Johnstown High School - Spectator Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

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Table of Contents History of the Spectator Seniors ................ Faculty ................ Clubs .................. Sports ................. Student l ife ..........

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An important milestone in the history of Johnstown High School was reached in the 1898-1899 school year, when the first edition of the Spectator, volume 1, number 1, was published. While attending classes at the Somerset Street School Building, which had been dedicated as a new high school in 1892, the students had the idea of establishing a school journal in which they could record the advancement of their studies. The first Spectator, dated December 1898, featured the motto, “Home first, the world afterward, and highlighted the history of Johnstown High School. The editor-in-chief of these historic first editions was Harry F. Confer, class of '99. The moving of the high school to a new building on Market Street in September 1899, ushered in yet another realm of Spectators. On the first anniversary of Spectator publication, December 1899, a seasonal cover design was featured. This was the point in Spectator history when the idea of designed covers began. Cover designs of the monthly editions, published during the school term until May 1926, often featured the topics of football, seasons of the year, holidays, Johnstown history, and patriotism. Sports was an important part of the Spectator in February 1902, when the first basketball team of JHS was recognized in an article. Baseball, football, and track were covered in a by-line called Athletics in these early Spectators. In November 1903, the first sports picture ever to appear in the Spectator was published-the 1903 relay team. It then became traditional to include sports in both photographs and writing in the Spectator. The first picture of graduating seniors was included in the Spectator of May 1905. A photograph of the group, posing on the steps of the high school, was printed in the front of the book. When individual senior portraits were included in the class album of the June 1915 Spectator, photography became a more integral part of the book. Our Spectators have a wide and colorful past. Throughout the years they have greatly changed and evolved into the yearbook we know today. Many editors have pondered the problems of organizing their books, many staff members worked long hours to produce a book they would cherish a lifetime, and that future generations would reflect upon. It cannot be denied that every issue of the Johnstown High Spectator was a work of which to be proud, well worth the efforts that were spent on them. This, the latest edition of the Spectator-'83, is only one book in a series that spans almost 85 years. We know not how many more books that bear the name Spectator will be published, just as our predecessors knew not, but the Spectator will always be a symbol of those precious school years, of pride for our alma mater, and for that hallowed institution: Johnstown High School. Reference materials courtesy of Sandy Stevens-School Records 12