On Friday, October 11, 2024, Nazareth Academy made school history as we were featured on ABC7 Chicago’s Friday Flyover series. It was a whirlwind experience for the Naz Family and an incredible opportunity to show off our Naz Spirit to the Chicagoland community in celebration of our 125th Anniversary!
ABC7 Chicago anchor Tanja Babich and her team arrived at 3:45 a.m., where Nazareth faculty and staff began to mobilize students and organize a morning of the best Nazareth Academy has to offer! Hundreds of Nazareth students joined in to represent Roadrunner pride, whether leading cheers, playing the school fight song, showing off our student activities and sports or hyping up the crowd on Spirit Field.
It all began with a showcase of the frontlines of Nazareth Spirit as Naz’s Cheer team, Poms, Marching Band and Freddie Fanatics club showed Chicagoland how to rise bright and early to celebrate what it means to be a Roadrunner. Principal Hawkins was featured in the first interview, introducing Nazareth and our mission.
Tanja and her crew then made their way to the Oremus Media Center and STEM lab to share a bit about student life and the amazing opportunities for Nazareth students to get involved inside and outside the classroom. After interviewing President Tracy about our 125th year of Educating the Whole Person, everyone moved into Springer Hall, where Tanja led the drumline in a spirited cadence! The State Runners-Up Girls Basketball team was then featured in Rooney Student Center before the show made its way out to Spirit Field.
There in Valenta Stadium, students, faculty and staff came together for the grand finale. Tanja surprised everyone by donning our Rocky mascot costume and was later crowd-surfed by our very own Freddie Fanatics. After showing Chicagoland how we do the student section tradition that is the roller coaster, the ABC7 chopper flew over Spirit Field to reveal from above a student formation of “125” in honor of our 125th Anniversary.
When it comes to the Nazareth Academy experience, perhaps Eddie Austin ‘26 said it best: asked how Nazareth shows school spirit, he replied, “First of all, we show up.”
Rounding out the morning with an interview with Coach Tim Racki and the Nazareth Football team, Nazareth Academy made a truly impressive showing of Naz Spirit and Family. We are so grateful and proud to have been part of this wonderful experience, and we are so thankful to Tanja, her team and all of the ABC7 Chicago news team for the opportunity to celebrate Naz’s past, present and future!
Please visit the visit the abc7 site for video clips from this incredible day.