Hanson Stadium Reopens

By John Montgomery

Hanson Park Stadium, more commonly known as Hanson Stadium, will never be compared to famous venues such as the Rose Bowl, Wrigley Field, Chicago Stadium or Fenway Park. But it has been a staple for sporting events since it was built in 1939, at Fullerton and Central, on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

It has been home to varsity football teams from Weber, St. Patrick, Prosser, Foreman, Steinmetz and Kelvyn Park High Schools, semi-pro football and Chicago Public League track and field championships. Built to accommodate crowds of 2,200 people, it generally hosted seven football games a week. After a thorough four-year renovation, which included new seating, locker rooms, scoreboard and press box, Hanson is back in business with the beginning of the 2025 football season.

“Hanson was their home,” said former Weber associate athletic director Mary Mitchell, recalling outstanding Red Horde teams that played there until the nearby school closed in 1999.

“Every Sunday we played at Hanson Stadium,” said former Weber football manager Gil Sanks. “The place was packed and we had tremendous teams (Prep Bowl champions) in 1961 and 1964.”

Hanson also hosted events for the Pan American Games, the Special Olympics, many city and state high school football playoff games and was the original home of the Public-Catholic All-Star Football Game.

“We are very excited,” said former Chicago Public League sports director Dave Rosengard, who spearheaded efforts to upgrade facilities at several city parks besides Hanson.

“Playing at Hanson was like playing in a college stadium,” said former St. Patrick and Notre Dame football player Dan Santucci, who also played in the NFL and now is principal at St. Patrick.

Hanson brings back fond memories to me, too. The first high school football game I ever covered for the Sun-Times was in 1984 at Hanson Stadium. It was a matchup between Bogan and Tilden. From 1984 to 2010, I covered games at Hanson for the Sun-Times and Tribune. It was fun covering two of the most competitive rivalries in the Chicago area, Gordon Tech vs. Weber and St. Patrick vs. Notre Dame.

“Hanson Stadium meant a lot to the Northwest Side schools,” said former Prosser basketball coach and athletic director John McEleney. “The beauty of Hanson was that it was not just for football.” Add soccer and girls’ flag football to the list of events that experience the new turf at Hanson. Steinmetz, which now plays football on its own field, will meet Kelvyn Park for the inaugural soccer game at Hanson.

It will be football when Foreman hosts Kelly for the first game of the 2025 season and Prosser returns by entertaining basketball powerhouse Proviso. 

The new Hanson Stadium will undoubtedly create memories for today’s young athletes.

CPL’s Hanson Stadium. Photo credit Chicago Public Schools.

John Montgomery Joins as Contributor

I am pleased and honored to announce that prep sports reporter John Montgomery is coming out of retirement and will be contributing stories to jacklydon.com during the upcoming high school sports season.

John began writing sports articles very young in 1978. He had stints at the Leader Newspapers, Learner Newspapers, Chicago Sun Times, Southtown Economist, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Bulldog Media. He has been layed up in recent years with some health issues but is coming off the DL and getting back in the game with jacklydon.com.

John is a 2004 inductee into the Chicago Public League Hall of Fame and a 2005 inductee into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame. Few people have as much experience reporting in Chicago area high school sports.

His first contribution will be a story on the reopening of Hanson Stadium beginning this football season. Look for that later today.

The Day That Saved the World

Eighty years ago today, soldiers and sailors of the United States, Britain and Canada went ashore on the beaches of Normandy, France and saved the World.

Okay. There is a lot of overstatement there but there is more truth than not. The Battle of Normandy and its D-Day landings were the penultimate battle of the war that ushered in a prolonged era of relative peace.

Everyone should watch the second scene of Saving Private Ryan when Captain Miller’s (Tom Hanks) Ranger unit lands at Omaha Beach. That is what the soldiers faced for about four hours on Omaha. It’s hard to watch.

The men who landed, and lived, made their way up the bluff in scattered small groups silencing German machine guns, howitzers and mortars as Navy destroyers came right up the beach and knocked out the big guns. By midday, the tide was turning. By evening, the beach was in securely in American hands.

Elsewhere, the Americans on Utah were ashore and advancing inland. Same with the Canadians and British. It would be a while before the outcome of the battle was clearly evident, but it was never actually in doubt. Allied air supremacy pretty much assured victory but not the price of victory.

The day is a metaphor, a symbol for the whole endeavor of the war. The whole titanic struggle of good versus evil distilled into one day.

I could go on, and on, and on, and on about the things that happened that day and in the days after. My wife could certainly attest to that. She graciously agreed to sit through a day long symposium on D-Day with me and my sister in April. I reread three books and rewatched two movies just to get back up to speed.

My father was in the U.S. Army in World War II and served in SHAEF Headquarters as an officers’ pay clerk. I have studied World War II much of my life. I am sure that is because of his influence.

We owe so much to the bravery, foresight and determination of those men. We owe our lives and our prosperity to them.

I, for one, will be thinking of that today, June 6th, the 80th Anniversary of D-Day.

Robert Capa iconic image of D-Day