How Pride Month Began at Stonewall on the Night the Queers Fought Back

  

The Stonewall was a dive bar operated by the Mob in New York's Greenwich Village.  It's patrons were outcasts and the most flamboyant of a rough streets scene--young hustlers, drag queens, butch lesbians.  It was also an inter-racial scene that attracted police attention.  Wealthier and more respectable Gays gathered and partied more discretely in posh clubs that authorities usually ignored.

Fifty-seven years ago on the night of June 27, 1969 something snapped when New York City Police made one of their regular raids on a Gay bar.  Instead of meekly submitting to arrest, the denizens of the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village bar operated by the Mafia and patronized by the most marginalized of folks—homeless street kid hustlers, drag queens, butch dikes, and others—resisted when police started to arrest them. 

The raid was conducted by a small team of detectives and uniformed officers including women led by Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine of the Public Morals Squad.  

 

                                                      The Stonewall Inn in 1969 looked just as seedy as it was.

For some reason patrons refused to follow the familiar procedure of such raids—allowing restroom inspections of individuals in women’s clothing to determine if they were men and providing identification upon request.  Dumfounded by resistance, police called for backup and patrol wagons.  There was some scuffling inside. 

Meanwhile, some patrons who had been released were joined by passersby outside the bar.  The crowd quickly swelled.  Taunts and jeers were exchanged between the police and crowd.  The crowd began to interfere as drag queens were led to the wagons.  When Betty, a lesbian made several unsuccessful attempts to escape, she was beaten and cried out to the crowd, “Why don’t you guys do something?” 

 

When a lesbian named Betty repeatedly tried to break away from custody and was roughly handled by several cops she famously pleaded, "Why don't you guys do something?"  It became the Remember the Alamo battle cry of a movement.  

That ignited the crowd which began pelting police with beer cans, coins, and rubble from a nearby construction site.  They attacked the wagons, freeing some of those arrested.  Police retreated into the bar and barricaded themselves.  They grabbed some members of the crowd as they went, including folk singer Dave Van Ronk who was playing at a nearby club and came out to investigate the ruckus, and Howard Smith, a writer for the Village Voice.

Observers reported that the most aggressive members of the crowd were the young street kids.  They used an uprooted parking meter as a ram to try and break down the doors of the bar and crashed through the plywood covered windows.  When they got in police drew their pistols and threatened to shoot while rioters used lighter fluid to start a fire.  

 

 Drag queens and transgender women of color played leading roles in the resistance in the nights that followed the police raid. 

The Fire Department responded as the crowd outside grew to hundreds.  The Tactical Police Force (TPF) arrived in riot gear to rescue the besieged officers in the saloon.  They formed a phalanx and moved up the street being blocked and taunted by an impromptu kick line of drag queens and “sissies.” 

We now know that one of the drag queens was Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a formerly incarcerated Transgender Black. who was featured in a recent documentary.   

Rioters and police played a brand of violent tag around the narrow streets of the Village until after 4 AM. 

Later that morning the riots were front page news. 

And they were not over.  The next night even larger crowds gathered in front of the building and the fighting continued.  Despite heavy rain there were sporadic eruptions over the next two nights. 

Meanwhile the Gay community, which had been largely unorganized except for the small Mattachine Society which advocated a campaign to educate the public that Homosexuals were “normal,” began to meet and debate tactics.  Thousands of fliers were printed for a Wednesday march. 

The original rebellion, which had been entirely spontaneous, was already laying the groundwork for a new, open and defiant Gay movement.  Taking cues from the Civil Rights Movement and the Peace Movement, which were also confronting authorities with a new militancy, and taking advantage of the traditional anti-establishment radicalism of the Village, the beginning of a new movement was taking place.  

 

Marsha P. Johnson, a transgender Black woman, is now being recognized and celebrated as the person who threw the first brick at police on the night of the Stonewall uprising.  

On Wednesday the Village Voice—the most liberal paper in New York—carried a harshly critical piece on the riots describing participants as “forces of faggotry.”  Angry demonstrators descended on the Voice office that night and threatened to burn it down.  Other violent confrontations erupted in the neighborhood as police tried to stop marchers, this time for the first time carrying signs and “making demands.” 

That was the last night of disturbances, but things changed quickly over the next year.  Two new militant Gay organizations emerged in New York, the Gay Liberation Front, which allied itself with the broader radical movement, and the Gay Activists Alliance which advocated a focused campaign demanding an end to police harassment and for broader rights for Gays. 

Similar or allied groups sprang up in major cities and college towns across the country.  New Yorkers founded three new newspapers, Gay, Come Out!, and Gay Power which soon had press runs of 2,000 to 2,500.  Again, similar publications were started across the country. 

 

The Christopher Street March on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion is considered the founding event for the Gay Pride marches now held internationally. 

On June 28, 1970, the anniversary of what was being called the Stonewall Rebellion was marked by Christopher Street Liberation Day and a 51-block march from the Village to Central Park with thousands of marchers filling the streets.  Marches were also held in Chicago and Los Angeles. 

These became the Gay Pride Marches and annual events across the country. An indication of how accepted and mainstream Gay rights have become, at least in big cities, is that there are official floats sponsored by city sports teams. Politicians galore and all of the major media turn out to court the potent Gay vote and consumer demographic. 

But by 2019 Gay Pride Parades also reflected a community increasingly under siege by a well-oiled and funded backlash led by religious zealots and abetted by the radicalized Republican Party eager to pander to a big part of its base.  With Republicans in complete control of many governorships and State houses rafts of anti-Gay legislation have been enacted or proposed.  

 

This Rainbow Flag update by Danial Quasar is one of the more popular versions that add recognition to the transgender community and People of Color.   

The Supreme Court smiled on so-called religious liberty grounds for refusing service to Gays, lesbians, and transgender folk but it pleasantly surprised many by affirming the legality of marriage equality. 

The Court, moved to void Roe v. Wade guarantees for the right to abortions.  Although Chief Justice Roberts tried to assure everyone the decision, which argued there is no Federal right to “equal protection under the law,” Justice Clarence Thomas explicitly called for the same standard to be used to strike down Marriage Equality, transgender rights, and a slew of other long-established protections.

So, it was not a surprise that the LGBTQ community which enthusiastically joined in the BLM marches or that the debt owed to Black transgender women, drag queens, and butch dikes in the original Stonewall uprising was finally recognized and celebrated.  

In 2022 after the disruptions of the Coronavirus pandemic, parades rallied for abortion rights and body autonomy for all.  Trump 2.0 has launched a broad attack under the guise of its anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policy, threatening and black mailing corporate supporters, schools and colleges, and local government to cancel sponsorships.  Federal agencies scrubbed web page content and the MAGA man himself pointedly issued no Pride proclamation. 

 

2023 Pride events took the fight for transgender rights with a new militancy.  This year that emphasis will be ramped up.  Will corporate sponsors like Nordstrom'sshown here knckle under to MAGA pressure?  Stay tuned.

As a result, 56 years after the fact Pride Month has returned to its roots—Resistance!

 

Walking the Walk and Compassion for Campers Update for June 26 2026

The 4th Annual McHenry County Juneteenth Festival on the Square in Woodstock. 

Look for new opportunities for action, education, community, and solidarity in and around McHenry County here every week.  

                                                            Walking the Walk  

Thanks to every one who came out to participate in and support events over a very busy couple of weeks.  The Resistance is strong in McHenry County.  With Independence Day ahead there is a hiatus on protests--unless some outrage or emergency requires rapid response.  Check out the many 4th of July community events and connect with your neighbors.

This activist round-up purposefully does not endorse candidates or parties or list their events, we concentrate on direct action and witness.  But everyone agrees that voting in support of your beliefs and priorities is essential.  With a critical General Election coming up, this is a great time to connect to candidates, campaigns, and organizations that support you.  Volunteers are needed for door-to-door canvasing, telephoning, public events, and other jobs.  Links can be found on various Indivisible social media platforms, from activist groups like NOW, Progressive political sites, and from national, state, and local political parties.  There are critical races at every level.

Or you can work on voter turnout and issue voter education with UU The Vote.  Check out special training sessions, events, and actions here. 

Compassion for Campers

Compassion for Campers had a successful distribution as part of the new McHenry County Resource Center (MCHC) at the McHenry County Mental Health Board offices, 620 Dakota Street in Crystal Lake last Friday. About a dozen organizations and agencies participated and organizers reported seeing 28 total guests.  C4C served 20 of those in our new comfortable space. That was a little more than half the number we typically aided at Willow Creek.   As word gets out into the community, we expect those numbers to rise sharply over the summer.  

Our distributions are usually held on the first and third Fridays of the month from 10 am to 2 pm but due to the Independence Day holiday weekend, the Resource Center will be closed on Friday, July 3.  Our next distributions will be on Fridays July 17 and August 3.

Financial support is critical to fulfilling our mission. The best thing you can do is offer your critically needed financial support to get us through this emergency.  Money donations are always welcome at     https://tinyurl.com/3bz96axe.   Look for updates here.  Email compassionforcampers@treeoflifeuu.org .

William Boyd's Hopalong Turned a Scruffy Cowhand to Shining Hero

William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy on his white stallion Topper.

Earlier this year I discovered that nearly all of the Hopalong Cassidy original films are now available streaming on Prime.  I binge watched for several months.

It took me back to Summer days more than 65 years ago in Cheyenne, Wyoming when we spent our days recreating in detail elaborate cowboy sagas that lasted all day—or even all week.  The we were my twin brother, Tim, a rotating cast of neighborhood kids—principally Joe Miranda and his assorted younger siblings—and when she was in town our cousin from Des Moines, Linda Strom.  For authenticity real prairie started abruptly at the end of our block complete with sagebrush, tumbleweeds, and low button cactus.  But the back yards the neighborhood with their lilac caves, wild rose hedges, palisade fences, brick walls, window wells, and the low flat roofs of car ports provided plenty of locations for ambushes and shoot-outs.

We had regular and defined parts.  Tim, handsome and charismatic was always Roy Rogers.  Linda was Bell Starr.  And me? I was Hopalong Cassidy.

***

On June 24, 1948, a little less than a year before I was born, Hopalong Cassidy premiered on NBC Television.  It was the first western series on the infant medium and it was wildly successful.  So successful that it introduced an era lasting more than 30 years when horse operas dominated the small screen. 

Clarence Mulford in 1928 banging out another Hopalong novel.

The character Hopalong Cassidy was first introduced in 1904 in short stories by 21-year-old Clarence E. Mulford, a native of Streator, Illinois, while he was living and working in Fryeburg, Maine.  He was a fan of western lore who wanted to create more realistic stories than the simple daring-do of the old dime novels.  Through research, his tales were filled with accurate details of ranch life, cowboy outfits and gear, and location.  But at heart he was still a Victorian moralist with a hero performing nobly.  

Cassidy started out as a twenty-something ranch hand elevated to foreman of the sprawling Bar-20 Ranch.  He was rude, crude, and slovenly, attributes that hid his finer qualities.  Hoppy, as he was called, got his name from sustaining a bullet to the leg in an early story, and lingering disability sometimes came into play.

Beginning with Bar-20 in 1906 Mulford churned out 28 novels through Hopalong Cassidy Serves a Writ in 1940.  Enormously popular, he was a major rival of Zane Grey, the leading western novelist of the day.  But the Hopalong series was the first in the genre to have continuing characters and story points from book to book.  And unlike other series, Mulford’s cowboy hero and his associates, rivals, and foils aged and evolved as the series continued.

                          

                                          Hopalong's first appearance in a novel, 1907.

In 1935 Mulford’s near contemporary Harry A. Sherman bought the film rights to the book series and set up his own independent production company to make the movies.  Sherman was originally an exhibitioner who had made good money when he became the distributor for D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation in the Western states in 1915.  He had always wanted to go into production and the deal with Mulford gave him his chance.

Papa Sherman, as he was known, produced more than 50 low budget two reel westerns in the series through 1944.  Although cheaply made cinematography by Russell B. Harlan and others was far above average for Poverty Row and gave the series a more expensive look. 

Sherman employed a regular sort of stock company with many characters and actors carrying over from film to film.  Veteran George Hayes, an early silent leading man who had become a stock villain at other studios, established his new sidekick character, Gabby Hayes by growing a salt-and-pepper beard, removing his false teeth, and donning a battered black hat with a turned up front brim.  Many later stars got their starts in these productions and others found work on the down sides of their careers.  Familiar costars included Victor Jory, Lee J. Cobb, Richard Dix, George Reeves, Robert Mitchum, and Albert Dekker.

Robert Mitchum  got an early screen credit as a bad guy in 1943's Hoppy Serves a Writ, the last of the film series produced by Harry Sherman.
 

Although independently produced, the films were released through major studios, first Paramount and later United Artists, which guaranteed placement in better movie houses, usually as the bottom of a double bill with an A picture.  The movies were a bonanza for the distributors who attracted the nickels of millions of kids lined up for Saturday matinées and early weekday shows that often otherwise ran to near empty houses.

What made the movie series so popular were some key decisions by producer Sherman.  First and most important was the selection of a star.  He turned not to some handsome young stud or a veteran of other westerns, but to a silent screen leading man fallen on hard times.

William Boyd as a silent era matinee idol.

William Boyd, born on June 5, 1895 in Hendrysburg in Belmont County, Ohio was a highly successful leading man and a favorite of big-time directors like Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille.  Under contract to Radio Pictures at the height of his career he was pulling down $100,000 a year.  That came to a screeching halt, however, in 1931 when wire services picked up a story from the Los Angeles newspapers about the arrest of another actor, William “Stage” Boyd, on gambling and liquor charges.  Unfortunately, the wrong actor’s picture accompanied the article.  Citing the morals clause of his contract, Radio Pictures dumped him and he found himself virtually blacklisted in Hollywood.

Having lived life large with a big house, fancy cars, and all of the accouterments of stardom along with the loss of his investments in the Great Depression, it did not take long for Boyd to fall into virtual poverty.  He scrounged for work sometimes finding small supporting roles as a businessman or professional under the name Billy Boyd. He was still living hand to mouth when he responded to Sherman’s casting call. 

Sherman was inclined to cast Boyd in the supporting role of Red Connors, an older hand on the Bar-20 and Hoppy’s frenemy.  Boyd begged to be considered for the lead role despite not having any experience in action pictures and then barely able to stay on a horse.  A screen test earned him the job—unlike other candidates, he could act. 

So instead of a handsome young buckaroo Sherman found himself with a middle aged, silver haired hero.

The second big decision was to completely re-imagine the character.  Instead of the hard drinking, rough talking cowhand in rags in the first film, Hop-Along Cassidy, the lead was transformed into a gentlemanly teetotaler who ordered sarsaparilla at the bar, who was unfailingly courteous to women, and always let the bad guy slap leather first or throw the first punch.  And instead of tatters, Hoppy was adorned in close-fitting black from the tips of his handsomely tooled Texas cowboy boots to the Ten Gallon black Stetson on his head.  Boyd was not the first cowboy star to buck the white hat rule—Tom Mix and Ken Maynard had occasionally worn them—but he was the first to make it a regular trademark.

And not just any range pony would do.  Hoppy was mounted on a magnificent white stallion, nameless in early films or just referred to as "the White Horse," he was finally named Topper and made the later TV Lone Ranger’s Silver look like a puny runt.  Of course, Hoppy sat comfortably in a handsomely tooled black saddle.

This recipe was enough for the new series to successfully compete against the singing cowboy movies of Gene Autry, John Wayne as Randy, and that upstart Roy Rogers who came to dominate the B movie westerns.  And unlike the products of Republic and other studios who often set their films in the modern West with telephones, automobiles, and radio, the Hopalong series remained rooted in stories of the Old West.

The final decision was to chuck Mulford’s stories and novels as source material.  It was just too hard to adapt the stories to Hoppy’s new image.  While keeping Hopalong rooted to the Bar-20, he was given more freedom to roam becoming something of a knight errant with pearl handled revolvers righting wrongs across the West.

Silent screen actor and stock villain in early western talkies, George Hayes began a hugely successful second career billed as Gabby Hayes, the comic side kick first for Hopalong and later with Gene Autry, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and Randolph Scott.

In the films Cassidy was usually accompanied by either an elderly comic sidekick and a hero worshiping youth or, most frequently, both.  These were not characters, but types whose names and particulars changed as different actors filled the slot.  George Hayes was the first sidekick, Windy Halliday billed for the first time as Gabby.  Very popular with audiences he left the series in a salary dispute and moved on to Republic where he was soon paired with Gene Autry, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and later at other studios with Randolph Scott.  He was replaced first by Britt Wood as Speedy McGinnis and then by comedian Andy Clyde as California Carlson, who lasted through the end of the movie series.

The juveniles, eager and well-meaning but trouble prone, were played by James Ellison, Russell Hayden, George Reeves, and Rand Brooks.  Hayden went on to a substantial career in two-reel westerns and B gangster flicks.  Reeves, of course, rose to fame as TV’s Superman.

Meanwhile Mulford, the creator of the original character was making out well not only from royalties from the films but from renewed interest in his books.  From 1935 to 1940 he wrote three new Hopalong books reflecting the hero as he appeared in the movies.  He also went back and re-wrote many of his earlier titles adapting them to movie goers’ expectations.

Despite the continuing popularity of the series, Sherman dreamed of becoming a producer of quality A pictures.  He announced he was ending the series in 1944.  By then his star William Boyd was very identified with the part.  He had learned how to well and how to duke it out with the bad guys reducing the use of stunt doubles.  He enjoyed the adulation of young fans—and the substantial income he earned from appearances with Topper.  He gambled his entire future on Hopalong Cassidy, mortgaging virtually everything he owned to buy both the character rights from Mulford and the catalog of movies from Sherman.

And then he set out, with his own production company, to continue the series.  He churned out 12 more films.  But he had even less production money than Sherman and the pictures were visibly cheaper.

The heyday of the two-reel western was coming to an end.  Major distributors were dropping them.  Unless he had the money to upgrade to color, as Roy Rogers was successfully doing, there seemed little hope.  The principal culprit was the rise of a new competitive medium, television, which threatened to keep all of those Saturday afternoon popcorn munchers at home.

Boyd, with everything to lose, decided to throw in with the butcher who was cutting the throat of his golden goose.  In 1948 he approached NBC Television which aired a handful of his old films.  The response was so overwhelming that before Boyd could get in production with an original series for the air, the network put up a regular series drastically edited to a half hour format from the 66 original movies.  

The opening credits for the NBC repackaging of the Hopalong films included the introduction from the 1935 first film, Hop-Along Cassidy even though the character no longer had a hyphenated name.

The series premiered on June 24, 1949.  It was the first regular western series on television and a huge hit.  By 1950 Boyd was a megastar, his picture as Hopalong Cassidy adorning the covers of national magazines like Look, Life, and Time.

An astute businessman, Boyd was the first western star to see the value in merchandising.  He licensed hundreds of products bearing his likeness as Hopalong.  Most famously the cowboy was the first ever to appear on a school lunch box causing sales for Aladdin Industries to jump from 50,000 units to 600,000 units in just one year.  Hoppy merchandise generated $70 million in revenue for more than 100 companies.  In 1950 Boyd personally earned over $800,000 in licensing, endorsements, and public appearances.

The huge success of the Hopalong Cassidy school lunch box helped launch the age of tie-in merchandising and helped make William Boyd very rich.

Boyd did get up production of his new originals series with Edgar Buchanan as Red Carlson, the character Boyd had first auditioned for, now upgraded to the comic sidekick.  Broadcast as a separate series from the re-packaged movies, this show was rated No. 7 nationally in 1950.  Boyd also starred in a radio version which began on the Mutual Network in 1950 and jumped to CBS where it ran until 1952 with movie side kick Andy Clyde back to reprise California Carlson.

Fawcett Comics had been running a series of comic books since 1946 which was taken over by DC Comics in 1954.  The now highly collectable books ran through 136 issues through 1959.  Western Publishing issued several coloring books.  January 1950 Dan Spiegel began to draw a syndicated comic strip with scripts by Royal King Cole which lasted until 1955.

In 1950 a deal with Castle Films brought the original movies distributed by Paramount to the home market in 16 mm sound and 8 mm silent versions.  These stone age videos enlivened many a child’s birthday party.

Both versions of the TV series and the original movies were all available in TV syndication until they were withdrawn from circulation in the late 1960’s.

Boyd, now wealthy, retired with his fifth wife to Palm Desert, California where he had significant real estate and development holdings.  Suffering from Parkinson’s disease as he aged he shunned photographs and interviews so that he would not disappoint the memory of his fans.  He died in 1972 in Laguna Beach at the age of 77.

Hopalong Cassidy did not die.  He did become hard to find for a while.  Boyd’s heirs licensed restored prints of the films to the basic cable Western Channel in the mid-1990’s where they ran until they were again withdrawn in 2000.  DVDs for home viewing were hard to find outside of a couple of cheaply made compilation discs and an expensive package of the whole television run.

The lobby card of an early 1936 Sherman drew critical praise on its release and featured Gabby Hayes as sidekick Windy Haliday.  Soon he would be billed as Gabby.

Both the original movies and the TV series are once again easily available on YouTube and streaming on Prime.

The character as envisioned originally by Mulford was resurrected in four novels by western novel master Louis L’Amor and in a series of short stories in Follow Your Stars by Susie Coffman in 2005.  Some of Mulford’s original novels have been reprinted, along with a few of the versions he revised to fit the movie character.  Readers are advised to check carefully which they are buying as the originals are considered far better.

And, of course, Hopalong replays eternally in the memory theater of his now aging fans.

  

Chicago Cubs Celebrate 150th Anniversary as Current Stars Battle Adversity

 

The Chicago Cubs are celebrating their 150th Anniversary--and coincidentally the anniversary of the National League--this season.  That's an almost unmatched record for any American professional sport team.  Only the Cincinnati Reds are older as an all-pro baseball club.  After a solid Pennant run last season and a returning core roster of some of the best players in Major League Baseball (MLB) avid fans expected a romp to the Playoffs.  Spectacular early success included two 10 game winning streaks.  But injuries, especially to pitchers, and an inexplicable team-wide batting slump plunged the team to the bottom of the National League Central during an epic losing streak.  The bats seem to be coming back with huge wins at home and romped over the Mets twice in a three-game winning streak.  Pete Crow-Armstrong, Ian Happ, Nicco Hoerner, and Dansby Swanson routinely dazzle with probably the strongest defense in the game and speed on the base paths.  It is a long climb back to the top, however.  But it would be prefect if the Boys could take home Championship rings to crown the anniversary season.

                         Chicago White Stockings--The First Champions of the National League, 1876.

On April 25, 1876 the Chicago professional baseball club known then as the White Stockings played their first game in the infant National League.

The club was founded in 1870 as the baseball craze swept post-Civil War America.  Like most such teams, it featured mostly local amateurs mixed with a handful of key paid players.  They played all comers including local rival teams and barnstormed to other cities to play the local favorites.  There were no leagues and the lowliest pick-up teams playing in dusty small towns competed with a handful of elite teams.

On February 2, 1876 the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs was formed at the invitation of The Chicago White Stockings.  Teams also included the Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Stockings, Hartford Blue Ducks, Mutual of New York, St. Louis Brown Stockings, Cincinnati Red Stockings, and Louisville Grays.

Over that winter Chicago owner William Hulbert signed dissatisfied top players from the dominant teams in the pre-league era, Boston and Cincinnati.  He assembled a virtual all-star team including Albert Spaulding, Cap Aaronson, Ross Barnes, and Deacon White.

Spaulding pitched a 4-0 shut out at the old West Side Grounds over the Louisville in that inaugural contest.  The team went on to romp to the very first National League Championship with a record of 52-14.

Almost all of this 1880 Championship team was back for another romp to the crown a year later.  Cap Anson front and center. 

 

The club became the first professional baseball dynasty winning six National League pennants between 1876 and 1886, five of those under the leadership of Anson who became player-manager in 1880.

                            Chicago player/manager Cap Anson was not only the biggest star in early Major League Baseball but a major player in shaping the National Pass Time. 

In the 1890’s when the club had to rebuild under Anson with young players, the press hung a new nickname on them—the Colts.  When Spaulding, by then both a sporting goods tycoon and club owner, finally let Anson go as manager in 1897, they got a new name the Orphans.

Other informal monikers were tossed around in the newspapers until everybody seemed to settle on the Cubs in 1902 for a new batch of young players.  That squad evolved into a second Chicago dynasty with stars like infielders Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance and pitcher Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown which won four pennants and two World Series titles over a five-year span, the last championship in 1908.

Chicago Cubs team logos over the years.

After that…well shall we say things tapered off for a few years with occasional rallies to pennants or the status of top contenders with a lot of colorful players thrown in.  Then the team won a thrilling World Series in 2016--their first Championship since 1908, rejuvenated the fan base, and became regular Division leaders 

The one that fans won't forget--celebrating a miracle in Cincinnati.