| ATHLETICS
It is probable that inter-scholastic sports were offered at Cooley High School. It is probable the boys competed in baseball, basketball, and track, probably many other sports as well. The girls may well have competed in volleyball, basketball, and track and many other sports too. If you have ANY information you can share regarding Cooley High School please contact us via the means listed below.
MEMORIES
**From Donald Walsh:
“I was a teacher at Cooley High from 1968 until it closed in June of 1979.
I believe that the school was closed simply because the building was old, inefficient, too big with a large portion of the building unused. There was also an upper grade center housed in the facility which closed several years before the high school closed.
Prior to 1960, the building housed the Washburn Trade School. Prior to 1934? it was Lane Tech High.
From 1968 to 1976 the only inter-scholastic sport offered was boys basketball, frosh-soph and varsity. The coaches were Michael Levy and Jimmy Johnson respectively. I believe Mr. Levy is still working for the Board of Education. Mr. Johnson is deceased. In 1976, I believe, inter-scholastic baseball was initiated. Mr. Levy was the coach.
I don’t recall any inter-scholastic sports for the girls. The girls gym teacher was Penny Padley. She is retired.”
**From Jan Prymus (Class of 1964):
“I happened upon your Cooley website; greatly enjoyed reading about my alma mater!
I attended Cooley from 1960-64, and graduated in June, 1964. The school building was constructed in 1912 for Lane Technical High School; when they moved in 1934 to their new location at Western and Addison, their former building became Washburne Trade School, who moved to 14th and Union. In September of 1958 when Washburne Trade School moved to the new location on 31st Street, the former Washburne Vocational High School was renamed Edwin G. Cooley High School. Joseph J. Partle was the principal.
There were actually three seperate schools; the trade school, the continuation school, and the vocational high school – all under one roof. I still have the student handbook, 45 pages of information, including school songs, floor plans, teacher names, and much more. My electric shop, in which I majored, was in room 222, facing Division and Orleans, also the electric teacher was Raymond T. Bernke.
Now retired, I still look back fondly on my Cooley days – I would enjoy sharing informaiton with you and others interested. Is there an organized group of former Cooley students/teachers? Are reunions held?”
**From Martin Ficzko:
“I attended Cooley High for three years and have some very fond memories, especially of the print and machine shop. At the time I went the “EL” ran directly in back of the school and the Oscar Myair wienner factory. I also rememeber the basketball team.”
**From Gary Stern (Class of 1969):
“I attended Cooley High & Cooley upper grade Center 1225 Sedgwik from 1963-1964 (upper grade center) 1965-1969 high school. In those periods
the only sport was Basketball. I played on the 1966 freshman – sophomore team under Michael Levy. Mr. Johnson was head of Athletics . The last reunion was some years ago with all years attending. They tried about three years but failed lack of response .Those were good days. I took electric shop also. Graduated class of 1969.”
**From Margaret Smith:
“My Dad, Francis Miller, taught @ Cooley from 1962 to 1968, as a drafting instructor. We still have a gavel that was made for him by his students as he used to use a 2×4 to the desk to call class to order. My Dad often looked back with fondness for Cooley. He had returned to college to obtain his degree in after a back injury that ended his career in masonry. Our family would meet him @ Cooley once a month in the evening as he taught adult education classes in the evening after working a full day. We would have dinner the the Oscar Meyer Cafeteria, which was a treat in the 1960’s. I also remember the fashion shows that were held by the fashion technology & cosmetology programs–they were awesome! He went on to help develop the Building Technology Program @ Thornton Community College, Harvey, IL now South Suburban College, South Holland, passed away 3/2000.”
**From Sylvester Island, Jr.:
“I am a big fan of Cooley High. The movie and the school. I didn’t go there but a family friend did. His name was Larry Beusell. Unfortunately, he was killed in Detroit back in the mid 90’s.
I just read your wonderful article on Cooley High and I read that you were interested in receiving some resent pictures of the school and wondered if you were still interested. I don’t know about “recent,” but, I have two pictures that I took myself, back in 1977 (photos posted at top of page)!! I thought I had more time to go back later and take more, but they had torn it down before I had the chance. I hope these are somewhat close to what you were looking for. I am glad that I had the privilege to get these shots. As you can see, they were taken in winter. I’ve cherished these photos all these years and I am happy to share them with you. Looking forward to seeing them on your site. I only wish I had taken more.”
FAMOUS ALUM
*Jerry Butler – Famed Rythym & Blues singer and song writer Jerry Butler is said to have graduated from Cooley High School. Read more about a Jerry’s accomplishments at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Butler_(singer) .
To Share Information Regarding Cooley High School
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How do find info on Copley year books .?
I attended Cooley UGC from Sep/69 through Jun/71. Going to Cooley was a great experience as we felt we were grown-up as we switched classrooms to attend our various classes – Math, English, Science, Social Studies, Music, Art, Gym and – Lunch. Prior to school, the best basketball guys participated in intramural basketball as members of the Cougars or Tigers. This was from about 7:15 am – 8:45 am on a daily basis.
The Boys Gym Teacher, Mr. Washington, did this on his own time. He got donations primarily from Oscar Mayer to supply the uniforms and funding for trophies. The time was broken down like this. From 7:15 – 7:30 was free time, 7:30 – 8:15 was training where we were taught zone offense and defense, ran, practiced cone dribbling, fast breaks, From 8:15 – 8:40 we either scrimmaged or had a game timed with two 10 minute halves. There were also “Home Room” teams composed of guys representing their home room. You could not double-dip, you either were a Cougar, Tiger or on the home room team. At the end of the sports year which coincided with March there was a round-robin tournament. Usually, the Tigers or Cougars was the champion as these teams bested the home room teams. The finale was for the intramural champion to either play the Cooley High Frosh-Soph team or faculty from the Cooley UGC. I never recall the intramural team beating the Frosh-Soph, but they would always give the teachers a good whooping. The main scorer for the teachers during my time there was Mr. Oates who was a Cooley UGC counselor, but had played college level basketball. He later taught at Waller (Lincoln Park) and was the Boys Basketball Varsity coach for many years.
I lived for lunch time as we had lunch cards that were distributed at the beginning of each month. There were two lunch serving lines, one side served 2 grilled cheese or 1 cheeseburger sandwich; the other side served an entree that was either chili-mac, spaghetti and meatballs or a gumbo. The beverage of choice was either white or chocolate milk. The lines were long as our UGC had only two lunch periods. Lunch was 30 minutes long and we made the best use of this social time. Grilled cheese is still my favorite sandwich.
My favorite class was Art. The long-time instructor was Mr. Grudnicki. He taught us basics such as: primary colors, how to extrapolate to create other colors; shading, paper mache art basics, clay modeling, Plaster of Paris mold use and allowed every student to produce a showcase project. My 7th grade project was – next… However, my 8th grade project was a poster-sized tempera painted snow resort scene that depicted people riding the ski lift, skiing down the slope, view into a cabin and even someone who had tumbled into the snow. My picture was bought by an anonymous buyer during the spring 71 showcase for $25 dollars. I was able to take some pictures of my painting but the camera roll somehow got exposed and the pictures were lost.
Leaving Cooley UGC was not fun. At UGC, I met new friends from the neighboring Byrd, and Schiller schools. The time passed so quickly and now most of us were going to different schools – Cooley, Waller or Wells. I took a test and was accepted at Lane Tech which had moved, but originally was Cooley High! Good memories and good times with good teachers and fellow classmates..