[1] Speik enrolled at the University of Chicago in 1901 and played four years of college football there under legendary coach Amos Alonzo Stagg.

[1] As a football player, he played at the left end position, was captain of the 1904 team, and became a close friend of Coach Stagg.

"[3] At the end of the 1904 season, Speik was selected as a first-team All-American by Caspar Whitney in Outing magazine[4] In 2017 he was inducted into the University of Chicago Athletics Hall of Fame.

[3] At the time of his resignation, the Chicago Daily Tribune reported: "Since Speik has been in charge at the Boilermaker institution Purdue has not won a game of note, and his ability as an instructor did not meet the expectations of members of the association, who assert that Speik had splendid material from which to pick an eleven.

[10] In June 1940, Speik's body was discovered hanging by a heavy cord attached to one of the machines at a surgical supply factory in South Pasadena.