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Full Description
Walter "Eckie" Eckersall was one of the most famous people in Chicago for three decades: He was the city's first high school athlete superstar when the competitive prep athletics scene was maturing in Illinois, then quarterback of the University of Chicago Maroons, and finally a prominent sports journalist for the Chicago Tribune. As the greatest player in the University of Chicago's history, Eckersall led the Maroons to a national title in 1905 and earned a place as an All-American three times. Head coach Amos Alonzo Stagg and Eckersall helped set the Maroons on a two-decade path of excellence that made football the biggest and best game in town.
As American sports entered a golden age and journalism was revolutionized by advancements in printing technology, Eckersall entered the growing field of sports journalism. He became the lead sportswriter for the Chicago Tribune and the lens through which many Chicagoans understood sports. During his twenty-three-year career, he covered and promoted many of the greatest athletes and sporting events, including the inaugural Indianapolis 500, the Dempsey-Tunney Long Count fight, eleven Rose Bowls, and strange gambling patterns that eventually exposed the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
While Eckersall was a great player and well-known writer, he had many flaws, some unknown to the public for decades. He was expelled after his last game with the Maroons, was caught committing theft, secretly eloped in a shotgun wedding and then soon abandoned his wife and young daughter, and struggled with a drinking problem. But he was also notably generous and a vocal and consistent supporter of equal opportunity for Black athletes. Chris Serb's biography sheds new light on Eckersall's long-forgotten career in the context of Chicago's burgeoning sports scene.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part 1. 1886-1903
1. Woodlawn
2. Pre-1900 High School Sports
3. Hyde Park High School
4. High School Superstar
5. High School Sports after Eckersall
Part 2. 1903-6
6. The Recruit
7. Coach Stagg, President Harper, and Their University
8. Freshman Phenom
9. All-American
10. Champions of the West
11. Year of Reform
12. Maroon Football after Eckersall
Part 3. 1907-30
13. The Myth of Frank Merriwell
14. Semipro
15. Sports and the World's Greatest Newspaper
16. The Scribe
17. The Official
18. The Sweet Science
19. Football Goes to War
20. The Sunday Game
21. Chicago Goes for Gold
22. Silver Skates and Golden Gloves
23. Color Lines
24. The Seedy Side of Sports
25. The Authority
26. The Friend
27. -30-
28. Legacy
Appendix: Walter Eckersall's Football Record
Notes
Bibliography
Index
