Oak Park and River Forest High School
Oak Park and River Forest High School is located in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb directly west of Chicago, Illinois. In the middle of the 20th century it was considered one of the top three public high schools in the United States, along with the Bronx High School of Science and Shaker Heights High School. It serves Oak Park and the neighboring suburb directly to the west of River Forest, Illinois.
Sports[edit]
Oak Park High was known to those followiing sports in the 1910's. Oak Park High was on the map as the famed football coach Bob Zuppke brought national championships to Oak Park High in football. He was actually hired in 1910 as the director of athletics/head coach at Oak Park High, where his duties included overseeing football, track, baseball, soccer, basketball, and swimming.
During his three-year tenure, "Zup" put Oak Park on the map as one of the greatest incubators of college athletes. His football teams won three straight championships and outscored their opponents 1,038 to 47. In his final year at the high school, his teams won championships in football, both so-called major and lightweight, soccer, swimming, and track. He then went on to become head coach at the University of Illinois.
Oak Park High, possessing the first indoor track in high schools in northeastern Illinois, was the home of the Oak Park Relays, a glamorous sporting event.
In the 1950's to 1970's era the head track coach was Bob Wright, who was a Big Ten champ in the hurdles at Ohio State University. The distance coach, as well as the coach for cross-country in the 1960's and 1970's was Roy Gummerson, after whom the Gummerson Invitational cross-country meet is held each year in Illinois.
Gummerson was a charter member of the Illinois Track and Cross-Country Coaches Association (ITCCCA) Hall of Fame in 1977. Jerry Slack, who succeeded Bob Wright as head coach, was elected in 1979, and Wright was elected in 1982, as a coach at the University of Illinois. Others have been also elected.[1]
The 1961 cross-country team, coached by Roy Gummerson, was the first to qualify for the state meet. Led by All-State runner Charles "Chick" Maltese, they finished 13th. The class of 1961 also had El Nilsen win the state meet in pole value and swimmer Drew Paterson win the state meet in a swimming event.
Oak Park High was an original member of the Suburban League Conference.
Academics[edit]
Oak Park High's stellar academic record resulted from the foresight of numerous administrators. Louis Fritzemeier would regularly scout teachers at other high schools and midwest colleges and would offer positions to the best.
Attesting to the excellence of its faculty, numerous have written popular textbooks. These include the world history text, The Record of Mankind by A. Wesley Roehm and Morris Buske and a calculus textbook by Lona Lee Lendsey, who also co-authored several algebra and trigonometry texts including Intermediate Algebra.
Drug abuse[edit]
As in all high schools in 21st century America, drug abuse is rampant among Oak Park High's students. A recent finding by the Chicago Tribune discovered that Oak Park High is the center of drug distribution in the Chicago western suburbs. In 2021 a black student from Oak Park High was found murdered in the Lawndale district, an all-black high crime area of Chicago. What he was doing in Lawndale has not been disclosed, but likely he was there loaded with cash to meet a distributor. "On July 7, McGee was found unresponsive in the street, with multiple gunshot wounds, in Chicago’s North Lawndale community."[2] “I have been teaching for going on 13 years & [sic] Dorian McGee is now the 13th student I have personally known to be taken by gun violence,” wrote an Oak Park high teacher.
Comments included, "Those who knew Dorian McGee knew he was caring and generous. [He] . . . had a big heart, an 'old soul' and a warm, endearing smile." No mention of his being a drug-dealer was made.
References[edit]
