Englewood Technical Prep Academy

Englewood Technical Prep Academy High School or sometimes referred to as simply Englewood High School, was a public 4-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, 1918–1920). 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 into joining 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

All voices raise in songs of praise for Englewood Our flags unfold and banners hold for Englewood For many friends thruout the land With joyful hearts all willing stand To shout her praise for dear old Englewood

Oh Englewood, our Englewood How many times before You've taught us how to faithful be You're turned defeat into victory Oh 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

O tell me of a High School Where I should like to go Where jolly pupils gather And seek life's work to know O 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 Englewood, due to its poor performance would be phased out over a three-year period to allow the freshmen that had entered to be the final class to graduate. Many reasons were put behind closing this school. It was one of the worst performing Public Schools in the US for 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 which opened in 2007. Team Englewood still uses the Englewood High School team name the Eagles.

Notable alumni

• The Barrett Sisters – legendary gospel trio
• Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) – winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for poetry; Poet Laureate of Illinois
• Oscar Brown, Jr. (1926–2005) – singer, songwriter, playwright, poet, and civil rights activist
• Buck Brown (1936–2007) – Playboy magazine cartoonist
• Gene Chandler (born 1937) – singer
• Merri Dee (1936–) – WGN-TV anchor/reporter, television personality, victims' rights advocate and philanthropist
• Sam Greenlee (born 1930) – African American writer, best known for his novel The Spook Who Sat by the Door
• Lorraine Hansberry – author of 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 – football player at Dartmouth and football coach at Dartmouth and Northwestern
• Archibald Motley, Jr. (1891–1981) – jazz age artist
• Carl Nicks – 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
• Tidye Pickett – national and Olympic track star, first African American woman to compete in Olympic Games, 1936
• Joe Williams – Grammy Award-winning jazz singer who sang with Count Basie's orchestra

References

1. ↑ Re-print; Englewood High School 1961
2. ↑ Chicago Englewood High School
3. ↑ Bob Carroll. "Red Equals Green" (PDF). Coffin Corner. Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–6.  CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
4. 1 2 Joe Horrigan (1984). "Joe Carr" (PDF). Coffin Corner. Professional Football Researchers Association. 6 (5–6): 1–4. Archived from the original on August 16, 2009. Retrieved August 14, 2009.  CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
5. ↑ Pruter, Robert. "The Greatest High School Football Rivalry in Illinois". Illinois H.S.toric Article. Retrieved February 28, 2012. 
6. ↑ "Chicago Cops Investigate High School Shooting". FoxNews.com. Fox News. April 11, 2007. Retrieved October 3, 2016. 
7. ↑ List of High School Football Rivalries over 100+ Years
8. ↑ "Top 100 Worst Performing Public Schools in the U.S.". TurkishWeekly.net. Turkish Weekly. May 12, 2009. Retrieved October 3, 2016. 

External links

• Alumni website
• Chicago Reporter website gives a brief history of Englewood
• Profile from the Illinois High School Association