Cadets and cannons
Frankfort’s Ziemba brings Morgan Park Military Academy’s forgotten history back to life
Football historian Joe Ziemba has a challenge for area fans.
The Frankfort resident wonders if anyone can name a high school football program boasting a resume of 400 wins and 12 unbeaten seasons, once coached by Amos Alonzo Stagg, with four members inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
It would be easy to guess monster programs such as Mount Carmel or Joliet Catholic, but the correct answer is Morgan Park Academy.
Wait, what?
Morgan Park Academy on 111th Street in the Morgan Park neighborhood? The one that hasn’t fielded a football team since 1978?
That’s the one.
Known at that time as Morgan Park Military Academy, the school has one of the richest histories few people knowabout, thanks in part to a huge run from 1893 through 1958, when the program produced 305 of its 400 victories and nine of those 12 unbeaten seasons.
“This is a program,” Ziemba said, “whose stories are long forgotten.”
Ziemba, 70, wants to educate people on those stories and teams. He grew up living on campus as his father, also named Joe, was a football coach at the school and a larger-than-life figure.
Legend has it the elder Ziemba once took his troops to a bowling alley for relaxation. The coach threw a ball so hard it struck a pin boy, who had to be taken out on a stretcher.
In recent years, Ziemba was so fascinated by Morgan Park Military Academy’s football past that he researched the team. He wrote a book, “Cadets, Cannons and Legends,” which was published in 2018.
The subject matter also has surfaced in a different medium, being dissected by Ziemba on a podcast released earlier in December for the Michigan-based SportsHistoryNetwork.com.
The team carved out quite a niche by playing bigger schools such as Sandburg, Lincoln-Way, Joliet Catholic and Loyola.
But what impressed Ziemba the most? The four College Hall of Fame selections — Stagg, Wallace Wade, Jesse Harper and Albert Benbrook— who had ties to the school.
“The College Football Hall of Fame said they didn’t have the exact statistics, but they thought it may have been the most players from one high school,” he said. “That’s pretty impressive, especially with a school of barely 300 students.”
The team has no state championships to brag about because the Illinois High School Association did not sponsor the state playoffs until 1974, but Morgan Park Military Academy had some powerhouse seasons.
In 1896, the team went 10-0 and allowed only 18 points all season while never scoring more than 24 points in a game.
In 1901, coach Rueben Strong had a strong 11-0-1 team that outscored opponents 300-16. From 1905 to 1908, the team had a 24-game winning streak, including victories over college teams.
Relating to his new association with the Sports History Network, Ziemba now has a forum to relive stories from the past. He has also written a book, “When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL,” and has given
speeches about the early days of the Bears.
Sports History Network founder Arnie Chapman interviewed Ziemba about the Cardinals in another venture and invited him to be on the roster for this new network, which debuted in April.
“Joe was the first person I interviewed who I had a good pregame conversation with,” Chapman said. “He was so welcoming, and he was such a genuine dude.
“When I interviewed him, it was that episode that made me say, ‘I'm onto something here.' I was so comfortable. He was so prepared and a great storyteller.”