Friday Flashback: Old-School Olympic Observation

Photo via Chicago2016Supporters

Ah, 1994. I was a sophomore in high school, doing my best to cultivate a bitchin’ head of long hair to as better ‘bang to the new Divine Intervention album from Slayer. Heidi Fleiss was in the news (for the first time). Waterworld was already getting bad press for its high cost. Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold still made the gossip column. Trade rumors for Scottie Pippen were a-flyin’. All was right with the world. Olympically, we were all still high on the ’92 Dream Team and they were still kicking ass in the World Championship of Basketball in Toronto that summer. But one story in the Sun-Times by Steve Tucker from way back then got our attention - featuring a prescient lede:

How does Chicago hosting an Olympics or Pan-American Games sound? When Mayor Daley opened the World Cup this summer, he expressed a desire to see Chicago host major sporting events.

The story went on to discuss the construction of an Olympic-sized swimming facility at in Evanston as well as what would be needed for a pool that could host the Games.

"In the swimming community, an aquatic center is sorely needed to attract national-caliber meets to the Chicago area," St. Patrick [High School] coach Rich Norman said. "There has been some discussion. The sport of swimming and diving is important here. Illinois ranks fourth nationally in registration for U.S. Swimming."

Right now, there's plenty of skepticism about the 2016 Olympcis. But before the '94 World Cup - which held its opening ceremony here at Soldier Field - there was an equal amount of skepticism being bantered about.

Stories circulated of homeless people being removed and hidden, and about money from Bears fans being used to work on Soldier Field's grounds before the Cup. Stories of the best tickets going to the most connected people made the rounds, gossip about criminal charges and accusations against police being held off until after the games because of security concerns was heard, and from Richard Roeper, the worry that the bars at Division and State would be filled with pickpockets and con artists and shoeshiners. He went on to call for mounted police at the intersection, just to be on the safe side. Wouldn’t want any foreign interlopers to get in the way of a Viagra Triangle / Roeper bar crawl, after all.