Chicago Athletic Association facts for kids
The Chicago Athletic Association was a sports club in Chicago, Illinois. In 1892, this club started its own American football team. This team was made up of experienced players from another Chicago team called the University Club football team.
History of the Team
Before the Chicago Athletic Association (CAA) team, the best football team in Chicago was the University Club. Big universities like Illinois and Northwestern were not very strong in football yet. Also, the University of Chicago's team, led by Amos Alonzo Stagg, had not started until 1892.
So, the people of Chicago needed a strong team to play in the yearly Thanksgiving Day games. From 1888 to 1891, the University Club team played against teams like Michigan or Cornell. This team was made up of recent college graduates. Their families were from Chicago, but they had played football at colleges on the East Coast.
In 1892, the Chicago A. A. football team took over from the University Club team. They started playing a full season against both university and other club teams. Many players from the 1891 University Club team joined the CAA team. They also added a famous player, Pudge Heffelfinger, who was a halfback star from Yale. The 1893 team also had Heffelfinger, another Yale player named Laurie Bliss, and five players from the old University Club team.
First Night Game
In 1893, at the Chicago's World Fair, the Chicago A. A. team played one of the first night football games ever. They played against the West Point team. Chicago won the game 14–0. This game was shorter than usual, lasting only 40 minutes instead of 90.
The outside of the Chicago Athletic Association building, built in 1893, looks like the famous Doge's Palace in Venice, Italy.
Famous Players
Many talented players joined the Chicago Athletic Association team. In 1894, Jesse Van Doozer left Northwestern University to play for the team. Alvin Culver, who graduated that same year, also joined.
Knowlton Ames, who was an All-American player from Princeton, played for the team in 1892. Sport Donnelly also played with the Chicago Athletic Association in 1892. In one game against the New York Cresants, the Cresants team did not want to play if Donnelly was on the field. They said he had played too roughly the year before. Chicago decided to keep Donnelly out of the game. Because he was not playing, the game ended in a tie.
Donnelly became very upset and refused to join the team again in Chicago. Pudge Heffelfinger, who was also playing for Chicago, left the team with Donnelly. After this, Donnelly and Heffelfinger became professional players for another team called the Allegheny Athletic Association. However, by 1896, Sport Donnelly returned to Chicago, but this time as a coach for the team.
