Other Winter Water Sports
A wide range of winter water sports drew Chicago children into the cold winter air. In the early twentieth century, immigrants from northern Europe brought winter sport traditions with them to Chicago. Other sports evolved here in response to popular trends, especially among teenagers.
The son of a U.S. Coast Guard officer stationed at Chicago ice fishes with his father. Ice fishing was a leisure activity that also might provide a fish for dinner.
See also: Leisure; Waterfront
The short regular sailing season led hardy Chicagoans to develop ice boating on area lakes. The Frost Bite league out of Belmont Harbor continues this tradition into the twenty-first century.
See also: Sailing and Boating; Waterfront
Three young men scramble for the puck in a outdoor ice hockey game, as several young ladies look on. They appear to be skating on the Midway between Washington and Jackson Parks just to the south of the University of Chicago in Hyde Park in 1923. Later in the twentieth century, indoor skating rings across the region moved ice hockey from a winter to a yearround sport.
See also: Ice Hockey; Leisure
A less popular innovation was ice tennis, played here on an unidentified indoor space in Chicago in 1918. Two young men and two young women square off in this hybrid sport.
See also: Tennis
Ice dancing seems a natural evolution for teenage couples in Chicago. These two couples pose in dance positions at the Chicago Daily News Ice Carnival in 1926.
The Encyclopedia of Chicago © 2004 The Newberry Library. All Rights Reserved. Portions are copyrighted by other institutions and individuals. Additional information on copyright and permissions.