Is your high school in Illinois closed and now just a memory?

Rather than letting their stories get buried deep in unflipped pages of history, for the past 20 years a team of Illinois historians has helped keep these schools fresh in the minds of those in their communities, and all across the state. We have Dave Nanninga to thank for that.

We have Illinois High School Glory Days: a website that is observing 20 years this February that’s all about preserving the schools, buildings, memories, accomplishments, and people involved with schools that are no longer active.

Nanninga founded Illinois High School Glory Days in 2005, bringing a love and fascination for his western Bureau County hometown of Mineral (read all about the school’s history at the link) – and particularly its school, long since razed – into an idea of thinking, wouldn’t it be great to have a place that preserved such memories for years to come? Now it’s helping to preserve those of more than 1,200 schools 20 years later.

http://www.illinoishighschoolglorydays.com

The first couple of years brought people interested such as Beau Spencer (then working in Galesburg radio and now a sports card dealer in Madison, Wisconsin), Kev Varney (once a sports media guy like me, and now the online source for all things Bloomington High School sports history), the late Monsignor Richard Soseman (who wrote histories of Illinois Quad City Catholic schools, and later a definitive source of all things Archbishop Fulton Sheen) and myself to help the mission of Dave, now of Chicago, become a reality through our own strengths and interests. We were later joined by local school historians Roberta McKiski of Ogle County and Phil and Betty Shadid of Springfield to help bolster this mission.

With Mineral (population 200) being the “genesis” of the endeavor, other nearby small schools around northwest Illinois were added first, followed by all areas of the rest of the state. Mineral was among the tiniest high schools in its region, and the first couple of dozen or so schools were from rural, small town Illinois – towns were the high school was the central spot for a small town’s pride. Over the course of the past 125 years, high schools in many of the smallest towns disappeared as economies declined.

Losing the school has its profound effects, both in name and in building. The site of the school in Mineral has been marked with a stone of historical reminiscence; on it, Mineral’s own Francis Immesoete shares what it’s all about:

Losing the high school is a huge blow to not just a community, but also to the people as well. That personal aspect also is true for closed high schools in big cities such as Chicago and its suburbs, as well as private schools of any kind. Those schools also have a place on the website.

Some of us travel a lot, and we seem to find something new on every trip we take, whether we’ve been there once or many times before. However, our team can’t do it all alone. One of the most important things that keeps Illinois High School Glory Days going is the sharing of memories from those who visit the website. Facts and figures are researchable, memories not so much.

The memories keep the website freshest the most. No matter what school the source of the memory may come from, there are infinite stories to tell and share that are important and entertaining to our lives.

Perhaps you, reader, are an alumni from a high school in Illinois that no longer exists, or have family or ancestors who graduated from them. Illinois High School Glory Days is the place where memories and facts are preserved for years to come.

Check it out. Share with your friends. Play a role in preserving Illinois history.

http://www.illinoishighschoolglorydays.com

In recent years, the website has evolved to fit the technological aspects of today’s internet age. Dave’s daughters Margie, Katherine and Anne have played a huge role in that. Dave’s son Johnny accompanies his father on many of his research trips and promotional appearances to spread the word about the website. The website has become a labor of love of the Nanninga Family, whose youngest have made Dad proud in helping him accomplish and evolve his dreams of keeping cherished memories alive by way of school life.

Two addendums about the website’s history: We lost Monsignor Soseman in 2020; he last served at Catholic Churches in the La Salle-Peru area after a long stay at the Catholic Church in Princeville and a few year’s stay in Rome and the Vatican. In 2022, Illinois High School Glory Days was recognized by the Illinois State Historical Society as the year’s Best Historical Website.

Personally, I am proud to have helped Dave and the rest of the team on this mission. My contributions have been few in recent years due to concentration on a full-time journalism job, but in this 20th year, that feat inspired me to delve back in the history books and plan some trips to help out when I can. The first updates I will provide this year involve histories of Coleta, Mount Carroll and Savanna high schools. I have at least one research trip in the planning stages this year involving Rich Township in Will County, and hope to dig through my recent files for anything else to add.

Twenty years! If someone was born when the website began, they would have graduated high school by now. We’ve even had a few schools, notably Lincoln-Way North in suburban Frankfort, that have both come AND gone since the website began.

Thank you, Dave, and fellow “teammates” for all you do! You’re all the best!

[This post serves as the preface of what I hope to be a series of posts about my involvement with Illinois High School Glory Days: “Uncovering the Glory Days.” They are road trips. They are FUN road trips. All research about schools will be shared exclusively on the IHSGD website, only my personal research endeavors will be shared in this series.]