September 2 Illinois History Minute

It’s September 2nd, the day Albert Goodwill Spalding was born in Byron in 1849. Spalding played professional baseball in the 1870s, including pitching and managing for the Chicago White Stockings, forerunner of the Chicago Cubs. Spalding helped popularize the use of baseball gloves. And he helped organize the National League. Albert Spalding also ran a sporting goods store with his brother in Chicago that grew into a major sports equipment manufacturer, now part of the Russell Corporation.

Singer-songwriter Syleena Johnson was born on this day in 1976 in the Chicago suburb of Harvey. Syleena’s parents were singer Syl Johnson and Harvey police commissioner Brenda Thompson.