Missiles Not Shoes

On any summer afternoon, a park along Mill Street south of Diehl Road on Naperville’s north side, the Nike Sports Core hosts a variety of athletic contests.  Spaces are allocated for baseball, soccer, beach volleyball, basketball, tennis, and more.   Why is it named the Nike Sports Core?  Did Nike, Incorporated, the athletic footwear and apparel marketer, sponsor its establishment?  No.  The sports core is in fact named for missiles, not shoes.  

Advances in aviation technology during and after World War II resulted in extension of aerial bomber range such that enemies, the Soviet Union in particular, could reach any U.S. population centers with nuclear armed bombers – Chicago included.   Preparation for possible aerial attack prompted the development of guided missiles to intercept enemy aircraft bent on doing harm to American citizens and industries. 

The U.S. Army contracted with Cicero’s own Western Electric, among others, to develop the missiles.  The projectiles were given the name Nike, commemorating the Greek goddess of victory.  Post-World War II tensions with the Soviet Union, heightened the urgency of developing the new defense technology.  That geopolitical rivalry came to be known as the “Cold War.   With the 1950 outbreak of hostilities in Korea, the “cold war” wasn’t so "cold” anymore, further emphasizing the need for rapid development.

Beginning in 1955, Nike launch sites were constructed in rings around major urban, industrial, or militarily sensitive areas.  More than three-hundred prospective launch sites were designated nationwide, twenty-two of them designated to protect Chicagoland.  Naperville was selected as the location for one such launch site, and in 1956, Nike missile base C-70 was established north of Naperville and staffed with 125 military personnel.   For the first time since the 1832 Black Hawk War, the towns along the Q hosted a military installation prepared to defend the region against possible hostile attack. 

The Naperville site was in actuality two sites. The actual launch site was along Mill Street, at the present Nike Sports Core location.   Administration functions were situated at the control site, 1 ¼ miles to the northeast, along Warrenville Road.  Facilities there included barracks, a mess hall, and a recreational and supply building. The intention was for the control and the launch sites to be within visual sight of each other.  Concurrent construction and opening of the East-West Tollway (now I-88) ended that line of sight connection.

In November, 1959, as a publicity attraction, the City of Naperville, hosted a Nike Hercules missile in the annual Santa Claus Christmas parade. While dramatic and memorable, the missile's presence was perhaps not entirely in harmony with the Christmas spirit. The Nike Hercules missiles were larger, faster, and more powerful than the Ajax, had longer range and could destroy multiple enemy aircraft at one time. The Naperville launch site only featured Nike Ajax missiles but not Hercules, a detail not important to the awed parade attendees that day.

While C-70 and the other Nike sites around the nation stood on silent protective guard, military technology and tactics were changing.  The Soviets developed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM’s), rendering their previous manned aircraft, and therefore the United States’ Nike missiles, especially the Ajax, obsolete.   Fewer launch sites were needed for the Hercules missiles, and in 1963, the Naperville site was decommissioned.  In 1975, the Naperville park district acquired the land from the U.S. Government for ultimate transition to the Nike Sports Core.  The control site was subsequently redeveloped as the Amoco research center, and then into a multi-tenant corporate campus.