September 18, 2012

Football at Soldier Field

I spoke too quickly last year when I asserted that I'd never been to a football game before 2011. My Dad took us to a football game at Soldier Field on November 2, 1963. At first, I didn't know what prompted him to get tickets for the game. Dad was not a sports fan, and to him, "football" meant "soccer." The photos initially suggested that one of the teams was the Army one from West Point. Was this an Army versus Navy match? No. Wikipedia reports that an Army-Navy game took place at Soldier Field in 1926, not 1963.

Ah! Then I saw why we went to this game. President Kennedy was scheduled to attend, and it was an Air Force versus Army match. The Secret Service abruptly canceled the trip, however, after it uncovered an assassination plot.

Dad already had taken us to see JFK earlier that year. Dad was not a Democrat, but he recognized the importance—especially for a child—of seeing the President in person.


Soldier Field, Chicago, November 2, 1963. A big crowd attends the game. Perhaps many still were not aware that President Kennedy was not in the audience.

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Soldier Field, Chicago, November 2, 1963. Here's the photo of the Army cadets that prompted me to start digging into the history of this game.

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Soldier Field, Chicago, November 2, 1963. What's going on here?!

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Soldier Field, Chicago, November 2, 1963. It's the best part of any football game: halftime.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I am wondering where you found these images? What are the sources? Are any of them public domain or open to fair-use publication?

Irene said...

My Dad took these photos at the game. They are not public-domain images.

Unknown said...

I was at this game, was a Junior in HS. My father, who was commander at O'Hare at the time, took me. I still have the tickets and a newspaper clipping.