University Hall
Before You Go. This game will be played in mid-October. So all the stories you've heard about Chicago being cold need to be taken into account. Fortunately, it's not so late in the year that a cold blast of air coming in off Lake Michigan will produce "Bear Weather."
The Chicago Tribune is predicting temperatures to be in the high 50s during daylight, and the high 40s at night. So you'll need a jacket, but not a Winter coat. They're also predicting light rain for Friday and Saturday. The Chicago Sun-Times backs up its rivals' temperature predictions, but is more optimistic about the chance of rain.
Wait until you cross into Illinois to change your clocks. Indiana used to be 1 of 2 States, Arizona being the other, where Daylight Savings Time was an issue; however, since 2006 -- 4 years after a West Wing episode lampooned this -- the State has used it throughout. Once you cross into Illinois, you'll be moving from Eastern to Central Daylight Time.
Tickets. At 47,130, Ryan Field has the smallest seating capacity in the Big Ten Conference, even smaller than Rutgers'. And it still might be too much: In 2019, the last pre-COVID season, they averaged 37,707 fans per home game. But that was for a typical losing team: They went 3-9. This year, so far, they're 2-3, and averaging fewer fans: 29,186.
The Chicago Tribune is predicting temperatures to be in the high 50s during daylight, and the high 40s at night. So you'll need a jacket, but not a Winter coat. They're also predicting light rain for Friday and Saturday. The Chicago Sun-Times backs up its rivals' temperature predictions, but is more optimistic about the chance of rain.
Wait until you cross into Illinois to change your clocks. Indiana used to be 1 of 2 States, Arizona being the other, where Daylight Savings Time was an issue; however, since 2006 -- 4 years after a West Wing episode lampooned this -- the State has used it throughout. Once you cross into Illinois, you'll be moving from Eastern to Central Daylight Time.
Tickets. At 47,130, Ryan Field has the smallest seating capacity in the Big Ten Conference, even smaller than Rutgers'. And it still might be too much: In 2019, the last pre-COVID season, they averaged 37,707 fans per home game. But that was for a typical losing team: They went 3-9. This year, so far, they're 2-3, and averaging fewer fans: 29,186.
Getting tickets will be a lot easier for their game against Rutgers than it will for arch-rival Illinois (whom they play away this season, anyway) and for the usual Big 10 powers. However, only sideline seats are left, and they cost $50.
Getting There. Chicago is 789 land miles from New York, and it's an even 800 miles from SHI Stadium in Piscataway to Ryan Field in Evanston. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to fly out there.
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Blue Line train will take you from O'Hare to the downtown elevated (or "L") tracks that run in "The Loop" (the borders of which are Randolph, Wells, Van Buren and Wabash Streets) in 45 minutes. From Midway Airport, the Orange Line train can get you to the Loop. Both should take about 45 minutes.
Bus? Greyhound's run between the 2 cities, launched 5 times per day, is relatively easy, but long, averaging about 18 hours, including half-hour rest stops at Milesburg, Pennsylvania and Elkhart, Indiana, and an hour-and-a-half stopover in Cleveland. The price is $341 round-trip -- but can drop to as low as $207 on Advanced Purchase.
The station is at 630 W. Harrison Street at Des Plaines Street. (If you've seen one of my favorite movies, Midnight Run, this is a new station, not the one seen in that 1988 film.) The closest CTA stop is Clinton on the Blue Line, around the corner, underneath the elevated Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway.
The new Greyhound Station. It looks small
(especially under the Sears/Willis Tower), but it's very efficient.
Train? Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited (known as the Twentieth Century Limited when the old New York Central Railroad ran it from Grand Central Terminal to Chicago's LaSalle Street Station) leaves New York's Penn Station at 3:40 every afternoon, and arrives at Union Station at 225 South Canal Street at Adams Street in Chicago at 9:45 every morning. Going back, it leaves at 9:30 every evening and arrives back in New York at 6:23 PM the next day. Unfortunately, this weekend, with all the coach seats bought up, you can only buy a roomette, and it's incredibly expensive: $1,224 round-trip.
But since you're come all this way, it makes sense to get a hotel, so take a cab from Union Station or Greyhound to the hotel – unless you're flying in, in which case you can take the CTA train to within a block of a good hotel. There are also hotels near the airports.
If you decide to drive, it's far enough that it will help to get someone to go with you and split the duties, and to trade off driving and sleeping. The directions are rather simple, down to (quite literally) the last mile. You'll need to get into New Jersey, and take Interstate 80 West. You'll be on I-80 for the vast majority of the trip, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In Ohio, in the western suburbs of Cleveland, I-80 will merge with Interstate 90. From this point onward, you won't need to think about I-80 until you head home; I-90 is now the key.
I-90 and I-94 form a beltway around Chicago, and when I-94 splits off from I-90, stick with I-94, until Exit 35, for Old Orchard Road East. This will take you through Memorial Park Cemetery, then make a left on Gross Point (no E on the end) Road, and a left on Central Street. This will take you into Evanston and to the Northwestern campus.
If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Pennsylvania, 4 hours in Ohio, 2 hours and 30 minutes in Indiana, and an hour in Illinois. That's 14 hours and 15 minutes. Counting rest stops, preferably halfway through Pennsylvania and just after you enter both Ohio and Indiana, and accounting for traffic in both New York and Chicago, it should be around 18 hours, which would save you time on both Greyhound and Amtrak, if not on flying.
Once In the City. A derivation of a Native American name, "Chikagu" was translated as "Place of the onion," as there were onion fields there before there was a white settlement. Some have suggested the translation is a little off, that it should be "Place of the skunk." Others have said, either way, it means "Place of the big stink."
Founded in 1831, so by Northeastern standards it's a young city, Chicago's long-ago nickname of "the Second City" is no longer true, as its population has dropped, and Los Angeles' has risen, to the point where L.A. has passed it, and Chicago is now the 3rd-largest city in America. But, at 2.7 million within the city limits, and just under 10 million in the metropolitan area, it's still a huge city. And its legendary crime problem is still there, so whatever precautions you take when you're in New York, take them in Chicago as well. (But not necessarily in Evanston.)
Once In the City. A derivation of a Native American name, "Chikagu" was translated as "Place of the onion," as there were onion fields there before there was a white settlement. Some have suggested the translation is a little off, that it should be "Place of the skunk." Others have said, either way, it means "Place of the big stink."
Founded in 1831, so by Northeastern standards it's a young city, Chicago's long-ago nickname of "the Second City" is no longer true, as its population has dropped, and Los Angeles' has risen, to the point where L.A. has passed it, and Chicago is now the 3rd-largest city in America. But, at 2.7 million within the city limits, and just under 10 million in the metropolitan area, it's still a huge city. And its legendary crime problem is still there, so whatever precautions you take when you're in New York, take them in Chicago as well. (But not necessarily in Evanston.)
The "Loop" is the connected part of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)'s elevated railway (sometimes written as "El" or "L") downtown: Over Wells Street on the west, Van Buren Street on the south, Wabash Street on the east and State Street on the north. Inside the Loop, the east-west streets are Lake, Randolph, Washington, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson and Van Buren; the north-south streets are Wells, LaSalle (Chicago's "Wall Street"), Clark, Dearborn, State and Wabash.
The city's street-address centerpoint is in the Loop, at State & Madison Streets. Madison separates North from South, while State separates East from West. The street grid is laid out so that every 800 on the house numbers is roughly 1 mile. As U.S. Cellular Field is at 333 West 35th Street, and on the 3500 block of South Shields Avenue, now you know it's a little less than a mile west of State, and 4 1/2 miles south of Madison.
Chicago has 2 "beltways": Interstate 294 forms an inner one, while Interstates 290 and 355 form an outer one. It also has highways named for 3 Presidents, and 1 defeated Presidential nominee from the Chicago area.
I-290 is the Eisenhower Expressway; a run that goes from I-90 to I-94 to I-190 is the Kennedy Expressway; I-88 from the suburbs west to the Mississippi River in Iowa is the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway (it passes his birthplace of Tampico and other towns where he grew up); and the Cook County portion of I-55 is the Stevenson Expressway, named for Adlai Ewing Stevenson II, grandson of Grover Cleveland's 2nd Vice President, Governor of Illinois 1949-53, and Dwight D. Eisenhower's defeated opponent of 1952 and 1956.
The CTA's rapid-rail system is both underground (subway) and above-ground (elevated or "El"), although the El is better-known, standing as a Chicago icon alongside the Sears Tower, Wrigley Field, Michael Jordan, deep-dish pizza, and less savory things like municipal corruption, Mrs. O'Leary's cow and Al Capone. The single-ride fare is $2.50 for the El, $2.25 for the bus. A 1-day pass is $5, and a 3-day pass is $15.
(By the way, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was more likely the result of Mr. O'Leary hosting a poker game in his barn, in which he, or one of his friends, dropped cigar ash onto hay, rather than Mrs. O'Leary's cow, knocking a lantern, onto some hay.)
I was actually in Chicago on the day they switched from tokens to farecards: June 1, 1999. It took me by surprised, as I had saved 10 tokens from my previous visit. I was able to use them all, because I'd gotten there 2 days before.
Illinois' State sales tax is 6.25 percent, but in the City of Chicago it's 9.25 percent -- higher than New York's. So don't be shocked when you see prices: Like New York, Boston and Washington, Chicago is an expensive city.
ZIP Codes in the Chicago area start with the digits 60, and for Evanston, 602. The Area Code is 847. Just as New York's electric company is Consolidated Edison, or "Con Ed," Northern Illinois' is Commonwealth Edison, or "ComEd," which confused the heck out of me the 1st time I heard it.
The North Side is now roughly split between white and Hispanic, with many Mexicans intermarrying with the Irish, Italians and Poles of the North and Northwest Sides, due to their common Catholicism.
The city's street-address centerpoint is in the Loop, at State & Madison Streets. Madison separates North from South, while State separates East from West. The street grid is laid out so that every 800 on the house numbers is roughly 1 mile. As U.S. Cellular Field is at 333 West 35th Street, and on the 3500 block of South Shields Avenue, now you know it's a little less than a mile west of State, and 4 1/2 miles south of Madison.
Chicago has 2 "beltways": Interstate 294 forms an inner one, while Interstates 290 and 355 form an outer one. It also has highways named for 3 Presidents, and 1 defeated Presidential nominee from the Chicago area.
I-290 is the Eisenhower Expressway; a run that goes from I-90 to I-94 to I-190 is the Kennedy Expressway; I-88 from the suburbs west to the Mississippi River in Iowa is the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway (it passes his birthplace of Tampico and other towns where he grew up); and the Cook County portion of I-55 is the Stevenson Expressway, named for Adlai Ewing Stevenson II, grandson of Grover Cleveland's 2nd Vice President, Governor of Illinois 1949-53, and Dwight D. Eisenhower's defeated opponent of 1952 and 1956.
The CTA's rapid-rail system is both underground (subway) and above-ground (elevated or "El"), although the El is better-known, standing as a Chicago icon alongside the Sears Tower, Wrigley Field, Michael Jordan, deep-dish pizza, and less savory things like municipal corruption, Mrs. O'Leary's cow and Al Capone. The single-ride fare is $2.50 for the El, $2.25 for the bus. A 1-day pass is $5, and a 3-day pass is $15.
I was actually in Chicago on the day they switched from tokens to farecards: June 1, 1999. It took me by surprised, as I had saved 10 tokens from my previous visit. I was able to use them all, because I'd gotten there 2 days before.
Illinois' State sales tax is 6.25 percent, but in the City of Chicago it's 9.25 percent -- higher than New York's. So don't be shocked when you see prices: Like New York, Boston and Washington, Chicago is an expensive city.
ZIP Codes in the Chicago area start with the digits 60, and for Evanston, 602. The Area Code is 847. Just as New York's electric company is Consolidated Edison, or "Con Ed," Northern Illinois' is Commonwealth Edison, or "ComEd," which confused the heck out of me the 1st time I heard it.
Demographically, Chicago is split almost right down the middle: 35.5 percent black, 33.5 percent white, 23.9 percent Hispanic (as with most Midwestern cities, most of their Hispanics are Mexican rather than Puerto Rican or Cuban), with Asians trailing at 7.0 percent.
The South Side is the largest black neighborhood in the country, ahead of even New York's Harlem, and the West Side also has a large ghetto. But there are clumps of Irish and Poles on the South Side, and the Daley family lived in Bridgeport, a few blocks from Comiskey Park, and were White Sox fans.
The North Side is now roughly split between white and Hispanic, with many Mexicans intermarrying with the Irish, Italians and Poles of the North and Northwest Sides, due to their common Catholicism.
But racial issues seem to have always been with Chicago, and have never gone away. There were race riots on the South Side in 1910, following Jack Johnson, the 1st black Heavyweight Champion, defeating the previously undefeated former Champion, "Great White Hope" Jim Jeffries; another on the South Side in 1919; one in Cicero in 1951; and on the West Side in 1966 and 1968, the latter after the assassination of Martin Luther King.
Just as the stereotype of New Yorkers getting old is moving to Florida, when Chicagoans get old, they tend to go to Arizona. Part of that is due to baseball, as Cubs owner Phil Wrigley owned a hotel in the Phoenix area, and moved the team's Spring Training there. The White Sox moved their Spring Training there as well.
Chicago has beaches! If not boardwalks. Lake Michigan even has tides. You can swim or get a tan while seeing a spectacular skyline -- something difficult, though not impossible, to do in New York City -- at Montrose Beach, 4400 N. Lake Shore Drive (Bus 146 to Marine Drive and Montrose, then a 15-minute walk east); Oakwood Beach, 4100 S. Lake Shore Drive (Red Line to 47th Street, then Bus 43 to Oakenwald & 43rd, then a 10-minute walk over Lake Shore Drive and north); and 57th Street Beach, 5700 S. Lake Shore Drive (Bus 10 to the Museum of Science and Industry, then a 10-minute walk east).
And, since you'll be in Evanston, there's Lee Street Beach, 1000 Lee Street (Red Line to Howard, then Purple Line to Main, then a 15-minute walk east).
Chicago has beaches! If not boardwalks. Lake Michigan even has tides. You can swim or get a tan while seeing a spectacular skyline -- something difficult, though not impossible, to do in New York City -- at Montrose Beach, 4400 N. Lake Shore Drive (Bus 146 to Marine Drive and Montrose, then a 15-minute walk east); Oakwood Beach, 4100 S. Lake Shore Drive (Red Line to 47th Street, then Bus 43 to Oakenwald & 43rd, then a 10-minute walk over Lake Shore Drive and north); and 57th Street Beach, 5700 S. Lake Shore Drive (Bus 10 to the Museum of Science and Industry, then a 10-minute walk east).
And, since you'll be in Evanston, there's Lee Street Beach, 1000 Lee Street (Red Line to Howard, then Purple Line to Main, then a 15-minute walk east).
Once On Campus. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in the State of Illinois, and was named for the Northwest Territory, of which Illinois was once a part. The name seems silly now, what with Seattle and Portland having major league sports teams. Evanston isn't even in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago, just the northern ones.
Evanston was founded by John Evans, a Methodist, in 1853, and the University began building on the land he offered them in 1855. Evanston was long an alcohol-free "dry" town, in keeping with Methodist teachings, and the Methodist Episcopal Church ran the University in its early years.
Northwestern is the only private school in the Big Ten Conference, and easily the smallest school, with fewer than 22,000 undergraduates. But it is renowned for both its law and its medical school. Notable graduates outside the realm of sports include:
* Acting: Jennifer Jones '41, Patricia Neal '47, Paul Lynde '48, Cloris Leachman '48, Charlotte Rae '48, Jeffrey Hunter '49, Claude Akins '49, William Daniels & his wife Bonnie Bartlett '50 (both), McLean Stevenson '52 (even though his most famous character, Henry Blake of M*A*S*H, went to arch-rival Illinois), Inga Swenson '53, Robert Reed '54, Robert Conrad '55, Nancy Dussault '57, Paula Prentess '59 & her husband Richard Benjamin '60, Fred Williamson '60 (also a football player), Tony Roberts '61, Mary Frann '65, Richard Kline '67, Peter Strauss '69, Clyde Kusatsu '70, Daphne Maxwell Reed '70, Richard Kind '78, Laura Innes '79, Clancy Brown '81, Gary Kroeger '81, Marg Helgenberger '82, Dermot Mulroney '85, David Schwimmer '88, Ana Gasteyer '89, Brad Hall '90, Jeri Ryan '91, Nicole Sullivan '91, Kimberly Williams '93, Kathryn Hahn '95, Seth Meyers '96 and his brother Josh Myers '98, Zach Braff '97, Robin Lord Taylor '00, Duchess Meghan Markle '03.
You could make a decent film or TV show with the stars who attended Northwestern but didn't graduate: Edgar Bergen, Tony Randall, Charlton Heston, Jerry Orbach, Warren Beatty, Ann-Margret, Leigh Taylor-Young, Jane Curtin, Shelley Long, Julia Louis-Dreyfus (married to Brad Hall), Megan Mullally, Laura Linney, Cindy Crawford and Zooey Deschanel, with Pharrell Williams providing music.
* Literature: Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould 1922, Saul Bellow '37, George R.R. Martin '70, Bones creator Kathy Reichs '72. Novelist Sidney Sheldon dropped out.
* Other Show Business: Soap opera creator Agnes Nixon '44, songwriter Sheldon Harnick '49, TV producer Garry Marshall '56, TV producer Sherry Lansing '66, talk show host Jerry Springer '68, talk show host Stephen Colbert '86, TV producer Mara Brock Akil '92, TV producer Greg Berlanti '94.
* Journalism (Other than Sports): Sander Vanocur '50, Georgie Anne Geyer '56, Steve Bell '63, Hank Klibanoff '73, Michael Isikoff '76, James Risen '78, John Heilemann '87, Kelly O'Donnell '87.
* Politics: U.S. Senators Francis Case 1920 of South Dakota, Dale Bumpers '51 of Arkansas (also Governor), George McGovern '53 of South Dakota (also the 1972 Democratic nominee for President) and John Hoeven '81 of North Dakota (also Governor); Housing & Urban Development Secretary Steven Preston '82; Federal Communications Commission Chairmen Newton Minow '49 and Richard Wiley '55; Governors Adlai Stevenson '26 (also the 1952 and '56 Democratic nominee for President) and James R. Thompson '59, both of Illinois; and Chicago Mayors Harold Washington '52 and Rahm Emanuel '85.
Notable Northwestern sports personalities, other than football players, include:
* Baseball: Joe Girardi, J.A. Happ and George Kontos. Also, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Jerry Doggett, and Chicago White Sox co-owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn, a.k.a. the Reinhorn Twins.
* Hockey: Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz.
* Figure skating: 1988 Olympian Dr. Debi Thomas.
* Swimming: 1924 Olympic Gold Medalist Bob Skelton, and 2008 and '12 Gold Medalist Matt Grevers.
* And an exceptional array of sports journalists: Brent Musberger '62, Ira Berkow '64, Mike Adamle '70, Rick Telander '71, Craig Sager '73, Michael Wilbon '80 (he often wears purple ties and handkerchiefs with his suits on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, clearly a Wildcat tribute), Christine Brennan '80, Kevin Blackistone '81, Jonathan Eig '86, Mike Greenberg '89, J.A. Adande '92, Rich Eisen '94, Rachel Nicols '95.
Going In. Dyche Stadium -- pronounced "DIKE-ee," not "DIGHSH" like English soccer manager Sean Dyche -- was named for William Dyche, Class of 1882, former Evanston Mayor and overseer of the building project.
In 1997, the facility was renamed Ryan Field in honor of the family of Patrick G. Ryan, who was then the chairman of Northwestern's board of trustees. The renaming was made by the other members of the board in recognition of the Ryan family's leadership and numerous contributions to Northwestern, including the lead gift to the Campaign for Athletic Excellence, Northwestern's fundraising drive for athletic facilities.
Northwestern's Welsh-Ryan Arena, located at the open north end of the stadium's horseshoe, opened in 1952 and originally the 2nd Patten Gymnasium, was renamed in honor of Ryan and his wife's parents, Mr. & Mrs. Robert J. Welsh, Sr.
The stadium opened in 1926. The official address is 1501 Central Street, about 14 miles north of the Loop. If you're taking public transportation from Chicago proper, you can take the CTA Purple Line to Central, and walk 3 blocks west; or take Metra commuter rail from Ogilvie Transportation Center (formerly Northwestern Station) to Central, and walk 3 blocks east. And it's better if you don't drive: Parking on-site is limited to season-ticket holders, and costs $25.
The field is aligned north-to-south, and was artificial turf from 1973 to 1996, but reverted to natural grass, and has remained so ever since.
The College All-Star Game, held in Chicago between the defending NFL Champions and a team of just-graduated college players every year from 1934 to 1976, was held at Dyche Stadium instead of its usual site, the original Soldier Field, in 1943 and 1944.
In 1970, the Chicago Bears played their 1st home game of the 1970 season there, because the NFL ruled that Wrigley Field was too small, and founding owner George Halas was cheap and didn't want to pay the rent that the City of Chicago wanted for Soldier Field. But the City of Evanston and the Big Ten Conference both objected to the Bears using Dyche Stadium as a permanent home, so Halas had to pay through the nose and use Soldier Field.
Food. As one of America's greatest food cities, in Big Ten Country where tailgate parties are practically a sacrament, you would expect the Chicago entry in the Big Ten to have lots of good options. They are plentiful. There is a Food Court under the South End Zone, featuring boneless wings, gyros, tacos and nachos.
The West Concourse has cheeseburgers, veggie burgers, ice cream, and Chicago-style hot dogs: All-beef on a poppy seed bun, topped with yellow mustard (never brown mustard, and they treat ketchup like we treat pineapple on pizza), chopped white onion, green sweet pickle relish and a dill pickle spear, thin tomato slices, pickled sport peppers, and celery salt.
The East Concourse has "veggie straws," which I'm guessing are what we call "onion straws." And all concession stands sell regular hot dogs, popcorn, pretzels, chips and candy (although the NU website doesn't get specific as to brands).
Team History Displays. Unfairly -- mainly because they're a small private school that didn't prioritize football, and especially since they've got a higher all-time winning percentage in football than Indiana -- Northwestern is still thought of as the big loser in the Big 10. It didn't help that, from September 22, 1979 to September 18, 1982, 3 entire seasons, they didn't win a single game. Their 34-game losing streak remains the longest in the history of the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly its Division I-A).
Northwestern had some glory before that, and has had some since. They were charter members of the Western Conference in 1896, and it became the Big Ten. They won the Conference Championship in 1903, 1926, 1930, 1931 and 1936. And, since the Big Ten long had a rule that its teams could not go to back-to-back Rose Bowls, when Northwestern finished 2nd to Michigan in 1948 under coach Bob Voigts, they got to go to the 1949 Rose Bowl, and beat the University of California, 20-14.
From 1956 to 1963, they were coached by Ara Parseghian, and he did well enough there that Notre Dame lured him away in 1964. He was replaced by Alex Agase, a Hall of Fame guard at Purdue in the 1940s. In 1970, they lost their 1st 3 games, then beat arch-rival Illinois 48-0, starting a 6-1 run. But the 1 loss was to Ohio State, and they could only tie Michigan for 2nd in the league.
In 1971, they beat Ohio State in Columbus, but a season-opening loss to Michigan at home cost them the title. After a 2-9 season in 1972, Agase saw the writing the University was leaving on the wall, and left for Purdue.
Gary Barnett arrived in 1992, and after 3 years of struggle, he guided them to a 10-2 record, including 8-0 in the Big Ten, winning their 1st league title in 59 years, although they lost the Rose Bowl to USC. They won it again in 1996, sharing it with Ohio State, and lost the Citrus Bowl.
Barnett left for Colorado in 1998, but in 2000, Randy Walker led them to another shared Big 10 title, although a loss to Purdue meant that they could only go to the Alamo Bowl. Pat Fitzgerald, a linebacker on the 1995 and '96 titlists, became an assistant at NU in 2001, and was named head coach in 2006. He's led them to Big Ten West Division titles in 2018 and 2020, and to wins in the 2012 Gator Bowl, the 2016 Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium, the 2017 Music City Bowl, the 2018 Holiday Bowl, and the 2021 (New Year's Day) Citrus Bowl.
These achievements are listed at the castle-like towers at the corners of the stadium. Unfortunately, this was the best photograph of them that I could find.
The Wildcats have no retired numbers. They have 15 figures in the College Football Hall of Fame. These include head coaches Charlie Bachman (1919 only), Lynn "Pappy" Waldorf (1935-46), Parseghian (1956-63) and Agase (1964-72).
The 11 players are: 1904-05 quarterback Jimmy Johnson, 1915-16 halfback John "Paddy" Driscoll, 1924-26 end Ralph Baker, 1929-31 tackle Jack Riley, 1930-32 halfback Ernest "Pug" Rentner, 1931-33 end Edgar "Eggs" Manske, 1934-36 guard Steve Reid, 1941-43 quarterback Otto Graham, 1946-48 center Alex Sarkisian, 1957-59 halfback Ron Burton, and 1993-96 linebacker Pat Fitzgerald, the current head coach. Driscoll and Graham are also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Other notable Northwestern football players include 1957-59 defensive back Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, 1958-60 defensive back and later CBS NFL Today correspondent Irv Cross, 1968-70 running back Mike Adamle, 1979-82 offensive tackle Chris Hinton (a survivor of The Streak in its entirety), 1981-84 receiver Steve Tasker (a survivor of part of The Streak) 1993-96 running back Darnell Autry, 1995-98 receiver D'Wayne Bates, and current Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Corbin Bryant.
Northwestern's arch-rivals are the University of Illinois, 158 miles to the south in Champaign. They first played each other on October 12, 1892, in Champaign, and it was a 16-16 tie. For most of the rivalry's history, the Illini have dominated. But now, Northwestern have won 14 of the last 18, including the last 6 in a row. Illinois lead 55-54-5, so if Northwestern win it again this season, it will be tied, 55-all.
All but 3 of the games have been played in either Evanston or Champaign. Those 3 were played within the city limits of Chicago. In 1923, they played at Stagg Field, home of the University of Chicago -- oddly, since UC was then considered NU's main rival. (This ceased after the 1939 season, when UC dropped its football program.) The following year, a writer covering the NU-UC game gave NU, whose teams were then simply "The Purple," described the team as "a wall of purple wildcats," giving them the name they've used ever since. In 2010, the Wildcats-Illini game was played at Wrigley Field. And in 2015, it was played at the new Soldier Field.
Since 2009, the schools have competed for the Land of Lincoln Trophy, a bronze copy of Abraham Lincoln's stovepipe hat.
From 1947 through 2008, the teams competed for the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk Trophy, since retired as part of a ruling by the NCAA requiring Illinois to purge Native American imagery from their athletics. The origins of the trophy derived from a wooden cigar store Indian named Sweet Sioux, which was stolen and replaced by a tomahawk. The Sweet Sioux Tomahawk permanently remains in Evanston.
You can also try the Northwestern University Bookstore, on campus at 1999 Campus Drive, on the main campus, a mile and a half southeast of the stadium; and adjacent to NU's Pritzker School of Law, in the city, at 710 N. Lake Shore Drive.
In 2005, Larry LaTourrette published Northwestern Wildcat Football, still the most comprehensive written history of the team. There appear to be no team DVDs.
During the Game. Chicago fans can get a bit rough, and they do like to drink. However, it's been a long time -- probably since Knicks vs. Bulls ended with the 2nd retirement of Michael Jordan -- since any Chicago team had a serious rivalry with any New York team (the Mets and Cubs temporarily revived theirs in the mid-2010s, but who's kidding who). And Rutgers being in the Big 10 only helps Northwestern. So their fans almost certainly won't give you a hard time.
Before the game, the Northwestern University Wildcat Marching Band marches onto the field, carrying the flags of all the Big Ten schools (now 14 of them), forms a block N, plays the opposing team's fight song, then plays their own, "Go U Northwestern," followed by the National Anthem. After the game, they sing the school's alma mater, "University Hymn," a cappella.
The band is led by The Spirit Leader, who wears a black aviator-style helmet, which belonged to a Northwestern football player who served in World War II. That's their story, and they're sticking to it, although the player has not been publicly identified.
The band also has The Grynder (pronounced like "Grinder" -- or even "Grindr"), who is essentially the band's cheerleader. He wears the Grynder's Hat, supposedly bought on Northwestern's 1st trip to the Rose Bowl in 1948-49, now covered with team pins, and handed down every year to the next Grynder. The goal is to wear the Hat back to the Rose Bowl, which has only happened once (1995-96).
The Grynder does not have to be male, or white, or even just one student.
Which of these hats is the original, is not clear.
Following the 1924 introduction of the nickname "Wildcats," the athletic department began using a drawn wildcat as a symbol, but there was no in-game mascot until 1947, when a fraternity member dressed as a wildcat during the Homecoming Parade. There is no live Willie the Wildcat, just a guy in a costume.
He looks more like Wile E. Coyote.
Just as Princeton High School in New Jersey, as a nod to the University, named its athletic teams "the Little Tigers," Evanston High School named its mascot Willie the Wildkit.
Before the 4th quarter, a video screen plays the 2006 hit "Put Your Hands Up in the Air" by Belgian musician Danzel, preceded by an announcement by a local celebrity. Celebrity announcers have included Pat Fitzgerald, Bears legends Mike Ditka and Brian Urlacher, and Blackhawks star Patrick Kane.
After the Game. The surrounding area should be safe. It's "Chicagoland," but it's not Chicago.
West of the stadium, Central Street has lots of postgame food options, including hot dog emporium Mustard's Last Stand at 1613, Ten Mile House at 1700, Beth's Little Bake Shop at 1814, Leonidas Cafe Chocolaterie at 1907, and Comida at 1928. Crossing the Metra tracks, and turning right onto Green Bay Avenue, there are other places to eat.
Sarki's Cafe, at 2632 Gross Point Road, is said to have the best breakfast in Evanston. The best burger is said to be at Buffalo Joe's, 812 Clark Street, 7 miles north of Wrigley Field at Clark & Addison.
If you want to be around other New Yorkers, Racine Plumbing Bar and Grill is known to be a place where New York Giants fans gather. 2642 N. Lincoln Avenue at Kenmore. Brown or Purple Line to Diversey. And The Country Club, formerly Rebel Bar and Grill, shows Jets games. It's just south of Wrigley at 3462 N. Clark at Cornelia Avenue.
If your visit to Chicago is during the European soccer season (which we are now in), the best place to watch your favorite club is at The Globe Pub, 1934 W. Irving Park Rd., about 6 miles northwest of The Loop. Brown Line to Irving Park.
Sidelights. Chicago is one of the best sports cities, not just in America, but on the planet. Check out the following – but do it in daylight, as the city's reputation for crime, while significantly reduced from its 1980s peak, is still there.
On November 30, 2018, Thrillist published a list of "America's 25 Most Fun Cities," and, as you might expect from America's 3rd-largest city, Chicago came in 3rd.
While Northwestern's athletic teams have traditionally been terrible, the school has a very important place in sports history: The 1st NCAA basketball tournament championship game was held there in 1939, at Patten Gymnasium, at 2145 Sheridan Road: Oregon defeated Ohio State. The original Patten Gym was torn down a year later, and the school's Technological Institute was built on the site. Sheridan Road, Noyes Street and Campus Drive. Purple Line to Noyes.
Welsh-Ryan Arena, under its previous name, McGaw Hall, hosted the Final Four in 1956: Bill Russell and K.C. Jones, soon to be Boston Celtics stars, led the University of San Francisco past Iowa. These are the only 2 Final Fours ever to be held in the Chicago area.
* Wrigley Field. Opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Whales of the Federal League, the Cubs moved in for the 1916 season and have been here for a century. William Wrigley Jr. bought the team and the ballpark in 1925 and renamed it Wrigley Field.
It's known for its brick wall surrounding the field, the ivy covering the bricks in the outfield, the trapezoidal bleachers, the big hand-operated scoreboard on top, and famously refusing to add lights until 1988, playing all day games. The Cubs have won 6 Pennants here, but the last was in 1945. The Bears played here from 1921 to 1970, winning 8 NFL Championships in the pre-Super Bowl era. Wrigley (still known as Cubs Park) was also home of the Chicago Tigers, who played in the NFL only in its 1st season, 1920.
It is by far the oldest ballpark in the National League, and next to Fenway Park in Boston the 2nd-oldest in Major League Baseball. 1060 W. Addison Street. Red Line to Addison.
* Guaranteed Rate Field. The home of the Chicago White Sox is at 333 West 35th Street, across the street from the site of old Comiskey Park, 324 West 35th, where the White Sox played from 1910 to 1990, and the NFL's Chicago Cardinals played from 1922 to 1958. The Beatles played there in 1965.
The new park was named Comiskey Park from 1991 to 2004, and U.S. Cellular Field from 2005 to 2016. Red Line train to "Sox-35th." It's about a 12-minute ride, making it twice as fast as from Midtown Manhattan to Yankee Stadium, 3 times as fast as from Midtown Manhattan to Citi Field.
* Previous Chicago ballparks. The Cubs previously played at these parks:
State Street Grounds, also called 23rd Street Grounds, 1874-77, winning the NL's 1st Pennant in 1876, 23rd, State, and Federal Streets & Cermak Road (formerly 22nd Street), Red Line to Cermak-Chinatown.
Lakefront Park, also called Union Base-Ball Grounds and White-Stocking Park (the Cubs used the name "Chicago White Stockings" until 1900, and the AL entry then took the name), 1878-84, winning the 1880, '81 and '82 Pennants, Michigan Avenue & Randolph Street in the northwest corner of what's now Millennium Park, with (appropriately) Wrigley Square built on the precise site. Randolph/Wabash or Madison/Wabash stops on the Loop.
West Side Park I, 1885-91, winning the 1885 and '86 Pennants, at Congress, Loomis, Harrison & Throop Streets, now part of the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Blue Line to Racine.
South Side Park, 1891-93, just east of where the Comiskey Parks were built.
West Side Park II, 1893-1915, winning the 1906 and 1910 Pennants and the 1907 and 1908 World Series, the only World Series the Cubs have ever won, at Taylor, Wood and Polk Streets and Wolcott Avenue, now the site of a medical campus that includes the Cook County Hospital, the basis for the TV show ER, Pink Line to Polk. (Yes, the CTA has a Pink Line.)
Prior to the original Comiskey Park, the White Sox played at a different building called South Side Park, at 39th Street (now Pershing Road), 38th Street, & Wentworth and Princeton Avenues, a few blocks south of the Comiskey Parks.
* Soldier Field. The original opened in 1924, and hosted such events as the 1927 Heavyweight Championship fight between Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey, known as the "Long Count" fight; the 1926 Army-Navy Game, a 21-21 tie; the 1927 Notre Dame-USC game, a 7-6 Fighting Irish win in front of 123,000 spectators, long a record for a college football game; the 1928 Navy-Notre Dame game, a 7-0 Fighting Irish win in front of 120,000; the 1930 Army-Notre Dame game; and, from 1934 to 1976, except as mentioned for 1943 and '44, the College All-Star Game.
The Chicago Cardinals played their 1959 home games there, then moved to St. Louis (and later, as old Chicagoans tend to do, to Arizona). In 1971, the Bears began playing home games there, hosting the NFC Championship Games for the seasons of 1985 (beating the Los Angeles Rams) and 1988 (losing to the San Francisco 49ers). The Grateful Dead played Soldier Field 9 times, including what turned out to be Jerry Garcia's last concert, on July 9, 1995.
Except for the south end entrance, with its dedication to our armed forces, and the Greek colonnades on the east and west sides, the stadium was torn down and rebuilt, as the Bears played their 2002 home games at the University of Illinois. The new Soldier Field is modern, but has the smallest capacity in the NFL, and is so ugly (How ugly is it?), it is known as the Eyesore on Lake Shore.
The location has also been home to the Chicago Rockets of the All-America Football Conference, 1946-49; the North American Soccer League's Chicago Spurs in 1967, and its Chicago Sting in 1975 and '76; the World Football League's Chicago Fire in 1974 and '75 (known as the Chicago Winds the 2nd season); the United States Football League's Chicago Blitz in 1983 and '84; the XFL's Chicago Enforcers in 2001; and Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire, 1998-2001, 2003-05, and again since 2020.
Although bracketed by the northbound and southbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive, the official address is 1410 South Museum Campus, or 34 Walter Payton Place. Red Line to Jackson, then transfer to Bus 146.
* United Center and site of Chicago Stadium. From 1929 to 1994, the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks played at Chicago Stadium, "the Madhouse on Madison," at 1800 W. Madison Street at Wood Street. The NBA's Bulls played there from 1967 to 1994. The United Center opened across the street at 1901 W. Madison at Honore Street.
At the old Stadium, the Blackhawks won Stanley Cups in 1934, '38 and '61, and the Bulls won NBA Titles in 1991, '92 and '93. At the United Center, the Bulls won in 1996, '97 and '98 and the Blackhawks won the 2010 and '13 Cups -- and, as of this writing, have advanced to the Western Conference Finals for the 4th time in the last 6 seasons. The city's 1st NBA team, the Chicago Stags, played there from 1946 to 1950, and reached the 1st NBA Finals there in 1947. It hosted the NCAA Frozen Four in 2017, and hosts the annual Champions Classic, a college basketball season-opening tournament.
The Democrats had their Convention at Chicago Stadium in 1932, '40 and '44, nominating Franklin D. Roosevelt each time; the Republicans also had their Convention there in '32 and '44, nominating Herbert Hoover and Thomas E. Dewey, respectively. The Democrats held court (or rink) at the United Center in 1996, renominating Bill Clinton in their first Convention in Chicago since the disaster of 1968.
Elvis Presley gave concerts at Chicago Stadium on June 16 and 17, 1972; October 14 and 15, 1976; and May 1 and 2, 1977 -- meaning he was singing while
* Site of Chicago Coliseum. There were 2 buildings with this name that you should know about. One hosted the 1896 Democratic National Convention, where William Jennings Bryan began the process of turning the Democratic Party from the conservative party it had been since before the Civil War into the modern liberal party it became, a struggle that went through the Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt years before it finally lived up to its promise under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.
It was here that Bryan gave the speech for which he is most remembered, calling for the free coinage of silver rather than sticking solely to the gold standard: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."
Now a part of Jackson Park, at 63rd Street & Stony Island Avenue. 63rd Street Metra (commuter rail) station.
The other was home to every Republican Convention from 1904 to 1920. Here, they nominated Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, William Howard Taft in 1908 and 1912, Charles Evans Hughes in 1916 and Warren Harding in 1920. When TR was maneuvered out of the nomination to return to office at the 1912 Convention, he held his subsequent Progressive Party Convention was also held there.
It was also the original home of the Blackhawks, from 1926 to 1929 and briefly again in 1932. In 1935, roller derby was invented there. In 1961, an NBA expansion team, the Chicago Packers, played there, becoming the Zephyrs in 1962 and moving to become the Baltimore Bullets in 1963 (and the Washington Bullets in 1973, and the Washington Wizards in 1997).
The Coliseum hosted a few rock concerts before the Fire Department shut it down in 1971, and it was demolished in 1982. The Soka Gakkai USA Culture Center, a Buddhist institute, now occupies the site. East side of Wabash Avenue at 15th Street, with today's Coliseum Park across the street. Appropriately enough, the nearest CTA stop is at Roosevelt Avenue, on the Red, Yellow and Green Lines.
* Site of International Amphitheatre. Home to the Bulls in their first season, 1966-67, and to the World Hockey Association's Chicago Cougars from 1972 to 1975, this arena, built by the stockyards in 1934, was home to a lot of big pro wrestling cards. Elvis sang here on March 28, 1957. The Beatles played here on September 5, 1964 and August 12, 1966.
* Site of International Amphitheatre. Home to the Bulls in their first season, 1966-67, and to the World Hockey Association's Chicago Cougars from 1972 to 1975, this arena, built by the stockyards in 1934, was home to a lot of big pro wrestling cards. Elvis sang here on March 28, 1957. The Beatles played here on September 5, 1964 and August 12, 1966.
But it was best known as a site for political conventions. Both parties met there in 1952 (The Republicans nominating Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Democrats the man was then Governor of Illinois, Adlai Stevenson), the Democrats in 1956 (Stevenson again), the Republicans in 1960 (Richard Nixon), and, most infamously, the Democrats in 1968 (Hubert Humphrey), with all the protests. The main protests for that convention were in Grant Park and a few blocks away on Michigan Avenue in front of the Conrad Hilton Hotel, one of the convention headquarters (now the Chicago Hilton & Towers. 720 S. Michigan).
The Amphitheatre, torn down in 1999, was at 4220 S. Halsted Street, where an Aramark plant now stands. Red Line to 47th Street. This location is definitely not to be visited after dark; indeed, unless you're really interested in political history, I'd say, if you have to drop one item from this list, this is the one.
Elvis also sang in Illinois at Assembly Hall at the University of Illinois in Champaign on October 22, 1976, and at Southern Illinois University Arena in Carbondale on October 27.
* SeatGeekStadium. MLS' Chicago Fire have played here from 2006 until 2019, and the National Women's Soccer League's Chicago Red Stars have since their inception in 2009. The U.S. soccer team has played here once, a 2008 win over Trinidad & Tobago. It was known as Toyota Park until 2018. 7000 S. Harlem Avenue, Bridgeview, in the southwestern suburbs. Orange Line to Midway Airport, then transfer to the 379 or 390 bus.
* Arlington Park. Now officially named Arlington International Racecourse, this track, with a 41,000-seat grandstand, has been the Chicago area's leading horse racing facility since it opened in 1927. Jimmy Jones, the Hall of Fame trainer of 1948 Triple Crown winner Citation, and late 1950s Kentucky Derby winners Iron Liege and Tim Tam, said, "Arlington Park became the finest track in the world, certainly the finest I've ever been on."
In the spirit of Chicago's tendency toward innovation, Arlington Park was the 1st track to install a public address system, hiring horse racing's top radio announcer of the time, Clem McCarthy, to speak over it. It added the sport's 1st electronic tote board and clock in 1933, the 1st photo finish camera in 1936, and the 1st electric starting gate in 1940. One of the earliest televised major horse races was held there in 1955, with Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes winner Nashua defeating Kentucky Derby winner Swaps.
In 1973, hoping to lure Triple Crown winner Secretariat to the Midwest, the track's owners created the Arlington Invitational. It worked: Secretariat's owner, Penny Chenery, accepted the challenge, and Secretariat won the race. The race was renamed the Secretariat Stakes the following year, and is still run.
On August 31, 1981, it hosted the 1st thoroughbred race with a $1 million payout, the Arlington Million. That may not sound like a big deal today, but in 1981, when horse racing was a lot bigger than it is now, and an athlete earning $1 million in a season was a new phenomenon, it was huge. (With inflation, that $1 million would be worth about $2.7 million today.) John Henry was the winner, with Bill Shoemaker aboard.
A fire burned down the original 1927 grandstand in 1985, and the track reopened in 1989. In the interim, its meets were moved to Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney, home of the Illinois Derby. It shut down again from 1998 to 2000, for a renovation that allowed it to host the 2002 Breeders' Cup.
In the spirit of Chicago's tendency toward innovation, Arlington Park was the 1st track to install a public address system, hiring horse racing's top radio announcer of the time, Clem McCarthy, to speak over it. It added the sport's 1st electronic tote board and clock in 1933, the 1st photo finish camera in 1936, and the 1st electric starting gate in 1940. One of the earliest televised major horse races was held there in 1955, with Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes winner Nashua defeating Kentucky Derby winner Swaps.
In 1973, hoping to lure Triple Crown winner Secretariat to the Midwest, the track's owners created the Arlington Invitational. It worked: Secretariat's owner, Penny Chenery, accepted the challenge, and Secretariat won the race. The race was renamed the Secretariat Stakes the following year, and is still run.
On August 31, 1981, it hosted the 1st thoroughbred race with a $1 million payout, the Arlington Million. That may not sound like a big deal today, but in 1981, when horse racing was a lot bigger than it is now, and an athlete earning $1 million in a season was a new phenomenon, it was huge. (With inflation, that $1 million would be worth about $2.7 million today.) John Henry was the winner, with Bill Shoemaker aboard.
A fire burned down the original 1927 grandstand in 1985, and the track reopened in 1989. In the interim, its meets were moved to Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney, home of the Illinois Derby. It shut down again from 1998 to 2000, for a renovation that allowed it to host the 2002 Breeders' Cup.
This past September, Arlington Park was closed, and the Chicago Bears agreed to buy property, with the intention of building a new stadium on the site. But it won't be opening anytime soon, and it may take the entire decade of the 2020s to sort everything out, build, and open. 2200 W. Euclid Avenue in Arlington Heights, 25 miles northwest of the Loop. METRA commuter rail from Ogilive Transportation Center (formerly Northwestern Station) to Arlington Park.
* DePaul University. Led by legendary coach Ray Meyer, and then his son Joey Meyer, the basketball team at this "mid-major" Catholic school has featured eventual pro stars George Mikan, Bill Robinzine, Mark Aguirre, Terry Cummings, Dallas Comegys, Quentin Richardson and Rod Strickland.
The Blue Demons' longtime home court was Alumni Hall, until 1979. It was demolished in 2000, and DePaul's new student center was built on the site. 1011 W. Belden Avenue. Red Line to Fullerton. Starting in 1980, they moved out to the Rosemont Horizon, now the Allstate Arena, in the suburb of Rosemont, out by O'Hare Airport. This was also the home of the WNBA's Chicago Sky from 2010 to 2017. 6920 N. Mannheim Road. Blue Line to Rosemont, then Bus 223 to Touhy & Pace.
In 2017, they moved into the new Wintrust Arena, at the McCormick Place Convention Center. In 2018, the Sky joined them there. 2201 S. Indiana Avenue, at Cermak Road. Green Line to Cermak-McCormick Place.
* UIC Pavilion. On the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago, this 6,972-seat arena opened in 1982. It was the 1st home of the Chicago Sky, from 2006 to 2009. 525 S. Racine Avenue, on the West Side. Blue Line to Racine.
* Museums. Chicago's got a bunch of good ones, as you would expect in a city of 3 million people. Their version of New York's Museum of Natural History is the Field Museum, just north of Soldier Field. Adjacent is the Shedd Aquarium. On the other side of the Aquarium is their answer to the Hayden Planetarium, the Adler Planetarium.
And they have a fantastic museum for which there is no real analogue in New York, though the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia is similar: The Museum of Science & Industry, at 57th Street & Cornell Drive, near the University of Chicago campus; 56th Street Metra station. The Art Institute of Chicago is their version of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at 111 S. Michigan Avenue, just off the Loop.
* Ferris Bueller's Day Off. If you're a fan of that movie, as I am (see my 25th Anniversary retrospective, from June 2011), not only will you have taken in Wrigley Field, but you'll recognize the Art Institute as where Alan Ruck focused on Georges Seurat's painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
Other sites visited by Ferris, Cameron and Sloane were the Sears Tower, then the tallest building in the world, 1,454 feet, 233 S. Wacker Drive (yes, the name is Wacker), Quincy/Wells station in the Loop; and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, 335 S. La Salle Street, LaSalle/Van Buren station in the Loop. (That station is also where Steve Martin & John Candy finally reached Chicago in another John Hughes film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles). The von Steuben Day Parade goes down Lincoln Avenue every September, on or close to the anniversary of Baron von Steuben's birth, not in the spring as in the film.
While the Bueller house was in Long Beach, California, the Frye house is in Highland Park, north of the city. Remember, it's a private residence, and not open to the public, so I won't provide the address. And the restaurant, Chez Quis, did not and does not exist.
Nor did, nor does, Adam's Ribs, a barbecue joint made famous in a 1974 M*A*S*H episode of the same title. Today, there are 18 restaurants in America named Adam's Ribs, including two on Long Island, on Park Boulevard in Massapequa Park and on the Montauk Highway in Babylon; and another on Cookstown-Wrightstown Road outside South Jersey's Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base. But only one is anywhere near Chicago, in Buffalo Grove in the northwestern suburbs.
Not far from that, in the western suburbs, is Wheaton, home town of football legend Red Grange and the comedic Belushi Brothers, John and Jim. John and Dan Aykroyd used Wrigley Field in The Blues Brothers, and Jim played an obsessive Cubs fan in Taking Care of Business. Their father, an Albanian immigrant, ran a restaurant called The Olympia Cafe, which became half the basis for John's Saturday Night Live sketch of the same name, better known as the Cheeseburger Sketch: "No hamburger! Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger... No fries, chips!... No Coke, Pepsi!"
Don Novello, an SNL writer who played Father Guido Sarducci, said the other half of the inspiration was the Billy Goat Tavern, originally operated by Greek immigrant William "Billy Goat" Sianis, originator of the supposed Billy Goat Curse on the Cubs, across Madison Street from Chicago Stadium, from 1937 until 1963. At that point, Sianis moved to the lower deck of the double-decked Michigan Avenue, since it was near the headquarters of the city's three daily newspapers, the Tribune, the Sun-Times, and the now-defunct Daily News. Mike Royko, who wrote columns for each of these papers, made it his haunt and frequently mentioned it in his columns.
Novello and Bill Murray, Chicagoans, were regulars at the Billy Goat, but John Belushi later said he'd never set foot in the place, so while the others may have drawn inspiration from it, his came from his father's restaurant.
Sam Sianis, nephew of the original Billy, still serves up a fantastic cheeseburger (he was there when I visited in 1999), he deviates from the sketch: No Pepsi, Coke. It's open for breakfast, and serves regular breakfast food. It looks foreboding, being underneath the elevated part of Michigan Avenue, and a sign out front (and on their website) says, "Enter at your own risk." But another sign says, "Butt in anytime." 430 N. Michigan Avenue, lower deck, across from the Tribune Tower. Red Line to Grand. The original location near Chicago Stadium has effectively been replaced, at 1535 W. Madison Street.
The Tribune Tower is a work of art in itself. Its building, Tribune publisher "Colonel" Robert R. McCormick, had stones taken from various famous structures all over the world: The Palace of Westminster in London, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, the Grand Canyon. (He must've paid a lot of people off.) These can be seen at near ground level, but the building itself is so grand that it doesn't need it.
The building is also the headquarters of the TV and radio station that McCormick named for his paper: WGN, "The World's Greatest Newspaper," a line that has long since disappeared from the paper's masthead. 435 N. Michigan Avenue. Red Line to Grand.
The Wrigley Building is right across from it, at 400 N. Michigan. The block of North Michigan they're on is renamed Jack Brickhouse Way, and Brickhouse's statue is on the grounds of the Tribune Tower.
* Quad Cities. Rock Island and Moline, Illinois, and Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, are, together, known as the Quad Cities. Together, these cities and adjoining smaller towns have a population of about 475,000. (Davenport about 100,000, Moline 44,000, Rock Island 39,000 and Bettendorf 35,000). Not big enough to be major league -- but some people tried.
The 5,000-seat Douglas Park was the home of the Rock Island Independents from 1907 to 1925, including 1920 to 1925 in the NFL. In fact, it was the site of the 1st NFL game, on October 3, 1920, a 45-0 Indys win over the Indiana-based Muncie Flyers. It was also home to a minor-league baseball team, the Rock Island Islanders, from 1907 to 1937, winning Class D Pennants in 1907, 1909 and 1932. West side of 10th Street between 15th and 18th Avenues in Rock Island, 180 miles west of Chicago.
One of the oldest surviving pro basketball teams is the Atlanta Hawks. They began as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks (they dropped Bettendorf from the "Quad Cities" description) in 1946. They weren't very good, and moved to Milwaukee in 1951, St. Louis in 1955, and Atlanta in 1968. They played at the 6,000-seat Wharton Field House, which opened in 1928 and still stands. 1800 20th Avenue.
There is a minor-league baseball team in the Quad Cities, but it's been known by various names since its inception in 1879 as the Davenport Brown Stockings. They've won 10 Pennants, previously in Class B, and in what's now Class A: In 1914, 1933 and 1936 as the Davenport Blue Sox; in 1949 as the Davenport Pirates; in 1968 and 1971 as the Quad City Angels; In 1979 as the Quad City Cubs; in 1990 again as the Quad City Angels; and in 2011 and 2013 under their current name, the Quad Cities River Bandits.
Since 1931, they have played at a stadium right on the Mississippi River, which proved a problem during the 1993 flood. The 4,024-seat ballpark was known as Municipal Stadium until 1971, then as John O'Donnell Stadium until 2008, when it became Modern Woodmen Park, as the fraternal organization bought naming rights. 209 S. Gaines Street in Davenport.
No President has ever come from Chicago, and none has a Presidential Library anywhere near it -- yet. Barack Obama has spent his adult life in Chicago, as a lawyer, law professor, and, famously "community organizer," before being elected to the Illinois State Senate, the U.S. Senate, and the Presidency in 2008 and 2012. Since he taught at the University of Chicago, his Library is being built there, at 6201 S. Stony Island Avenue. 63rd Street Station on the South Shore commuter line. It is scheduled to open in 2021.
Abraham Lincoln's Presidential Library is 200 miles away, in the State capital of Springfield. Many other Presidents have Chicago connections. Most notably, the 1st true Presidential Debate, between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, was held on September 26, 1960, at the old CBS Studio, home to WBBM, 780 on your AM dial and Channel 2 on your TV. 630 N. McClurg Street. The building is no longer there. Red Line to Grand, then an 8-minute walk.
In the early days of American politics, any temporary meeting structure was called a "Wigwam," which is a Native American word for a temporary dwelling. Chicago's 1st Wigwam was at what is now 191 N. Upper Wacker Drive, right where the Chicago River splits into north and south branches. Abraham Lincoln was nominated there at their 1860 Convention. A modern office building is on the site today. Clark/Lake station in the Loop.
Another Wigwam stood at 205 East Randolph Street, in what was then called Lake Park, now Grant Park. The Democrats held their Convention there in 1892, nominating Grover Cleveland for the 3rd time. The Harris Theater is on the site today. Randolph/Wabash station in the Loop.
In 1864, the Democrats nominated General George B. McClellan at The Amphitheatre, 1100 South Michigan Avenue. A Best Western Hotel is on the site today. Red Line to Roosevelt. In 1868, the Republicans nominated Ulysses S. Grant at Crosby’s Opera House, 1 West Washington Street. A modern office building is on the site today. Blue Line to Washington.
The Interstate Industrial Exposition Building, a.k.a. the Glass Palace, was where the Republicans met and nominated James Garfield in 1880, and both parties met in 1884, the Republicans nominating James G. Blaine and the Democrats nominating Cleveland for the 1st time. 111 South Michigan Avenue. The aforementioned Art Institute of Chicago is on the site today. Adams/Wabash station in the Loop. And in 1888, the Republicans met at the Auditorium Building, 430 South Michigan Avenue. It still stands. Harold Washington Library station, a.k.a. State-Van Buren station, in the Loop.
The old Cook County Courthouse, where the Black Sox trial took place in 1921 (and where a boy allegedly called out to Shoeless Joe Jackson, "Say it ain't so, Joe!" which may actually have happened) was at 1340 South Michigan Avenue, corner of 14th Street. The building has been replaced by an office building, with an Italian restaurant named Giordano's on the ground floor. Green, Orange or Red Line to Roosevelt.
You may notice some other film landmarks. The Chicago Board of Trade Building was used as the Wayne Tower in Christopher Nolan's Batman films. And Chicago stood in for Metropolis in the Superman-themed TV series Lois & Clark, with the Wrigley Building and the Tribune Tower as standout landmarks.
You may notice some other film landmarks. The Chicago Board of Trade Building was used as the Wayne Tower in Christopher Nolan's Batman films. And Chicago stood in for Metropolis in the Superman-themed TV series Lois & Clark, with the Wrigley Building and the Tribune Tower as standout landmarks.
Chicago seems to lend itself well to TV dramas: Crime, legal and medical. Crime dramas set there include The Untouchables, about Eliot Ness and his Depression-era crimebusters; the 1960s period piece Crime Story, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Angel Street, Due South and Chicago Code. Legal dramas include Reasonable Doubts, Boss and The Good Wife.
The setting of the cop TV show Hill Street Blues was never explicitly stated onscreen, but there was much to show that it was obviously Chicago: The skyline, the elevated railways and expressways, the lousy weather, and the police cars with "METRO POLICE" on the doors were obviously patterned after Chicago's, saying, "CHICAGO POLICE."
At the start of the 1994-95 TV season, competing hospital shows aired: ER on NBC lasted a whopping 15 seasons, while Chicago Hope on CBS lasted 6; it lost the competition, but was hardly a loser. Oddly, CBS had previously aired a sitcom titled E/R, set in a Chicago hospital, but it only lasted the 1984-85 season. Starting in 2012, NBC began airing shows of producer Dick Wolf's "Chicago Franchise": Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med (hospital) and Chicago Justice
(prosecutors).
Other shows set in Chicago include Good Times, set in the infamous, now-demolished Cabrini-Green housing project; Punky Brewster; the related sitcoms Perfect Strangers and Family Matters (Great shows? Well, of course, they were, don't be ridiculous!); Married... with Children, Fox's longest-running non-cartoon (though the Bundy family was pretty darn cartoonish); the fantasy series Early Edition; the TV version of Soul Food; Steve Harvey's sitcom The Steve Harvey Show (not to be confused with his current talk show); According to Jim, starring Wheaton, Illinois native Jim Belushi; the inaptly named (it was, after all, a comedy) Andy Richter Controls the Universe; Mike & Molly, a sitcom about a cop and his teacher girlfriend; the Disney Channel teen sitcom Shake It Up; Shameless; and, perhaps most classically, The Bob Newhart Show, with Bob as psychiatrist Dr. Bob Hartley.
Roseanne, its recent reboot, and its post-Roseanne "threeboot," The Conners, have been set in Lanford, Illinois, a fictional small town near Chicago, perhaps too working-class to be called a "suburb."
Nearly every one of these shows was actually filmed in Los Angeles, and the exterior shots were also mostly L.A. sites, so don't bother going to look for them. However, a statue of Newhart is at the Navy Pier, near its amusement rides, between Grand Avenue & Illinois Street at the lake.
The setting of the cop TV show Hill Street Blues was never explicitly stated onscreen, but there was much to show that it was obviously Chicago: The skyline, the elevated railways and expressways, the lousy weather, and the police cars with "METRO POLICE" on the doors were obviously patterned after Chicago's, saying, "CHICAGO POLICE."
At the start of the 1994-95 TV season, competing hospital shows aired: ER on NBC lasted a whopping 15 seasons, while Chicago Hope on CBS lasted 6; it lost the competition, but was hardly a loser. Oddly, CBS had previously aired a sitcom titled E/R, set in a Chicago hospital, but it only lasted the 1984-85 season. Starting in 2012, NBC began airing shows of producer Dick Wolf's "Chicago Franchise": Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med (hospital) and Chicago Justice
(prosecutors).
Other shows set in Chicago include Good Times, set in the infamous, now-demolished Cabrini-Green housing project; Punky Brewster; the related sitcoms Perfect Strangers and Family Matters (Great shows? Well, of course, they were, don't be ridiculous!); Married... with Children, Fox's longest-running non-cartoon (though the Bundy family was pretty darn cartoonish); the fantasy series Early Edition; the TV version of Soul Food; Steve Harvey's sitcom The Steve Harvey Show (not to be confused with his current talk show); According to Jim, starring Wheaton, Illinois native Jim Belushi; the inaptly named (it was, after all, a comedy) Andy Richter Controls the Universe; Mike & Molly, a sitcom about a cop and his teacher girlfriend; the Disney Channel teen sitcom Shake It Up; Shameless; and, perhaps most classically, The Bob Newhart Show, with Bob as psychiatrist Dr. Bob Hartley.
Roseanne, its recent reboot, and its post-Roseanne "threeboot," The Conners, have been set in Lanford, Illinois, a fictional small town near Chicago, perhaps too working-class to be called a "suburb."
Nearly every one of these shows was actually filmed in Los Angeles, and the exterior shots were also mostly L.A. sites, so don't bother going to look for them. However, a statue of Newhart is at the Navy Pier, near its amusement rides, between Grand Avenue & Illinois Street at the lake.
As far as I can tell, Chicago has never been a setting for a soap opera, but 2 have been set in fictional Illinois locations: As the World Turns in Oakdale, and Another World in Bay City (not to be confused with the city of the same name in Michigan). On The West Wing, White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry was from Chicago.
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Every American should visit Chicago. And every fan of a Big Ten school should go see their team play away to Northwestern. Have fun -- but remember, be smart, and don't go out of your way to antagonize anyone.
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