Radio was born. TV was invented. Man landed on the moon. 5 states were added to the Union. Pluto was discovered and the assembly line invented, all in the time since they won last.  Chicago is the city whose murder rate soared over 72% higher than it was a year ago. A month ago Chicago was in the light for record-breaking numbers in one of the darkest places in the country. Today, the light is on Chicago for 108 years of waiting has finally ceased. The Chicago Cubs have won the World Series. 

One of the oldest Chicago Cubs fans around, Ray Styrlund, 105, predicted last year that he would live long enough to see the Cubs win the World Series.  People magazine interviewed the devoted fan, who stated he watched Wednesday’s Game 7 in his pajamas from his Park Vista Retirement Living apartment. Although he tried with all of his might to stay awake, he fell asleep when Cleveland Indians outfielder Rajai Davis hit a two-run homer off closer Aroldis Chapman to tie the game 6-6.“It just doesn’t seem real!” he says. “It hasn’t hit me yet, after all these years of waiting it finally happened.”

Fans draped Cubs jerseys to graves.  Some fans claimed the went to the store and ended up standing in front of the stadium’s long brick wall facing Waveland Avenue. Many wrote chalk notes to the dead. Some dedicated messages. This one’s for you, Dad. Some likened the game to a “religious experience.”

Among many devoted Cubs fan, our own athletic director, Sandy Novak, flew to Chicago to join the World Series experience. “Being in Chicago for the World Series was one of the biggest thrills in my long athletic career.  I was so proud of the city from the fact that everyone was just so happy and people were not destroying anything or looting stores, but just purely happy.  Everyone in Chicago was thrilled because of the family histories and traditions of going to Wrigley Field as young children.  People from Chicago are happy not only for the city and themselves, but also for the parents and grandparents who were for many generations, always Cub fans. I can still hear the song “Go Cubs Go” playing in the bars, stores, and throughout the streets!!”