EXTRA: A new ghost for the parking lot at 35th St. and Bill Veeck Drive?

To many people, Pat Summerall was the voice of the NFL. He and Bill Madden were the broadcasters who gave television viewers so many “big” games – including multiple versions of the Super Bowl championship.

Summerall even had a broadcast career at the highest levels of golf and tennis. Although at age 82, he died Tuesday at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

ALTHOUGH I ALWAYS got a kick out of the fact that the calm guy who balanced out Madden’s bombast had his own Chicago tie. He was a pro football player whose career included time with the Cardinals back when they were the South Side team – rather than playing in the deserts of suburban Phoenix, Ariz. (whose only Chicago tie ought to be the fact that the White Sox have spring training there every March)!

It was like a perpetual reminder when he was on the air all those years that there was once a time when football in Chicago meant more than just “da Bears” and the South/North split wasn’t just a baseball reality. In fact, that there was an NFL team in Chicago before the Decatur Staleys felt the need to move themselves to a larger market than the “Pride of the Prairie.”

Which has me wondering about that plot of land just north of U.S. Cellular Field – the one where we now park cars on the ground where so much athletic and other types of entertainment has occurred.

Is Summerall’s ghost now tearing around the field, trying to knock over Shoeless Joe Jackson’s spirit that is running down a fly ball or Nellie Fox trying to turn a double play while dodging automobiles parked over what was once Second Base? While John Lennon and George Harrison are standing off to the side, waiting for all the athletic “blokes” to clear the field so they can play their concert to all those screaming fans?!?

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What if a World War broke out on a football Sunday in today’s age?

Dec. 7 fell on a Sunday back in 1941. And 7 a.m. Honolulu time is High Noon here in the real world known as Chicago.

Which means very well that the United States got pressured to give up its isolationist rhetoric and enter the Second World War right as the Chicago Bears were getting ready to play.

IN FACT, THE story in Chicago literally was that radio broadcasts of the Bears game got pre-empted by news reports about the war and the attack by the Imperial Navy of Japan at the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. While at the stadium, a public address announcement informed all military-types in the crowd that they had to leave the game to report to their units.

Which also means that there had to be someone who got all ticked off that “the war” would knock their precious Bears out of commission, or cause them to have to leave the game.

At least people back then didn’t dress up in so much blue and orange and paint their faces all sorts of outrageous colors. Because the sight of orange-faced Bears fans getting all emotional about the coming of war would have been a scary sight.

As for those of us Chicagoans who preferred to root for the Cardinals, keep in mind that it was the same game – the Bears were on the road at Comiskey Park, where they beat the Cardinals 34-24 en route to an NFL championship just a couple of weeks later.

NOW I REALIZE the happenings of 71 years ago that many people will pay tribute to on Friday are much more significant than any ballgame.

But you just know that the initial perspective probably included a few people who just didn’t “get it.”

Which makes it all the more notable that the eventual outcome of the Second World War was a uniting of our nation behind a “war effort” that we have never seen since – and likely never will again.

How many of us would be willing to make the sacrifices in our personal lives related to rationing of so many goods that were tolerated by the civilian population back then?

HECK, IT WAS clear during the past decade when U.S. troops were in Afghanistan and Iraq that the message being given to all of us was to live our lives to the fullest as though nothing extraordinary was happening.

In the early 1940s, that might well have been considered treasonous! Now, it’s the ultimate in patriotism.

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Cardinals’ Super Bowl appearance allows Chicagoans to reminisce & speculate

The Big Red's lone undisputed championship team in Chicago.

I’m not operating under any delusion that anyone affiliated with the Arizona Cardinals these days cares one bit about Chicago, or the fact that their team is owned by a Chicago-area family or was once the pride of the South Side.

But I must admit that the geeky historian in me with a particular interest in all things Chicago has enjoyed the portion of pre-Super Bowl hype that reminded us the last time the Cardinals made it to a National Football League championship game, they were our city’s team.

IT MAKES ME wonder what this city would be like in these early years of the 21st Century if the Cardinals had never chosen to leave the city. Mayor Richard M. Daley has said publicly he thinks Chicago could still support two professional football teams (even though no one else seems to agree).

What if the whole South Side vs. those losers up North wasn’t just a baseball thing?

Back in the days when Chicago had two NFL franchises, it truly was a way of life in this city, even though the Cardinals didn’t do much to bring trophies or other glory to the South Side.

The Cardinals were never much of a football franchise on the field. Their only undisputed championship came in 1947. Those people in Pottsville, Penn., still dispute whose team won the league title in 1925, and the NFL a few years ago decided not to get involved in straightening out a decades-old mess.

IN FACT, ONE of the bigger names to ever play for the Cardinals was Pat Summerall, who is remembered by generations of sports fans more as a broadcaster than for anything he did on the now asphalt-covered turf of what was once Comiskey Park.

The current dynamic of Chicago sports is one where the baseball season manages to split our citizenry into two factions (some of whom act as though they need to be medicated), only to be reunited come autumn when we all root for/get stupid over the Chicago Bears.

I guess that makes the Bears the equivalent of the city’s sports medication.

But think of how tense things would get in Chicago if we did not have the Bears to dissipate the tension.

WHAT IF THE same Sox vs. Cubs mentality carried over into the autumn whenever the “Monsters of the Midway” took on the “Big Red,” particularly if it had nearly 90 years worth of NFL history to back it up? (On a side note, what does it say that the Bears took their "Monsters" nickname and the Cardinals took their original colors from the University of Chicago -- which no longer plays big-time football?)

Just think of how crazed Chicago would be if the 9-7 regular season record Cardinals were Super Bowl-bound, while the equally 9-7 Bears couldn’t even qualify for the playoffs?

Now I know the reality of the situation is that the Bears were more solid financially than the Cardinals, particularly back in the 1950s. George Halas used that financial advantage to squeeze the Cardinals until they felt the need to leave the city, thereby giving him the then-second-largest city to his team.

But Joe Ziemba, in his history of the team entitled, “When Football Was Football,” speculated that the NFL’s efforts beginning in the mid-1960s to create parity among the league’s teams could have enabled both teams to survive – had the Cardinals managed to hold out a few more seasons in Chicago.

IT DIDN’T HAPPEN. As we know, the Cardinals left the Second City after 1959 – losing their last six games of that season. Various members of the Bidwell family have spent the past couple of weeks saying that Chicago could not have backed two football teams – no matter what would have happened in the future.

So perhaps this is all worthless speculation. But it creates a treat for us Chicagoans to remember another championship team from our city – one whose achievement can easily get lost in the shuffle of the team to St. Louis before it finally found a glorious stadium in Glendale, Ariz. – the Phoenix suburb that in a couple of weeks will be taken over by the White Sox for spring training.

Of course, many of us contemporary Chicagoans seem to have little clue. How else to explain the fact that President Barack Obama – who likes to think of himself as a hard-core South Sider – is rooting for Pittsburgh to win later today.

But it allows an older generation to reminisce about those games they saw. On that note, I’m going to end this commentary with an e-mail message I received recently from the son of Cardinals’ receiver Billy Dewell. He reminisces better than I can.

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Dear Gregory,

I saw your article on the Cards and had to write. In the team picture, the man wearing number 41 is the team captain and All-Pro receiver, Billly Dewell, who is also my dad. He passed away nine years ago on Jan 19th, but he did have a chance to attend the Chicago Cardinals Reunion in 1997 and had an absolute blast getting together with his old buddies. All of my brothers and one of my sisters attended the reunion and the atmosphere was amazing.

Throughout my life, my four brothers and two sisters heard countless stories of the games, train trips, pre season camp and the fellowship between the players, owners, and especially the fans. Dad said the players were totally dedicated to doing their best for the fans from the south side and took great pride representing that part of the city.

Many of the stories were humorous and it seemed like the players were not only very talented athletes, but were all really great guys. Most of them were family men, many who had served during (World War II) and returned to play ball.

We often asked dad to write a book about his years with the Cards but he never got around to it. But someone else did.

Joe Ziemba, a Chicago writer and the son of a former Cardinal player heard the same stories and wrote “When Football Was Football.” It is a fantastic book that not only tells the complete story of the Cardinals, but really follows every step of the entire history of the game of football from its inception up to 1997.

Mr. Ziemba sums up 100 years of professional football with a copyrighted poem my father wrote just for the reunion, and then read to the team at their final dinner when they were presented with championship rings by the Bidwell family. Fifty Years after the game. In the old days no one got rings. You just got to say you were the CHAMPS.

I was born in a hospital in Evergreen Park, so I can call the South Side of Chicago my home.

I know dad loved the Cardinals, and he and the team played their hearts out for the fans who came out in all kinds of weather to cheer them on. If you Google “Billy Dewell,” you will find lots of info about his career in Chicago and at SMU where he was an All Conference Athlete in Football Baseball and Basketball.

True Cardinal Fans just love the team wherever they are. We have been waiting a long time for this, so let's enjoy the ride.

Tom Dewell
Billy Dewell
Nancy Dewell
Richard Dewell
Dan Dewell
David Dewell
Mary Dewell

GO CARDS.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: The Cardinals still have (http://blogs.southtownstar.com/whitesox/2009/01/lets-cheer-the-chicago-cardina.html) a few fans (http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-27-hey-missyjan27,0,663455.column) in Chicago.

In another 20 seasons, the Greater Phoenix Area will be able to claim the Cardinals for a longer time period (http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/bears/1396037,CST-SPT-chicard25.article) than they existed in Chicago.

Will they win again?

Am I the only person who finds something ironic in the Arizona Cardinals’ 32-25 victory Sunday over the Philadelphia Eagles, thereby making the Cardinals the “champions” of the National Football Conference for 2008?

When the game ended with the Cardinals taking the lead in the final minutes, team ownership was presented with the NFC trophy – named for Chicago Bears’ founder George S. Halas.

IT WAS HALAS’ hardball politics within the NFL back in the 1950s (meant to benefit the Bears financially) that put the old Chicago Cardinals at such a business disadvantage that caused the Bidwell family to decide in 1960 that St. Louis (and later Phoenix) were more attractive home bases than the South Side of Chicago – where they won the lone championship in team history (1947), although they came close to repeating the following year.

What thoughts (if any) went through the Bidwell brains as they accepted the Halas Trophy? Or has the passage of time erased any unpleasant memories?

So now, the Cardinals prepare to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl, even though their 9-7 regular season record on paper makes them look identical to the 9-7 win/loss record (but no playoff appearance) compiled by the Bears during ’08.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: A bit of sports trivia, the Cardinals achieved their last victory as a (http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nfl/azchi/cardschi.html) Chicago-based football team on Nov. 1, 1959 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Of course, they still had six more games after that (http://www.sportslogos.net/team.php?id=183), all of which they lost.

A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): Cardinals’ win reminiscent of ‘47 champs

I can’t help but notice the rhetorical hype used in sports stories all weekend reporting the fact that that Arizona Cardinals football team managed Saturday to win their first home field “playoff” game since 1947.

What it really means is that the Cardinals have been so awful during their time in the greater Phoenix area that this is their first playoff victory at home ever. For that 1947 game constantly referred to wasn’t really a playoff game.

IT WAS A National Football League championship game when the Cardinals franchise (one of the oldest in the NFL) won its only league title ever. And those were back in the days when the White Sox weren’t the only team that “marketed” itself as representing Chicago’s South Side.

It was Dec. 28, 1947, when the Chicago Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles 28-21, with Cardinals players wearing tennis shoes to help them cope with the frozen and tattered turf of Comiskey Park – the same site that now provides parking for White Sox fans attending games at U.S. Cellular Field.

All four Cardinals touchdowns came on long runs of 44, 70, 70 and 75 yards.

I wonder at times if people remember that Chicago used to be a two-team town in the NFL, or if they think it is the natural order of things for us to get “stupid” for the Bears. The Cardinals were one of the league’s original teams and were in Chicago for four decades.

OF COURSE, DURING that time span, they only won that one championship in 1947. They’re the football equivalent of the St. Louis Browns, the major league baseball team whose only league title came in 1944 during the Second World War. Only the Cardinals never employed the equivalent of a dwarf or a one-armed outfielder, like the Browns did.

Compared to the nine championships the Chicago Bears took during those same years, it was no wonder that the Cardinals suffered from attendance deficits that caused their owners to eventually look to other cities – St. Louis, then the Phoenix area.

Not that the old owners ever gave up the team. The Bidwell family that continues to own Sportsmans’ Park ran the team back in that championship year of ’47, and still has the football team to this day, where it plays in a new stadium in Glendale, Ariz., the same city where the White Sox plan to shift their spring training operations for future years.

What else was noteworthy about the news in recent days?

WHO’S PLAYING WHAT GAME WITH RACE?: Is the U.S. Senate really in the hands of a man who thinks black people are unelectable? That is the impression the Chicago Sun-Times tried to create with its Sunday paper editions illustrated with a doctored photograph of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., holding up a list of names, with those of black people crossed out.

Or is Gov. Rod Blagojevich giving reporter-types an overly selective interpretation of the conversations the two men had last week about what (if anything) Blagojevich should do to try to fill the Senate vacancy created by Barack Obama’s rise to president.

The odd part is that I have no problem believing both interpretations, even though Reid used a "Meet the Press" appearance Sunday to backpedal from such statements. It certainly wouldn’t be out of character for Blagojevich to twist the conversation the two had by telephone into a tall tale meant to make him appear sympathetic. Ever since the criminal complaint issued nearly a month ago, Rod needs all the “love” he can find.

Yet the fact that some would automatically look at a list of Illinois political people and presume the Anglos on the list are more appealing to the state’s electorate is not out of character. It is evidence that we as a society are not yet at the point where race ceases to be a factor – despite those who want to believe the election of Obama is the end of the civil rights battle.

REPLACING THE REPLACEMENT SYSTEM: Rep.-elect Debbie D. Halvorson, D-Ill., is leaving the Illinois Senate, and the local party bigwigs in the south suburbs down to Kankakee will gather Monday to pick her legislative replacement.

Among those in the running for the post in Springfield are Halvorson’s former chief of staff and a member of the Will County board. This replacement is about as close as we will come to filling any political vacancies these days.

We’re still waiting for dates to be scheduled for special elections to pick a replacement for Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., who became President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff. Then, there’s always the need for a replacement for Obama himself in the U.S. Senate. According to Illinois law, the governor addresses those issues.

But Rod Blagojevich still has people worked up with his attempt to replace Obama, and I don’t know how would-be Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., will actually be received in Washington when he shows up this week. The only thing I know for sure is that the public will have another outcry of disgust if Blagojevich proceeds with his duties to schedule election dates. So we’re going to have quite a few vacancies in this state for some time.

“SOUTH SIDE” CELEBRATION FOR D.C. EVENT: The banquet hall that has been the site of many wedding receptions and other public events will be the site for celebration for those who want to bask in the glow of Barack Obama becoming president, yet are too cheap to travel to Washington for the inauguration.

Coordinators of the Jan. 20 evening event at the Alsip-based Condesa del Mar say they expect about 1,000 people to show up for their Chicago-area Inauguration Night party.

Don’t expect to be able to just wander in off the street. Tickets are being sold, with the cheapest “seats” going for $90. And for that price, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to see anything on the video screens being erected that are meant to give people a sense of what is happening in Washington while they’re partying (http://www.obamachicagoball.com/) in suburban Chicago.

And yes, there will be vendors peddling all the Obama-related merchandise one could want – for a fee.

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