Lane Tech College Prep High School (often shortened to Lane Tech, full name Albert Grannis Lane Technical College Preparatory High School), is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

4-year selective enrollment

magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nic ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

located in the

Roscoe Village North Center is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, Illinois, located in the city's North Side. North Center is bordered on the north by Montrose Avenue, on the south by Diversey Parkway, on the west by the Chicago River and on the east by ...

neighborhood on the north side of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

, United States. It is a part of the

Chicago Public Schools Chicago Public Schools (CPS), officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, is the List of the largest school districts in the United States by enrollment, third ...

district. Lane is one of the oldest schools in the city and has an enrollment of over four thousand students, making it the largest high school in Chicago. Lane is a selective-enrollment-based school in which students must take a test and pass a certain benchmark in order to be offered admission. Lane is one of eleven selective enrollment schools in Chicago. It is a diverse school with many of its students coming from different ethnicities and economic backgrounds. In 2019, Lane Tech was rated the 3rd best public high school in Illinois and 69th in the nation.

School history

Founding

The school is named after Albert G. Lane, a former principal and superintendent of Chicago Public Schools from 1891 until 1898. It was founded in 1908 and dedicated on Washington's Birthday in 1909, as the ''Albert Grannis Lane Manual Training High School''. It originally stood at Sedgwick Avenue and Division Street. During the early years of the school's operation, the school was a manual training school for boys, where students could take advantage of a wide array of technical classes. Freshmen were offered carpentry,

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

making, and wood turning. Sophomores received training in

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals ...

, forge,

welding Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as br ...

, coremaking, and molding. Juniors could take classes in the machine shop. Seniors were able to take electric shop which was the most advanced shop course. By the 1930s, Lane had a student population of over 7,000 boys. Since the school's building was not originally planned for such a huge student population, a new site for the school was chosen, and the building was designed by Board of Education architect John C. Christensen. On its dedication day, September 17, 1934, the student body—over 9,000 boys—and faculty gathered at

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago W ...

and from there walked en masse several miles west to the new campus. (In 1983 and 2008, to celebrate the 75th and 100th anniversaries of the school, a march was held from the school to Wrigley Field.) Lane's huge student body necessitated that classes be held in three shifts. That year (1934), the school name was changed to the ''Albert Grannis Lane Technical High School'' to reflect the school's expanding curriculum, but was known to all simply as "Lane Tech." In 2004, the school name was changed to ''Lane Technical College Prep High School'' to reflect a

college preparatory A college-preparatory school (usually shortened to preparatory school or prep school) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily designed to prepare students for higher educati ...

mandate.

Student admission during the Cold War

Lane adopted a closed admission policy in 1958 on the school's 50th anniversary. All remedial classes were eliminated and only top tier students were admitted to the school. This coincided with the beginning of the

space race The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the ...

between the United States and the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

. Lane changed its educational policy to help ensure that the United States would not fall behind the Soviets in science and technology.

Admission of female students

In 1971, changes were made to the admission policy due to a drop in enrollment and lack of technical schools for girls. To solve the issue, Superintendent James Redmond recommended that girls be admitted to Lane Tech. The Chicago Board of Education concurred and girls were admitted as students for the first time. Due to a fear of having a drop in academic achievement, 1,500 male students protested the admission but the decision was not changed.

Campus

Lane Tech is located on a campus at the intersection of

Addison Street Addison Street is a major east–west street on the north side of Chicago and its western suburbs. Wrigley Field is located at 1060 West Addison Street, which is the home of the Chicago Cubs. Chicago communities From east to west: *Lake View (City ...

and Western Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The campus includes: the main school building, Lane Stadium, Kerry Wood Cubs Field, a turf soccer field, and the parking lot.

Lane Stadium

During the spring 2007 season, Chicago city building inspectors declared Lane Stadium unsafe and condemned the eastern half of the stadium. The age of the stadium and the fact it was built on landfill raised concerns that using the stadium to full capacity would cause a structural collapse. Events affected were the 2007–2014 graduating class ceremonies (moved to the

UIC Pavilion Credit Union 1 Arena (previously known as UIC Pavilion) is a multi-purpose arena located at 525 S. Racine Avenue on the Near West Side in Chicago, Illinois, which opened in 1982. Description and history Credit Union 1 Arena is located on the cam ...

located at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois s ...

), the annual Letterman versus Faculty Softball game, the annual

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...

assembly, and the 2007, 2008, and 2009 Pep Rally. Lane Stadium reopened September 7, 2007, with a new turf field. The stadium also features a new IHSA regulation track.

Memorial Garden

At the west end of the Memorial Garden is the Ramo I. Zenkich Memorial, consisting of a flag pole and granite monument inscribed with the names of the students from Lane Tech who lost their lives in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. The Memorial Garden was rededicated in 1995. During the school's 90th anniversary celebration in 1998, a commemorative plaque was placed near the "Shooting the Stars" statue. It explains the significance of the Memorial Garden to Lane Tech and its students.

Academics

Honor level courses are offered to qualified students. Advanced Placement (AP) courses are available in English,

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

math Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

, art,

music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...

, and

world language In sociolinguistics, a world language (sometimes global language, rarely international language) is a language that is geographically widespread and makes it possible for members of different language communities to communicate. The term may also b ...

s. Students can also replace their normal physical education classes with a class in

Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC -- commonly pronounced "JAY-rotsee") is a federal program sponsored by the United States Armed Forces in high schools and also in some middle schools across the United States and at US military ...

(JROTC). The program sponsors the Proctors Club,

Color Guard In military organizations, a colour guard (or color guard) is a detachment of soldiers assigned to the protection of regimental colours and the national flag. This duty is so prestigious that the military colour is generally carried by a young o ...

Honor Guard A guard of honour ( GB), also honor guard ( US), also ceremonial guard, is a group of people, usually military in nature, appointed to receive or guard a head of state or other dignitaries, the fallen in war, or to attend at state ceremonials, ...

, Drill Platoon, Drum & Bugle Corps, and Raiders of Lane. As of 2018, Lane has a 94% graduation rate. As of 2018, 94% of Lane students take at least one AP class throughout their time at Lane. Lane offers courses in

Aquaponics Aquaponics is a food production system that couples aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as fish, crayfish, snails or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) whereby the nutrient-rich aquaculture water is fed to hydro ...

and is the only Chicago Public School to do so. Lane Tech has the most graduates who complete PhD's in the nation as of 2018. Lane Tech has the biggest computer science program in Chicago Public Schools, and is considered one of the best schools in computer science in the United States.

Athletics

Lane offers many sports including, but not limited to

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), thoug ...

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ent ...

, cross-country, football,

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensi ...

, soccer,

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

, swimming,

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

, track,

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

, women's rugby, and

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with t ...

. Lane garners, on average, 7–10 city-championships per year and has won 16 state championships since 1908. Numerous Lane Tech athletes have competed beyond the high school level and achieved success at the college level and beyond. In 1934 the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

-champion

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...

held their practices for the

Chicago College All-Star Game The Chicago Charities College All-Star Game was a preseason American football game played from 1934 to 1976 between the National Football League (NFL) champions and a team of star college seniors from the previous year. It was also known as the ...

at Lane Tech.

Notable alumni

* Tony Alcantar is an actor and acting teacher. *

Leonard Baldy Leonard Frank Baldy (February 15, 1927 – May 2, 1960) was a Chicago Police Department officer who became the city's first helicopter traffic reporter. His sometimes comical look at Chicago's traffic problems made him a household name. His peers ...

was a pioneering Chicago police officer and helicopter traffic reporter. * Franz Benteler was a classical violinist and leader of the Royal Strings Orchestra. *

Edgar Bergen Edgar John Bergen (born Edgar John Berggren; February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American ventriloquist, actor, comedian, vaudevillian and radio performer, best known for his proficiency in ventriloquism and his characters C ...

was a

ventriloquist Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is v ...

, actor, and radio performer, best remembered for creating Charlie McCarthy. *

Rod Blagojevich Rod Blagojevich ( , born December 10, 1956), often referred to by his nicknames "Blago" or "B-Rod", is an American former politician, political commentator, and convicted felon who served as the 40th governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009, when ...

is a former

Governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

(attended for a short time before transferring). * Aimee Boorman is a gymnastics coach who was the head coach of the Final Five at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Boorman was the personal coach of Simone Biles. *

Cyron Brown Cyron DeAndre Brown (born June 28, 1975) is a former American football defensive end. Early life and college career Brown played football and basketball at Albert G. Lane Tech High School in Chicago, Illinois, where he earned All-American hon ...

is a former lineman who played in the NFL and AFL. * Buzz Capra is a former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

pitcher (1971–77). *

Phil Cavarretta Philip Joseph Cavarretta (July 19, 1916 – December 18, 2010) was an American Major League Baseball first baseman, outfielder, and manager. He was known to friends and family as "Phil" and was also called "Philibuck", a nickname bestowed by ...

was a

player (1934–55). He spent most of his playing career with, and briefly managed the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

. * Ertharin Cousin is executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme. *

Len Church Leonard Church (March 21, 1942 – April 22, 1988) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs. A student at Lane Technical High School in Chicago, he was signed as a free agent by the Cubs in 1963. After spending four seasons in ...

was a pitcher for the

(1966). *

Bill Daily William Edward Daily (August 30, 1927 – September 4, 2018) was an American actor and comedian known for his sitcom work as Major Roger Healey on '' I Dream of Jeannie'', and Howard Borden on '' The Bob Newhart Show''. Early life and ear ...

was an actor (''

I Dream of Jeannie ''I Dream of Jeannie'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series, created by Sidney Sheldon that starred Barbara Eden as a sultry, 2,000-year-old genie and Larry Hagman, as an astronaut with whom she falls in love and eventually marr ...

'', ''

The Bob Newhart Show ''The Bob Newhart Show'' is an American sitcom television series produced by MTM Enterprises that aired on CBS from September 16, 1972, to April 1, 1978, with a total of 142 half-hour episodes over six seasons. Comedian Bob Newhart portrays a ...

''). * Frank Dasso was a Major League Baseball pitcher for the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

(1945–46). *

Anna Davlantes Anna Davlantes is an American journalist and television news presenter. She is the current afternoon drive host from 1p-4p Monday-Friday on WGN Radio in Chicago. Prior to working at WGN Radio, she co-hosted ''Good Day Chicago'' on Fox 32 Chicago ...

has been a news anchor at

WMAQ-TV WMAQ-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Telemundo outlet WSNS-TV (chan ...

and WFLD-TV. * Otto Denning was a Major League Baseball catcher for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive ...

(1942–43). *

DJ Colette Colette Marino (born May 27, 1975, in Chicago, Illinois), known as DJ Colette or simply as Colette, is a house music DJ and vocalist from Chicago, Illinois. She is a resident DJ at the SmartBar in Chicago, Illinois (along with Kaskade and other ...

(Colette Marino) is a

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground club culture in the late 1970s, as DJs began altering ...

singer and DJ. * George J. Efstathiou is an architect at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (

Burj Khalifa The Burj Khalifa (; ar, برج خليفة, , Khalifa Tower), known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration in 2010, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is known for being the world’s tallest building. With a total height ...

, Chicago Symphony Center). * Dan Evans is a former General Manager of the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brookly ...

and a baseball executive, Class of 1978. * John Felske is a former Major League Baseball player and manager. * Bill Fischer was a lineman for the

Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots ...

(1949–53). A member of the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were v ...

, he won the

Outland Trophy The Outland Trophy is awarded to the best college football interior lineman in the United States as adjudged by the Football Writers Association of America. It is named after John H. Outland. One of only a few players ever to be named an All- ...

in 1948. * Michael Flanagan, class of 1980, is a former congressman. * Neal Gabler is an author and political commentator. * Theaster Gates is an American Social Practice installation artist. * Carl Giammarese is a singer and guitarist who co-founded The Buckinghams. * Earl Gillespie was a sports broadcaster for the

Milwaukee Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Bos ...

and

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the th ...

Godfrey Godfrey may refer to: People * Godfrey (name), a given name and surname * Godfrey (comedian), American comedian, actor Places In the United States * Godfrey, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Godfrey, Illinois, a village * Godfrey, Kansas, an ...

is a comedian and actor. *