PULLMAN — For 35 years, Chicago activist, scholar and former track athlete Dr. Conrad Worrill has worked to bring an indoor track facility to Chicago.

On Sunday, during a groundbreaking ceremony at Gately Park, 744. E. 103rd St., he realized it’s actually happening.

“I’m ecstatic, happy, overjoyed, we’ve been fighting for this for over 35 years and I think it will give an option to Chicago Public Schools student athletes in having accessibility to an indoor track,” Worrill said. “I believe it will put Chicago on the map and it’s an opportunity to put Chicago track and field on the map.”

Gately Indoor Track & Field will be a state-of-the-art 139,000 square-foot track facility that includes the area’s first hydraulically banked 200-meter track, an 8-lane track, a throwing cage and space for field events including high jump and long jump. In addition to track and field events, the facility will also host football, basketball, lacrosse, volleyball, and outdoor soccer games and more. 

Worrill, a Civil Rights leader and longtime professor at Northeastern Illinois University, said he’s been lobbying Chicago mayors for a track facility within city limits since the Harold Washington administration.

Worril said in one of his first meeting with Washington, the mayor was on board with the idea. But before things could be set in motion, Washington died.

Years later, under the Richard M. Daley administration, an indoor track facility project made “some headway” as part of the city’s ill-fated bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. But when the bid failed, the plan was back to square one, Worrill said. 

Undeterred, Worrill continued to press forward until he was able to meet with Mayor Rahm Emanuel thanks to help from Ald. Michelle Harris (8th). It was at this meeting the plan for the facility finally found a home.

Read full article on the Block Club Chicago website.