Chicago Public League Sports Blog

A Move in the Right Direction

CPS Board Approves Closing/Turnaround of 17 poorly performing CPS Schools

The CPS board approved the three year phase out of Crane Tech and Dyett High School. They also approved replacing staff and investing in new programs at Chicago Vocational Career Academy (CVS), Tilden High School, and 9 underperforming CPS elementary schools.

The Chicago Teachers Unions and Jesse Jackson all have publicly denouced these decisions. Jackson went went ahead called this decision "Education Apartheid". The reason why the Unions hate this is because everytime a school closes there are likley going to be less union workers and less union workers mean less union dues that they are collecting. Less unions dues means less money in the union bank accounts.

The bottom line is the Crane Tech, Dyett, and to a lesser extent CVS and Tilden are not performing. Jesse Jackson will never send his kids to Dyett or Crane.

While I hate to see the closing of schools especially one of the sports tradition of a Crane Tech, something had to be done.

The CPS has done some bad things in the past and some good things in the past. This, in my opinion is a step in the right direction. We can't keep propping up the poor performers. Like in life, the poor performers get punished and the good performers need to be rewarded. The CPS is sending a clear message: "we will no longer tolerate poor performance." To me that is a great step toward really making positive improvement in the attitude and ultimately the fate of the CPS.

Running Back Rashavold Daniels of Tilden

Look out for Rashavold Daniels(6-0, 198lbs, sr) of Tilden. At 6-0, 198lbs, he's bigger and taller than Brian Carter of Kelvyn Park. Fast too. Ran a 4.78 40 and 29.5 vertical at a football combine. D2-D3 type prospect. Could do Brian Carter like damage at Inter-City conference. No one knows about him because Tilden did not play football last year.

Tilden opens against Rock Island. Then they open Inter-City 2 conference play against Kennedy in week 2. North Lawndale is the pre-season conference favorite in the Inter-City 2.

A look at Tilden

Tilden Career Academy located at 4747 S. Union Avenue is one of the oldest high schools in Chicago with origins going back to 1881. (Flickr photo)

Why am I writing about Tilden - one of the most obscure and very little known high schools in the CPS? Well, I was at the Home Depot on 4900 S. Western Avenue the other day. On the way there, I passed McKinley Park and other parts of Chicago that I have never seen. So, me being curious I asked some folks at Home Depot what the local high school was. One guy told me it was Tilden High School. I said to myself "Tilden High School?...I've written about high school sports in Chicago for 5 years and I don't think once I have ever read, seen, or heard anything about Tilden."

So after some quick research I found out a few interesting things about Tilden.Because of combination of size (enrollment  644) and location (tucked away in the Canaryville neighborhood of Chicago) it does not get much attention.

Yet it has a storied history. It is one of the oldest high schools in Chicago with roots going back to 1881. Its most famous sports alumni is Johnny "Red" Kerr former coach and commentator of the Chicago Bulls, and Bob Ryland the first African American professional tennis player.

Tilden also has also won 3 Public League basketball titles, 13 city wrestling titles (as recently as 1985), finished 3rd in state in swimming once, and won state in track and wrestling twice.  In other words, at one time Tilden was a city and state wrestling power.

But what about recently?  I'm sad to report that Tilden did not even have a football team last year. This year, they (the Blue Devils) are back. They will play in the the Inter-City 2 conference with Chicago MIlitary Academy Bronzeville, Corliss, Hirsch, Kennedy, North Lawndale, Tilden, and Washington.