University of Chicago Football Team

Uncirculated

Published by Franklin Post Card Co., Chicago Ill.

Postcard Caption:

University of Chicago, Marshall Field, Football Team, Chicago.

I paid too much for this postcard, but I couldn't resist. I'd never seen the design before, and I had to have it. By the time I attended Chicago, we had a small football team. University President Robert Maynard Hutchins' infamous 1939 ban on athletics in favor of academics had come and gone. Under the first coach, Amos Alonzo Stagg, the football team enjoyed incredible success. That UC boasted the first Heisman Trophy winner gave some students pride, others a fun fact to pass on during trips home. 

University of Chicago Football Game, early 1900s, Library of Congress

Not too long after the 1939 ban, Enrico Fermi, Professor of Physics, oversaw the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear reaction. The testing facility was built under Stagg Stadium (on a squash court, I read).

Argonne National Laboratory

Currently, the site is commemorated with a statue, Nuclear Energy, by Henry Moore.

References

• The Forgotten Ghosts of College Football - The Wall Street Journal
• Sports History - The Chicago Maroon