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1. Feral monk parakeets still live in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago to this day.
2. Dr. Ian K. Bonner is a practicing psychiatrist in Chicago.
3. Ted Erikson was the first person to swim across Lake Michigan in 1961. Vicki Keith was the first woman to swim across in 1988. She was also the first person to swim across all five Great Lakes.

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Alternative Title: Henry Grantland Rice

This article was most recently revised and updated by

Rice graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1901, after which he worked as a sportswriter for the Nashville (Tennessee) Daily News and other Southern newspapers, including the Atlanta (Georgia) Journal. Between 1907 and 1911 he traveled the South umpiring and refereeing at gridiron-football and baseball games. In 1911 he was hired by the New York Evening Mail, and in 1914 he joined the New York Tribune, later the Herald Tribune. He wrote sports stories for both papers; with the Tribune and the Herald Tribune, he established a reputation as a sports authority. By one estimate, Rice wrote more than 22,000 columns and more than 67,000,000 words. His syndicated column, "The Sportlight," was the most influential of its day, and he also produced popular short motion pictures of sporting events. In 1924 Rice gave the backfield of the University of Notre Dame's football team its enduring name, the " Four Horsemen," and his annual selections of All-America football teams for Collier's magazine were considered to be authoritative. He published three books of poetry and coined the famous phrase that it was not important whether you "won or lost, but how you played the game." His autobiography, The Tumult and the Shouting, appeared in 1954.

Chelsey Parrott-Sheffer, Research Editor.

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Grantland Rice, sports columnist and author who established himself over many years as one of the United States' leading sports authorities. Rice graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1901, after which he worked as a sportswriter for the Nashville (Tennessee) Daily News and other Southern

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Johnny Weismuller giving his patented Tarzan yell. Apparently this yell, and yes it really is Weismuller, was used in every Tarzan film thereafter regardless of the actor playing Tarzan.

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Biography - The Official Licensing Website of Johnny Weissmuller

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On June 2, 1904 Janos (Johann) Peter Weissmuller was born to German parents in Freidorf, Romania, at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. He...

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Because the Eastland ran late the prior year (in 1914), the owners required it to be the first ship to depart in 1915. The picnickers, many of whom wanted to be on the first ship to depart, awoke early with excitement. "We got up at 4:30 in the morning," wrote Mrs. C.C. (Mamie) Kelly, "and left our house at 5:40 to get the 6 a.m. train so as to get to the boat and get good seats." The excitement and anticipation ended in a heartbeat on the fateful morning of the 1915 picnic.

As the crowded ship began listing back and forth from port to starboard, many thought it was a joke. But when the boat listed over so far that the people began to slide across the floor, panic began. Not only did most passengers not recognize the impending disaster, the master of the Eastland, Captain Harry Pedersen, failed to evacuate the ship. He sounded the alarm, but only after it was too late.

Passengers on the main deck panicked and rushed to the staircases leading upstairs. Sadly, the staircases proved to be the worst single death trap for those passengers within the interior decks of the ship.

George Goyette was on deck when the Eastland rolled and described the experience: "What I saw was exactly what you see when you watch a lot of children rolling down the side of a hill. The entire crowd of men, women, and children came slipping and sliding and sprawling down with a mass of lunch boxes, milk bottles, chairs - rubbish of every sort - on top of them. They came down in a floundering, screaming mass, and, as the boat turned completely over on its side, crashed into the stairs, carrying them away."

Because the Eastland capsized so suddenly, no life boats or life rafts were launched, nor were any life jackets handed out.

Once the Eastland went over, it came to rest in the muddy bottom of the Chicago River in just twenty feet of water. Its bow was a mere nineteen feet from the wharf.

844 people perished that day. Some were killed instantly after suffering a blow to the head. Many drowned, and perhaps just as many were suffocated and crushed to death by the sliding people and falling debris.

Of the passengers who perished:

228 were teenagers

58 were infants and young children

70% were under the age of 25

23 was the average age of those who died

Of the 175 women who went home as widows, three were pregnant. The tragedy sent 84 men home as widowers.

While months of planning and preparation for the excursion and picnic led up to the Eastland Disaster, the tragedy itself was, for all intents and purposes, over in a matter of minutes. The rescue, recovery and relief efforts following the tragedy, however, went on for weeks and months - and years - and decades.

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Because the Eastland ran late the prior year (in 1914), the owners required it to be the first ship to depart in 1915. The picnickers, many of whom wanted to be on the first ship to depart, awoke early with excitement. "We got up at 4:30 in the morning," wrote Mrs.

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29 new photos · Album by Westridge Theatre

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Philip Dawkins is a playwright and educator whose plays have been performed all over the world. His plays include Failure: A Love Story (Victory Gardens Theater), Le Switch (About Face Theatre, The Jungle), The Homosexuals (About Face Theater), The Burn (Steppenwolf for Young Audiences), Dr. Seuss's The Sneetches, the Musical with composer David Mallamud (Children's Theater Company, Minneapolis), The Gentleman Caller (Raven Theatre, Chicago; Abingdon Theatre, NY), Charm (Northlight Theatre; MCC), Miss Marx: Or The Involuntary Side Effect of Living (Strawdog Theatre), and his solo play, The Happiest Place on Earth (Sideshow Theatre/Greenhouse Theater Center). Philip has won some awards and not won some others. He's been a fellow at the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers in Scotland and the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, and has taught playwriting at his alma mater, Loyola University Chicago, Northwestern University, and for the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. Many of Philip's plays, including his scripts for young performers, are available through Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Inc. and Dramatic Publishing. He is currently working on Spamtown: USA for Children's Theater Company and an American English translation of Michel Tremblay's Messe Solennelle Pour Une Pleine Lune D'été for Sideshow Theatre.

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Philip Dawkins is a playwright and educator whose plays have been performed all over the world.