Girard College - Corinthian Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

Page 12 text:

10 Sbr dlarimt It wasn’t until the Junior year of our stay at Girard that we were allowed to participate in real dramatics. At this time our talented members burst into the field of lights and curtains with the melodramatic expressions, “Here,” or, “What’cha got t’eat?” The play— ' Nich¬ olas Nickleby; the time—the spring of 1938. As time wore on, bigger plays and bigger parts came. Francois Villon’s Christ¬ mas Eve was next in line; then came Jour¬ ney ' s End and Jean Valjean. Each of these proved to be typical Dramatic Club sue ' cesses. The first of these three kept the spirit of the season well before us. “Gootch” Nagle played the distinguished part of Francois Villon, turning in a noteworthy performance. The roles of Cayeulx and Inspector of Police were well portrayed by Jerry Todd and Ed Henry. The play was also marked by the performances of “Choi” Gentile as Montigni and Earl Evans as a guard. A few months later Journey’s End took the stage. Our fruitful group showed the gratifying results of their training under the direction of Mr. Henry V. An¬ drews. Not just one but all of the parts were brilliantly played; Tom McGovern as the jovial Lieutenant Trotter, Walter Van Ormer as the very much English Lieutenant Osborne, Gootch” Nagle as the youthful Lieutenant Raleigh, Choi” Gentile as Captain Hardy, Buck” Mie- loch as the Colonel, Ed Henry as the fragile Lieutenant Hibbert, and Earl Evans again made his timely appearance as Private Tompkins. At one of the earlier meetings in Sep¬ tember Tom McGovern was elected Presi¬ dent, “Gootch” Nagle, Vice-President, and “Choi” Gentile, Secretary of the Club. December of this term also brought with it the annual Christmas play, Jean Valjean, as our final contribution to dra¬ matics. In the roles of the Priest and Francois the Servant, “Choi” Gentile and Ed Henry handled their parts su¬ perbly. As the curtain descended on the final scene of our wind-up production, we sensed a feeling of emptiness. With this feeling also went the thought that we had left something behind that is im¬ printed on the minds of many who will make the climb as our successors.

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Kaituant 19411 The adage, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” is certainly applic- able. Girard has made use of this maxim and our characters as well as our phys¬ iques have profited. The chosen ones who were fortunate enough to become varsity members in some sport were by no means the only ones participating in athletics. The first member of our class to win athletic laurels was Roy Lomanno. Away back in 1-1 Roy was a star back-stroker for the swimming team. He won his numerals in that season but then left the team. Dave Dunmire lent his talen¬ ted arm to the pitching staff of the base¬ ball team in ’36 and garnered his first letter in that season. Dave is our leading “G-man,” boasting an accumulation of five varsity awards in two sports. Stark McCracken has been the class’s most versatile sportsman, meriting “G’s” in baseball, basketball, and soccer. He has been an inspiring and capable cap¬ tain of the soccer team in ’39. In soccer, Girard’s most traditional sport, our class has been best represented. We placedeighteen members on the team, and sixteen were rewarded with letters. Two of those sixteen, “Steve” Podgorski and “Mac” McCracken, made their debut in the ’38 season, and earned letters in that season. In baseball we have not been as well represented, but our few members are all outstanding players. “Mac”McCracken, “Whitey” Felten, Dave” Dunmire, and “Piggy” Przybytek have been the leaders in this department. “Spigs” Berger, Boh Aiken, and Tom McGovern won honors in track. “Spigs” was the distance man for three cam¬ paigns, running in both the mile and half-mile events. Bob and Tom were both winners, and were largely re¬ sponsible for the success of the track team in ’39. Aiken could always be coun¬ ted on for his quota of points in the hurdles, and McGovern was our star sprinter. All told, over half of our class parti¬ cipated in ’Hum’ sports. We made a showing in seven sports, namely: basket, ball, baseball, track, soccer, swimming, gym., and tennis. We can well be proud of this record which is a challenge for other classes to equal.

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January 194U 11 The sounding clarion provides a per¬ fect setting for the display of our musical accomplishments. A background of music appreciation has been founded in us and has become an inseparable part of our natures. Remember those Junior Choir days! Music then was a poorly memorized an¬ them, but choir membership enabled us to go to Woodside once a year. Though many of us are booming basses now, we were then shrilling sopranos. Can we ever forget the exciting experience singing in the Academy of Music where the tongue-twisting “Peter Piper” stole the show? Our orchestra days began early also, but many prospective players dropped by the wayside leaving only Milt Helder, the Kreisler of the class. Milt was rightfully appointed student leader in his senior year. In the other branch of the instrumen¬ tal department, the band, we have always had a larger representation. In this a timid, uncertain, nervous group of boys improved and rose to be leaders of the organization: Bill Gross, captain, and Pete Bojanic, Leo Campanella, and Ralph Naulty as lieutenants. The vocalists of the class were induct¬ ed into the Glee Club where John Ham¬ ilton was elected President, Bob Aiken Vice-President, Milt Helder, Secretary, and “Gootch” Nagle, Librarian. Nagle did some excellent solo work in the Sun¬ day morning chapel services by singing the obligato part of “Seek Ye the Lord.” That is the story of the organizations, but what concerts will be remembered? Can we ever forget the resonant Sunday anthems, the monthly Saturday morning concerts by the band and orchestra, or the memorable Christmas Concerts? Shall we fail to recall the combined musi¬ cal pieces playing “Overture of 1812,” “Bolero,” and “Finlandia,” or the Glee Club singing the catchy “Pop Goes the Weasel” during the last concert? Harmonious echoes reverberate among the halls we have left; echoes which are filled with volumes of exuberance linger¬ ing in the past. For all that we have developed in music at Girard, our grati¬ tude now goes out to the conscientious work of our teachers. We sincerely thank them all.