Joe Ziemba
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Recognized as one of the leading authorities on the history of professional football in the country, Joe Ziemba is the award-winning author of the books When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL; Cadets, Cannons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy; and Bears vs. Cardinals: The NFL’s Oldest Rivalry. </p>r r A life-long resident of the south side of Chicago, Joe first became interested in the history of pro football after discovering that his father was a draft choice of the Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals in the 1940s. Because of his knowledge of the early days of the professional game, Joe has been a resource for articles or reports in Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, Chicago Magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Daily Southtown, the Arizona Republic, NBC Sunday Night Football, CBS Sunday Football, ESPN, and many others. Joe has appeared on the WGN documentary “Football in Chicago,†a Comcast Sports special on the Chicago Bears, on radio stations such as WBBM and WSCR in Chicago, as well as the Global Sports Broadcasting Network. </p>r r He hosts the “When Football Was Football†podcast on the Sports History Network (which was one of eight global finalists in both 2022 and 2023 for the football podcast of the year) and is a frequent guest on numerous pro football podcasts. Joe was recently a speaker at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH on the origins of the National Football League (NFL) as the NFL celebrated its belated 100th Anniversary. In 2022, Joe was the recipient of the prestigious Ralph Hay Award presented by the Professional Football Researchers Association for “lifetime achievement in pro football research and historiography.†Finally, in 2023, Joe’s book Bears vs. Cardinals was awarded the “Certificate of Excellence†from the Illinois State Historical Society in that organization’s annual “Best of Illinois History Awards.†</p>r r “Ziemba is also the author of When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL, making him the world’s leading — and only — Chicago Cardinals historian.†– Chicago Magazine, October, 2022r
Bears vs. Cardinals | Body of Work | When Football Was Football
Bears vs. Cardinals: The NFL’s Oldest Rivalry | Cadets, Cannons, and Legends: The Football History of Morgan Park Military Academy | When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL