feature rePorT Big Wın in the dy City 22 Issue 3, 2014 | alumnireview.queensu.ca
He has found a home teaching at Wendell Phillips Academy, on Chicago’s troubled South Side, and now this Queen’s grad has turned around his school’s football program and is inspiring his student athletes to strive for excellence. By mIKe ClArK Teacher and football coach Troy McAllister, Artsci/phe’03, with students DeWayne Collins (left) and Quayvon Shanes (right). JOHN COLON It’s a spring afternoon and Troy McAllister, Artsci/phe’03, is escorting a visitor on a tour of Wendell Phillips Academy, the school where he has taught phys ed and served as head football coach for the past four years. Wendell Phillips – named in honour of a 19th century American civil rights advocate – is one of Chicago’s oldest public high schools (1904). Originally built to teach the children of some of the city’s richest families, it became one of the anchors of the Bronzeville neighborhood that emerged as the hub of African-American business and culture in Chicago in the early 20th century. Down in the school’s basement, Troy McAllister and his visitor walk past the weight room where Phillips’ student athletes train. “We were real lucky,” says Troy. “The school got everything donated, and it replaced some old, old weights that were covered in dust.” Next door, in the old rifle range for the since-discontinued Reserve Officers Training Corps (rotc) program, is another workout room, this one for cardio exercises. The tour continues back up to the first floor, where boys and girls in the school’s Honors Academy take advanced classes. On the two upper floors are the gender-specific “schools within a school” for boys and girls. “I’m actually in love with it,” Troy says of separating males and females. “You take away a lot of tension that exists between teenage boys and teenage girls, and at least in a classroom setting, you avoid some of those distractions.” One thing that can’t be avoided when you’re walking around Wendell Phillips, is a sense of history. A wall of fame near the main entrance spotlights scores of accomplished graduates, and a mural in another hallway looks like a who’s who of African-American celebrities from the 20th century: iconic singers Nat King Cole and Sam Cooke, legendary poet Gwendolyn Brooks, trailblazing cosmetics entrepreneur George Johnson Sr., actress Marla Gibbs of The Jeffersons fame, and on and on. But Wendell Phillips’ history isn’t all positive. While Troy and other teachers there are working to connect the teenagers of the 21st century with some cultural touchstones – the Harlem Globetrotters had their roots here, too – they have to acknowledge some unpleasant chapters as well. “We’ve tried to make that big push to bridge the generational gap,” Troy says. “The problem was, Phillips was so terrible in the ‘70s, ‘80s, into the ‘90s.” Wendell Phillips was considered one of the worst schools in the city when the Board of Education decided to stage a “turnaround.” Issue 3, 2014 | alumnireview.queensu.ca 23
- Page 1 and 2: Queen’s A lu m n I revIe W Issue
- Page 3 and 4: A SPECIAL UPDATE FROM... FACULTY OF
- Page 5 and 6: letters To THe eDITor Remembering D
- Page 7 and 8: From THe principal The challenges a
- Page 9 and 10: QUID novi? Research at Queen’s (e
- Page 11 and 12: Anyone looking for Laureen Hu, Com
- Page 13 and 14: Queen’s Graduate Diploma in Busin
- Page 15 and 16: ® Coca-Cola Ltd., used under licen
- Page 17 and 18: Take me back to first taking on the
- Page 19 and 20: The new Isabel Bader Centre for the
- Page 21 and 22: lounge, a bright space lined with r
- Page 23: campus sCene Active learning in Ell
- Page 27 and 28: Troy spent three years teaching at
- Page 29 and 30: QuAA PresIDenT’s message Welcome
- Page 31 and 32: WELCOME HOME CLASSES OF 1964,1969,
- Page 33 and 34: This fall, Cynthia Johnston Turner,
- Page 35 and 36: Unless otherwise indicated, dates i
- Page 37 and 38: KEEPING IN TOUCH 2000’s 1960s Com
- Page 39 and 40: KEEPING IN TOUCH 2000’s 1970s adv
- Page 41 and 42: KEEPING IN TOUCH 2000’s 1990s Mar
- Page 43 and 44: KEEPING IN TOUCH 2000’s 2000s 200
- Page 45 and 46: KEEPING IN TOUCH 2000’s 2010s res
- Page 47 and 48: Issue 3, 2014 | alumnireview.queens
- Page 49 and 50: A SPECIAL UPDATE FROM ... Arts FA C
- Page 51 and 52: FACULTY OF Arts and Science A PLACE
- Page 53 and 54: marketplace To place your ad, email
- Page 55 and 56: Remember when you had no cares in t
Change language