Chicago, Illinois -- Today is a very joyous day for millions of baseball enthusiasts: it’s MLB Opening Day! Today brings the first of many happy, exciting, and, at times, anxiety ridden, days for fellow baseball enthusiasts. While millions of baseball fans cheer for their favorite team and chow down on hundreds of thousands of ballpark dogs, EDHS celebrates the 117th season of MLB by commemorating the eleven players of the Amateur Baseball Managers' clubs who lost their lives in the Eastland Disaster.
Frantisek “Frank” Rehor was born in October 1894 to Joseph and Anna (nee Kostner) Rehor (both who hailed from Czechoslovakia) in Chicago, Illinois. He attended the city’s public schools and lived at 1624 S. Harding Avenue, located in the southwest neighborhood of Lawndale. At the time of the Eastland Disaster, he worked as a clerk at Western Electric Company for three years. When he was not working, he was a member of the Lawndale Motorcycle Club and played for the Western Electrics, an amateur baseball club. His funeral was held on Tuesday, July 27, 1915, and he was laid to rest at the Bohemian National Cemetery.
In additional to Frank, the ten other amateur baseball players who lost their lives in the disaster were:
- John “Farmer” Froelich, Murleys, 2453 Thomas Street
- Harold Meyer, Logan Boulevards, 2210 Walton Place
- Albert Kennedy, Topaz, 2438 Warren Avenue
- Maurice Robel, Topaz, 853 King Place
- George Tonneson, Murleys, 3414 Seminary Avenue
- Gus Schencke, Weiderrechts, 1633 W. 21st Street
- Charles Block, Western Electrics, 4317 S. Maplewood Avenue
- George Bennett, Western Electrics, 4317 S. Maplewood Avenue
- Arthur Locke, 3819 Ravenswood Avenue
- Henry Schuette, Ideal Billiards, 123 N. 16th Street, Maywood
Whether you are watching today’s opening day games (the Chicago Cubs vs. the St. Louis Cardinals; the San Francisco Giants vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks; the New York Yankees vs. the Tampa Bay Rays) or anxiously awaiting to watch your team play later this week, we hope you join us in commemorating the lives of the amateur baseball players who lost their lives and the thousands of others who were involved in the Eastland Disaster.
Newspaper article from Chicago Tribune, July 27, 1915.