Soldier Field was the scene of the 1936 world championship games when Chicago hosted the Amateur Softball Association. Though billiards was considered to be a popular commercial sport for blue-collar workers, the number of licensed billiard parlors diminished from 2,244 (1920) to 580 (1936) due to the Great Depression.[22] On November 28, 1937, in Soldier Field, Austin High School beat Leo High School 26-0 in the annual playoff which pitted the champions of the city's Public League against the Catholic League. The crowd, estimated at 120,000, was considered to be the largest ever to view a football game in the US.[23]
On May 26, 1937, 85,000 steelworkers in five states walked out. Five Chicago-area mills were shut with 22,000 workers walking out. Republic Steel clash four days later.[24] Ten demonstrators were killed by police bullets during the "Little Steel Strike" of 1937. When several smaller steelmakers, including Republic Steel, refused to follow the lead of U.S. Steel by signing a union contract, a strike was called by the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).[25] In the melee that followed, 10 demonstrators were killed and 60 injured; 40 police officers were hurt.