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.
Chris Serb is deputy district chief for the Chicago Fire Department. He is also a veteran Chicago freelance writer with almost thirty years of experience as a journalist. Serb's articles, concentrated in sports and history, have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago History, Writer's Digest, Chicago Athlete, and Men's Fitness. He is the author of War Football: World War I and the Birth of the NFL and Sam's Boys: The History of Chicago's Leone Beach and Legendary Lifeguard Sam Leone.
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
"Chris Serb tells the compelling story of the first true superstar of Windy City sports: University of Chicago football legend Walter Eckersall. More than just a comprehensive retelling of an electrifying playing career, Serb's diligent work chronicles Eckersall's second act as the city's best-known sportswriter. Eckie provides a fascinating lens into the early years of what would become one of America's most sports-obsessed cities."-Dave Revsine, Big Ten Network studio host and author of The Opening Kickoff: The Tumultuous Birth of a Football Nation "Here is the stunning, sad, important, and exciting story of a man all but forgotten. Chris Serb writes with such passion that he makes Walter Eckersall come alive on the pages of this remarkable book, making the athlete turned sportswriter impossible to forget."-Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune columnist and WGN radio host
