The Spirit of Father Ryan

To Me, This Is Better Than Our Diploma!

2009-07-07T09:10:00.001-07:00

The warm glow of our recent Reunion weekend together remains, especially after receiving a thank-you note such as the one I have just gotten from our former teacher Ed Johnston and his wife Sarah.

He asked me to share it with everyone:

Dear Pat,

Want you to know how much we enjoyed the Class of 69's reunion and deeply appreciated the invitation to be a part of it.

What a great class and such a credit to your families and to Father Ryan. Nothing means more to a former teacher than to see former students having such an impact on their families and their community. The class of '69 is truly outstanding and each of you will always be a major part of my happy memories of Father Ryan.

Thanks too, to Jimmy and Sarah for their hospitality and, again, to you, Pat, for all the work on the blog site and all you do for the community and especially for Father Ryan.

God bless each and everyone one of you in the Class of '69, it was great to see you again.

In Christ,

Ed & Sarah

Continuing Our Photo Essay

2009-06-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

Here's still more photos to remember our Reunion 2009!

Pat Watson talks it over with our former teacher Jim Zraleck while Pat Cook looks on.

Mike Jumonville greets classmate Mike Grant for the first time in many years, while Bill Carver and his wife Chris look on.

After all these years, Scott Brunette is still ready to go!

Bill Carver and Terry Shelton try to figure out exactly how they did our PANTHER YEARBOOK when we were seniors.

Ann Shugart Carter was one of 20 wives and significant others who put up with us for our 40th Reunion weekend. Thank you, ladies!

Yours truly and Tim Quirk take a moment to check out the blog.

Baron Harmon, Bill Carver, Pat Nolan, Patty Nelson, Bob Nelson

Tommy Daugherty, Mike Grant, Joe Holzmer, Baron Harmon, Chuck Scruggs, Randy DuBois and David Adams

To sum it up....

It was a night and a weekend that none of us could stop smiling and laughing. We met each other again, some of us after many years apart. We found how we'd changed over the decades, but we also found how we had stayed the same, and in many cases, could still finish each other sentences.

We are a Class again, 40 years later.

More Photos From Our Special Evening Together

2009-06-10T12:42:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Baron Harmon, Pat Bauer and Tony Greene, here's a brief photo essay looking back on our Reunion Party last Saturday night at the the Wilsons (thanks again to Jimmy and his wife Sarah for hosting us).

The Class of '69 fills up the Wilsons' home.

Our host Jimmy Wilson spends some time with Baron Harmon

Pat Bauer, in one of the few moments he wasn't taking pictures himself, while Carlton Crutchfield waits for his closeup.

Here's Carlton!

Joe Hobbs, Randy DuBois and Kevin Wilkinson catch up on the porch

Mike Curley talks with one of his former teachers, Ed Johnston.

Like the rest of us, Bubba Thurman had a smile on his face all night!

So did Mike J. Carter.

Our classmate Bubba Donnelly and his wife, Chris. Thanks to Bubba and his firm, Athens Distributing, for providing our libations for the evening!

Richard Conditt remembers old times with one of his former teachers Pat Langdon. Mr. Langdon still teaches at Father Ryan.

As the evening moved on and dinner was served, our conversations continued.

There are still more photos to come. So visit this blog site again soon.

Roll Call

2009-06-08T07:57:00.000-07:00

Here's one of our classmate Toy Greene's photos from our 40th Reunion Party at the Wilsons' last Saturday night (June 6).

It shows Joe Holzmer, Terry Shelton, Mike Curley and Mike Grant enjoying each others' company and remembering old times.

Here's a roll call of the members of the Class of 1969 who participated in our Reunion:

David Adams
Frank Baltz
Pat Bauer
Scott Brunette
Mike Carter
Bill Carver
Richard Conditt
John Conners
Carlton Crutchfield
Mike Curley
Tommy Daugherty
Will Forte
John Goetz
Baron Harmon
Joe Hobbs
Joe Holzmer
Phil Jones
Mike Jumonville
Bob Nelson
Pat Nolan
Nick Rosa
Chuck Scruggs
Terry Shelton
Bubba Thurman
Bubba Tucker
Pat Watson
Jimmy Wilson
Pat Cook
Bubba Donnelly
Kevin Wilkinson
Tim Quirk
Randy DuBois
Mike Grant
Phil Mattingly
Tony Greene

That's 35 classmates present Saturday night. Make that 36 with Harold Plemons and his wife who came by the Friday night reception at Father Ryan. Meanwhile, Mike Hansom made an RSVP for the Saturday party, but I did not see him there. Does anyone remember if Mike made it and I just missed seeing him?

We had a total of 20 spouses join us either Friday or Saturday. They deserve our thanks for coming. We also had 4 former faculty members and their spouses attend:

Ed Johnston
Jim Zraleck
Pat Langdon
Jim Langdon

We really appreciate them coming to our celebration. It was their guidance and help that made a lot of difference in our lives while we attended Father Ryan and in the years since we left.

That totals 64 folks who either came to the party or the reception which is probably close to double the number we had at our last Reunion five years ago.

Hopefully, we can all get back together again with even more of our classmates for our 45th Reunion the first weekend of June, 2014.

Mark it on your calendar or in your long-range Outlook today!

MORE PHOTOS STILL TO COME!

And I am working on the address and e-mail contact list we asked everyone to sign Saturday. Unfortunately a few folks forgot to sign up or didn't leave their e-mail addresses (John Connors, Frank Baltz, John Goetz please contact and send me yours). I will send everyone else the information we put together so we can all stay in touch!

An Evening To Remember!

2009-06-08T07:21:00.001-07:00

Courtesy of Pat Bauer, here are some photos of our special night together last Saturday (June 6) at Jimmy and Sarah Wilson's home to celebrate our 40th Class Reunion.

As you can see Pat also created a special template for the photos including the ones below.

I think it is safe to say that our Reunion Party was the largest gathering of the Father Ryan Class of 1969 since our graduation day of May 25, 1969 when 165 class members got their diplomas.

By my records at the Saturday night party we had 35 classmates present, 19 spouses, along with 4 former teachers and their spouses for a total of 62 people at the party. I know we had so many folks, we had to put the spouses on the second floor porch of the Wilson's home to get everyone in one picture. And even then a few folks arrived later and so they are not in the photo below that Pat Bauer's wife, Pam, took as a part of the montage.

I have some other photos taken by our classmate Tony Greene, who made it to the Reunion despite being on our class "lost list." We sure are glad to be back in touch with him and other classmates who we re-connected with while planning this Reunion. I will posting Tony's photos next and more from Pat Bauer later.

Thanks to both of them for sharing these photos.

What A Great Beginning!

2009-06-06T13:12:00.000-07:00

It was quite a Friday night reception for the Father Ryan Class of 1969 as we began our Reunion Weekend festivities. Here are a group of us posing in front of the old front doors of the Elliston Place Father Ryan campus. The doors are now the entrance to the beautiful, new Library Building and are dedicated in memory of our FRHS Principal, Father James Hitchcock and our Vice Principal, Father Edward Arnold.

It a very appropriate place for us to come together. And we may
have had the largest turnout of any class present for the All-Class Reunion reception which was held in and around the courtyard on the new (at least for our class) FRHS Norwood Drive campus in Oak Hill.

Some of us got a chance to walk around the back part of the campus where the new FRHS Athletic Complex is rising impressively out of the ground. Construction is set to be done by early August in time for an Open House August 8, and then the first home football game ever in a permanent stadium on a Father Ryan campus in its 80 year-plus history. That game is set for August 28 against Hillwood.

With the goal posts and the field turf already in place and the Father Ryan crest in the center of the field, it clearly won't be long before the Irish will truly be at home on their football field for the first time in our school's long history.

Much of the evening was spent visiting with one another, remembering old stories and good times together, and even getting re-acquianted with former teachers, such as Pat Langdon, who spent some time with Harold Plemmons as you can see from the photo above.

By the way, Mr. Langdon ("Fat Pat" as we called him to distingush him from his brother, Jim Langdon who also taught us) will definitely be coming to tonight's (Saturday) Class Party at our classmates Jimmy Wilson's home. Both Pat and Jim Langdon still teach at Father Ryan believe it not. Another favorite teacher Ed Johnston will also join us tonight. Unfortunately, our classmate Harold Plemmons will not be there.

One other thing members of the Class of 1969 got the chance to see and visit is this statue in the Father Ryan courtyard dedicated to another of our favorite teachers, Father William Fleming.

Among our classmates attending Friday, many with their wives, and almost all of them attending Saturday's night party are:

Pat Bauer (thanks to Pat for all these great photos!)
Mike Carter
Pat Cook
Pat Nolan
Terry Shelton
Mike Curley
Bob Nelson
Jimmy Wilson
Mike Jumonville
Carlton Crutchfield
Harold Plemmons
Kevin Wilkerson (who arrived late when the reception was almost over)

This morning a small group of us (including Tony Green and Tommy Daugherty) met for a late breakfast, then walked over to the old campus on Elliston Place. Besides visiting the memorabilia display at the Hampton Inn now on the site, we also managed to slip inside the fenced off portion of the old school grounds and tried to remember where various buildings were located, in what is now a very large, vacant field.

Like the Friday night reception, I think the visit to the old Father Ryan site brought back a lot of memories and got us even more in the mood for tonight's party.

See in a few hours!

Reunion Is Just A Few Hours Away....

2009-06-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

I hope to see several of you in just a couple of hours out at the All-Class Reception at Father Ryan to begin our weekend Reunion activities. It begins at 6:00 PM.

A couple of updates....Bubba Donnelly and his wife Chris McCann Donnelly will be joining us Saturday night for the party at the Wilsons. Bubba is donating the booze for the event, so tell him thanks!

It also appears there is a still good possibility that Mike Grant will be joining us. That will be wonderful as well.

Some of us are planning to gather Saturday morning at 10:00 at the Panera's Restaurant on 21st Avenue near Vanderbilt if you want to drop by.

One word of caution about the area interstates through town this weekend:

The Tennessee Department of Transportation is closing the westbound lanes of I-40 from exit 211B (where I-24 splits off to Clarksville) to Exit 210B (where I-65 splits off towards Brentwood).

Since the Wilsons home for the party is off I-65 South make sure you don't get caught in this closure (although there are detours around it).

The closure begins Friday night at 8:00 PM and ends no later than 5:00 AM Monday morning.

This is the second weekend in a row that portions of the interstates here have been closed for repairs. This time it's repairing the concrete for the bridges over Lafayette Street and 2nd and 4th Avenues.

The East bound lanes of I-40 in this area will remain open at all times. Just the westbound lanes are to be closed.

Stay safe!

We've Done This Before---A Look Back At Reunions Past

2009-06-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

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Here we are five years ago at the Wilsons home for our 35th Reunion Party.

And hopefully we will have an even larger group coming this Saturday night.

The calendar says after 40 years this should be the eighth time we have gathered for a Reunion. That's once every 5 years. But if we had a five-year reunion in 1974, I wasn't there and I have never heard anyone in our Class talk about such an event.

I know by our ten-year anniversary in 1979, there was a reunion. I think it was held at the Dabbs Avenue K.C. Club near the Airport. But other than that, my memory is hazy of that evening. I can't even remember if we had the gathering on a Friday or Saturday night. I know I came to the event solo because my first child, Katie, had just been born in late March and my wife was home with her.

By 1984 for our 15th Reunion, my memory is of attending an All-Class Mass at the Elliston Place campus, followed by a dinner held at the nearby (and still new) Vanderbilt Plaza Hotel.

1989 for our 20th Reunion is the first time I remember working to help organize the event. I also remember the late Will Martin being involved as we held a festive Friday night party and a dance at the University Club near Vanderbilt, followed Saturday evening by a big All-Class Dinner at the Opryland Hotel.

Here's a photo from that evening of our class members who attended. It was taken on the steps of the Opryland Hotel.

In 1994, it was time for our Silver Anniversary, 25 years after leaving Father Ryan. The old school building and campus on Elliston Place was gone and so we held a Friday night reception for our class in the gym at Saint Bernard Academy. Saturday afternoon we organized a picnic in Centennial Park, followed that evening by a Memorial Mass for our deceased classmates in the Chapel at the new Father Ryan in Oak Hill, and then a Social, Dinner and and Dance in the new FRHS Dining Hall.

Here are some photos from that special evening....

Our Libarian, Sister Mary Bonaventure joined us for dinner along with our Principal, now Monsignor James Hitchcock. No, Sister did not bring her scrapbook of deleted items from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.

Joe Williams and Gino Marchetti were in attendance along with their wives, Mary and Jeanne.

Here we are at the end of our 25th Reunion evening with a group photo in the Dining Hall.

By the way, this 25th Reunion was the only one we've had that was not held the first weekend in June. These celebrations occurred the weekend of June 24-25, 1994.

In 1999 for our 30th Class Reunion, we began our celebration with the first All-Class Reception held on Friday evening at the Norwood Drive campus, followed by our Class Party at the Boundary Restaurant near Vanderbilt held on Saturday night. Here are some photos from that evening....

Bill Carver and Tim Templeton talk it over.

Bob Nelson and Pat Nolan work their way through the food line.

Mike J. Carter and his wife Anna Shugart Carter greet Bob Campbell.

Pat Cook and Phil Jones remember old times.

Mark Mogan greets Bill Carver upon arriving at The Boundary for the Class Party. Unfortunately, just a few weeks later, Mogan passed away.

That brings us back to our last Class of 1969 Gathering in 2004 for our 35th Reunion. Here are a few more photos from that party at Jimmy and Sarah Wilson's home...

Phil Jones visits with one of our teachers, Pat Langdon and his wife.

Phil Mattingly, Mike Grant and Pat Nolan talk some politics during Reunion. I promise I am not wearing that shirt again!

And so we await our next Reunion this Saturday night. Please bring your digital cameras, so we can take some pictures and help make some more memories for our Reunions yet to come.

NOTE: If you want a better look, you can click on any of the photos above,or any of the photos on this blog for a magnified view.

Wanna Play Class Trivia?

2009-06-04T14:49:00.000-07:00

I have had the suggestion that we ask some class trivia questions Saturday night.

It would be a general discussion effort. No books or written questions or tests. Some of us are still too damaged from 40 years ago to do anymore of that. :)

In fact, one class member has already sent me a question to ask. He says he knows the answer and wants to see who else knows it. I won't reveal the question and I don't know the answer. I will say the person asking the question is now a part of the criminal justice system here in town and the fact that he is asking questions should probably scare the hell out of us!

Anyway I thought the group trivia questions might be a fun thing to do later in the evening Saturday night, after we've all had time to visit, then get something to eat...and drink. These kinds of things are always better (and get funnier answers) after a few drinks.

I have some class trivia questions left over from our previous Reunions I can use. And if any of you have your own questions to pose, send them to me or bring them to Friday night's reception or to the Wilsons home Saturday night.

Let's just hope any statute of limitations have expired so we can all answer truthfully. LOL

Believe It Or Not! They Are Still Talking About Our Class Superlatives 40 Years Later!

2009-06-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

Jimmy Wilson, Most Popular, FRHS Class of 1969

Now everyone believes their Class is the best to ever attend their high school. But for the Father Ryan Class of 1969 we've got something to back it up!

Believe it or not, the photo above of Jimmy Wilson as Most Popular from our 1969 PANTHER Annual was prominently displayed at a recent city-wide gathering here in Nashville where people came to tell their favorite stories about Centennial Park.

Even though it was 40 years since the photograph was taken at Watauga Lake, people were laughing out loud as Jimmy related how the photo was taken (one shot only by Bob Campbell) as the Metro Park Police closed in to kick Jimmy and Bob out of the park.

By the way, there was no trick photography done with this shot, and it was snapped and developed way, way, way before Photoshop. Want proof? Take a look at Jimmy's reflection in the lake. I doubt you can get that even today with Photoshop.

If you don't know the whole story about how the photo of Jimmy was set up, you have to get him to tell you Saturday night at the Class Party. It is really funny!

Bubba Donnelly, Most Athletic, FRHS Class of 1969

This photo of Bubba Donnelly was also taken in Centennial Park at the Parthenon. In fact, according to Jimmy Wilson, the Metro Park Police first showed up here that day to ask what the heck was going on. That gave Jimmy and Bob Campbell the time to slip over the Watauga Lake to get the other photograph taken.

So who else still has their Class Superlatives still being talked about in Nashville 40 years later?

Here are the rest of our Class Superlatives, courtesy of the wonderful and creative photography of our 1969 PANTHER Yearbook staff:

Mike Grant, Best School Spirit, FRHS Class of 1969

Mike Carter, Most Likely To Succeed, FRHS Class of 1969

Gary Edmondson, Most Handsome, FRHS Class of 1969

Phil Bennett, Wittiest, FRHS Class of 1969

Gino Marchetti, Best All-Around, FRHS Class of 1969

Joe Formosa, Best Dressed, FRHS Class of 1969

Ted Lenox, Most Studious, FRHS Class of 1969

And so, there they are. The Best of the Best of our class....and still being talked about in Nashville 40 years later. :)

One More Time....The Directions To The Wilsons Home For Saturday's Party

2009-06-04T13:05:00.000-07:00

It has occurred to me that some FRHS Class of 1969 folks may begin traveling to Nashville late today (Thursday) or early Friday for our Reunion Weekend.

So, one more time, here are the directions to the home of Jimmy and Sarah Wilson for our Class Party Saturday eveing beginning at 6:00 PM.

Jimmy and Sarah Wilson live at 1607 Oakhall Drive.

Directions coming I-65 South from out of Nashville:

Take I-65 South towards Huntsville to the Concord Road Exit.

Turn left off of the exit onto Concord Road

Proceed past the Brentwood YMCA which will be on the right.

Turn right on Wilson Pike at the BP Market.

Proceed through two traffic (red) lights (one at Crockett Road and one at Moore's Lane).

Turn left at the next traffic (red) light. It is at Ravenwood High School at Raintree Parkway.

Oakhall Drive is on the left just past the Wilson Cemetary (which has a white picket fence), This is at the entrance to Oakhall Subdivision (which has two stone walls).

Jimmy and Sarah's actual home is known as Oak Hall. It is the first house on the left, 1607 Oakhall Drive. It has a gravel driveway.

If you go past the clubhouse, you have gone too far!

Lost? Call Jimmy at 615-866-9844, or you can try Google!

See you Saturday night!

So What 's The Weather Going To Be Like In Nashville For Our Reunion Weekend?

2009-06-04T07:19:00.001-07:00

In a word, the weather this Reunion weekend in Nashville looks like it is going to be:

WONDERFUL

After some showers and thunderstorms here on Thurday, a cold front will be passing through, and daytime highs on Friday will be in the high 70s to low 80s.

Saturday, it may warm up back up into the high 80s to near 90 by Sunday.

But with little or no chance for rain the entire weekend, I suspect the humidity will be low. And that's always a plus for Nashville this time of year!

The night time lows may get down to the low 60s to upper 50s Friday night into Saturday morning (so you might want a light sweater or jacket late Friday night or early Saturday morning).

The night time lows on Saturday night are forecast to be in the mid-60s, so it should be delightful for the party at the Wilsons, especially with the winds remaining light, and again, NO RAIN is in the forecast throughout the weekend, just sunny to partly cloudy skies.

That's my definition of GREAT WEATHER!

What Should We Wear Saturday Night?

2009-06-04T06:42:00.000-07:00

With apologizes to my friend and our classmate, Lindsey Draper, who posed for this hilarious photo in our 1969 PANTHER Yearbook, the dress for Saturday evening is completely casual.

We may have worn dress shirts, ties and blazers (with the FRHS crest) during most of our days at Father Ryan, but we WILL NOT be nearly that formal or dressed up for our 40th Reunion party.

As I remember, we didn't start wearing our uniforms until November each year, and we went out of uniform in the last few weeks of school year, probably because it was so hot and much of the school was not air conditioned. That may also be why we didn't start into uniforms until the heat of the Fall subsided as well.

I think our class can take some credit for relaxing the uniform code a little bit while we were there. When we began as freshmen, we had to wear a black or navy blazer every school day with the school crest on the pocket. The dress shirts had to be blue or white (no pastels or pin stripes allowed). The slacks had to be dark, grey or navy in color usually (I don't think khaki pants were allowed).

But by the time we were seniors, working through the Student Council which was created while we were there, the uniform requirements were modified so we could also wear sweaters or a windbreaker with our ties as an alternative to blazers, and pastel colors for shirts were allowed along with some very tiny pinstripes. Even the color of the pants could be lighter (at least from looking that yearbook I see a few khaki-colored pants with our uniforms.

These were good changes, especially since most of us couldn't afford multiple blazers to wear. So they got pretty beat up looking and often really rank as the school year went on. An annual rite at the end of the school year was for some students to burn their blazers, they got so bad.

And so, with those nightmares back in the closet, what do we mean by casual for Saturday night? I would say sport shirts, golf shirts, khaki pants. But I am not the fashion police, so whatever you feel comfortable wearing is OK.

I am certainly not the fashion police for what the women should wear. That's getting way too close to that proverbial deadly question of "How do I look in this outfit?" and I refuse to go there. :) Besides, I found our ladies are very good at finding many appropriate ways to dress for parties and I suspect all of them will look better than the guys!

Getting back to Lindsey Draper, I understand he is Judge in Wisconsin these days. I sure hope he doesn't have any jurisdiction to come after me here in Tennessee if he doesn't like seeing the photo above. :)

FORE!

2009-06-04T06:25:00.000-07:00

We haven't spoken about it much here on the blog, but if you are a golfer, don't forget about the Lou Graham Invitational to be held Reunion Weekend (Saturday morning, June 6) to support Father Ryan's alumni scholarship fund.

The tournament is at the Champions Run Golf Course in Rockvale, TN, about 45 minutes from Nashville, with a shotgun start set for 8 AM.

Not many schools can say they have a U.S. Open Golf Champion as an alum (or an alum who made the cover of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED), but Father Ryan can proudly make that claim.

Lou Graham is a member of the Father Ryan Class of 1956. He won the U.S. Open by two strokes over John Mahaffey in a dramatic 18-hole playoff in 1975. During the mid-1970s, the U.S. Open was Graham's best tournament. He lost by a stroke and finished second just two years later at the Open (1977). He also finished tied for third at the Open in 1974, the year before he claimed the title. That's a very interesting accomplishment since the Open moves to a different course every year.

During his professional career, Mr. Graham won six titles and over $1.4 million on the PGA tour as well as $600,000 in Senior Tour career earnings. During a space of 11 weeks in 1979, Graham won three titles on the PGA Tour (The Philadelphia Golf Classic, The American Optical Classic and the San Antonio Texas Open). For that achievement he won GOLF DIGEST's 1979 Comeback of the Year Award.

Lou will be present and available for photos and autographs at his namesake Alumni Invitational Golf Tournament Event this weekend. He is truly one of our school's most outstanding alums.

It will be a great day of fun and fellowship at the Lou Grahmaa Tournament, and it's not too late to sign up to play! Remember the tournament is open to ALL alumni and all family and friends of Father Ryan, and you can sign up as an individual ($85) or put a team of 4 players together ($500 including a hole sponsorship).

Go to the Father Ryan web site: www.fatherryan.org/golf for more information or to download and submit the registration form.

Have a great time! Just don't get too sunburned or tuckered out before our Class Party at the Wilsons on Saturday night.

When I Grow Up To Be A Man: The Prophecy of The FRHS Senior Class of 1969--Part II

2009-06-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

Looking back at photos like these, it's hard to imagine any of us spent much time at Father Ryan thinking about what we would be when we grew up to be men.

But I know we all did. After all the Beach Boys made a hit record about it:

"When I Grow Up To Be A Man"

The second part of our Prophecy of the FRHS Senior Class of 1969 is not nearly as profound as some of the words of that Beach Boy song from the 1960s.

Some of it seems a little obscure, even a bit mean 40 years later. But hey, we were still kids. Also keep in mind, as in Part I of the Prophecy, it helps to remember who was dating who, etc.

And so, here it is: Part II of Prophecy of the FRHS Senior Class of 1969. Depending on how you want to look it, I guess we either scooped John Lennon by a few years,or we owe him a very belated apology, since the name of this prophecy segement is IMAGINE:

THE PROPHECY OF THE FRHS SENIOR CLASS OF 1969

IMAGINE; Jim Viel with his own pack of cigarettes

IMAGINE: Charlie Hostetler replacing Barney Rubble on The Flintstones

IMAGINE: David Schmitt going parking on PENTECOST Sunday

IMAGINE: Randy DuBois head of the FBI

IMAGINE: Joe Williams as over in Africa and used as a spear

IMAGINE: Jimbo Bauer after work with a Callis on his hand

IMAGINE: Jack Long owing his own factory and really getting into the GREEN

IMAGINE: Pat Bauer starring in I Spy

IMAGINE: Kyle Walker talking

IMAGINE: Pat Wall with a date

IMAGINE: Trying to steal Tennessee Speed Sport (Jay Catignani)

IMAGINE: Lindsay Draper head of the Ku Klux Clan.

IMAGINE: Ted Lenox as a Garbage Man

IMAGINE: Jack Gaines owning Clearsil Corporation

IMAGINE: Johnny Shelton thinking life isn't ROSIE after a date with Eba

IMAGINE: Bill O'Donohoe as an astronaut trying to fly to the moon to catch a RAE

IMAGINE; John Winkfield with WHITE wall tires.

IMAGINE: Terry Shelton getting in trouble

IMAGINE: A teacher disliking Johnny Hosey

IMAGINE: Jim Wilson writing a book "How To Win The Leo Long Award Without Ever Playing"

IMAGINE: Joe Hobbs settling in ELIZABETHtown as a blackSMITH

IMAGINE: Frank Baltz, President of Baltz Brothers, going to work for BECKER's Bakery.

IMAGINE: Phil Mattingly owner of Butch Wax

IMAGINE: Sparky Duffy head football coach at Ryan with Coach Donnelly as an assistant

IMAGINE: Les Mondelli having it down PAT how to hijack planes to Cuba

IMAGINE: Chuck McDowell doing some of the things he get blamed for

IMAGINE: Dickey Kibby, publisher of a GOURLEY magazine

IMAGINE: Bubba Donnelly playing Kick the McCANN.

IMAGINE: Will Forte, International Playboy of the Year

IMAGINE: Gary Edmondson not getting burned on a date

IMAGINE: Roger Rotoni winning the Olympic Gold Medal in handball

IMAGINE: Kenny Potts not potted

IMAGINE: Sam Vaughn orginator of SCHULTZ Malt Liquor

IMAGINE: Willie Martin as the after example on a Metreacal commercial

IMAGINE: Larry Lisle President of the United States

IMAGINE: Frank Lovell owning a Rolls-ROYCE

IMAGINE: Rick Sinnott inventing a crash-proof bridge

IMAGINE: Mike McGrady without any HOLZ in his Apple

IMAGINE: Gino Marchetti rooming with Jeff Peeples at Vanderbilt

IMAGINE: Greg Garr with muscles

IMAGINE: Mike Schoen bankrupt

IMAGINE: Doyle Bumpus heavyweight champion of the world

IMAGINE: Tim Quirk going to college

IMAGINE: Joe O'Connor Secretary of Agriculture

IMAGINE: Bobby Nelson head of THE NASHVILLE BANNER

IMAGINE: Davis Osbourne married and having ten girls

IMAGINE: Steve McRedmond kicked out of college for public drunkedness

IMAGINE: Tim Templeton Mr. Universe

IMAGINE: Emile Catignani going to a restaurant saying, "give me a hamburger and hold the MAYOnaise."

And so, mercifully, ends our Class Prophecy. I apologize if this brought back any bad memories for some folks, or if you have explain yours to your wife. :)

I am afraid to ask this question. Did we produce a "Last Will & Testament?" I don't have a copy. If anyone does, bring it to the party at the Wilsons. It ought to be good for a few laughs...especially after a few beers.

The Prophecy of the Father Ryan Senior Class of 1969--Part I

2009-06-03T14:07:00.000-07:00

In the weeks just before we graduated from Father Ryan, we put together (or someone did) our Class Prophecy.

It was done in two sections: One is a look ahead to predict what some members of the Class of 1969 would be doing in the year 2000. I guess we thought that was a long time away.

Now we know better. :)

The second section involved imagining what would happen to other members of the class being put in certain situations or positions.

Does anyone remember how this was put together? Who put it together? Some of the meanings of what is being said in the Prophecies may be a little obscure now, especially to those who were not in our class.

In some cases, I think it helps to remember who people were dating or they were friends with, or situations they had gotten involved in when this was written, especially in the IMAGINE: section, which we will look at in Part II.

And so, without further ado, here is Part I of the Prophecy of FRHS Senior Class of 1969 concerning:

The Year 2000

On what I thought was going to be just another routine business trip to Nashville, many interesting things occurred. As I pulled in to the Wiseway service station, I encountered Father Daugherty who said he had just finished speaking with Congressman Carter over an important matter. It seems rich business tycoon Guy Brewer was claiming the property on which Father Daugherty's parish stood belonged to him and Brewer's assistants, Bill Carver and Phil Bennett, were having trouble collecting the payments.

As I begin to drive away, I decided to stop and buy a paper at Henrich's Drug Store. "Admiral Belcher Wants More Ships" the headline read. Secretary of Defense Don Carnes and Secretary of State Steve Conquest are both against appropriating any more money to the Navy. Senator Pat Cook from Tennessee supported the Admiral, saying that the ships could be built cheaply since Felts Enterprises merged with The Watson Corporation.

I decided to check in to the newly constructed, Ayers Hotel and finish reading the paper. The desk clerk, Andy Cantrell, told me how the doorman,Steve Beasley, had to throw out two men who were trying to sell advice on how to miss trees and live longer. The two men, as it turned out, were John Connors and John Bevington.

I saw where Bob Brown and Bob Curtiss had just bought Old Hickory Lake and had to sell to the Grant-Grant-Goins-Davis Interprises so they could flood the state with their ideas. I decided to take a drive and I was stopped by Chief of Police Charlie Rosa and his Assistant Chief Bubba Thurman. By mistake, I went the wrong way down Plemons Avenue. I knew that Judge Eric Thomas was tough, so I mailed in the money.

The next day I found out that two Grand Ole Opry stars, Donnie Winters and Pat Nolan, were trying to make Minnie Pearl Day a National holiday. The Mighty 8, a special branch of the police force, led by Bernie Werrbach and Bill Stone was called in to investigate a crime at Woodside's Department Store.

As I got on my way to my conference, I passed the Curley Institute of Higher Learning and saw Bob Campbell giving judo demonstrations outside the building. As I reached my destination, I found that the building my meeting was supposed to be in was being torn down to make room for Mayor Wyman's Urban Renewal Project. Confused, I started back to Bryd's Railway Station and got the next train back to Saint Louis. The Conductor, Carlton Crutchfield took my ticket and I sat down. Just as I was about to go to sleep, someone tapped me on the shoulder. As I looked up, there stood a Fuller Brush Salesman, Henry Swider, giving me his sales pitch.

The only way to get out of this mad house was to jump in a rented car and drive.

(Well, somebody sure had an active, if not very accurate imagination, about what the future held for some of us in the Year 2000.)

There's more to come. You can just IMAGINE: in the next segment of the Prophecy of the FRHS Senior Class of 1969.

A Reminder...Just In Case You Don't Receive E-Mails From Father Ryan

2009-06-03T13:27:00.000-07:00

You're Invited to the Father Ryan Alumni Reception!

Please join us Friday, June 5 to kick off the 2009 Reunion Weekend!

Who: All Father Ryan Alumni, no matter what your class year

What: A casual evening of live music, drinks and light appetizers

When: Friday, June 5th--6:00 PM until 8:00PM

Where: The Father Ryan Arts Center, 700 Norwood Drive

We look forward to seeing you there!

For more information, visit the alumni webpage, www.fatherryan.org or call the FRHS Advancement Office at (615) 269-RYAN (7926).

For members of the Class of 1969, here are a few more reasons to come by the reception Friday evening (especially if you've never been to Father Ryan's campus in Oak Hill).

First, do it to honor the two gentlemen pictured below who played such a major role in our lives while we attended Father Ryan:

Our Principal, Father James Hitchcock

Our Assistant Principal, Father Edward Arnold

Both these men have left us since the last time we gathered together as a class five years ago in 2004. The front doors of the old Father Ryan High School on Elliston Place have been preserved at the new campus and are now the entrance to the beautiful Father Ryan Library, which is right next to the Center for the Arts. The doors are also dedicated in the memory of Fathers Hitchcock and Arnold.

Dropping by here to honor their memory and say a little prayer would be a good thing to do.

Then continue your walk around to the back and you will see something under construction, you may have thought you'd never live to behold at Father Ryan: The Jim Carell Alumni Athletic Complex. That's right an on-campus football facility for the Irish!

What you see above is a scale model. What you can see if you come to the reception is a stadium project well along the way to completion. You can get a glimpse of how far along things are by going to the Father Ryan web site (www.fatherryan.org) and clicking on the Athletic Complex webcam that updates with a new photo of the construction site every 15 seconds.

By the way, an Open House for the Carell Complex is set for August 8with the first home football game (that's right, a real home game in our own stadium) scheduled against Hillwood on August 28.

There's one final reason, the members of the Father Class of 1969 should drop by the Friday evening reception. It's a great way for us to hook up, visit a bit, and then go out for dinner or drinks.

Several of us did it last time in 2004 and had a great time.

See you Friday, if you can make it!

Tommy Daugherty Is Coming!

2009-06-03T06:14:00.000-07:00

It's great to be able to announce that another one of our classmates, Tommy Daugherty, will be joining us for our 40th Reunion activities this weekend!

I'm pumped. I can't remember the last time I've seen Tommy, so getting to visit with him again will be a special treat. That's true as well for me concerning a number of others in our class coming in for the festivities.

If you are a member of our FRHS Class of 1969 and would like to come, but haven't sent in your reservation or your money ($20 per person) for Saturday's party (the Friday evening reception at FRHS is free), it's still not too late. Just contact the Father Ryan Alumni Office (Angela Mills) at 383-4200, ext. 278.

But please don't delay.

See you Friday evening at 6:00 PM for the All-Class Reception at Ryan, then Saturday night for the party at the Wilsons.

COMING SOON: Class Superlatives, The Class Prophecy, A Look Back At Reunions Past, How to Dress For Saturday Night And Directions To The Wilson's Home (repeat)

It's Going To Be An Award-Winning Night At The Wilsons As The Crowd For The Class of '69 Reunion Party Continues To Grow

2009-06-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

The Party Crowd continues to grow for our Father Ryan Class of 1969 40th Reunion party at the home of Jimmy and Sarah Wilson this Saturday night, June 6.

The latest RSVPs come from:

Ed & Sarah Johnston
Phil & Nancy Mattingly
Carlton Crutchfield

That brings our total expected attendance to close to 50 people, including 27 class members. Late reservations can still be made (but, obviously, please act very quickly) by contacting Angela Mills at the Father Ryan Alumni Office. Her phone number is 383-4200,ext. 278. The cost is $20 per person.

We will likely have people paying when they arrive at the Wilson's, but you can also pay by credit card when you call Ryan.

More than anything else, we'd really like to know you are coming so we can plan to have enough to eat and drink for the evening.

Here's the rest of the list of those planning to attend:

Scott and Anne Brunette
Bill and Chris Carver
Richard and Judy Conditt
John and Margaret Conners
Patrick Cook
Mike Curley
Will and Debbie Forte
John Goetz
Joe and Pam Holzmer
Philip and Trish Jones
Michael Jumonville
Bob and Patty Nelson
Pat Nolan
Nick and Wanda Rosa
Chuck and Sharon Scruggs
Terry Shelton
Bubba and Patsy Tucker
Pat and Patricia Watson
Jimmy and Sarah Wilson
Pat and Pam Bauer
William and Danette Thurman
Michael J. and Ann Shugart Carter
David Adams
Mike Hansom
Baron and Carolyn Harmon

And don't worry, we will try to have NAME TAGS for people to fill out and wear, so everyone will, at least, have some fighting chance of knowing who everybody is!

By the way, if you still have the special name tags that Phil Jones made for us to wear ar our 25th Reunion in 1994 (the name tags were copies of our senior yearbook composite photos), you can wear those as well. After all, that's the mental picture a lot of us still have of classmates we haven't seen in many years!

If You Venture Back To The Old Neighborhood This Weekend...

2009-06-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

With our Reunion now just days away you may get the urge to venture back to the old neighborhood on Elliston Place where Father Ryan was located back when we were in school in the 1960s.

Of course, the school itself is gone. And for some reason, a good bit of the property that comprised the Ryan campus remains unused by its new owners (a partnership of doctors I heard, unless it's been sold).

There is a very nice Hampton Inn located about where the old football practice field was. Please go inside, as the hotel has a Father Ryan memorabilia display in the lobby that I know you might find interesting.

Most of the rest of the neighborhood has turned over, the Burger King on West End is gone (replaced by a strip commercial center) as well as the Krystal and the Rich Schwartz ladies' store (replaced by more commercial developments). The Kiger Gulf service station is gone too (Mr. Kiger was murdered by robbers in September, 1978). The gas station was replaced a very nice Logan's Restaurant.

Some of the brownstone-like apartments are still standing on Elliston Place right across from old Father Ryan, as the market for off-campus housing for Vanderbilt students remains very strong. But the most familiar sight you'll find in the old neighborhood is the sign and restaurant below.

Yes, Rotiers is still here and doing better than ever, with now a national and even world-wide reputation for serving the best burgers, grilled cheeseburgers and cheeseburgers on French Bread in Nashville, or anywhere else.

Of course, those of us who went to Ryan already knew that. Stepping into the restaurant is like stepping back into time. I swear there are signs on the wall and other memorabilia items that we were there when we were in school. Heck, I think some of the stuff was there when I was a little kid visiting the restaurant with my Dad.

I feel like I literally grew up in Rotier's. If I had a nickel for everytime I was there having a coke and a piece of pie while my father had one more beer with his long-time friend, the owner, John Rotier, I would be a millionaire.

The family still owns and operates the restaurant. Mr. Rotier has long ago gone to his reward and Mrs. Evelyn Rotier is more or less retired from the business, but the children are carrying on. John, Jr. unfortunately died from cancer a few years back, but Charlie (a former Ryan student) and sister Margaret Ann Crouse (and several other relatives) are continuing the tradition of Rotiers. Here's both Charley and Margaret explaining the history of their very special Nashville business in a YouTube video....

So if you've got the time this Reunion weekend or in the near future (if you live around Nashville) I highly suggest you take a trip back in time in our old school's neighborhood and enjoy the wonders of one of Rotier's famous hamburgers or cheeseburgers

I personally prefer the grilled cheeseburger, but you can't go wrong with the cheeseburger on French Bread or even the regular hamburger or cheeseburger. Now calorie-wise, you can go wrong eating there a lot, but as one-time Reunion passion, it will be quite a treat!)

Some Of Our Teachers May Be Joining Us Saturday Night!

2009-06-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

Drawing from 1969 PANTHER YEARBOOK by Bob Campbell,Class of 1969

He was one of our most beloved teachers.

I am thrilled to announce that Ed Johnston and his wife Sarah (who we also knew and loved while were in school and she was a Sister working at St. Thomas Hospital) will be joining us, as our guests, for the class reunion party Saturday evening at the Wilson's.

I am also hopeful that Pat Langdon (who still teaches at Father Ryan) and his spouse will attending as well.

If you've been reading this blog you know what a major role Father Ed Johnston played in our lives when we were at Father Ryan. From the classroom (I had him for Freshman Religion) to directing Showtime CYO and our Senior Class Play "Inherit The Wind," he was someone who was always there, who really cared and was always willing to help.

That was also true in his role (and Sarah's) with the building effort for the Father Bill Sherman High School in Haiti that we mentioned earlier in our Class History. And there was also the Catholic Youth Volunteers (CYV) group our senior year made up of students from Ryan, Saint Bernard and Saint Cecilia. Our Senior PANTHER Yearbook put it this way:

" (The group).. has met regularly on weekends to assist in an experience of living and loving. Their work with underprivileged children includes tutoring, playing and giving parties. Working under their own inititative, without help from city government, they accomplished many goals in their short existence. Perhaps the greatest achievement is the knowledge and love which the volunteers feel at their work and are able to incorporate into their daily lives and contact with others."

Bob Campbell and Phil Mattingly at one of the CYV outings.

I was fortunate enough to know Ed before I came to Ryan. I served Mass for him at Cathedral when I was in the sixth grade. I am also fortunate to have continued to enjoy his counsel and friendship since leaving Father Ryan, particularly as a colleague on the Father Ryan Board of Trust for several years and also for our time together on the Board of Saint Bernard Academy.

Ed was particularly helpful when an effort was made to purchase the school from the Sisters Of Mercy. The trust and high esteem Ed enjoyed in the Catholic community meant a lot as the plans moved froward to a successful conclusion (and SBA still flourishes 20 years later.

Frankly, Ed had to be one of the keys. Would you trust Phil Mattingly (who was the Board Chair) and I to buy Saint Bernard without knowing someone like Ed was also involved? :)

These Shows Changed Television Forever

2009-05-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

It was the smash hit, Number One TV show our junior and senior years at Father Ryan (1968-69).

With its rapid fire format of gags and skits aimed at a growing younger audience, LAUGH-IN changed how comedy was done on television. Over its 140 episode run on NBC from January 22,1968 to May 14, 1973 it also changed our language.

Here's just a brief list of the catch phrases that began on this show and many still continue in today's language:

"Sock It To Me"
"Ring My Chimes"
"You Bet Your Sweet Bippy"
"It's Time To Say Good Night, Dick." Goodnight, Dick"
"Easy For You To Say"
Oh, I'll Drink To That."
"I Didn't Know That."
"Blow In My Ear And I Will Follow You Anywhere"
""Very Enn..ter..es..ting"
"Here Come De Judge"
"Look That Up In Your Funk & Wagnalls"
""Uncle Al Had A Lot Of Medicine Last Night"

The show was so popular, even candidate Richard Nixon (in the process of re-inventing himself) appeared briefly to say: "Sock It To Me?" His opponent Vice-President Hubert Humphrey declined ti appear and later said it might have cost him the 1968 Presidential election.

The show made stars of many of its performers including hosts Dan Rowan and Dick Martin along with Goldie Hawn, Judy Carne, Ruth Buzzie, Henry Gibson, Lilly Tomlin, Gary Owen, JoAnn Worley and Artie Johnson.

Here's some highlights of one LAUGH-IN episode, that in a not to subtle cross-promotion, featured the MONKEES rock group, which also a hit TV show back in the '60s

part 1 of Rowan & Martins' Laugh In
Uploaded by jwj. - Sitcom, sketch, and standup comedy videos.

The other show that re-shaped TV while we at Father Ryan, and tried to push the boundaries of what could and could not be featured and made fun of on the small screen, was THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR.

The musical/comedy team of Tom and Dick Smothers came to CBS with a long record of success on stage and with comedy albums. Their show which debuted in February, 1967 through April 4, 1969 was known for its great music and its biting comedy.

Such comedians and future stars as Steve Martin, Rob Reiner and Dan Novello (Father Guido Sarducci) got their starts on the show. And it made a star (and a 1968 presidential candidate) out of comedian Pat Paulsen, who did a series of editorials on the show that retain their humor over 40 years later. Even the topics he covers still resonate in the headlines of today: Social Security, Gun Control and Health Care. Here, courtesy of YouTube, is Pat Paulsen.....

And it wasn't just in comedy that the Smothers Brothers made history. Such musical stars, some of them quite controversial at time, as Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Janis Ian, Harry Balfonte, the Doors, Steppenwolf, Jefferson Airplane, Peter, Paul & Mary, Donovan and Cream performed.

But perhaps the most memorable musical moment on THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR was The Who performing MY GENERATION (complete with a song-ending explosion and on stage-destruction of their instruments). Here is that performance....

Other musical highlights from the show included the head writer of the program, Mason Williams, performing (during a 1988 Reunion show)what became a smash instrumental hit, CLASSICAL GAS" and THE BEATLES performing an exclusive music video of their smash 1968 hit "Hey Jude." Here are videos of both performances....

But despite all this acclaim, the Smother Brothers show increasingly ran afoul of the censors at CBS, particularly over its political satire and its treatment of the Vietnam War. Here's how a promotional video for a CD version of show's third and final season in 1969 put it....

And so, in the end, it came down not to who "Mom liked best" (a running gag in the Smothers Brothers Act, but what CBS didn't like it. Ironically (or maybe not) THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR won an Emmy for best writing just a few months after it was abruptly cancelled by the network.

The Changing Of The Guard

2009-05-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

After 17 years at the helm, Jay Leno did his last show as the host of THE TONIGHT SHOW last night (Friday, May 29).

He left the program in the same ratings position (Number One) which he received it from long-time TONIGHT SHOW host Johnny Carson.

But no one can really compare Leno to Carson. He was truly the "King of Late-Night TV" for three decades (1962-1992)after taking over the post from Jack Parr.

Johnny Carson was in his salad days, at the peak of his career and THE TONIGHT SHOW's popularity during our teenage years when we were attending Father Ryan. I can't speak for anyone else, but one of the true rites of passage for me with my parents, was when they thought I was old enough to stay up to watch THE TONIGHT SHOW on Friday nights.

Here's about an hour of highlights from "The Best of Carson" I found on the Internet. Many of the scenes are in black and white and they span the period of the show being in New York then moving to the West Coast. It contains many memorable moments from back in our time in 1960s (including the hilarious Ed Ames hatchet throwing incident)and you'll also find some later highlights from the rest of Johnny Carson's lengendary TONIGHT SHOW career.

And, of course it begins with that special theme music that opened every TONIGHT SHOW in those days....

THE TONIGHT SHOW remains the longest-running late-night talk and variety program in TV history. In fact, only two shows have a longer tenure on the air (GUIDING LIGHT and HALLMARK HALL OF FAME).

While THE TONIGHT SHOW has had just 5 hosts in its history (Steve Allen, Jack Parr, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno and. beginning Monday, Conan O'Brien), we've had 11 U.S. Presidents. Who says there's no stablity in late-night programming?

Turnout Continues To Grow For Class of 1969 40th Reunion Weekend

2009-05-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

As Friday's (May 29) registration deadline approaches, the response of those attending the Father Ryan Class of 1969 40th Reunion festivities (June 5-7) continues to grow.

With likely still more confirmations yet to arrive in the Monday mail (or even some in our class who will just show up the night of the class party at Jimmy Wilson's home), there will be at least 42 people coming to the big bash. That includes 25 class members and 17spouses.

The latest RSVPs to arrive are from:

David Adams
Michael Hansom
Baron and Carolyn Harmon

They join the rest of those who had responded earlier they are attending:

Scott and Anne Brunette
Bill and Chris Carver
Richard and Judy Conditt
John and Margaret Connors
Patrick Cook
Mike Curley
Will and Debbie Forte
John Goetz
Joe and Pam Holzmer
Philip and Trish Jones
Michael Jumonville
Bob and Patty Nelson
Pat Nolan
Nick and Wanda Rosa
Chuck and Sharon Scruggs
Terry Shelton
Bubba and Patsy Tucker
Pat and Patricia Watson
Jimmy and Sarah Wilson
Pat and Pam Bauer
William and Dannette Thurman
Michael J. and Ann Sugart Carter

Thanks to all for you for coming back! I hope you can also make it by the free All-Class reception at the FRHS Norwood campus on Friday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. It's a great way to get the Reunion Weekend juices flowing.

By the way, if you don't see somebody's name on the list above, and you think they are or should be coming, let us know. Better yet, call them or e-mail them and any other Father Ryan Class of 1969 members you know and tell them to call or bring by their RSVPs to the FRHS Alumni Office as early next week as they can.

It's going to be way too much of a good time for anyone to miss!

The Official History Of The Father Ryan Graduating Class of 1969--Part IV

2009-05-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

Our Senior Class Officers

And so it's the fall of 1968, the beginning of our fourth and final year together at Father Ryan. Here's how our official class history chronicled the events.

IV. The Senior Year

We were now in our final year at Father Ryan, which also proved to be our best. The class elected its officers for the year: President, Bill O'Donoho; Vice-President, Les Mondelli; Secretary, Rick Sinnott and Treasurer, Will Forte.

Early in the year, the joint student councils of the four Catholic high schools began one of the most important projects in the schools' histories. Money was being raised in order to build a school for the children in Haiti. This project, along with many others during the year, proved the effectiveness of the student council. A tragic event occurred during this year when Father Sherman died. It was decided to call the school in Haiti Father Sherman School after this great man.

Our football team enjoyed a successful season and a trip to the Mid-State Bowl (in Cookeville). (Editor's Note: It was Ryan's first post-season bowl since the 1963 Clinic Bowl). Two seniors, Gino Marchetti and Bubba Donnelly were named to the All-City Teams.

One of the biggest thrills in Ryan's long history came when the wrestling team brought home our first state championship with a perfect 16-0 mark. Two Seniors, Bubba Donnelly and Scott Brunette won state championships and Bubba Donnelly was named Champion of Champions.

Win, Bubba, Win!

In March the Senior Class presented the play "Inherit The Wind" which was directed by Father Johnston and it was a big success. All four years proved to be successful. Father Hitchcock said he thought this has been one of his best senior classes since he has been here. (Editor's Note: We were also his final senior class at FRHS.)

We would like to thank the entire faculty for their leadership and guidance and all our fellow classmates for the four successful years we have spent at Father Ryan.

(40 years later, I think we can all add AMEN)!

The Official History Of The Father Ryan Graduating Class of 1969---Part III

2009-05-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

Our Junior Year Class Officers With Moderator Father Jim Sullins

With this posting, we continue our look back at our Official Class History. I am still asking if anyone knows who wrote this account of our four years on Elliston Place? Also, as you will see below, this latest chapter on our Junior year raises an additional question about who really was our class moderator?

III. Junior Year

The Junior Year came and with it came new responsibilties for every one of us. To lead us in our third important year, the following people were elected as officers: President, Gino Marchetti; Vice-President, Jerry Burns; Secretary, Terry Shelton and Treasurer Hardy Lavender. Father Fleming became our moderator. (Editor's Note: the photo above from the 1968 PANTHER YEARBOOK shows Father Sullins as our moderator.)

In order to prepare for college, many tests were directed to us. The National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test and the Scholastic Aptitude Test caused many mental injuries to the juniors. School kept getting harder and harder but we didn't want to let up.

In sports, our basketball team mounted an enviable record and was victorious at the March of Dimes Games. The football team was composed almost entirely of juniors who would be back next year. In wrestling, Ryan captured the regional crown and placed fourth in the state with Frank Baltz winning the state championship.

The biggest social event of the year was the Junior Prom, which returned to Ryan's Gym. The theme was "Venetian Holiday" and was made successful through the laborious tasks of many faithful juniors.

In closing out another successful year the offivers for next year's student council were elected. Parties were formed and (rising) Seniors Jimmy Wilson and Johnny Hosey were elected to serve as President and Treasurer respectively.

President Jimmy Wilson conducts a meeting of the Father Ryan Student Council our senior year

One more year and our high school education would be completed.

COMING NEXT: Part IV. Our Senior Year Class History

LATER: THE PROPHECY OF THE FRHS SENIOR CLASS OF 1969

In just about one more week (June 5-7), members of our Class will be reunited again to celebrate our 40th Class Reunion. Friday, May 29 (tommorrow) is the deadline to register to attend our Class Party at Jimmy Wilson's home on Saturday evening. If you want to come but won't have time now to mail it in your RSVP, please call Angela Mills at the Father Ryan Alumni Office (615) 383-4200, ext. 278 and let her know you will attend, so we can plan for you and/or your guests.

RSVPs For Class of 1969 Reunion Continue To Come In As Friday Deadline Approaches

2009-05-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

More RSVPs are coming in from members of the Father Ryan High School Class of 1969 (along their spouses or significant others) to attend our 40th Reunion the weekend of June 5-7.

The latest confirmations are from:

Pat and Pam Bauer
William (Bubba) Thurman and Danette Thurman
Michael J. and Anna Shugart Carter

They join the following who say they are coming to the big Class Party at classmate Jimmy Wilson's home on the evening of Saturday, June 6.

Scott and Anne Brunette
Bill and Chris Carver
Richard and Judy Conditt
John and Margaret Conners
Patrick Cook
Mike Curley
Will and Deb Forte
John Goetz
Joe and Pam Holzmer
Philip and Trish Jones
Michael Jumonville
Bob and Patty Nelson
Pat Nolan
Nick and Wanda Rosa
Chuck and Sharon Scruggs
Terry Shelton
Bubba and Patsy Tucker
Pat and Patricia Watson
Jimmy and Sarah Wilson

Don't forget the extended deadline for RSVPs is this Friday, May 29 and all late fees have been waived.

I know there are several folks (including some of our faculty invitees) who've told me they plan to attend, but aren't on the list of responses. So, if you don't see their names here, pick up the phone or drop them an e-mail and tell them they have to join us next Saturday night for a very special evening.

If you haven't responded please send in your response today, so we can plan to have enough food and dinner for the evening.

The Official History Of The Father Ryan Class of 1969--Sophomore Year

2009-05-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

The wooden front doors of the old Father Ryan High School on Elliston Place welcomed back many students over the years, as they did for our class in the Fall of 1966 when we became sophomores.

Here again is the official history of the Graduating Class of 1969, Part 2.

II. The Sophomore Year

After returning from summer vacation we found that we were confident of our abilities as upper classmen. A new Assistant Principal had been appointed who would be in charge of discipline. The work crew was made stronger. Students were made to do an hour's labor after school for any number of violations.

The class nominated and elected its officers for the year: Gino Marchetti, President, Jerry Burns, Vice-President, Terry Shelton, Secretary and Hardy Lavender, Treasurer. Again, we chose Father Maxwell as our class moderator.

For the first time in many years, a Student Council was inaugurated at Ryan. This would put more responsibility into the hands of the students. Members of the sophomore class who served as representatives were: Gino Marchetti, Terry Shelton, Hardy Lavender, Jerry Burns, Rick Sinnott and John Hosey.

The wrestling team enjoyed a most successful season this year by capturing the N.I.L. crown and placing third in the state tournament. Ryan had five wrestlers place in the top four in the state, with one state champ. Although the football team had a losing season, the spirit was always high.

Before we left for the summer the officers for next year's student council were elected. Gino Marchetti was elected Vice-President and Jerry Burns was elected Secretary.

The end of our second year was quickly approaching with the next year appearing to be more difficult than the previous two.

COMING NEXT: III. The Junior Year

By the way, those entrance doors from the Elliston Place campus,pitured above, are still in service at the new Father Ryan on Norwood Drive in Oak Hill. They have been lovingly preserved and are now used as the entrance and exit from the new Neuhoff Library building. They have also been dedicated in memory of Fathers Hitchcock and Arnold.

You can see all this for yourself (as well as the ongoing construction of the school's first on-campus football stadium and Athletic Complex) if you come by the All-Class Reception to be held at Ryan on the evening of Friday, June 5 from 6-8 PM. It will be a great way to kick off our Reunion Weekend together. See you there!

The Official History Of The Father Ryan Graduating Class of 1969

2009-05-26T10:15:00.001-07:00

The passage of time has a way of dimming the memory.

So 40 years later, I thought it would be a good idea to re-publish, here on the blog, our official class history as we received it in the weeks right before we graduated in May, 1969.

Does anybody remember who wrote this or how it came to be? Is there a back story to share? If so, leave your insights and/or corrections and additions below.

I. The Freshman Year

As we entered Father Ryan High School in the Fall of 1965, we were proud to be students at the best High School in Nashville. We were the largest class to ever enter Father Ryan. Our lives were to be greatly influenced in the next four years by what was seen and heard at 2300 Elliston Place.

It was a big changeover from from being 8th graders to being high school students; however, we now had to realize how important an education is, and what it can give us in life.

After surviving the first couple of weeks of utter chaos we elected our class officers. President, Dick Lammers; Vice-President, Jerry Burns; Secretary, Gino Marchetti and Treasurer, Hardy Lavender were chosen to lead the freshman class. Father Maxwell became our moderator. These outstanding young men served their classmates faithfully, just as the officers who followed in the next three years.

During our freshman year our athletic teams enjoyed moderate success. Though our football team only managed a 5-4-1 season, they were able to defeat MBA 10-0. Lacking the size of most of its opponents, the basketball team still won a berth in the Region V tournament.

With the spring came the thoughts of ending our first year at Father Ryan. The idea of no longer being the "babies of the school" was in itself enough to make us more mature. We were determined to make our Sophomore year more rewarding than the 1st year, but first came the summer.

COMING NEXT: II. The Sophomore Year

And later, The Class Prophecy

It Was 40 Years Ago Today!

2009-05-25T08:37:00.001-07:00

I suspect all of us have, or at least had, a photo like the one above. That's me with my mother and father getting ready to leave home on graduation day.

My picture was buried in a box until I dug it out recently. And it is likely that's where yours is (if you still have it and remember where to look).

This photo has great relevance today. Because it was 40 years ago this very date, May 25, 1969, that the 165 members of the Father Ryan High School Class of 1969 went through our baccalaureate and graduation exercises.

It began by reporting to Father Arnold and Father Hitchcock (I guess they wanted to be sure we knew they meant business and to be on time)by 10:15 AM at the Cathedral Of The Incarnation on West End Avenue, which was not far our campus on Elliston Place.

We were there for a special mass at 10:30 AM for the graduating seniors of all four Catholic High Schools (Father Ryan, Saint Bernard Academy, Saint Cecilia and Cathedral).

We were told to report in cap and gown and to line up as for graduation. That was in alphabetical order with the Class Officers (Bill O'Donohoe, Les Mondelli, Rick Sinnott & Will Forte), Valedictorian (Ted Lenox) and Salutatorian (Terry Shelton) in the front of the line.

It was a fairly quick turnaround after mass, as we were to report(again to Fathers Arnold & Hitchcock) by 3:30 PM that afternoon in the open courtyard of the War Memorial Auditorium next to the State Capitol downtown. That's Phil Bennett, serious as usual in the photo above, as we all began to line up for the graduation exercises held inside the War Memorial Auditorium beginning at 4:00 PM.

Before we received our degrees (that's my cousin, the late Johnny
Shelton, receiving his diploma above), we heard Terry's Salutatory Address as well as Ted's Valedictory Speech. Then Nashville businessman and Father Ryan graduate John Connors, Jr. gave us some parting words of wisdom, to a class which included his son, John Connors, III.

Alleluia! The strife is over!
Looking back over the class report we got from the Guidance Office (Father Bill Fleming) of the 165 graduating seniors, 86.6% went on to college (143), 6.0% went into the work force (10), 4.3% enlisted in the military (7), and 3.1% were undecided (5).

For those who went on to college, here were the most popular choices: University of Tennessee (21), Memphis State University
(21), Middle Tennessee State University (17), Austin Peay State University (9), Vanderbilt University (8),St. Ambrose College
(6).

I remember, during the ceremony, Father Hitchcock announced, quite proudly, that members our class had earned 275 admission acceptances to 56 different colleges and universities (an 87.3% acceptance rate) and that we had received $145,800 in scholarships and another $40,400 in National Defense Loans.

Now those dollar amounts seem paltry today (especially with all the lottery scholarships available) but our numbers were an impressive in our day.

After the graduation ceremony, it was time to celebrate with family and friends, before heading off with our dates for a graduation party held at the old Richland County Club behind old West End High School that evening (and into the next morning as I remember).

Got any graduation memories you want to share? Leave them by clicking on the link below and also be sure to bring them with you Reunion Weekend (June 5-7). Don't forget the RSVP deadline has been extended to Friday, May 29 and all late fees have been waived.So be sure and join us for a weekend perhaps almost as memorable as 40 years ago today.

FATHER RYAN CLASS OF 1969 MAKES BIG RETURN: RSVP DEADLINE EXTENDED, NO LATE FEES

2009-05-22T14:05:00.000-07:00

The excitement is growing (at least mine is)as members of the Father Ryan Class of 1969 continue to send in responses that they DO plan to attend their 40th Reunion festivities the weekend of June 5-7.

As of Friday afternoon, May 22, we have confirmed RSVPs from 32 people, including the following classmates:

Scott Brunette
Bill Carver
Richard Conditt
John Conners
Patrick Cook
Mike Curley
Will Forte
John Goetz
Joe Holzmer
Philip Jones
Michael Jumonville
Bob Nelson
Pat Nolan
Nick Rosa
Chuck Scruggs
Terry Shelton
Charles "Bubba" Tucker
Pat Watson
Jimmy Wilson

There is strong reason to believe additional classmates plan to attend including Mike Grant, Phil Mattingly, Mike J. Carter, Bubba Donnelly, David Adams, Tim Quirk and others.

We also have indications from two sources that one of our former teachers (Father) Ed Johnston and his wife, Sarah will also be joining us. We hope even more of our former teachers will be there as well.

In light of this strong response: The RSVP deadline has been extended to Friday, May 29 and all late fees have been waived.

So if you have procastinated or are still on the fence about coming...don't do so any longer. Come on and join us! Send in your RSVP card and check or credit card information ASAP.

If you have mislaid or lost or never got an invitation, just go to the Father Ryan website (www.fatherryan.org). You can download an invitation there. You will find it under the alumni section of the website under Reunions (1969).

Just find some way to let us know you're coming, so we can have enough food and drink for everyone at the big class party on Saturday night at Jimmy Wilson's home.

It is going be to a very memorable weekend. You can see who is coming.

Don't miss it!

ONCE UPON A MATTRESS

2009-05-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

INHERIT THE WIND was not the only theatrical performance the FRHS Class of 1969 was involved in when we were seniors.

In the fall of that school year, several of us were "recruited" to Saint Bernard Academy to take roles in the school's production of ONCE UPON A MATTRESS, a musical comedy adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson classic fairy tale, THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA.

Bill Carver remembers it was Father Ed Johnston who recruited us. He came by our every-morning-before-class gathering place down in the cafeteria. He told us Sister Mary Howard really needed some of us for the numerous "boy" roles in the cast, which, of course, were very hard to fill among the students of an all-girls high school like SBA.

Not needing a whole lot more encouragement to spend our evenings practicing with lots of attractive young women...off we went. Those in the cast included me (Sir Harry), Bill Carver (The Minstrel), Phil Bennett (King Sextimus), Rick Sinnott (The Wizard), Mike Jumonville (Prince Dauntless) and Joe Formosa (1st Knight). There were also several members of the Class of 1970 involved as well.

Saint Bernard, at the time, had a wonderful tradition for producing outstanding theatre productions, dating back to its performances in previous years such as BRIDGADOON, MY FAIR LADY and even, DIXIE JUBILEE, a musical, especially written and performed to celebrate the 100th anniversary (1966) of the Sisters of Mercy coming to Nashville and Tennessee.

I have a well-worn program from our ONCE UPON A MATTRESS show. Like a yearbook, it contains lots of special notes from other cast members and from friends who came to see the show. I will bring it to Jimmy Wilson's party if anyone wants to see it.

I am afraid the photos in it will not scan well to be placed here on the blog. The pictures were produced with a green screen (to match the green type face for the program's copy) which I think will make the photos turn all but black when scanned. But I will try it and see if I can post some here.

In the meantime, here's IN A LITTLE WHILE, one of the songs I sang in the show as Sir Harry. You'll remember in the story no one in the kingdom can get married until Prince Dauntless gets hitched and his mother, the Queen, is doing all she can to keep that from happening. The problem that creates for Sir Harry is that his girlfriend, Lady Larkin, is now in a "family way", although Sister Howard changed the script and the lyrics of the song to remove any such reference (hey, this was a Catholic schools in the '60s remember).

Here's how the scene and song was played in the movie, ONCE UPON A MATTRESS. And, yes, that is Tom Smothers playing the role of King Sextimus (but he is not as good or as funny as Phil Bennett playing the muted monarch)... :)

The original production of ONCE UPON A MATTRESS made a star of Carol Burnett, who later went to even greater fame on TV. Here's how she stole the show playing the role of Princess Winfred, the one who finally foiled the Queen, got the Prince, unmuted the King, and let Sir Harry and Lady Larkin live happily ever after. This is the song, SHY, from a 1972 production of the show courtesy of YouTube....

I thank Bill Carver for helping jog my memory about all this. My recollections of doing this play are not that clear or strong. It was during the fall of 1968 when all of us were busy taking ACT and SAT tests, and I also got sick about a week before the show. It was really embarrassing. I got some kind of infection in my mouth that got its name from the soldiers who caught it during the First World War.

It was called "trench mouth."

You can't imagine how thrilled my girl friend at the time was about all that. Or some of the good-natured (I think it was good-natured) that I got from my friends.

INHERIT THE WIND

2009-05-20T09:45:00.000-07:00

While we were at Father Ryan, the tradition of producing a Senior Class Play was revived, largely through the efforts and leadership of (then) Father Ed Johnston.

After staging TWELVE ANGRY MEN (1967)and TEN LITTLE INDIANS(1968) in the preceeding two years, our class performed INHERIT THE WIND.
It's a 1955 play written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. It is somewhat loosely based on the infamous Scopes "Monkey" Trial held in Dayton, Tennessee back in 1925.

As you'll recall, John Scopes was a school teacher accused and ultimately convicted of violating Tennessee state law by teaching the theory of evolution in his classes rather than the theory of creation based on the Bible.

The trial was a national sensation, bringing noted and controversial defense attorney Clarence Darrow to Dayton to defend Scopes, while the prosecution was aided by three-time Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan.

The names are changed in the play, but the many issues raised by the case are pretty much the same: intellectual freedom versus almost mindlessly clinging to tradition . Here are the two major characters of the play in their climactic scene as portrayed in our Father Ryan production by Phil Bennett (Mathew Harrison Brady/Darrow) and Mike Schoen (Henry Drummond/Bryan)....

Over the years, INHERIT THE WIND has been revived numerous times both on and off-Broadway. It is also been made into a motion picture on four occasions, including an all-star cast in 1960 that featured Spencer Tracy and Fredric March in the two leading roles as well as Gene Kelly as the Reporter Hornbeck (based on the real-life journalist H.L. Mencken who covered the trial) along with Harry Morgan as the Judge in the case and Dick York who portrayed the Bertram Cates/John Scopes character.

Unfortunately, no audio or video tape record survives of our senior class play. But here's how Spencer Tracy and Fredric March played the climatic scene as depicted in the photo above....

Not bad acting I'd say.

But I remember Mike Schoen and Phil Bennet were awfully good as well when we performed this play on the floor of the old Father Ryan Gym.

INHERIT THE WIND clearly was based on history, but its message speaks to more than just the hysteria of that day over the battle between evolution and creationism. According to Wikipedia, the intent of the writers back in the 1950s "was to criticize the then current state of McCarthyism or anti-Communist investigations of the House Committe on Un-American Activities and Senator Joseph McCarthy." Said one of the play's authors, Jerome Lawrence," We used the teaching of evolution as a parable, a metaphor for any kind of mind control. It's not about science versus religion. It's about the right to think."

Please Keep One Of Our Classmates In Your Prayers

2009-05-20T06:21:00.001-07:00

It's a very difficult time for one of our classmates, Buzz Donlon.

This morning (Wednesday, May 20) at 10:00 AM, a funeral Mass will be offered for his mother Joanne Cordell Donlon at St. Edward's Church. She died on May 18 at the age of 89.

This is something of a double loss for Buzz, his brothers and sisters, and the rest of the extended Donlon family, because Bernard Haley Donlon, Buzz's father, also passed away just a few weeks ago.

The family will receive visitors at the church this morning beginning an hour before the funeral Mass. Memorials in honor of Mrs. Donlon can be sent to St. Edward's School and/or you can send Buzz a note of condolence. Father Ryan has his address as:

Bernard "Buzz" Donlon
1039 Moran Road
Franklin, TN. 37069

Want To Come To The Reunion Party? But You Can't Find The Invitation? Or You Are Not Sure You Got One In The Mail?

2009-05-19T11:32:00.001-07:00

It's going to be a great time when the Father Ryan Class of 1969 gets together at Jimmy Wilson's home on Saturday evening, June 6 beginning at 6:00 PM.

You say you want to come but you can't find your invitation? Or maybe you are not sure you got one in the mail?

No problem. Just go to the Father Ryan High School web site at www.fatherryan.org

Click on "Alumni" at the top of the page and you will then see a list of options presented including "Reunion". Click on "Reunion" and you will find lots of information about the upcoming Reunion Weekend, June 5-7. That includes another link specifically for what we have planned for the Class of 1969. You will also see a link there where you can print and download your own invitation and an RSVP card to send in with your check or credit card payment.

So there's another quick, and fairly easy way to make sure you can get the big 40th Reunion party next month. And as you tell from the photo above (from our 1969 PANTHER YEARBOOK), we are a class who knows how to party from way back!

A Really Big Show.....

2009-05-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

When I was in New York City last week, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a taping of the LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, which is produced at the old Ed Sullivan Theatre on Broadway between 53rd and 54th Avenues.

The Letterman show was wonderful with comedian Robin Williams and jazz musician Quinton Marsalis being the major guests. But I also couldn't help but reminisce how many Sunday evenings(when I should have been doing my homework or studying for a test), I was instead watching the ED SULLIVAN SHOW with his wide variety of guests.

Famous for being the first to bring superstars like Elvis Presley and the Beatles to American television, the ED SULLIVAN SHOW featured many of the top American rock acts of the day, along with some quirky regulars like the "Little Italian Mouse", Topo Gigo and ventriloquist Senor Wences.

Another famous appearance on the Sullivan Show was made by THE DOORS with Jim Morrison. They performed their Number One hit "Light My Fire" on the show on September 17, 1967. That included the lyrics: "Girl, we couldn't get much higher," which Sullivan had asked them to change to: "Girl, we couldn't get much better." Jim Morrison sang it the way he wanted to, and on a live program, no one could stop him.

THE DOORS were never invited to appear on the Sullivan Show again, but here's their performance from that evening courtesy of vids.myspace.com
The Doors - Light My Fire (The Ed Sullivan Show)

THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW ran on CBS from June 20, 1948 until June 6, 1971. It always appeared in the 7:00 PM (Central Time) Sunday night time slot, making it one of the few TV programs to air at the same time over a period of more than two decades.

But by the late 1960s and early '70s, viewership declined and the age of the Sullivan Show's viewing audience rose significantly, and so the program was cancelled after the end of the 1970-71 season. The last show was episode 1087 and, believe it or not, it had a strong Father Ryan connection.

Among the guests on that last show, which aired on March 28, 1971 were Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass. Mr. Davis later became a very major supporter of Ryan and helped begin the annual Father Ryan Gala which remains a major fund raiser for the school.

The Final Reckoning....

2009-05-19T09:02:00.000-07:00

If seeing something like the photo above brings back vivid nightmares or makes you feel like you are about break out in hives...sorry.

Actually, the photo is a little fuzzy, so you will have to click on it to make it large enough to read easily.

So just what the heck is it?

This is my final report card from our freshman year at Father Ryan in the spring of 1966. Of course, all of us got these from time to time while we were in school, even though we might have dreaded them coming and then having to take them home to our parents.

Why do I have still have this report card. Who knows?

But looking back and seeing the familiar names of teachers and the courses I took does bring back a lot of memories (and most of them are good ones).

It also kind of reminds me of a hit song by the Beach Boys back in the day that really hits home as we approach our 40th Class Reunion just a couple of weeks away.

It's "Be True To Your School", and here it is, by the Beach Boys and courtesy of YouTube.....

Aren't some of those pictures and the album covers a real hoot? Kind of takes you back to our time together at Ryan a few years back.

And so if you haven't already done so, send in that RSVP and your check so you can attend our Class Reunion Party at Jimmy Wilson's home on Saturday, June 6, 2009. 40 years is long enough. It's time we all got together again!

So Just Where Is This 40th Reunion Party? And Who's Coming?

2009-05-18T14:16:00.000-07:00

Hopefully you are all busy sending in your RSVPs to attend our 40th Class Reunion Party on Saturday night, June 6 at the home of our classmate Jimmy Wilson and his wife, Sarah.

Here are the directions to his home at 1607 Oakhall Drive (coming I-65 South from Nashville):

Take I-65 South towards Huntsville to the Concord Road Exit

Turn left off of the Exit onto Concord Road

Proceed past the Brentwood YMCA which will be on the right

Turn right onto Wilson Pike at the BP Market

Proceed through two red lights (one at Crockett Road and one at Moore's Lane)

Turn left at the next red light (Ravenwood High School at Raintree Parkway

Oakhall Drive is on the left past the Wilson Cemetery (which has a white picket fence) at the entrance to Oakhall Subdivision (which has two stone walls)

Jimmy's actual home, known as Oak Hall, is the 1st house on the left, 1607 Oakhall Drive. It has a gravel driveway.

If you go past the club house, you have gone too far!

Lost? Call Jimmy at 615-866-9844.

Don't worry. I will re-post these directions again several times before the party.

By the way, first in the clubhouse...err...Father Ryan Alumni Office...with their RSVPS are Phillip Jones and Scott Brunette!

Way to go, guys!

I expect many more to be coming in in the next few days, and I will post and update the information on the others who say they will be there just as soon as I get the word.

That Very Special Day....40 Years Ago

2009-05-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

Father Ryan High School held its commencement exercises yesterday (May 17).

Believe it or not, this is the 40th class to graduate from the school since we did it back on May 25, 1969.

The photo above is one taken during that special day we all share(it was the last time all of the members of the Father Ryan Class of 1969 were together). In the photo, that's the late Johnny Shelton (my first cousin) receiving his diploma from Bishop Joseph Durick, while Monsignor James Hitchcock, our Principal, looks on.

Some years before we graduated, Father Ryan had outgrown its gym on Elliston Place as an on-campus facility for graduation. So like several previous classes, we made our march across the stage at the War Memorial Auditorium next to the State Capitol downtown.

An off-campus site is also used today for those graduating from Father Ryan's Norwood campus in Oak Hill, as commencement is conducted at the beautiful new Curb Event Center at Belmont University, after being held for many years at the New Opry House at Opryland.

We'll take another look back at our graduation when the actual 40th anniversary occurs in a week (on Monday, May 25).

In the meantime, if you'd like to post any graduation day memories (remember our class party that evening at the Richland Country Club?) please feel free to do so below or e-mail them to me at pat.nolan@dvl.com.

A couple of final notes, sorry I was out a few days for my daughter's graduation from NYU (master's degree in business journalism).

But I am back now and plan to be blogging frequently all the way up and through Reunion Weekend June 5-7. A reminder, please send in your RSVP for Reunion Weekend as soon as possible, so we can plan on how many folks are attending (you know, so we have enough food and especially drink at the party on Saturday night). :)

Hopefully, everyone has now received their invitations from FRHS. If not, let me know and we will try and work things out to get you one very quickly.

Our Superlatives

2009-05-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

Like all high school senior classes, the Father Ryan Class of 1969 had our Class Prophecy, Our Last Will & Testament and, of course, our class superlatives.

In the remaining few weeks leading up our 40th Reunion, I plan to take a moment to look back on all those things here on the blog, starting first with the photo below.

It's not one of the usual superlatives voted on by class members. It's Mike Curley, who one day during class our senior year was designated by Sister Mary John as "Most Thoroughly Disgusting." I can't remember why she was mad at him (and I sure she got over it, as Mike was an excellent honor student in the honors class). But it's a nickname that stuck.

And Terry Shelton "immortalized" it when he placed this photo with the tag line "Most Thoroughly Disgusting" in our 1969 PANTHER YEARBOOK.....

I will be traveling the next few days for a family graduation so postings may be a bit sporadic. But please leave me your thoughts here on the blog about our days at Ryan or send them to me by e-mail (pat.nolan@dvl.com).

X Marks the Spot

2009-05-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

Just one year after awarding the BEST PICTURE Oscar to a G-rated movie for the first and only time,the Academy Award for best movie of 1969 went completely in the opposite direction, when it was given to an X-rated film for the first and only time.

At a quick glance, MIDNIGHT COWBOY might be appear to be somewhat similar plot-wise to OLIVER!, the 1968 BEST PICTURE winner. Both concerned the somewhat seedy side of life in a major city (London in the 1800s for OLIVER! and modern day New York for MIDNIGHT COWBOY).

But all comparisons end there. OLIVER! is a light-hearted musical, while MIDNIGHT COWBOY, based on a 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy, is a profanity-laced drama with sex scenes that were considered shocking at the time.

The movie made a star of newcomer Jon Voight and helped Dustin Hoffman establish himself further as a major actor (avoiding any typecasting from his lead role in the smash movie hit, THE GRADUATE).

Since it was X-rated (no one under 18 allowed), MIDNIGHT COWBOY is likely a motion picture many of us could not go and see while we were in high school. There was a further review of MIDNIGHT COWBOY in 1970 and it was changed to an R rating. That allowed for greater circulation of the picture since many theatres would not run X-rated fare and newspapers would not accept advertising for such films.

One line from this picture lives on in cinema history. It came from Dustin Hoffman while crossing a street. "I'm walking here, I'm walking here" is a classic quote that has been parodied in several motion pictures over the years.

Cortesy of YouTube, here's how the movie was promoted back in 1969. Watch for the famous "I'm walking here" line in this trailer. I guess someone already knew it would be a classic..

MIDNIGHT COWBOY won 3 Oscars, for BEST PICTURE, BEST DIRECTOR (John Schlesinger) and BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY. Both Hoffman and Voight were nominated for BEST ACTOR but did not win.

The movie also won GRAMMY awards for Best Instrumental Theme and for "Everybody's Talking" which took top honors for Harry Nilsson for "Best Male Pop Vocal Performance." The song was a mega-hit on the pop charts.

This concludes our look back at the movies that won the BEST PICTURE Oscar while we were attending Father Ryan High School (1965-69). I hope you enjoyed it, especially to see how the trends in our best pictures waxed and waned over a 4 to 5 year period.

There are, of course, several other motion pictures of note that were made and released during our time together at FRHS. We will will take a look back at some of them as well, as we approach our 40th Reunion celebration which is now just a few weeks away now on the weekend of June 5-7.

If you've gotten your invitation, please be sure to fill out your RSVP card and send it in (with your check) as soon as possible. if you are a class member who hasn't gotten an invitation, let us know, so we can make sure you are on the list.

It is going to be a great weekend!

You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two

2009-05-11T06:55:00.000-07:00

It was back to a musical with an historical theme for the Academy Awards in 1968.

Despite that year being one of the most tumultous in American and world history, with riots, wars, assassinations and political turmoil dominating the headlines, Hollywood instead fell in love with Charles Dickens and a stage musical adaptation of his classic novel, OLIVER TWIST, which portrayed the seamy side of Victorian life on the streets of London in the 1800s.

OLIVER! had many wonderful songs, several of which still live on today, such as FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD, CONSIDER YOURSELF, AS LONG AS HE NEEDS ME, OOM-PAH-PAH and YOU'VE GOT TO PICK A POCKET OR TWO. Wikipedia says the movie starred a mixture of young unknowns and big names. Among the big names were Oliver Reed (Bill Sikes) and Ron Moody, who reprised his role from the London stage as Fagin. Moody got the movie part reportedly after it was turned down by Peter Sellers, Dick Van Dyke and Peter O'Toole. One of the less known stars was Mark Lester who played Oliver.

The movie was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 6 Oscars, including BEST PICTURE, BEST DIRECTOR (Carol Reed), BEST MUSIC, BEST ART DIRECTION, BEST SOUND and a special Oscar to Onna White for her elaborate choreography.

Here's the way Columbia Pictures promoted the movie.....

Oliver was a G-rated movie and, according to Wikipedia, the only such G-rated film to win a BEST PICTURE Oscar. That would be of particular interest considering the movie which won the Academy Award the next year.

Hollywood soon lost its love for musicals. OLIVER! was the last musical to win Best Picture until CHICAGO was so honored 34 years later.

Back to Movies.....

2009-05-09T08:47:00.001-07:00

As we continue our look back at the Best Picture Oscar winners while we were in high school, you can see by 1967 (parts of our sophomore and junior years) how the themes of the winning motion pictures changed from previous years when the winners were either historical epics (A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS,1966) or a musical with a historical theme (THE SOUND OF MUSIC, 1965).

The 1967 Best Picture Oscar was given to IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, a movie whose story line could have been ripped right out the headlines of the 1960s, especially with the ongoing civil rights movement still going strong across the country.

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is based on a novel by John Ball. It tells the story of an African-American police detective, Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) from Philadelphia who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a small, racist town in Mississippi.

The town's police chief, Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger), is the other major star of the movie. In fact, Rod Steiger won the BEST ACTOR Oscar for this role. Ironically however, it was Sidney Poitier (who had already become the first African-American to win a BEST ACTOR Oscar for LILLIES OF THE FIELD a few years earlier) who uttered the most enduring line of the film when he said: "They call me Mister Tibbs!"

Courtesy of YouTube, here's one of many powerful scences from the movie. By today's standards, it would seem almost routine, but the standards of the late 1960s this was groundbreaking subject matter for a motion picture...

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT won 5 Oscars in 1967. In addition to BEST PICTURE and BEST ACTOR, it also won for FILM EDIITING, SOUND and WRITING FOR AN ADAPTED SCREENPLAY.

The success of the movie led to two sequels: THEY CALL ME, MR.TIBBS (1970) and THE ORGANIZATION (1971). There was also a long-running TV series based on the main characters in the movie. IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT ran for 8 seasons on both NBC and CBS from March 6, 1988 to May 16, 1995.

Carroll O'Connor (of the ALL IN THE FAMILY TV show and Archie Bunker fame) played Police Chief Gillespie and Howard Rollins played Mr. Tibbs.

We Need Your Help!

2009-05-08T14:08:00.000-07:00

Before we get back to the Best Picture movies from the 1960s while we were at Ryan, we need your help.

As the time draws close for our 40th Reunion, the first weekend of June (June 5-7), there remain a lot of folks we haven't been able to contact.

I posted this list before, but let's do it again.

If you know how to reach any of the following classmates, let me know by replying below or by contacting me(pat.nolan@dvl.com).

Thanks!

LOST CLASSMATES---Father Ryan Class of 1969

Stanley Belcher
Michael Brown
Mike Byrd
James Colvert
Phil "Flash" Cunningham
James Dean
Ernest Felts
John DeLozier
Phillip Felts
Joseph Formosa
Greg Garr
Mike Grant (I do have an e-mail for him, no mailing address)
Tony Greene
Robert Greer
William Hall
William Hemmelgarn
Tommy Howington
Dickey Kibby
Mike Lagan
Steve Luckett
Chuck McDowell
Ralph McGuffey
Joe O'Connor
Tim Quirk (although we do have a lead on him from David Adams)
Darrell Rose
Roger Rontoni
David Schmitt
Charles Smith
William Stone
Charles Walker
Paul Woodside
John Wyman
Bob Young

It's a good size list, but any help you can give to us contact them about the Reunion will be appreciated.

Hopefully, we all will be receiving our invitations soon to the party at Jimmy Wilson's home on Saturday evening, June 6. Please send in your RSVP as soon as possible so we can plan to have enough to eat and drink (as I remember this is a hungry and thirsty group).

I will also be posting (several times in the next few weeks) detailed directions to the Wilson home and I will try and let you know who is coming (based on RSVPs) so you will have that information as well.

It's going to be a great Reunion weekend!

We Were First!

2009-05-07T13:12:00.000-07:00

All this week at Father Ryan, final exams are being given to those enrolled in the school's Advanced Placement (AP) courses.

The wonderful drawing above, from our senior year PANTHER YEARBOOK (and done by our own Dr. Bob Campbell),is of Mrs. Joan Wallenhorst, who taught the first AP course in Father Ryan history (English Literature-AP-Honors Class) when we were seniors back in the 1968-1969 school year.

From that humble beginning, and based on the 2007-08 school year, Father Ryan now offers 19 AP courses,involving 181 students or almost 12% of the entire student body. And more than 81% of our students pass their AP courses (making a 3 or more on the national AP exam for that subject to qualify for possible college credit).

The AP classes cover a wide range of disciplines including AP U.S. Government & Politics, AP European History, AP English Literature, AP Computer Science, AP Studio Art Portfolios, AP Psychlogy,AP Calculus, AP Statistics, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics, AP Spanish, AP French, AP Latin, AP Music Theory and AP Environmental Science.

And the legacy for all this at Father Ryan, dates from a lady who once rode a pogo stick down the middle of the hall on the first floor or our Annex Building, with our PANTHER photographer Bob Cook (and editor-in-chief Terry Shelton) there to capture the moment.....

I know I am a bit biased, but our 1969 PANTHER YEARBOOK was clearly the best one produced during the four years we attended Father Ryan.

Editor Terry Shelton and his entire staff deserve all the credit for how great the Yearbook is, even forty years later. The drawings by Bob Campbell, the hilarious photo of Mrs. Wallenhurst (and others photos and items from the yearbook that we will be spotlighting here on the blog between now and our Reunion) are just a couple of examples of why this PANTHER is so great.

By the way, the Alumni Office doesn't have a copy of our 1969 Annual. So if anyone wants to share theirs, please contact Alumni Director Angela Mills at the school.

Meanwhile, I hope Terry Shelton, who I know is reading this blog, will take a moment to explain in the comment section here,just how he managed to talk Mrs. Wallenhorst into getting on that pogo stick and have her picture taken. I am sure it will be a very fascinating and funny story. And anyone else who has the inside story, please feel free to chime in. That includes Pat Cook, who I understand used up an entire roll of film for that shoot.

I was one of those in the Senior Honors Class who took the first AP class, although I am not sure we were aware that we were making history. I remember late in our junior year, Mrs. Wallenhurst asking us if we would be interested in taking an AP class in English Literature, and we were like OK, I guess so.

I remember I did get a 3 on the AP exam and got 6 hours credit at Peabody. But my luck didn't hold, when I transferred to Vanderbilt, I had to take some English courses anyway to meet the school's distribution requirements for graduation. Oh well....

All We Had Was A Big Bass Drum...

2009-05-06T07:08:00.000-07:00

Let's take a brief intermission from our Best Picture movie review to give a shout-out to some current Father Ryan students and alumni who have brought a great honor to our school.

As you know when we were attending Father Ryan back in the 1960s, there wasn't anything that even resembled a band program. I believe someone once took a big bass drum out of the student section and marched up and down the field making some noise with it at halftime. Normally, our football games were pretty quiet affairs musically, especially when we played M.B.A., which didn't have a band either (and still doesn't).

However, today (and for several years now) Father Ryan High School has had an award-winning, nationally recognized band program. The latest achievement came last month when the FRHS Winter Drumline took the silver medal at the World Championships in Dayton, Ohio.

Father Ryan has a tradition of doing well in this competition. But what made finishing second in the world this season an even greater accomplishment was the fact that just a few months ago, it appears the FRHS Drumline would have to be disbanded because of a lack of students to participate.

That's when several alumni members stepped up and came back to Nashville for several weekends to re-join the Drumline and prepare for the World competition.

And compete they did. Despite being placed in the Independent category, where they had to go up against drumlines from major universities like Penn State and George Mason, the Irish made it happen. Among those stepping up were a number of freshmen and sophomore members of the Drumline who refused to be intimidated while going up against college-age rivals in the World Championships.

Performing a very difficult program based on a professional wrestling theme, the Ryan Drumline proved once again to be a crowd favorite at the event. After placing 5th in the preliminaries, the team moved up to second place in the finals to earn the Silver Medal...

As they hold the World Championship Silver trophy, you can see the joy on the faces of these Ryan alumni who came back to help year's Drumline. They are the living proof of why alumni support is so vital to our school, and how if our alums support our current students at FRHS, there is no limit to what can be accomplished.

Perhaps that something we should keep in mind the next time an Annual Fund letter hits our mailboxes. (End of sermon)

To close this salute to the success of our Winterline Drumline, here's an excerpt from their 2009 routine, courtesy of YouTube....

Best Pictures 1965-1969, Part II

2009-05-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

As we continue our look at the movies that won the "Best Picture" Oscars while we were at Father Ryan, we come to a motion picture that I remember being discussed in several of our religion classes while we were in school.

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, released in 1966, had a very strong Catholic theme. It concerned the ultimate test of faith and conscience for Sir (now Saint)Thomas More, who, as Chancellor of England, stood up to King Henry VIII (and forfeited his life) by refusing to endorse the King's wishes to divorce his wife and marry another, so he could produce a male heir. It all ultimately led to a complete break by the King with the Pope and the Catholic Church.

Paul Schofield, who had previously played the part on stage in London, was brillant in his portrayal of More, and he won a Best Actor Oscar for his work. He was surrounded by a wonderful cast that included Robert Shaw as the King, Orson Welles as Cardinal Wosley, John Hurt as Richard Rich, and Wendy Hiller as More's wife.

The movie swept the Oscars in 1966 winning 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Cinematography, Costume Design and Best Director.

Here's how Columbia Pictures promoted the film....

For 1965 (THE SOUND OF MUSIC) and 1966 (A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS) the Best Picture winners were largely wholesome, inspirational, historical types of movies. But as we shall see in our next couple of postings on this topic, that was going to change a bit in the coming years of 1967, 1968 and 1969.

Do you any memories of going to the movies while we were in high school? Any memories of A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS? THE SOUND OF MUSIC? What about other films did you see and enjoy during this period?

Please feel free to post your thoughts below by clicking on the comments link or send them to me by e-mail (pat.nolan@dvl.com) and I can post them here.

Best Pictures 1965-1969

2009-05-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

When we were in high school in the mid to late 1960s, going to the movies was a big deal. For one thing, it was where many of us had our first dates or double-dates.

And you had "to go" to the movies in those days. No on-demand or NetFlix or Blockbuster or VCRs or DVDs or DVRs. It was a big event and the source of a lot of our out-of-school entertainment in these days before cable TV, video games and surfing the Internet on our home computers.

To help capture that period in our lives, I have selected a series of movies to feature here on the blog, beginning with the motion pictures that won the "Best Picture" Oscars between 1965 and 1969.

We will begin at the beginning with THE SOUND OF MUSIC, which played so long (well over a year) at the Belle Meade Theater here in Nashville that I think we sometimes wondered if any other picture would ever be shown there.

While these days musicals still remain somewhat out of fashion, I think this Rogers & Hammerstein story about the Von Trapp family still maintains its vitality well nearly 45 years after its original release.

Wikipedia estimates that, adjusted for 2009 dollars, the SOUND OF MUSIC grossed $1.022 billion, making it third all-time behind GONE WITH THE WIND and STAR WARS. It was nominated for 10 Acedemy Awards and won 5 including BEST PICTURE, SOUND, BEST DIRECTOR (Robert Wise), BEST ADAPTED SCORE (it had been a hit show on Broadway first) and FILM EDITING. Here's how 20th Century Fox promoted the movie when it came out in 1965.....

THE SOUND OF MUSIC was so popular during its day that you'll remember several of its hit songs were featured in our SHOWTIME CYO Show held in the Father Ryan gym in the spring of 1966. That includes the title song along with CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN and, SIXTEEN GOING ON SEVENTEEN.

Perhaps the best indication of how great a movie THE SOUND OF MUSIC is comes from its selection in 2001 by the U.S. Library of Congress to be a part of its National Film Registry. That means the motion picture has been deemed "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant."

It also means that maybe the owners of the old Belle Meade Theatre were on to something back in the 1960s when the picture was the feature presentation for so long, because this is a film that will clearly be around to be enjoyed by many generations yet to come.

May He Rest In Peace

2009-05-03T10:32:00.000-07:00

We've lost another member of our class.

THE SUNDAY TENNESSEAN(May 3)carries news of the passing on April
28,2009 of our classmate Robert Michael (Mike) Craven. Mike was living in Crofton, MD at the time of his death. He had just observed his 58th birthday on April 21.

While attending Ryan, Mike excelled in athletics, lettering in varsity baseball his sophomore and junior years, and in both baseball and basketball in his senior season.After leaving FRHS, he earned a B.A. degree at DePauw University where he again lettered in baseball.

Mike was a career sales representative, starting out in the shoe industry with Timberland. His career then took him to the Bay Area of California where he lived for over 20 years and where he developed a passion for tennis.

The last decade of his life Mike was a sales representative in the furniture industry for Fairfield Chair Company, working in the states of Maryland and Virginia.

His TENNESSEAN obituary offers these tributes: "Mike touched many lives. His fun loving, colorful approach to life made all those who he knew laugh and smile....Mike says he will see you in the next adventure."

Mike is survived by his mother, Mary Fitzgerald Craven and his eight brothers and sisters, John, Susan, Donna, Joe, Cathy, Beth, Mark and Jim. He also leaves behind nineteen nieces and nephews and two great nephews. A funeral mass will be held at 11:00 A.M.,Tuesday, May 5 at St. Stephen Catholic Community in Hermitage.
For his friends in Maryland, a party in his honor will be held at a date and time to be announced.

Contributions in Mike's memory can be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN. 38105.

Mike was one of our classmates who lost touch with Father Ryan over the years. He is also now among several classmates who have passed away in recent years. Here is a list from the Father Ryan Alumni Office, although it may well be incomplete.

Danny Boyd
William "Billy" Buckner
Andrew Cantrell
Jack Long
William Martin
Mark Mogan
General Bernardo Negrete
Bill O'Donohoe
Kenny Potts
Mike Rohling
Charlie Rosa
Johnny Shelton
Henry Swider
Mike Watson
Mike Craven

As we gather together for our 40th Class Reunion the first weekend in June, let us all pause for a moment, say a prayer and remember our Father Ryan classmates that have gone before us.

UPDATE: Another sign of the high esteem Mike Craven achieved in his industry comes from this article printed April 30 in the trade publication, FURNITURE WORLD MAGAZINE:

Sad Note: Mike Craven,CHR Passes

The Age of the Secret Agent, Part 3

2009-05-02T07:29:00.000-07:00

Judging from popular culture, we did truly live in the Age of the Secret Agent while we were attending Father Ryan High School in the mid to late 1960s.

One of the TV shows that was part of the craze was clearly Mission: Impossible. The series ran from September,1966 to March, 1975 on the CBS Network. It featured the missions of a team of secret American government agents lead by Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves.

According to Wikipedia: "The hallmark of these shows (was) Graves receiving receiving instruction on a tape recorder that self destructs" with the warning that should the operation fail or they be captured, "the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions."

The show has endured through the decades including a two-year revivial on ABC-TV from 1988 to 1990 and a trio of recent motion pictures starring Tom Cruise. Then there's the musical theme for Misson:Impossible, composed by Lalo Schifrin. It has been used for the opening of all the shows (and movies). And, in a unique touch, it always featured a montage of action scenes from that week's episode...

Another strong pop cultural theme of our high school years in the 1960s was the "British Invasion." And that was certainly true in the secret agent/spy craze, with the James Bond novels and movies that originally sparked the craze. Then there was the British-produced TV show THE SAINT starring Roger Moore, who later succeeded Sean Connery in the movies playing James Bond.

THE SAINT began in 1962 on British TV. It was picked up by NBC as a summer replacement show in 1966 and continued on the network schedule until 1969.THE SAINT experienced worldwide popularity being picked up and shown in 60 different countries.

The master spy thriller was based on the character Simon Templar created by Leslie Charteris back in the 1920s. 120 episodes were produced,many of which began like this...

The only British-based TV spy show that was more prolific than THE SAINT was THE AVENGERS. A so-called "spy-fi" show, it featured the exploits of British secret agents operating in 1960s England. Several of the shows had sci-fi themes.

The primary character was John Steed, played by Patrick Macnee. He had a number of female sidekicks during the run of the show from 1961 to 1969, including Honor Blackman, who later gained fame in one of the Bond movies (Goldfinger) as Pussy Galore.

But the most famous of THE AVENGER female agents is Diane Rigg, who played Emma Peel from 1965 to 1968, which corresponds with the years that the show came to America on the ABC TV network. ABC paid a then unheard of amount of $2 million for the rights to 26 episodes that first season. Certainly many young boys watching the show thought the money was well spent just to watch Diane Rigg :).

A catch-phrase from those seasons was Steed saying "Mrs. Peel, we are needed." And indeed, according to Wikipedia, THE AVENGERS was the longest running spy series produced for English-speaking television, although MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE had more episodes with
171.

The secret agent/spy craze was, of course, tailor made for satire and comedy.

One hit TV series that took full advantage of that was GET SMART which aired from September 18, 1965 to April 12, 1969 on NBC. It was a series created by two comedic legends, Mel Brooks and Buck Henry.

The show featured Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 and Barbara Feldon as Agent 99 (her full name was never given). Both worked for CONTROL, a secret American counter-spy agency battling their opponents, known as KAOS.

The show has sparked 4 different full-length TV and theatrical movies over the years, and some of the catchphrases from the original show live on today such as: "Sorry, about that, Chief" and "Would you believe...?"

And here's how it began that first season in 1965 just a few days after we began classes for the first time at Father Ryan...

Some might see GET SMART as the American TV version of Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) of THE PINK PANTHER movies fame. Clearly that is an apt comparison in some ways. But since the PINK PANTHER movies, by in large, came to full prominence during the 1970s, I am not including them in this posting.

Of course, popular culture certainly also included the pop music scene in the 1960s, and you could find secret agent and spy themes there as well. We've already mentioned all the Bond movie theme songs that became hits on the charts. Then there's this hit record, by a man who had many hit songs in 1960s, Johnny Rivers with SECRET AGENT MAN in 1966...

This ends our look back at the secret agent/spy craze of our high school days. I sure I have overlooked or omitted some movies or TV shows or other things that should almost be remembered in this retrospective.

If so, leave me a comment below or send me an e-mail(pat.nolan@dvl.com) with your other memories or thoughts and suggestions.

The Age of the Secret Agent, Part II

2009-04-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

In our last posting we spoke about the craze over secret agents and spies that swept the nation and its popular culture while were in high school back in the 1960s.

The source for a lot of it was the popularity of the James Bond movies. It spread to TV as well through hit shows like THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

But it went even further than that...and sometimes the show formats were not the typical Cold War situations of Bond and Solo.

In many ways THE WILD, WILD WEST TV show was the merging of the secret agent, spy craze with a longstanding popular tradition on American network television, the western. And for good measure the show mixed in a little sci-fi and alternate history ideas.

THE WILD, WILD WEST ran for 104 episodes on the CBS Network from September 17, 1965 to April 4, 1969 featuring the adventures of two post-Civil War Secret Service agents, James West, played by Robert Conrad, and Artemus Gordon, played by Ross Martin. The two traveled around the country in a special luxury train (complete with a horse stable and a laboratory.

According to Wikipedia, The show was conceived as "James Bond on horseback" and always featured (like the Bond moves) "beautiful women, clever gadgets and delusional arch-enemies" as West and Gordon tried "to protect President U.S. Grant and the nation from all kinds of threats."

The I SPY TV show was little more like the Bond movie format following the exploits of Robert Culp as international tennis player, Kelly Robinson and his trainer, Alexander Scott, played by Bill Cosby. They traveled around the world as "tennis bums", but really they were both Pentagon agents chasing villians, spies and beautiful women (sound familar?)

The show made history as the first American TV drama to feature an African American male actor in a leading role. Bill Cosby, then known primarily as stand up nightclub comic who sold a lot of comedy albums, was so good in the show he won three consecutive Emmys as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama series.

I SPY was more realistic than the Bond films and other secret agent TV shows. It was a drama series with little comedy. There were no special gadgets or crazy villians. The show ran on the CBS Network for 82 episodes from 1965 to 1968.

In this interview, courtesy of YouTube, Robert Culp describes how the show's concept came about and how Bill Cosby got involved....

Believe or not, there's still lots more to talk about in our look back at the secret agent/spy craze that dominiated popular culture while we were in high school at Father Ryan. Back with Part III in my next posting.

In the meantime, if you have any thoughts or memories to share on this subject or anything else concerning our times together in high school between 1965 and 1969, please feel free to write them below or drop me an e-mail at pat.nolan@dvl.com.

A HEADS UP! Invitations to our Class party on Saturday night, June 6will be in the mail to you in the next few days. Please send in your checks, money for registration ASAP. Then check back here for directions to our classmate Jimmy Wilson's home and other details about the evening. We thank Jimmy and his wife for hosting the event again.

By the way, if you have contact information about classmates who you are not sure Father Ryan is in touch with, please let us know so we can extend them an invitation to our reunion if they want to come.

After 40 years, the more, the merrier!

The Age of the Secret Agent

2009-04-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

Beginning a couple of years before we came to Father Ryan and continuing throughout the time we went to school on Elliston Place, a mania over secret agents and spies gripped popular culture and the media.

Maybe it was because of the real Cold War then underway between the United States and the Soviet Union. Whatever the reason, it all began in popular culture with the James Bond movies in the early '60s (based on the writings of Ian Fleming) with DR. NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

While we were in school there was THUNDERBALL (1965), YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967) and ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (1969). All these movies were major hits and the tradition of the James Bond movies (the theme songs,especially the Bond theme by Henry Mancini, the special gadgets, the excitement, the danger,"shaken, not stirred," the Bond Girls) continues even today, over 40 years later. Some 22 Bond movies have been produced with another planned for 2011.

Over the years, several leading actors have played the title character, but in most fans' minds, the original is still the best to the play the role, Sean Connery....

Of course, the success of the Bond movies led to TV shows trying to capitalize on the public mania. The most successful one was THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. that ran on NBC for 105 episodes from September 22, 1964 to January 15, 1968. Starring Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo and David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin the show was a smash hit on top of the ratings for several years.

There are many other TV shows and even hit records that reflected our '60s fascination with secret agents and spies. We'll take a further look back at that in our next posting.

What are your memories of this era? Please leave your thoughts below or e-mail them to me at pat.nolan@dvl.com.

Speaking of Space.....

2009-04-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

Space exploration was a very popular topic when we were in high school at Father Ryan. Not only were we edging ever closer to landing on the moon, but there were several TV shows that took space exploration to the "final frontier."

Today, the most famous TV show of that genre is "Star Trek, created by science fiction writer, the late Gene Roddenberry." The program that ran for three seasons in the late 1960s has given birth to several other TV shows and revivals over the years, as well as 11 full-length feature movies, with the latest set to open at theatres in early May.

But you would never have guessed it based on the fact that the original show struggled to find its audience and was cancelled due to low ratings after just three years. But Star Trek did develop a growing and very strong cult following."Trekies" never gave up their devotion to the show and its characters (now going into multiple generations).

Here courtesy of YouTube is the way the original TV show opened back in its first season in 1966 as the voyages of the Starship Enterprise launched a media empire that continues to grow and to "live long and prosper" over 40 years later.

There was also another late 1960s TV show about space exploration that is still fondly remembered today. If you click on the photo above you can hear the theme song for "Lost In Space" written by composer John Williams.

"Lost in Space" was a take off on the novel "Swiss Family Robinson", also made famous by a Disney movie in the early '60s. It was produced by Irwin Allen, later famous for his many disaster films.

Like "Star Trek" the show lasted only three seasons (83 episodes from September, 1965 to March, 1968).It actually got slightly better ratings than "Star Trek", despite sometimes running in the same time slot against tough opposition like "Batman." But the show never developed a "Trekie" type following. It was also quite expensive to produce.

There was a full-length "Lost In Space" movie done in 1997 and some phrases from the show still live on our lingo today such as "Danger, Will Robinson" and "Oh, the pain, the pain." Ironically those lines come from characters, (the Computer Robot and Dr. Smith) who were not featured in the video below. Courtesy of YouTube, here's how the CBS Network tried to sell the show to its affilates in the summer and fall of 1965 just before its debuted....

On The Way To The Moon...

2009-04-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

It was all but a done deal, an accepted fact that was going to happen.

Our late President John F. Kennedy had already set the national goal.

We were going to the Moon by the end of the '60s!

Space flights,under both the Gemini and Apollo programs,were frequent occurences while we were attending Father Ryan between 1965and 1969.

That included a very famous flight when the crew of Apollo 8 orbited the moon for the first time on Christmas Eve, 1968. It resulted in a prime time broadcast that reportedly attracted the largest audience ever in American TV history.

Courtesy of YouTube, here's a look back at that special event through a TV special produced by WGN-TV in Chicago and featuring one of the Apollo 8 astronauts, Jim Lovell. It is the fascinating story behind the story...

I still get goosebumps everytime I see and hear that broadcast, even more so than watching the actual landing on the moon which came with the Apollo 11 mission in July, 1969 shortly after we graduated from Father Ryan.

Earthrise from Apollo 8, December 24, 1968

On that Christmas Eve, 1968 I had been out with friends doing some Christmas-caroling. We had just come back in to warm up with some hot chocolate when the broadcast began. Watching the lunar surface on the far side of the moon drift by (it was something no one had even seen before) and then to witness the "earth rise" during the broadcast, all while listening to the words of Genesis left an impression on me that is still quite strong today.

So what are your memories of that event, or the space program in general while we were at Ryan? I suspect most of us at the time thought that lunar landings would continue for many years. Now it's been well over 35 years since someone walked on the moon. That will apparently change soon with new lunar explorations and even a mission to Mars on the planning boards. All this to inspire a new generation to look forward to a new future.

Rock & Roll

2009-04-21T08:44:00.001-07:00

Rock & Roll music. Whether you were a jock or a geek, a brainiac or a nerd, this was the common language we all spoke and the one thing we all related to while we were in high school at Father Ryan from the fall of 1965 to the spring of 1969.

If you grew up in Nashville in the late 50s through the 1960s, you must remember the keen competition for listeners between 1300 AM WMAK and 1240 AM WKDA. The Good Guys versus the All-Americans. Now some people might have been so loyal they only listened to one of the stations, largely because they liked one or more of the D.J. (disc jockeys) there.

But I think most of us just switched back and forth, largely based on whether we liked the song was playing at that instant. Either way, the competition was a great boon for local listeners, and made listening to the radio one of the main things we did at nights and on the weekends as well as to and from school each day( although we likely needed our parents'permission to control the radio when one of them did the driving).

So what are your memories of listening to Scott Shannon or Noel Ball? How about Captain Midnight or Allen Dennis? Please feel free to leave your thoughts and memories below or send them to me at pat.nolan@dvl.com.

If you need some help to prod your memory check out this website that is promoting a new book now available about the history of radio and TV broadcasting in Nashville.

http://www.nashvillebroadcastinghistory.com/

I can highly reccomend the book which is written by Lee Dorman, who himself once worked for WKDA (look very closely at the WKDA Hits List above.That's Lee's picture at the very bottom. You will also find lots of memories of long ago days in Nashville TV looking through the website as well.

Prom Time

2009-04-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

Father Ryan held its annual prom this past weekend (Saturday night, April 18).

While in our day this event was staged in Ryan gym (see above), for many years now it has been an off-campus activity. This year it was held at the Doubletree Hotel downtown with the theme "EVER AFTER."

Anyone remember the themes of the two proms we attended? I had to consult the PANTHER Yearbook and as best I can tell, the themese were "VENTIAN HOLIDAY" and EVENING IN PARIS."

Tickets for this year's prom were $15 a couple and $10 for an individual ticket. I can't remember. Did we have to buy tickets to go to the prom?

All I remember is renting the tux, the shoes, getting the corsage for my date, going to the prom, dancing a little, then standing in line for what seemed like forever to get our prom photo taken. Then maybe a little more dancing and hanging out, before we left to go get something to eat, then to someone's home for the after-prom late-night dinner and/or breakfast.

Anybody still got their prom photos? Do you still remember who you took to the prom both junior and senior years? Anybody in our class take the same girl both years? Anyone marry their prom date? My two dates were Becky Lemming (junior year) and Molly Hudgens (senior year). I can't find any of the photos, and I only keep in touch with Molly. I haven't seen or heard from Becky in years.

So what your story? And who did you double-date with to go to the prom?

Your memories of prom night are welcome. Please click on the remarks link below to leave them here on the blog.

Prom was the first time most of us could stay all night without getting into big trouble. So I am sure there must be some stories to tell. And with 40 years having gone by, I am pretty sure it's safe to share them now. :)

By the way, can you imagine us going on a prom date now? Staying out all night, we'd be wrecked for a week!

The Transformation of Nashville

2009-04-13T10:31:00.000-07:00

The Nashville we grew up in during the 1950s and 1960s was pretty much a one skyscraper,little Southern town. The L&C Tower, seen above, was as tall and as big as it got while we were attending Father Ryan.But over the last 40 years that's changed a lot!

Today Nashville is becoming a major American city. It is "Music City, U.S.A", a tourist and convention destination; a community that has finally come to understand and relish its unique position as the Mecca for Country Music (and now other genres of music, as well).

Nashville in 2009 is home to not one, but two major league sports franchises, the NFL Titans and the NHL Predators. That's something none of us would have believed possible back when we were in school on our Elliston Place campus..

There are many people who are responsible for Nashville's transformation over the last four decades, but perhaps none more so that the man pictured above. He is Eddie Jones, the long time Executive Vice President of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and the last editor of the city's afternoon newspaper, THE NASHVILLE BANNER.

While working with the Chamber, Eddie helped laid a lot of the groundwork for modern day Nashville. That includes, while we were still in school in 1967, public referendum approval to allow liquor to be served by the drink in the city. The end of the old hyprocisy of "brown bagging" and private clubs, helped attract many new hotels, restaurants and businesses to town.

Eddie Jones also helped bring them here through his work to create the city's Airport Authority which has greatly improved Nashville's air service over the years along with his efforts to begin the Nashville Convention and Vistors Bureau which has helped make the city an even greater draw for tourists and conventions.

Eddie Jones died last week at the age of 85. But what he helped create here in Nashville will live on in our city for many years to come.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Eddie Jones was a long time friend and mentor of mine. We worked together at DVL Public Relations and Advertising for the last 11 years of his life.

Father Ryan & The MLK Assassination

2009-04-03T12:57:00.000-07:00

It was early in the evening on April 4, 1968, 41 years ago.

It was a school night, so many of us might have just been sitting down to or finishing our dinner. Or maybe (for a change) we were doing our homework. All of us completely unaware of what was about to happen.

Then came the shocking news from Memphis which echoed all across the nation, the world and now throughout history....

It is interesting to note the soundbite CBS News used from Dr. King's last speech. It was not the portion of his comments that have gone down in history as "The Mountain Top" speech because of Dr. King's near prediction of his own death as he closed his remarks...

The murder of Dr. King in Memphis had an immediate impact on those of us attending Father Ryan. As was mentioned earlier in the CBS News report, Governor Buford Ellington quickly called out the National Guard.

Some took up positions in residential neighborhoods in North Nashville, where they greeted some of our black classmates (Lindsey Draper,Ted Lenox,Carlton Crutchfield, among others) the very next morning, standing guard with fixed bayonets when our friends went out to get the morning paper.Frankly, it was a reaction that not only shocked and frightened them, but made them more than a bit mad, I remember one of them telling me.

It was a difficult time all over the country, especially in those early hours after the King assassination when presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, soon to be the victim of an assassination himself, spoke to a crowd in Indianapolis...

Despite Robert Kennedy's words, there were riots in more than 100 cities all over the country, including a few acts of violence here in Nashville. Mayor Beverly Briley imposed a dusk to dawn curfew for nearly a week here in town, as the National Guard stayed camped out in Centennial Park, just behind Father Ryan.

All day long while we were in class, you could see and hear the movement of troops as jeeps, personnel carriers, even a few tanks when up and down the road behind school. We even joked that the aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Missouri, then on duty off the coast of North Vietnam, would soon be coming down the Cumberland River.

But despite the tragedy of the situation, something occurred that was of benefit to Father Ryan. According to our classmates Phil Mattingly and Jimmy Wilson, our wrestling team was desperately trying to raise money for a new mat.

They had been selling doughnuts to get the funds, and the influx of so many hungry National Guardsmen proved a real boon to their efforts. In fact, they more than exceeded their money goal for the mat from feeding the troops (even though they remember some of the doughnuts had gotten a little stale).

My strong memory of that historic week was being involved as a singer in what I believe to be the first folk mass wedding ever held in Nashville at Holy Rosary Church. I was involved with Class of 1968 members Bob Sharp and Bob McKeown along with Chris Williams of the FRHS Class of 1970.

Now today, nobody would think twice about singing folk songs or having a guitar or an electric bass at a Mass. But back in 1968, it seemed as odd and different as suggesting that one day there would be a national holiday to commemerate Dr. King.

We'd already had at least one priest back out of saying the nuptials. Then the King murder made matters even more surreal, as a couple of members of the wedding party were called up to serve in the Guard,and the wedding itself, along with the reception were moved up to the afternoon to avoid problems with the curfew.

Our last minute practices were also difficult to schedule to avoid conflicts with being caught out after hours. I clearly remember riding home from Donelson and seeing all the businesses closed and shuttered, with police and Guardsmen everywhere.

But, when I think back, that was the kind of crazy year it was in 1968, even if all you were doing was going to high school at Father Ryan.

What are your memories of that historic time? Please feel free to share them below. I have adjusted the settings so leaving your comments is very easy to do, or e-mail them to me (pat.nolan@dvl.com).

That Jersey Boys Spirit

2009-04-02T11:46:00.000-07:00

When we were growing up and attending Father Ryan High School, there were few, if any, opportunities to experience the highest level of Broadway-type entertainment here in Nashville.

The Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) has helped correct that shortcoming over the last few years, and never has that been more apparent than with the current touring production of the multiple Tony-Award winning JERSEY BOYS show which is winding up its two-week plus stay here in Music City.

I had a chance to see the show Wednesday night (April 1), and while my daughter, Kelly, who lives in New York City, would surely tell me the Broadway cast and production is better, it would be very hard to prove it my book. Never have I heard a Nashville audience leave a TPAC production with more praise for what they saw and heard. It was a true '60s revival!

JERSEY BOYS is based on the lives and careers (with many ups and downs) of the original Four Seasons, one of the dominant groups on the Top 40 rock charts, beginning in the early 1960s, well before we entered Father Ryan, and continuing with hit records throughout our high school years.

The Four Seasons had their own special, distinctive sound helping them chart 29 Top 40 hits, including 5 Number One songs and selling more than 100 million records between 1962 and 1978. That includes between 1965-69 such hits as "Bye, Bye Baby", "Let's Hang On", "Working My Way Back To You", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Tell It To The Rain" and C'mon Marianne" among others. The Four Seasons were one of the few American groups who managed to survive and even thrive during the British Invasion that dominated the pop charts here in the U.S. starting in early 1964.

Here, courtesy of YouTube, is a medley of Four Seasons hits recorded from a TV Show appearance back in 1967.....

And to prove there is always a Nashville connection, one of the original members of the Four Seasons, Bob Gaudio, who was also the creative force and writer of many of the group's hit songs now lives in Nashville.

Before March Went Mad...

2009-03-29T16:20:00.001-07:00

When we were attending Father Ryan, the NCAA Basketball Championships were nothing like the tournament is today. For one thing, there were only about 22 to 25 teams annually selected to compete for the crown, or about a third of the 64 squads that get bids today.

I can't remember anybody running a pool at school on who was going to win the tournament and live TV coverage was mostly limited to the final championship games themselves, with some regional coverage of earlier NCAA tournament games if a local school was involved.

Maybe another reason interest was not as great back then was that one team more or less dominated the sport: the UCLA Bruins under legendary coach John Wooden. They won the NCAA title the two years before we came to Ryan (1964 and 1965), then beginning we were sophomores, UCLA began an unprecedented streak of winning national championships for the next 8 of the next 9 seasons (1967-1973 and then again in 1975).

But that doesn't mean college basketball history didn't happen while we were on Elliston Place. Actually, the most famous game while we were in school, labeled by many as "The Game of the Century" and "The Greatest Game Ever Played" came on January 20, 1968.

The University of Houston Cougars took on UCLA in the Astrodome in Houston. This was a rematch of the previous year's NCAA national semifinal game won by the Bruins 73-58. But with both teams again national powers, UCLA with Lew Alcindor(later Kareem Abdul Jabbar) and Houston with Elvin Hayes, interest was so high that for the first time ever a regular season NCAA basketball game was televised nationwide in prime time. It was on the TVS Television Network with Dick Enberg doing the play-by-play and Bob Pettit doing the color commentary. It also attracted a paying crowd of well over 50,000 fans, the largest audience to ever attend any basketball game up until that time.

Courtesy of YouTube, here's a look back at this college basketball classic, won by Houston 71-69, snapping a 47-game winning streak by UCLA that had extended more than two and a half seasons.

According to Wikipedia, the 1968 Houston-UCLA game: "established college basketball as a sports commodity and paved the way for modern "March Madness." I personally remember watching the game that Saturday night in January, 1968. I was working the 6PM-12AM shift as a sack boy at the HURRY BACK MARKET, just down the street from the Father Ryan campus on Elliston Place. I watched the game while sacking beer and other items and also going outside to get bags of ice for customers.

As for the Houston-UCLA rivalry, the Cougars ended the season undefeated and Number One in the national polls. But UCLA got its revenge in the national tournament again defeating Houston in NCAA national semifinals, this time quite decisively, 101-69 as the Bruins went on to another college basketball championship.

One more important note about college basketball history while we were students at Father Ryan. Our freshman year, in the spring of 1966 (March 19, 1966), Texas Western (now Texas-El Paso) defeated Kentucky for the national crown 72-65 in a game played at College Park, Maryland. It marked the first time in history that school starting five black players won the title. The game is credited with opening the door for more and more black athletes to be recruited to play at major colleges and universities that had previously shunned them.

Here, courtesy of YouTube, is how the Disney movie, "Glory Road" portrayed a key segement of the second half of the Texas Western-UK game when the Minors pulled ahead to win (also note some of the historic names on the Kentucky team such as Pat Riley, Larry Conley and Louie Dampier)...

The winds of change from the Texas Western-UK game even reached Nashville and Vanderbilt University, as the Commodores became the first SEC school to have a black player when Perry Wallace was recruited. It was Perry Wallace who played on those great Pearl High School teams in the mid-1960s.

In fact, it was the Ryan-Pearl game played in 1965 (the winter before we came to campus) that marked the first time a white and black school had ever played each other in Tennessee. Ryan won the game held at the Nashville Municipal Audutorium 52-50 on a last second basket by reserve guard named Lyn Dempsey.

Ryan had its own black player in that first Pearl game, Willie Brown, who had integrated the Nashville Interscholastic League (NIL) a few years ealier. In the spring of 1965 (just a few months before we enrolled)he led Ryan to its first berth in many year in the State Basketball Tournament.

Not to be outdone, Pearl responded the next year in 1966 (when we are freshmen) with a legendary, undefeated season, winning the Tennessee state championship in the first year the school was allowed to play other white high school teams in Nashville and across the state.

Indeed, college basketball history was being made on all levels while we were at Ryan. And what occurred has all led not only to increased athletic opportunties for all, but also to the wonderful "March Madness" of the NCAA basketball tourney and ongoing national TV college basketball coverage we all enjoy today.

Do you have basketball memories of the time we spent at Ryan? If so, please feel free to share them below or e-mail them to me (pat.nolan@dvl.com) and I will include them on this blog site.

The Overcup Oak

2009-03-27T07:17:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of Gary Layda, Metro Photographer

On Arbor Day 2009 (Thursday, March 26) dozens of Nashville community leaders gathered in Centennial Park to plant memorial trees in honor of significant Nashvillians who passed away in the last year.

That includes our Father Ryan principal, Monsignor James Hitchcock. Some of those participating in the tree planting ceremony are shown in the photo above. From left to right they are, Pat Nolan, FRHS Class of 1969, Diana Kuhlman, David Kuhlman, FRHS Class of 1957, Bishop David Choby, FRHS Class of 1965, Marvin Brown, Monsignor Hitchcock's long time caregiver,and Judge Mike Mondelli, FRHS Class of 1964.

During the ceremonies, Bishop Choby spoke and thanked the City of Nashville for recognizing Monsignor Hitchcock's contributions to the community as a great educator. He noted how fitting it is that the tree, an Overcup Oak, will be located just a short distance from the old Father Ryan Elliston Place campus where he taught and was principal for so many years in the 1950s and throughout the decade of the 1960s. Monsignor Hitchcock was also a graduate of Father Ryan in the Class of 1939.

The choice of an Overcup Oak seems quite appropriate to me for Monsignor Hitchcock. According to information I found in an on-line Google search, it is a long-lived, very sturdy shade tree that thrives in sometimes difficult urban landscaping conditions and in a wide variety of soil conditions.

This is in much the same way as Monsignor, who was so successful in dealing with the wide variety of students who came to Father Ryan as young boys and left as men during his tenure there.

The Overcup Oak, after several years, also annually produces acorns, usually between a half-inch and an inch in size. The oak tree is credited as well with being able "to create a wildlife habitat on land where most oak species can not survive."

This reminds me of the generations of Father Ryan graduates, who after being taught and nutured by Monsignor Hitchcock and his faculty and staff at Father Ryan, left the school each year to go into the world to help make it a better place to live. And hopefully, while some of them they lived and traveled all over the world after they graduated, they, like the oak tree acorns still stayed close to the values and life lessons they learned at the school.

Of course, I also find it fitting that Monsignor's tree is located in a park where Father Ryan students often slipped way to eat lunch on a beautiful fall or spring day, and perhaps sometimes did so without permission. Skipping school, we called it). We probably called it Work Crew if we got caught!

In case you'd like to visit Monsignor's tree, you can tell from the top photo, it is located not far from the Parthenon on the 31st Avenue side of the park. You can also see from the photo, the tree has a special plaque to indentify it.

To Honor Father Hitchcock

2009-03-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

Tommorrow (Thursday, March 26) is National Arbor Day.

To celebrate this occasion, our Father Ryan principal, the late Monsignor James R. Hitchcock will be honored posthumously by city and state leaders, along with a number of other distinguished Nashvillians who died in recent months, with memorial trees being planted in their honor near the Sunken Gardens in Centennial Park.

The event is scheduled for 11:00 AM, if you'd like to attend.

The other Nashvillians being honored in addition to Monsignor Hitchcock include Ross Alderman, Harry Banniza, Jr., Virginia "Happy" Birdsong, Robert C.H. Mathews, Jr. and Major Samuel H. Sloss, Jr.

Nashville Mayor Karl Dean will be attending the event which is being sponsored by Metro Public Works, the Metro Beautification and Environment Commission, the Metro Tree Advisory Committee, the Nashville Tree Foundation, the Nashville Electric Service, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Forestry Division

Thanks to Jimmy Wilson of the FRHS Class of 1969 and to Dennis Corrieri and Morgan Holzapfel of the FRHS Class of 1967 for their e-mails letting us know about this event to honor Monsignor Hitchcock.

I think it is very appropriate that the memorial tree planting is in Centennial Park, so close to the old Father Ryan Elliston Place campus where he was principal for so many years.

The Young Rascals and Father Ryan

2009-03-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

When we were in school at Father Ryan one of the top musical groups of the day was The Young Rascals, who later shortened their name to just The Rascals.

By any name the group was one of the top bands of our high school era. They were elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1997 after recording a number of hit albums and singles during the late 1960s, including this one courtesy of YouTube: "Good Loving" which was Number One on the charts both here and in Canada

One of the leaders of the group was Felix Cavaliere who did vocals and the keyboards. Never in my wildest dreams when I was at Father Ryan did I ever imagine that Felix Cavaliere would somehow directly touch my life or my family.

But it happened and it happened at Father Ryan. My oldest daughter, Katie, who is a member of the Class of 1997, was a part of the Father Ryan Singers choral group when she was in school.

One night I attended her spring concert and I saw twin girls in the group identified by the last name of Cavaliere. I inquired about who they were and learned their father was indeed the Felix Cavaliere, who also during his career was also a part of the group "Joey and the Starliters, which I believe once again a hit recording of "The Peppermint Twist" among others.>

It seems Cavaliere had moved his musical career to Nashville during the 1990s and brought his family to town as well, with his daughters attending and graduating from Father Ryan.

Wow! Imagine if could have seen into the future while we were in school and thought that oone of our kids would be singing on the same stage at school as the kids of rock star Felix Cavaliere. It sure shows what the wonderful town Nashville is to attract such talented people to our city and what a great school Father Ryan is to provide their families with a great education.

Spring Break?

2009-03-17T13:18:00.001-07:00

It's quiet on the Father Ryan campus this week.

It's Spring Break.

Did we have "spring break" back when we were in school? I can't remember us calling it that? Can you?

Oh sure, we got a week out of school this time of year. But it was always the week after Easter, whenever that fell. And that could be anywhere from late March to the very end of April. Now Spring Break is always sometime around the middle of March, which educators feel give them a more consistent academic year.

Did anyone go on "spring break" trips back in our day? I can't remember doing it. Heck, a summer time vacation trip was what I remember living for.

When my daughters went to Ryan back in the middle to late 1990s, spring break trips were a big thing, to the point that the school every year used to send home a letter reminding parents and their students to try and remain on their best behavior while out of town.

The school itself would sometimes sponsor spring break trips. I remember one of my daughters going on a trip France during their week out of class.

So I guess maybe we missed out on a lot of that back in our day. But we sure had the music for spring break. I can't really say why, but to me, there is nothing like the music of The Beach Boys in a song like their hit, "Surfing U.S.A." to make me think about spring break, even if I've never been on a surfboard in California in my life....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU9-uY_32uA

Do have memories of Spring Break and Father Ryan or trips you took while you were in school? If so, share them below or send them to me e-mail, pat.nolan@dvl.com

POW! ZING! BAM! What A New TV Show

2009-03-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

Unlike today, network night-time TV was the only major entertainment outlet most of us had at home at night. You know, what we wanted to be doing instead of our homework!

The most hyped new show our freshman year was BATMAN, based on the DC Comics character we all grew up with at the drugstore news stands.

But this show was a little different from the comic strip. BATMAN on ABC Television, WSIX-TV, Channel 8 here in Nashville at the time, was styled as a pop art, camp comedy.

And this is now-famous theme song that debuted on January 12, 1966...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOUPjEHYFew

The show and its theme became so popular for a while that I can remember the bands at TEEN TOWN playing the song at our weekly dances. BATMAN actually ran twice a week on ABC with the episodes connected by cliff-hanger endings. The series made stars out of Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin. It also typecast them and hurt their future careers.

It's also true that life and TV move on quickly. After only about two and half seasons, BATMAN was cancelled with its last show airing on March 14, 1968. NBC made a last minute bid to save the show but this was one cliff-hanger that didn't have a happy ending, Robin.

Holy cancellation, Batman!

What TV shows did you enjoy watching (instead of doing your homework)while we were at FRHS? Send me an e-mail or leave your thoughts below and I will try and profile the shows in a later posting.

Another State Championship--But In A Different Sport

2009-03-09T07:43:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to the Father Ryan High School Ice Hockey Team!

They are Tennessee State Champions after winning the 2009 Predators' Cup this past weekend. Making the accomplishment even sweeter was the fact that the Irish won the title by defeating arch-rival, and two-time defending state champions, Pope John Paul II High School, 4-1.

It was the second victory of the year for Ryan over JPII. They defeated the Knights 5-2 during the regular season.

Ice Hockey is certainly a sport we didn't have when we attended Father Ryan 40 years ago. But like wrestling in our day, ice hockey is a sport that is catching at the high school-level on all over Tennessee. That's in large part due to the continuing success of the NHL's Nashville Predator franchise.

Professional hockey is not a new thing in Nashville. During our day, we had the Eastern Hockey League Dixie Flyers, a minor league franchise that played at the city's Municipal Auditorium (with its under-sized rink) from 1962 until the franchise folded in 1971.

Sure it wasn't big league hockey, but remember this was back in the pre-expansion days of the " Original Six" at the NHL-level, meaning that there was a lot of good talent available to the minor league clubs, because there were so few roster spots at the very top.

A number of the players for the Dixie Flyers stayed in Nashville and became a part of the community. That includes Flo Pilote, a French-Canadian, who for many years operated a restaurant in the Hermitage area called "The Penalty Box." There was also Ted McCaskill, who worked with my Dad at the Ford Glass Plant. McCaskill's son, Kirk, also had some national sports prominence as a big-league pitcher.

And, of course, who can forget the other Dixie Flyer greats such as goal-keeper Marv Edwards, who once had 15 shutouts in a single season, and played without a face mask (by the way, most of the players skated without helmets). Other memorable Flyers included player-coach Lloyd Hinchberger, captain Ken "Red" Murphy," Wally Sprange and Joe Zorica.

The Flyers did very well during our years at Father Ryan. They won EHL championships our freshman and sophomore years (1965-66 & 1966-67) and lost out in the finals when were seniors (1968-69).

Two years later, the franchise was gone as the NHL expanded and the sport struggled to find fans here in a "non-traditional" market. The same thing happened for the Nashville South Stars minor-league pro team here in the 1990s.

The Predators have had their struggles as well, although with new local ownership and an exciting, scrappy team once again fighting for a playoff berth, the future for the sport here looks bright.

That also include our FRHS state championship team. Go Irish!

If you have memories of the Dixie Flyers during our time at Ryan, please send them to me (pat.nolan@dvl.com) or post them below. That particularly includes my classmate Pat Bauer, who, along with his dad, took me to several Flyers game back in the day.

More Father Hitchcock Reflections

2009-03-06T13:55:00.000-08:00

We've had a lot of positive reaction to my recent story posted here about our late principal Father (later Monsignor) James Hitchcock.

Here's one sent to me by our classmate David Adams which he asked me to share with everyone:

"I remember being called out of class one day to report to Father Hitchcock's office. As I was on my way to his office, I kept trying to figure out what I may have done to be specifically called out of class.

As I walked into his office, he looked at me, greeted me, and pulled out an old photograph. He laughed and told me some amusing stories of the Father Ryan students in the old photograph with him.

He had called me in because my Dad (Julian "Moon" Adams) and my uncle (John Fey) were two of those former students. He said he just wanted to share some happy times with me.

Memories such as this, never fade over time."

David Adams, FRHS Class of 1969

If you have any such memories like this concerning Father Hitchcock or any of our experiences at Father Ryan, please feel free to post them below or send them to me at pat.nolan@dvl.com and I will place them here on the blog.

Also please scroll down to the original story about Father Hitchcock,and read Bill Carver's memories.

Even In The Movies....

2009-03-03T14:56:00.000-08:00

If there is one thing we all had in common during our years together at Father Ryan, it was our music.

When we began our classes as freshmen in the fall of 1965, the British Invasion was still going strong. And nobody was bigger than The Beatles.

In fact, while the big movies that year included The Sound of Music (it won the Best Picture Oscar), The Agony & The Ecstasy and Dr. Zhivago, what we all made sure we went to see, I suspect, was the latest flick by the Fab Four....HELP!

During our four years at Father Ryan, musical tastes changed quite a bit from the pop-rock British Invasion to the psychedelic sounds that dominated the radio air waves by the end of the decade. But throughout it all, The Beatles remains primarily because their music seemed to change as pop culture changed.

What are your memories of popular music while we were in school? What groups or songs were your favorite? Let me know by e-mail (pat.nolan@dvl.com) or leave me a message below and I will see what I find out of the Internet and bring it to you here on the blog.

A Legendary Voice Is Silent

2009-03-03T12:39:00.000-08:00

One thing I'd like to do with this blog is to re-create the spirit and the history of the time we spent together back in the mid-to-late 1960s.

Certainly one of the legendary figures of that time was newscaster and commentator Paul Harvey, who died a few days ago at the age of 90. Not that Harvey had faded away since we were in school. An ABC News release about his passing noted that during his career had 25 million listeners a week on over 1,0000 radio stations. No wonder he was called: "The Most Listened To Man In The History Of Radio."

If you are a member of the FRHS Class of 1969 you probably think you've been hearing Paul Harvey on the radio all your life. And you would be correct about that, since Harvey began his network radio career in 1951, the year most of us were born. So great was his continuning audience draw he signed a 10-year, $100 milion contract in 2000 just after he 80th birthday.

One of my first memories of Paul Harvey was having to listen to him in the car because the adult behind the wheel (usually either my dad or my uncle) didn't want to listen to the rock & roll station that I preferred to listen to, while taking me to school in the mornings.

But as the years went by, while I didn't always agree with his politics or commentaries, you couldn't help but come to love Harvey's smooth delivery, his distinctive voice and his wonderful ability to paint very vivid pictures with the words he spoke. As a journalist I couldn't help but stand in awe of his verbal and writing abilities.

He didn't use jingles or sound bites. He just told you the story. Most broadcasters would consider it a great career if just one catch-phrase they uttered became legendary. Paul Harvey had several from "Stand-by for news!" to "Page 2" or his legendary close of "Good Day!". Finally, and, perhaps the phrase he will be best remembered for (and which became its own radio program), "And Now You Know The Rest of the Story".

Courtesy of YouTube here's a brief biography of Harvey done by Rita Dixon for a history class at Bellarmine College and one of Harvey's "Rest of the Story" classics (written by his son, but delivered in his impossible-to-forget style....

Hitchcock's Boys

2009-02-26T13:38:00.000-08:00

If you attended Father Ryan High School from 1946 until 1969, it is very likely Father (later Monsignor) James Hitchcock was a major authority figure in your life (especially during the hours you spent on the Elliston Place campus).

As a Teacher (1946-1956) and then Principal of FRHS (1956-1969), he developed a reputation of being tough as nails, but fair. I was fortunate to never get in serious trouble with him, but I did have him as a moderator one year when I was in the Great Books Discussion Club.

His imposing presence while we discussed the classic books we were supposed to have read (and he seemed to ask good questions to see if we really had read our materials) was always a sobering reminder to stay up to speed on the readings.

As you can see from the photo above, Monsignor did show students his softer side from time to time. When I was a student, there were times I wasn't always sure he knew or cared all that much who I was (and in a way I kind of liked that). But as an adult alum, I always found him very warm, friendly and strongly devoted to Father Ryan, the school he graduated from in 1939.

Father Hitchcock will also always be remembered for his key role in helping to desegregate the school back in the mid-1950s when he was a member of the transition team during that critical period.

He was a man of great faith and convictions. But he also did at least one thing I never dreamed of until I learned of it many years after I left Father Ryan.

It was while Monsignor Hitchcock and I served together as members of the Board at St. Bernard Academy. He told me one day how he had gone for many years to New Orleans during Mardi Gras to celebrate Fat Tuesday.

That included riding on floats during the parades and throwing beads and trinkets to the crowd. And I am pretty sure during all this he was dressed up in something other than his priestly attire.

I must say this me gave me a whole new perspective about Father Hitchcock, who next to my parents was probably the strongest authority figure in my life growing up.

We lost Monsignor last December 9 at the age of 88. But he continues to live on in all us who he either taught or had as students while he was Principal at Ryan for nearly 25 years (1946-1969). May he rest in peace.

What are your memories of Father Hitchcock while we were at Ryan? Please send them to me, by clicking on the comments link below or e-mail them to me at pat.nolan@dvl.com

A 40-Year Legacy of Champions

2009-02-24T08:34:00.000-08:00

It's a legacy of champions that now spans four decades.

The Father Ryan Class of 1969 played a major role in establishing our school as a local, regional and state-wide power in the sport of wrestling.

In fact, the wrestling program began as we came to Father Ryan as freshman in the fall of 1965. Four years later, our team was state champions! Even forty years later, that remains quite a remarkable feat and perhaps our class' greatest legacy to the school.

It's a legacy that continues to this day, as FRHS, just this past weekend (February 20-21), returned to Chattanooga, where Ryan won its first championship to claim the school's 17th state crown (both team & dual competitions), shocking top-seeded Baylor to win, much as the 1969 squad bested favored Chattanooga Notre Dame to win 40 years ago...

Several of our classmates, seen in the photo above, were key performers from 1965-1969 as Father Ryan won its first Nashville Interscholastic League (NIL) titles along with Region championships. Then, finally, during our undefeated senior season Ryan won its first state championship in wrestling. Prior to that no school outside the Chattanooga area had ever won a state title...

No wonder Coach Joe Drennan, the man, who more than anyone else, helped build the Ryan program into excellence, seemed to have tears in his eyes as he held the state championship trophy.Senior Jimmy Wilson seemed to have similar emotions as Class of '69 team member Mike Rourke joined him in savoring the moment of winning a championship....

One key to Ryan's victory 40 years ago was the team's overall excellence. While Notre Dame had more individual champions, the Irish had 10 of its 12 wrestlers place in the competition. That included two state champions (Scott Burnette and Bubba Donnelly),
two who finished second in their weight divisions (Mike Carter and Gregg Garr) and several others who finished either 3rd or
4th in their consolation competitions.

It all added up to Ryan clinching the championship before the final matches.

Reflecting back on that championship weekend in a recent TENNESSEAN article,Scott Brunette said; "We carried Joe Drennan aound the mat we were so excited. The 12 of us on the team were best friends. We could finally say that a Midstate school won a state championship in wrestling."

And, for Father Ryan its a championship legacy that continues on.

Here's the dominating record of that undefeated 16-0 season that included winning four tournaments:

Ryan 33 Red Bank 11
Ryan 34 BGA 6
Ryan 35 Maplewood 3
Ryan 54 Donelson 0
Ryan 43 Two Rivers 5
Ryan 43 Franklin 5
Ryan 36 TSB 6
Ryan 52 Overton 0
Ryan 43 Hillwood 3
Ryan 41 Glencliff 5
Ryan 28 MBA 12
Ryan 20 Notre Dame 19

Champions---Middle Tennessee Invitational--Ryan 99 points
Champions---Red Bank Invitational----------Ryan 85 points
Champions---Regional Tournament------------Ryan 143 points
Champions---State Tournament---------------Ryan 77 points

By Request: In the Garden of Eden (In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida)

2009-02-17T12:46:00.000-08:00

Ask and you shall receive.

Probably nothing united all of us who grew up in the 1960s more than our rock and roll music.

That even includes the more "heavy" rock that became quite popular by the time we were seniors in 1968-69.

One particular hit that struck a chord with some of us at Father Ryan in those days was by a group called "Iron Butterfly."

Their 1968 smash recording of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (In The Garden of Eden) is still ranked number 19 all-time among "one hit wonders" by VH-1. The accompanying album of the same name is also ranked the 31st all-time best selling album with more than 25 million copies sold (source: Wikipedia).

So here it is, at the request of our classmate Bill Carver, and courtesy of YouTube, IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA (Part 1)....

Remember, I said Part I. Part II (making the combined recording close to 20 minutes long) also features one the greatest drum solos of all time.

When I went to Vanderbilt and worked at the radio station there, we used to like it when this recording was requested. We called it "Disc Jockey Relief" as the piece was so long (especially both parts) we had time to take a break, go to the bathroom, even get a bite to eat and still get back before the record ended.

So here it is, IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA (Part 2, beginning with the drum solo).....

If this song brings back some special memories for you of your time at Father Ryan please leave your thoughts below by clicking on the link there. One memory I have is sitting in study hall one day in the Annex Building (I think Bill Carver was there) and trying to beat out the drum solo on one of the desks. I suspect this occurred either after school was out for the day or when Father Arnold wasn't around. :)

So What The Heck Are We Going To Do?

2009-02-16T14:58:00.001-08:00

FRHS Reunion Weekend has several activities of interest, beginning with the All-Class Reception held in the courtyard and lobby of the new FRHS Fine Arts Theatre building on Friday evening, June 5 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.

All alums (whether its their reunion year or not) are invited, so its a good place for everyone to hook up and see each other(especially for those coming in early from out of town and those who have never seen the new Norwood Drive campus). After looking around and relaxing with some snacks and a drink, everyone is welcome to get together, in small or large groups, and head for dinner and some talking, reminiscing and catching up with old friends.

But before you leave campus, as an extra bonus this year, you will able to see (at least from afar) the construction of the Jim Carrell Alumni Athletic Complex and Giacosa Stadium where the Irish will be playing ther first home football games later this year. Believe it or not after all these years!

This is scale model of the stadium. Think how good it will look in person!

Reunion activities continue on Saturday morning, June 6 when the annual alumni reunion golf tournament is held if you are interested in signing up. The Lou Graham Alumni Invitational Tournament will tee off at 8:00 AM at the Champion Run Golf Course in Rockvale, Tennessee. The entry fee is $85 and you can contact the FRHS Alumni Office or the Alumni Association to register or for more details.

Saturday evening will be the main event for us: The Class of 1969
40th Reunion Party, once again hosted by our classmate, Jimmy Wilson.

Details and costs are still being worked out and we welcome your thoughts and suggestions about what we should try to do in terms of food, drink and activities for the evening.

But we guarantee you'll have a great time! So please don't miss this opportunity for all of us to get together again!

Has It Really Been 40 Years?

2009-02-16T14:10:00.000-08:00

Actually the Father Ryan Class of 1969 was last together for a final time on Sunday, May 25,1969, when graduation exercises were held at the War Memorial Auditorium next to the State Capitol downtown.

When we had we entered school four years earlier, in the fall of 1965, we were reported to be the largest freshman class to ever matriculate to FRHS. Indeed, growing class sizes had been the major reason graduation had been moved off the Elliston Place campus and out of the Ryan gymnasium. That had occurred just a couple of years before we walked across the stage to receive our diplomas from Bishop Durick.

Even today, we remain a large group. The Father Ryan Alumni Office lists 157 as active members of the Class of 1969 (with 14 classmembers now deceased).

We'd like to have everyone attend our 40th Reunion activities, so we need to know where everyone is. Therefore, if you see your name or recognize a name on the list below, send us some contact information, so we can be in touch with all members of the Class of 1969 about our June 5-7 festivities.

Stanley Belcher
Michael Brown
Mike Byrd
James Colvert
Mike Craven
Phil "Flash" Cunningham
James Dean
Ernest Felts
John DeLozier
Ernest Felts
Phillip Felts
Joseph Formosa
Greg Garr
Mike Grant
Tony Greene
Robert Greer
William Hall
William Hemmelgarn
Tommy Howington
Dickey Kibby
Mike Lagan
Steve Luckett
Chuck McDowell
Ralph McGuffey
Joe O'Connor
Tim Quirk
Darrell Rose
Roger Rotoni
David Schmitt
Charles Smith
William Stone
Charles Walker
Paul Woodside
John Wyman
Bob Young

Again, if you see your name or know where someone on this list is, please contact me at pat.nolan@dvl.com or at (615) 780-3387 so we can invite them to the Reunion.