Pounding the Rock: Football at Joliet's Stateville Penitentiary

A game action shot of the Stateville Penitentiary vs. Cabery All-Stars game. (Courtesy of Ridings, Jim, Images of America, Western Kankakee County, Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing. 2021.)

The Longest Yard and The Dirty Dozen are redemption stories based on the belief that convicts, like everyone else, have core goodness that is revealed in the right circumstances, under the right leadership. The Longest Yard also celebrates sports as a great equalizer in that everyone, regardless of background or circumstances, competes on an even playing field. Given the popularity of both movies, it is no surprise that Americans of the 1930s found the story of the Stateville Penitentiary football team appealing.

Stateville opened in 1925 just north of Joliet, Illinois. Often referred to as New Prison, it supplemented Joliet’s Old Prison, which most of us know as the onetime home of Jake Blues of The Blues Brothers.

A few years ago, I stumbled upon a 1930s article concerning new eligibility standards for football-playing inmates at Stateville. The syndicated story was picked up by newspapers across the country. Over the next few years, follow-up articles told the tale of those playing for State Pen rather than Penn State.