New facilities signal the end of an era in Hampshire football

When Hampshire High School began playing football in the fall of 1964 on a spacious patch of grass behind the school, it's a pretty safe bet no one envisioned what things would be like 43 years later.

And after visiting the new Hampshire High School on the corner of Gast and Ketchum roads earlier this week, all I could come away thinking was "amazing".

Some history

The first school in Hampshire was built in 1838, according to the District 300 Web site. By 1876 a new building was constructed and the first Hampshire graduating class of two students received their diplomas in 1886. That same year another new building went up on the corner of Jackson and Warner and in 1897, seven seniors became the first to graduate from that building.

In 1948, District 300 was formed and in 1951, Hampshire students began attending the building that still today is Hampshire Middle/High School -- a total of 1,175 students in an 850-student building and 10 mobile classrooms.

From a tiny high school of just over 200 students that gained athletic notoriety in the mid-70s through football, Hampshire has grown into what next fall will become the newest most state-of-the-art high school in this area, one that will, District 300 officials believe, someday house close to 2,500 students.

It's big, it's new

We had the privilege of touring the new facility this week with Hampshire principal Chuck Bumbales, who darts around the concrete walls with the enthusiasm of an 8-year old at the tree on Christmas morning.

As he should. While the list of people responsible for the planning and building of the new school is too long to even attempt to publish here, this is Bumbales' baby. A lifelong District 300 resident and 1979 graduate of Crown High School, Bumbales, in his 24th year with D300, was an assistant superintendent in the district until this year when he took over as the high school principal. In his assistant superintendent's role, he helped negotiate the site, was in on the planning, and now proudly watches as workers continue to build the 75 million dollar facility that is funded by two tax increases voters approved in 2005.

"I've been very fortunate to be a part of all of it," Bumbales says.

"All of it" includes athletic facilities like Hampshire athletes have never seen at their school. With a new 2-million gallon water tower overlooking the campus, the lights are already up on the massive football field, which is circled by an 8-lane track. The dugouts are being built on the varsity softball field, the 10 -- that's right, 10 -- tennis courts are laid. Soccer will have separate game and practice fields, and Bumbales and first-year Hampshire athletic director Dave Hicks fully expect to move all Whip-Pur high school sports to the new facility when it is scheduled to open for classes next August.

"It's all taking shape," said Bumbales, who, with the rest of the D300 team that put this whale of a school together, toured places like Bartlett, South Elgin, Grayslake North and Warren High in Gurnee, to gather ideas.

More than walls

Inside isn't quite inside yet but with Bumbales leading the description, an imaginative mind can clearly see what the inside will look like when done. Our tour consisted of the athletic and auditorium facilities, which would easily fit into the current Hampshire High School by themselves.

The athletic facilities in the 390,000 square foot building will rival any in not only this area but northern Illinois as a whole. The competition gym will seat 2,500. A massive field house will have an indoor track and multiple courts for physical education classes. A mammoth wrestling room will allow Hampshire to offer that sport -- as well as boys and girls tennis -- for the 2008-09 school year. Bumbales said the school will gauge wrestling interest by offering a wrestling club in the next couple of months.

Individual showers, separate male and female locker rooms for officials, a weight room that will surely rival South Elgin's best-of-the-best -- "We picked a lot of the components we liked at South Elgin," Bumbales said -- and a physical setup that appears to be exceptionally well thought out, Hampshire athletes, coaches and fans will go from their quaint setting on State Street to a facility that can now be called the Purple Palace with real meaning.

"We really think the design is user-friendly for all of our staff," said Bumbales as we walked into the spacious 750-seat auditorium, complete with sunken concert pit. "It's the next step and the next generation of what we're able to offer our students, with tremendous taxpayer support. It really looks to the future. Between what's already approved here, in Pingree Grove and west Elgin, there could be 9,000 new homes here in the next 7-10 years."

End of an era

Which brings us to tonight, and the final Friday of football's regular season next week. For the last time tonight, Burlington Central and Hampshire will play on the hallowed ground that should have been named Ron Ellett Field a long time ago. No other school in this area dominated the football season like Ellett's Whip-Purs of the 1970s. Two state championships -- followed by one under current coach Dan Cavanaugh in 1995 -- give Hampshire football supremacy in this area, regardless of the IHSA class it was done in. And some of the greatest battles the Whip-Purs had on that field were against rival Central -- which absolutely no one started calling Burlington Central until well into the 1990s.

"In one way it's sad, there are a lot of great memories there," said Hampshire legend Ron Ellett, who coached the Whip-Purs to state titles in 1976 and 1979 and a runner-up state finish in 1978. "But in another way it's a great new beginning. There's a lot of tradition going out to that new field. When I came to Hampshire in 1963 it was a sleepy little town with 220 students and 14 kids out for football. Pretty soon it's going to be 2,000 students and 140 kids out for football."

Tonight's Hampshire-Central game truly is the end of an era in more ways than one. In addition to it being the next-to-last varsity game on Hampshire's field, it will also be the first time since Hampshire began playing football in 1964 that an Ellett won't be at a Hampshire-Central football game. Ron will travel this weekend to Carbondale with son Doug, daughter-in-law Sue and granddaughters Taylor and Connie as Taylor competes in the Class A state golf tournament.

"Taylor has kind of stolen grandpa's heart away from football," Ron said.

But that won't mean the cell phone won't be busy getting updates.

"There was nothing better than Hampshire-Central games when I coached there," said Ellett, who went on to coach at Jacobs, Elgin and North Park College after leaving Hampshire. "That was a wonderful era of games. The very first game on the Hampshire field, (coach) Harold Nordentoft and Central beat us (48-0)."

But Ellett's favorite memory of the current field comes from 1976 and a game against Genoa-Kingston, a game Ellett says was the real beginning of Hampshire's football tradition.

"Two years before Genoa had beat us 38-0," Ellett recalled. "We had a sophomore team starting on the varsity that year. After that game I took them under the goalpost and told them we'd have a time and place to pay them back.

"In 1976 they were state-ranked and we weren't. They brought out 50 players, we had 15. All the Genoa people were yelling at me, 'Hey Ellett, where's the varsity?' It was an 85-degree day and we beat 'em 31-0. That was the beginning of the state championship era on that field."

An era that ends -- both sadly and yet with a bright look to the future -- when this football season is over.