Chicago Athletic Association

The Chicago Athletic Association was a men's club formed in 1890 and American football team, based in Chicago, Illinois. Through their long history, the Chicago Athletic Association had a variety of sports teams that competed in track, swimming, water polo, baseball and gymnastics. A basketball team was also sponsored, and boxing and fencing demonstrations were common in the club's earlier days. Beginning in the 1890's their swimming and water polo teams were coached by John Robinson, a member of the Water Polo Hall of Fame, and the club had several members medal in the 1904 St. Louis Olympics. The club formed a football team in 1892 which played for seven seasons, and was built around veterans of Chicago's University Club football team.

The CAA's elaborate Venetian Gothic-style building on Michigan Avenue was designed by Henry Ives Cobb, with the façade mostly designed by his assistant, Louis Christian Mullgardt, in 1893. Its original logo was a red encircled letter C which was adopted by longtime club member William Wrigley Jr. for his Chicago Cubs in 1917.

The club remained men-only (although wives or daughters could dine with the member) until 1972, and a private club from 1893 until it closed in 2007. The building was then turned into the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel in the next decade.

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