Editing William Hale Thompson (section)

==Early life==
Thompson was born in [[Boston|Boston, Massachusetts]], to William Hale and Medora Gale Thompson, but his family moved to Chicago when he was nine days old.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bukowski |first1=Douglas |title=Big Bill Thompson, Chicago, and the Politics of Image |year=1998 |page=11 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252066689 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M01XXY9Dk74C&dq=big+bill+thompson+%22medora+gale%22&pg=PA271}}</ref> Despite having been born in Boston, Thompson had strong roots in Chicago. His father, Colonel William Hale Thompson Sr., was a popular businessman within Chicago and had served as colonel in the Second Illinois Guard who had come to Chicago after serving in the [[United States Navy]] during the [[American Civil War]]. His maternal grandfather, Stephen F. Gale, the first chief of the [[Chicago Fire Department]], had played a large part in drawing up the city's corporation charter in 1837, earning him regard as a "Chicago pioneer" by some academic journalists.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of the Chicago Fire Department |url=https://www.chicago.gov/dam/city/depts/cfd/general/PDFs/HistoryOfTheChicagoFireDepartment_1.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.chicago.gov/dam/city/depts/cfd/general/PDFs/HistoryOfTheChicagoFireDepartment_1.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Thompson attended [[Chicago Public Schools]], and took supplementary courses at the [[Fessenden School]] and Metropolitan College.<ref name="AHistory1"/>

[[File:Captain Thompson's Eleven of the C A A.jpg|thumb|Illustrations of Thompson (center) and other members of the [[1896 Chicago Athletic Association football team]]]]

Thompson was meant to attend Yale but instead moved to Wyoming at the age of 14, where he became a cowboy and cattle owner and traveled across Europe, taking up ranching in Texas and New Mexico later on in his life. The experiences influenced him to add Western touches into his campaign, including his [[sombrero]], which became a symbol for his campaign. By the age of twenty-one, he had accumulated a stake of $30,000. He returned to Chicago in 1892 after his father's death to manage his estates. Shortly after returning to Chicago, Thompson joined the Illinois Athletic Club and the Sportsmen's Club of America and quickly was appointed director-general and captain of the [[Chicago Athletic Association]]'s [[water polo]] and [[American football|football]] teams. His six-foot frame and athletic prowess earned him the nickname "Big Bill," which stuck with him throughout his career as a politician.<ref name=":222" /><ref name=":422">Martin, Edward M. "Our American mayors XIII. William Hale Thompson of Chicago: The saga of a sombrero." ''National Municipal Review'' 17, no. 11 (November 1928): 663. ''Publisher Provided Full Text Searching File'', EBSCOhost (accessed November 2, 2016).</ref>