Our Newspapers.com Football History Headline of the Day comes for the July 25, 1915 edition of the Chicago Tribune when their front page headline read of a great tragedy!
919 Bodies Recovered: Total Eastland victims may reach 1200!
The gruesome headlne was telling a terrible story of how on Saturday, July 24, 1915 a ferry boat named the S.S. Eastland was preparing to take 2500 passengers, mostly employees of the Western Electric Company and their families on a short trip to the Company's summer picnic. The Eastland was owned by the St. Joseph-Chicago Steamship Company and made money ferrying people from Chicago to picnic sites on the shores of Lake Michigan. The Tribune said there was some speculation that the boat was holding more than the maximum passengers level of 2500 and it was more like 3200 people were on board but the crew swears they turned people away aftr the counter reached 2500 people on board. The disater occurred in Chicago near the Clark Street Bridge on the Chicago River when officially 844 lives were lost of the more than 2500 people onboard, when the Great Lakes transport ship capsized while still near the dock. A story on History.com says that, "about 7,300 people arrived at 6 a.m. at the dock between LaSalle and Clark streets to be carried out to the site by five steamers. While bands played, much of the crowd—perhaps even more than the 2,500 people allowed—boarded the Eastland. Some reports indicate that the crowd may also have all gathered on one side of the boat to pose for a photographer, thus creating an imbalance on the boat. In any case, engineer Joseph Erikson opened one of the ballast tanks, which holds water within the boat and stabilizes the ship, and the Eastland began tipping."
Terrible Capsizing Tragedy 25 Jul 1915, Sun The Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana) Newspapers.com
According to a story from July 24, 2019 from the ChicagoTribune.com a certain 20 year old man named George Halas was supposed to be on board but was running late and when he arrived shortly after 7:30 AM, the vessel was already capsized. Halas had a summer job with the Western Electric Company and was excited as were many of his co-workers to participate in the company picnic games that day. Though Halas saw the disasterous aftermath he was not at the site when the boat flipped on its side. Errantly Halas' name appeared in the newspaper the three days later, find the clipping below, and two of his fraternity brothers from the University of Illinois showed up at his parent's home to express their condolences per Halas' grandson, Patrick McCaskey.
George Halas among the dead? 27 Jul 1915, Tue Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois) Newspapers.com
Halas did in fact miss tragedy and go on to have some awesome accomplishments in life. In 1919 he was a New York Yankees Baseball outfielder, a year later he moved to Decatur, Illionois to work for starch manufacturer A.E. Staley Corporation and became a player/coach of the company's football squad and player on the baseball team. On September 17,1920 he represented the Decatur Staleys Football team in helping to found the American Professional Football Association which two year later became the NFL. George eventually was given control of the Staleys, moved them to Chicago and soon aftr called the the Bears and won some great NFL Championships with the franchise as a player, coach and owner. His family, under the McCaskey name still owns the Bears franchise to this day.
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Career "Launch"
July 24, 1969 - After a sucessful mission of having the first men to walk on the moon, NASA's Apollo 11 capsule returns to earth carrying astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins. Buzz Aldrin was the starting center on the Montclair High School 1946 undefeated New Jersey state champion football team.
A Rough Ride indeed
July 24, 1991 - The CFL's Ottawa Rough Riders' Board of Directors all resign due to a compilation of events that placed the franchise in deep financial trouble. The team ended up folding in 1996.
