Englewood Technical Prep Academy


Englewood Technical Prep Academy High School or sometimes referred to as simply Englewood High School, was a public four-year high school located in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, United States. It was a part of the Chicago Public Schools system.
The school graduated its last class of 151 students in June 2008. Englewood was closed as an action in the CPS Renaissance 2010 program.

Athletics

Englewood competed in the Chicago Public League and was a member of the Illinois High School Association. Their team name were the Eagle's. The boys' track team were state champions four times ; and were Public League champions in 1976. The boys' cross country team were Public League champions. The boys' football team were Public League champions six times. The boys' basketball team were Public League champions two times and Regional champions in 2007–08.

Art Folz and the 1925 Chicago Cardinals

Prior to the 1933 season, the National Football League team with the best record in the standings at the end of the season, was named the season's NFL Champions. In 1925, with the Chicago Cardinals trailing the Pottsville Maroons a half game lead in the standings, two extra games were scheduled by the Cardinals against the inferior Milwaukee Badgers and Hammond Pros, both of which were NFL members at the time, to close the standings gap. Art Folz, an Englewood High School graduate and a substitute quarterback for the Cardinals, convinced four players from Englewood High School to join the Milwaukee Badgers for the game under assumed names, thereby ensuring that the Cardinals' opponent was not a pro caliber club. The Cardinals later defeated Milwaukee 59–0. NFL President Joseph Carr later learned that high school players had been used and told reporters the 59-0 Cardinals win would be stricken from the record. However, the league had never got around to removing it. The game is still a part of the NFL records. The Cardinals' owner, Chris O'Brien, was also fined $1,000 by Carr for allowing his team play a game against high schoolers, even though he claimed that he was unaware of the players' status. Badgers' owner Ambrose McGuirk was ordered to sell his Milwaukee franchise within 90 days. Art Folz was then barred from football for life.
However prior to the 1926 season, Folz's lifetime ban was lifted, however he chose not to return to pro football. The $1,000 fine against O'Brien was rescinded. McGuirk though had already sold his Badgers franchise to Johnny Bryan, a fullback with the Chicago Bears. The Englewood players were also forgiven, and two of them, William Thompson and Charles Richardson, earned high school all-star recognition at the end of the season. Folz reportedly told the high schoolers that the game was a "practice game" and would in no part affect their amateur status.

School song

;"Our Furlong"
All voices raise in songs of praise for Furlong

Our flags unfold and banners hold for Furlong

For many friends throughout the land

With joyful hearts all willing stand

To shout her praise for dear old Furlong.

O Furlong, our Furlong,

How many times before

You've taught us how to faithful be

You're turned defeat into victory

O Furlong, our Furlong,

We'll stand by you today

Hurrah for the Purple and White

Hurrah for the Purple and White.

Then here's a cheer for schoolmates, dear hurrah, hurrah,

And here's a hand for teachers, grand hurrah, hurrah,

Our loyalty we pledge to thee

We'll work for what we hope to be

All honor then to dear old Furlong.

Oh, tell me of a high school

Where I should like to go

Where jolly pupils gather

And seek life's work to know.

Oh, tell me is there sunshine

In class and hall and heart

For I should like to join that school

And try to do my part.

Violence and school rivalries

In 2002, 18-year-old Englewood senior Maurice Davis was shot to death at a bus stop located in front of the school. He was the seventh student killed in or near a public school in Chicago. Before closing, this school was a participant in one of the oldest rivalries in the United States against Hyde Park Career Academy.

Closing and building uses

The school board decided in 2005 that, due to its poor performance, Englewood would be phased out over a three-year period to allow the freshmen who had entered to be the final class to graduate. Many reasons were behind the closing of this school. It was one of the worst performing public schools in the US for the end of 2008. There are two new schools currently using the same building: Urban Prep Academy, a public charter high school for young men ; and TEAM Englewood, a public coed charter school that opened in 2007. Team Englewood still uses the Englewood High School team name "The Eagles".

Notable alumni