Football at Farragut High School, Chicago, IL Between 1954 and 1964: A Scrapbook Lovingly Designed by Coach Jakus’ wife :-)

AND NOW, for something way-way, … Beyond the Classroom Aquarium, and almost as much fun…

Please click on the colorful & enlarged text below to be taken to a page that will let you download a pdf version of the 130 slides in the FHS Football Scrapbook:

FHS FootBall ScrapBook 1954 1964 D

nThe most recently updated PDF ‘FHS Football Scrapbook 1954-1964 D’ link (as of 7/17/2021 is accessed above). It contains 130 slides.

I recently updated some dusty scrapbook pages that my mother compiled (about my dad, Mindo Jakus). This Farragut HS scrapbook presents a lot of information about the Chicago public high school football program, (by reviewing the many exciting details of Farragut’s program) for years from 1954 through 1964 (the years of my father’s tenure as coach there). Information from the the 1965 season is also presented to underscore the kind of athletic program he was instrumental in creating; and to celebrate another amazing class of athletes who participted in the FHS footbal program.

Another scrapbook update is in the near future because I was recently contacted by Dennis Harris who played the position of right guard on the history making 1956/57 Farragut Admirals football squads. Among other things Dennis wrote: “I was 5’5/135 lbs. I have no idea what your father saw in me. It made me want to prove something. My number in 56’ was 94. In 57’ it was 34.” Thank you Dennis for reaching out.

Dennis sent me a few photos to share and many words to describe how much of an impact coach Jakus had upon young Dennis’ life and career!

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

As young kids (not even close to high school age), my brother and I got to experience much of this up close; attending many games, travelling on the (often ROCKIN’) team bus – filled with boisterous high school athletes – to & from games, visiting the locker room before, during (half-time) and after games, sitting “on the bench” with the team during the game if not getting a hot dog or peanuts at the concession stand, etc. To me, and I believe to many others who experienced it personally – these formative high school years were times of excitement, hope, dignity and integrity – much less about winning than about, fun, fairness, playfullness, teamwork, cooperation, sharing responsibility, communication and finally – of course – victory. I know these experiences deeply impacted my own world view for the rest of my life.

Although this is a posthumous tribute for both parents I am glad to have finally been able to share my mom’s (a 1940’s school teacher image of her appears on slide 130) FHS scrapbook with the worldwide FHS community (past, present & future) for Father’s Day 2020. To me this this experience is kind of jolting when I try to imagine all the energy and hope this slide show captures and shares.

The 130 slide Powerpoint presentation from which this pdf file was saved is about 350MB in size. I compressed the file. Now, you can view all 129 slides in the compressed version by downloading an 18.3 MB PDF file from this WordPress account.

By the way, there seem to be older 128 and 129 slide version of this powerpoint in circulation. It seems my efforts to delete earlier released versions are not entirely successful. As I learn more about posting files online, I will work on making the updated version open automatically in another window – so you would be able to view it without downloading it –  if/when I figure this out – if it is possible, etc.