Mayor, Community Celebrate Phillips High School's Football Title
Call Tanisha Minnis a super fan of Wendell Phillips High School football team.
The 16-year-old honor roll junior missed just one game during the three years she has attended the Bronzeville neighborhood school in Chicago.
So, Minnis made sure she didn’t miss school last Wednesday.
That’s because it was the day Minnis and the school’s entire student body celebrated Phillips becoming the first Chicago public high school to win an Illinois championship in football. The rally attracted top city officials, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Ill. State Sen. Mattie Hunter (3rd Dist.), Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward) and alumni.
“This was great,” said Minnis after the hour-long bash. “It was very necessary to acknowledge the players and all our school’s accomplishments.”
Just five years ago, the school was considered a poorly performing one academically and nearly closed before it was helped by the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) – a nonprofit school management organization. It reportedly had a 66 percent dropout rate one year.
Now, it boost’s a 93 percent graduation rate – and of course a state football trophy.
Last month, it soundly defeated Belleville Althoff 51-7 in the Class 4A final at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.
“I believe today as we stand here we are now seeing history being made,” Emanuel said to a sea of students wearing blue in the school’s auditorium at 244 E. Pershing Rd. “Chicago will become a football powerhouse city because of Phillips High School.”
Dowell pointed out that the 101–year-old school was one “of firsts” for blacks. It was among the first to open its doors to blacks who migrated from the South. Its alumni includes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Nat King Cole and Sam Cooke.
“I am full of emotion,” she told the crowd.
School officials said many of the students at Phillips are hard workers and are accustomed to overcoming adversity in the poor and tough neighborhood where they live and where Phillips is located.
Several of Phillips’ football players are good students, like Donald Gardner, an honor roll senior and the team’s captain nicked named, “Don, Don.”
“This is all amazing,” said Gardner, 17, who is considering playing football for Eastern Illinois University or South Dakota State University. “What a time to be alive and make history with your brothers. I’m still getting texts from friends and family saying congratulations.”
Principal Matthew Sullivan said Gardner, a receiver and defensive corner, “is awesome.”
“He gets great grades,” Sullivan said. “He is quiet but he goes out and kicks the mess out of everyone.”
Sullivan added, “For these guys, they were so determined. They were [worked] hard in the weight room. This doesn’t surprise me.”
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