Joe Ziemba

Joe Ziemba is the award-winning author of the book "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. A life-long resident of the south side of Chicago, Joe first became interested in the history of football after discovering that his father was a draft choice for the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League in the 1940s. He is now recognized nationally for his knowledge of the early days of the game and has been a resource for articles, photos, or reports in Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Arizona Republic, ESPN, the Daily Southtown, NBC Sunday Night Football, CBS football, and many others. Joe has appeared on the WGN documentary “Football in Chicago,” a Comcast Sports special on the Chicago Bears, as well as on radio stations such as WBBM and WSCR in Chicago. He has spoken on the history of football throughout the country at schools, libraries, service clubs, and conferences, and shares the humor and challenges that football pioneers faced in the early days of the game. Joe is also the host of the podcast, "When Football Was Football" on the Sports History Network which explores forgotten topics in the long history of football in the Chicago area. Joe lives with his wife, Carol, in Frankfort, IL along with an ill-tempered, but charitable, Shih Tzu named Lucy. He can be reached at chicagocardinals1947@gmail.com or follow his Facebook page “Chicago Cardinals.”