Before March Went Mad...

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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....

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

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....