Illinois H.S.toric

Compared to the East, the high schools in Illinois were slow starters in developing the sport of cross country. The first secondary schools in the country to conduct cross country meets were the private schools of New York City's Interscholastic League when in the late 1890s Trinity school sponsored an annual meet. The first major interscholastic cross country meet in the country was the American Interscholastic conducted by the University of Pennsylvania beginning in the fall of 1903. Each year most of the schoolboys from up and down the Eastern seaboard would converge in Philadelphia on the first saturday in December and compete for what was considered the national championship. Soon other eastern universities began conducting their own interscholastics, notably Princeton, Yale, and Columbia.

While this was going on in the East, there was not a single interscholastic cross country meet conducted by any Illinois institution of higher education in the first three decades of the century. Oak Park was forced to take the lead in pioneering the sport in the Chicago area. One member of the school's faculty who was especially instrumental in launching the sport of cross country, Albert L. Clark. He was the school's representative on Board of Control of the Cook County League and was chairman of the track committee. In the latter position Clark was responsible the previous spring for establishing the league's indoor track program. Clark now went to Oak Park's athletic director Lewis Omer and proselytized him on the virtues of cross country running.

Omer, persuaded by Clark's entreaties, held the school's first intramural meet on December 18, 1904, on a three and a half mile course. Making note of this historic event a couple of days later, the Chicago Tribune reported, "Oak Park is the first of the local high schools to take up cross country running. The first event, which was held on Friday, met with such success that the event seems sure to be a fixture at the suburban school. The distance was shortened to three and one-half miles so that it would not be too hard on the boys..."

A discussion by Oak Park with North Division and Englewood to hold a cross country took place in January of 1905, but nothing came of it. In the fall of the same year Oak Park conducted its second annual intramural run. Like many indoor track and field meets of the day, the race was a handicapped affair, so the winner was not necessarily the best runner. Forty-nine boys participated in the three and one-half mile race, which was run in the mud. Winner Thomas Heneage completed the course in 21 minutes. Tribune reported the mud made the race slow, but by modern standards it is stupendously slow. The newspaper noted the Oak Park's attempts to bring in other schools: "The Oak Park boys will make an effort to schedule a duel cross country meet with some of the city schools."

The 1906 intramural meet saw Oak Park's long distance ace, Ray Barnes, take the race. A New York jeweler, Charles Zeller, donated a trophy for the winner to be given under his name. Zeller had done business with Clark, supplying the Cook County League with medals and trophies for track contests. The Tribune alluded to Oak Park's continued attempts to bring other schools to the sport: "There is a movement [a]foot to introduce cross country runs into other high schools, as the Oak Park High school is said to be the only school in the west which gives these contests. Negotiations are under way for the establishment of a five year trophy by some of the club men of Chicago."

Oak Park proselytizing finally bore fruit in the fall of 1907, when Crane Tech inaugurated a meet involving Oak Park and five West Side schools—McKinley, Crane, Northwest Division, Austin, and Medill—holding it in the first Saturday of November. The Tribune noted the race's significance, saying "The run, which was the first open run held by a high school, was a great success, and it is expected other schools will follow suit next spring." The distance was three and one-quarter miles and was run over the West Side's boulevards. Reporting the paper, "A large number of spectators witnessed the event, and a crowd of more than a hundred followed the runners in automobiles and on wheels [meaning bicycles]." Only individual champs were crowned and the first-place winner was Barnes of Oak Park. It was not a handicapped affair. A month later Oak Park held its annual intramural race, and kept it a handicapped event.

Englewood High on the South Side of Chicago began an intramural cross country race in the Spring of 1908, under sponsorship of one of the teachers, Mr. Percival. It was run through the streets of Englewood community, and was a handicapped event.

The fall of 1908 saw the first Cook County League meet, and both team and individual championships were crowned. Five schools—Oak Park, Crane, Phillips, McKinley, and Englewood—competed on a course that ran from Phillips High on 39th Street south to the Hyde Park YMCA. The team championship was won by Crane and the individual championship was won by Stuart White of Oak Park in a time 22:30 minutes. The race was held on November 27, and the Tribune gave it good coverage, reporting "The cold weather effected many of the starters, who shivered while waiting to start. After getting under way the boys set a lively pace, had no trouble keeping warm and no serious result were recorded. Many spectators gathered on the route and gave the leaders plenty of encouragement. At the finish line the jam was beyond the control of the three policemen who were on hand to keep order. The affair was voted a success by [Cook County League] vice president Perrine, who said it would be an annual affair." A week later Oak Park held its intramural meet.

In the spring of 1909, Wendell Phillips sponsored a meet that included Crane and Englewood. The two and three-quarter mile race started at Halsted and 55th and went east to Washington Park, through Washington Park, and east on 52nd street to the Marshall Field store in Hyde Park. Crane won the race.

In the fall of 1909 Oak Park won the second Cook County League meet running a four and an eighth mile course on the West Side boulevards from Crane to Oak Park. Walter Kraft of Oak Park was the individual winner. Seven teams participated—Oak Park, Crane, Lake, Phillips, Englewood, Lane Tech, and McKinley.

The fall of 1909 also saw debut of the first invitational meet for high schools, the Amateur Athletic Federation (AAF) meet. It was not actually for high schools alone. The AAF, described by the newspapers as a new amateur sponsoring organization, conducted the race both for high school teams and for amateur teams from churches, YMCAs, and park districts. Oak Park won the first year and but did not participate the following year, ironically, because it conflicted with their interclass meet. Crane ended up as the winner. The AAF meets were conducted at Sherman Park.

The third Cook County League meet was held on the first Saturday in December, 1910, on a 3-mile course over the roads of Oak Park. The Tribune reported on the rough conditions: "The run was held during a snowstorm and over nearly half of the course the snow struck the runners flush in the face. Nearly 5,000 persons saw the contest." Oak Park edged out Englewood by one point for the team championship and J. McKeighan of Englewood was the individual winner, winning in 22:50 minutes. The Oak Park team received a "challenge cup," McKeighan received a gold medal, and other top runners received small ornaments called "fobs" (which sounds insulting to readers of today).

The cross country developments in these first years, alas, did not last. There were no more AAF meets after the second season and no more Cook County League meets after the third meet. Cross country was continued by a few schools in the suburbs, notably LaGrange, Morton, Proviso, and Oak Park, which conducted occasional dual meets against each other. For a few years in the mid-1920s the Chicago Tribune sponsored a cross country meet, but the meet attracted few schools. The 1924 meet involved only New Trier and Morton of the Suburban League and DelaSalle of the Catholic League. The Chicago Public League introduced cross country in the fall of 1928, with a meet that attracted four schools—Lindblom, Lane Tech, Senn, and Austin.

Still, interest in the sport remained low for the next two decades the sport was not taken up by any sizeable number of schools until the mid-1940s. Coaches discovered the sport as a great conditioning tool for their basketball players. Ernie Eveland, the great downstate basketball coach at Paris High, won the first four IHSA state cross country championships, 1946-49, with cross country teams filled with his basketball players.

Photos: Chicago Tribune, December 10, 1905