Joe Ziemba

Cadets, Cannons and Legends Joe Ziemba

Digging deep into the intriguing past of football, Cadets, Cannons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy takes the reader back to a time when game travel was via train and horse-drawn carts and reporters from the major Chicago newspapers eagerly covered this violent, new sport. With professional football nowhere in sight, high school and college gridiron exploits captured the interest of local readers in the early part of the 20th century. With rare vintage photos, exhaustive research, and numerous personal interviews, author Joe Ziemba details the fascinating history of the Academy football program from its beginnings in 1893 through its final season as Morgan Park Military Academy in 1958. Brutal line play, travel challenges, wacky rivalries, and wildly supportive fan bases are all vividly captured in this glimpse into football's often inglorious past.

Although it has been decades since tiny Morgan Park Military Academy last fielded a football team, the influence of its gridiron program cannot be disregarded. This remarkable school on Chicago's south side completed twelve undefeated seasons, sent four representatives to the College Football Hall of Fame, and often experienced difficulty scheduling games due to the powerful teams it sent out on the field. Yet, it rarely enrolled more than 200 students in its high school curriculum!

Cadets, Cannons, and Legends provides new insight into the early days of high school football and recognizes the forgotten pioneers of what is now America's favorite spectator sport. This fascinating book is not merely a journey into the gridiron history of Morgan Park Military Academy, but rather, it ushers us down to a front row seat where we can closely observe the roots of football itself.