park in that decade, and moved up to the White Division, and eventually the Red Division. The programs of Hyde Park and Englewood were going in different directions. Explained Yamada, "It was primarily because I improved the program at Englewood and it got to a point where Hyde Park was more or less at a standstill. Ellie Hasan had been there for years. He was working with the Harlem Globetrotters and I don't think he really put in that much time with the team. The team definitely needed fresh blood."
Hasan was an exceedingly busy man. Besides acting as overseas tour director for the Harlem Globetrotters, he was a prominent Big Ten football and basketball official, and also an executive in the Central Officials Association. He was also the athletic director at Hyde Park. But Hasan was also known as an outspoken advocate of high school sports. Said another athletic director, "Ellie was always fighting for the boys. He wanted more tournaments, more boys playing, and bigger programs for the kids."
In the 1960s the Englewood-Hyde Park rivalry developed into an unsavory situation. Both high schools had undergone racial change, first Englewood in the 1930s and 1940s, and Hyde Park in the 1950s and 1960s. This was not a problem as long as the new students came from middle class families, as they did in the 1950s. Said Yamada, "it was a stable community when I first started there." By the 1960s the middle class was moving out of many of the neighborhood areas served by the high schools and gang and criminal activity had emerged in the communities and schools. The annual Englewood-Hyde Park game was seen by increasingly rough elements in each of the schools as an occasion to engage in "gangbanging."
The 1963 match-up was a low point in the series, although it didn't start out that way. The game was the eightieth meeting (according to the knowledge at the time) and Stagg Field was rented to serve as the venue for the game. Some 5,000 spectators showed up, including players from previous decades. In attendance for example was Superior Court Justice George L. Quilici, who played on the 1916 Hyde Park team. Englewood, which was dominant in the 1960s, crushed Hyde Park 31 to 0. It should have been a joyous occasion. Instead, the game ended in brawling and rioting. Reported the American, "It took 400 policemen and two canine teams more than an hour to quell a riot after a game, in which Englewood defeated Hyde Park...As a result of the riot the University of Chicago withdrew permission for high school teams to use Stagg Field. Julien Drayton, Englewood High School principal, [warned] that his school's team will play without spectators if there are any more disturbances."
After Englewood beat Hyde Park for the sixth consecutive time in 1965 the greatest series in Illinois high school football was terminated. It appears that the gang eruptions after each of the contests discouraged administrators from scheduling the annual game. Hasan coached at Hyde Park only one more year before passing away on March 30, 1967, at a relatively young age of 60. Yamada continued to coach at Englewood until 1971 (and stayed at Englewood as a teacher until his retirement in 1991).
Yamada did not believe it was student brawling that put an end to the series. He noted, "we moved up to the White and then the Red Division, and we couldn't fit Hyde Park into the schedule. The fact is I had to play these other schools because of the scheduling." Confirming Yamada's account was the situation of the 1966 and 1967 seasons, when Englewood had to open its schedule with a White Division conference game. In previous decades, when Hyde Park and Englewood were in different geographical divisions they always made their game the first or second non-conference game of the season, but from 1968 to 1971 there were open dates at the beginning the season where Englewood could have scheduled Hyde Park.
The Englewood-Hyde Park series finally got back on track in the 1972 season. Englewood was now coached by Cicero Brooks and Hyde Park by Dick Griffin. Englewood slaughtered Hyde Park 42 to 6, in a game that was celebrated in a feature story by the Chicago Sun-Times (but not in the other papers). The paper noted it was the 83rd meeting (according to the knowledge of the time) and reported that win allowed Englewood to keep the Little Brown Shield. Englewood and Hyde Park met again for two more seasons, but then for next two years failed to meet.
In 1977 the series was resumed. Hyde Park beat Englewood 22 to 8. But no one remembered that the series had at one time been historic. The newspapers took no notice of its resumption, perhaps because it had hibernated one too many times. These were two schools with also-ran athletic programs, both being relegated to the Blue and Green divisions, and the sports scribes were more interested in covering such Public League powers as Simeon, Robeson, and Sullivan.
From 1986 through 1994 Hyde Park won every contest until Englewood broke the win streak in 1995. The situation in the Englewood community had considerably worsened since the 1960s. "I think the community has kind of deteriorated somewhat due to the fact of the type of student the school produces." said Yamada. "They are not like they were years ago when I was coaching. We had more middle class students then, plus the fact that the athletes began to leave the area to go to other schools. We had a stretch in the 1970s where we lost 22 games in a row. And when you have that kind of stretch the athletes seem to go to the schools that are winning." To help restore student pride in Englewood the Board of Education broke previous precedent and built a campus around the school including a football field. The field was inaugurated in the 1996 contest, where Englewood edged Hyde Park 16 to 14.
Beside the contests not being as sharply contested as they once were, the tradition behind them was just about moribund. "Since the latter part of the 1960s," explained Yamada, "a lot of the traditional rivalries in the high schools have tended to have gone out. Beside the Hyde Park-Englewood rivalry, there use to be a South Shore-Hyde Park rivalry, there use to be several other rivalries. I think students have kind of lost enthusiasm for the game."54 Their attitude was reflected among those in charge of the athletic departments of each of the schools. Englewood moved into a new building around 1978, and pitched a lot of old mementos that meant little to the new inhabitants. Among the mementos was the Little Brown Shield, which was either deliberately tossed out, mistakenly tossed out, or stolen depending on whom one talks to. The Hyde Park athletic director when questioned by the Chicago Tribune in 1991 made the incredible comment, "I guess throughout history, Hyde Park has not been known as an athletic power."
The situation with regard to this most historic of rivalries is not altogether hopeless. A social studies teacher at Hyde Park, Tom Stanislewski, was working to restore some of the tradition in the Englewood-Hyde Park game. During the remodeling of Hyde Park during the 1970s and 1980s he rescued many of the trophies and yearbooks that were discarded as old useless junk, and established a trophy room, lining the walls with plaques and photos demonstrating Hyde Park's great tradition in athletics and academics (there were several chess championship plaques). Among the most notable mementos he preserved and displayed is the football used in the 105-0 massacre against Brooklyn Polytechnic in 1902. Using old photos of the Little Brown Shield he also got a trophy shop to recreate a new one, which was presented to the winning Englewood team in 1995. Hyde Park got the shield back in 1997 when it beat Englewood 26 to 7, and retained it for the next five years.
The administration expressed some appreciation for Stanislewski's efforts, but otherwise offered him no encouragement and no extra time or expense money. Said he, "the appreciation for the school's history in athletics is really not there. It is not there in other schools in the city as well, but here there is the added situation of a black and white divide. Because this used to be a predominantly white school and now it is a black school there is not that sense of loyalty to the past." Once Stanislewski leaves, there does not appear to be anybody at the school that would continue to remember and respect Hyde Park's extraordinary achievements in athletics.
The big city high school students of the 1990s unlike their counterparts a century earlier do not define themselves in terms of their high school affiliation. The primary shared experiences of the 1890s for secondary school students, who were far more homogenous in background than their century-older counterparts, was their high schools and the extracurriculum, and thus they competed against one another in reference to their high schools. In the 1990s there are many more experiences that engenders loyalties and affiliations stemming from socioeconomic differences, ethnic differences, neighborhood differences, and cultural differences. Likewise the big city high schools do not engender the loyalties from the neighborhoods.
In the 1890s, the students both of Hyde Park and Englewood wrote about their football battles as though they were chronicling history for the ages. They would never have imagined that eventually knowledge of their rivalry would be forgotten. Today, high school competition has been eclipsed by the national stage given to college and professional sports. Still, it would be a shame to forget the glory days of Hyde Park and Englewood. To truly appreciate the history of sports in Chicago, their names deserve to resonate in the minds of today's football fans as does the storied Harvard-Yale battles.
Wallie McCornack, 1893
McCornack was the first star produced by the Englewood-Hyde Park rivalry, where he went on to play at Dartmouth with distinction. During 1901 and 1902 he coached the Dartmouth team to winning records, but could not manage to defeat Harvard. He joined Northwestern in 1903 and for three years his hard taskmaster reputation produced results, reviving Northwestern's football fortunes. He lost his job when the school decided to drop football.
Herbert Graver, 1900
Graver, like many Englewood players of the 1890s, chose to attend Michigan, and there became a part of history as a member of Fielding Yost's famed point-a-minute teams. He was selected for Walter Camp's all-American third team in 1903.
Robert Maxwell, 1902
Maxwell (b. 9-7-84) was a large rugged player whose powerful mass made him a target on the football field. Upon graduation he first attended Chicago, but after two years went to Swarthmore, where he made history as a victim of a savage beating on the field. Not to be overlooked he also made Walter Camp's all-American third team in 1905. He later became a sportswriter and an official and conducted his own all-American list for several years before his life was cut short in an automobile accident in 1922. Maxwell is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. The Maxwell Trophy, one of the most prestigious awards in college football since its inauguration 1937, is named for Robert Maxwell.
Charles Bachman, 1912
Bachman was an all-American while playing guard for Notre Dame, making Walter Camp's second team in 1916, but that is not why he is in the College Football Hall of Fame. What got him in was his extraordinary career as a coach, notably at Michigan State (1933-42, 1944-46). Earlier he had coached at Northwestern (1919), Kansas State (1920-27), and Florida (1928-30).
Frank Coughlin 1915
Tackle Coughlin took Englewood's winning ways with him when he attended Notre Dame, and in 1920 he made the second team on two prestigious all- American lists, that of Walter Eckersall's and of the International News Service.
Robert Hamill, 1896
Hamill (b. 2-13-77) was one of the earliest all- Americans produced by the Western teams, when playing for the University of Chicago he won a place on Walter Camp's third team of 1899.
Walter H. Lillard, 1900
Lillard (b. 11-20-81) went on to play at Dartmouth and then as a graduate student coached the football team in 1909, providing the school with one of its best records in those early years. He served as the first faculty football coach at Phillips Andover, 1907-1916. As headmaster of Tabor Academy, in Marion, Massachusetts, he helped make the school internationally known as a power in crew. Lillard died in 1967.
Walter Eckersall, 1903
Eckersall (b. 6-17-83) was a short wiry fellow and nobody's image of a football player, yet he was the greatest ever produced by the Englewood- Hyde Park rivalry. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. At the University of Chicago he quarterbacked one of Stagg's best teams and made Walter Camp's first team for three consecutive years, 1904, 1905, and 1906. After his playing years Eckersall built a reputation as a nationally renown sportswriter at the Chicago Tribune and football official. His annual all- American selections was one of the most respected lists of the 1920s. Eckersall died in 1930.
Tom Hammond, 1903
Unlike the Eckersall image, fullback Tom Hammond (b. 10-29-83) was tall, broad-shouldered, and handsome and looked liked a Hollywood-casted image of a football hero. He and his brother, Harry, both made the Cook County all-star team and both attended Michigan, where Tom made Walter Camp's all-American third team in 1905. Hammond died in 1950.
Charles McGuire, 1916
Charles McGuire playing tackle for the University of Chicago was a major asset to the university's success in the early 1920s. In 1920 he was selected for the well-regarded Frank Menke all- American team, and in 1921 made the prestigious Walter Camp first team.
Austin McCarty, 1922
McCarty developed a national reputation playing fullback at the University of Chicago under the sobriquet "Austin 'Five Yards' McCarty." He made two major all-American polls, the All Sports second team in 1924 and the International News Service third team of 1925.
Frank Hobschied, 1922
While playing for the University of Chicago, Hobschied did well enough to make one of the lesser all-American teams, the Bill Cunningham second team of 1925. Hobschied also played pro football, first for Racine in 1926, and for the Chicago Bears in 1927.
Jim Fuchs, 1946
Great things were expected of Fuchs on the football field after his high school days, but his career at Yale was hobbled by injuries and he never became the all-American that was expected of him. On the other hand, worldwide fame came to him in the Olympics, when in 1948 and 1952 he took third each time in the shot put.
Oct. 30, 1889: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 26-0
Oct. 16, 1890: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 10-6
1890: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 44-4
Oct. 22, 1891: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 22-12
1892: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 34-4
Oct. 21, 1893: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 12-6
Oct. 13, 1894: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 6-0
Nov. 26, 1894: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 16-8
Oct. 9, 1895: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 12-0
Nov. 21, 1896: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 38-6
Nov. 20, 1897: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 14-8
Nov. 5, 1898: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 27-0
Nov. 19, 1898: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 6-0
Nov. 11, 1899: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 6-5
Dec. 2, 1899: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 10-5
Oct. 27, 1900: Englewood ties Hyde Park, 6-6
Nov. 16, 1901: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 33-0
Nov. 22, 1902: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 57-0
Nov. 28, 1903: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 5-0
Nov. 19, 1904: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 5-2
Nov. 18, 1905: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 16-6
Oct. 27, 1906: Englewood ties Hyde Park, 0-0
Oct. 26, 1907: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 40-5
Nov. 14, 1908: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 10-5
Nov. 13, 1909: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 21-6
Nov. 12, 1910: Englewood ties Hyde Park, 5-5
Nov. 11, 1911: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 17-6
Nov. 9, 1912: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 33-7
Nov. 15, 1913: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 41-0
1914: no game
Oct. 16, 1915: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 44-6
Oct. 24, 1916: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 7-0
Nov. 17, 1917: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 55-7
Nov. 23, 1918: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 6-0
Nov. 1, 1919: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 16-0
Oct. 23, 1920: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 7-0
Oct. 8, 1921: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 6-0
Oct. 14, 1922: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 10-0
Nov. 3, 1923: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 6-0
Nov. 11, 1924: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 23-6
Nov. 14, 1925: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 19-0
Nov. 6, 1926: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 20-7
Nov. 5, 1927: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 18-0
Oct. 13, 1928: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 40-0
Nov. 9, 1929: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 19-7
Oct. 25, 1930: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 25-0
Oct. 17, 1931: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 19-7
Oct. 22, 1932: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 24-6
Nov. 4, 1933: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 10-0
Oct. 13, 1934: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 6-0
Oct. 19, 1935: Englewood ties Hyde Park, 0-0
Oct. 24, 1936: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 20-0
Oct. 30, 1937: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 12-6
Nov. 5, 1938: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 20-0
Sept. 30, 1939: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 13-0
Sept. 14, 1940: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 21-0
Nov. 8, 1941: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 20-0
Sept. 28, 1942: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 18-0
Sept. 18, 1943: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 6-0
Sept. 16, 1944: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 13-7
Sept. 15, 1945: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 3-0
Sept. 14, 1946: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 24-6
Sept. 13, 1947: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 13-0
Sept. 18, 1948: Englewood ties Hyde Park, 6-6
Sept. 17, 1949: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 13-0
Sept. 16, 1950: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 13-6
Sept. 15, 1951: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 25-2
Sept. 27, 1952: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 28-13
Oct. 16, 1953: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 12-0
Sept. 18, 1954: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 19-14
Oct. 20, 1955: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 20-16
Sept. 21, 1956: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 12-0
Oct. 17, 1957: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 18-7
Sept. 25, 1958: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 18-12
Oct. 19, 1959: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 12-7
Sept. 16, 1960: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 7-6
Sept. 15, 1961: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 28-0
Oct. 26, 1962: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 35-6
Sept. 26, 1963: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 31-0
Sept. 18, 1964: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 14-0
Sept. 17, 1965: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 34-6
1966: no game
1967: no game
1968: no game
1969: no game
1970: no game
1971: no game
Sept. 16, 1972: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 42-6
Sept. 15, 1973: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 18-12
Oct. 11, 1974: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 26-6
1975: no game
1976: no game
Sept. 17, 1977: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 22-8
Sept. 30, 1978: Englewood ties Hyde Park, 6-6
Sept. 8, 1979: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 28-20
Oct. 24, 1980: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 6-0
Oct. 3, 1981: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 34-2
Sept. 23, 1982: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 12-6
Sept. 24, 1983: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 28-6
Sept. 21, 1984: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 12-0
Sept. 12, 1985: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 20-14
Sept. 20, 1986: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 26-0
1987: no game
Sept. 16, 1988: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 28-17
Sept. 15, 1989: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 32-18
Sept. 15, 1990: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 32-6
Sept. 19, 1991: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 19-0
Sept. 11, 1992: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 18-14
Sept. 10, 1993: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 20-18
Sept. 2, 1994: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 14-8
Aug. 31, 1995: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 26-14
Sept. 7, 1996: Englewood def. Hyde Park, 16-14
Sept. 6, 1997: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 26-7
Sept. 5, 1998: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 8-6
Aug. 27, 1999: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 49-6
Sept. 2, 2000: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 48-8
Oct. 4, 2001: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 50-0
2002: no game
Oct. 22, 2003: Hyde Park def. Englewood, 23-12
Total wins: Hyde Park 56, Englewood 46, Ties 6
Total games: 108
Footnotes available on request. Published with permission. All rights are reserved by the author.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Illinois High School Association.