Redemptorist High School - Redemptor Yearbook (New Orleans, LA)

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Special Message COACHES and CHAMPS from RONALD GASPER Sports Writer for New Orleans ITEMS I consider it a great honor being asked to put the final touches on Redemptorist High's greatest year in athletics. Let's jump quickly back to September and recall those truly unbelievable moments. The fighting RAMS opened the football season with the defending state B champs, Holy Name. The Blue Knights were rated high in preseason grid polls. From the opening kickoff the Knights lived up to their preseason ratings as they jumped off to a quick lead. Most teams would have given up before the first half was over, but not coach Joe Galliano and his Rams. They fought back with some of the most courageous spirit ever witnessed by this writer. Final score showed the Rams 31, the Knights 13. During this first game, they convinced me that they were going all the way, all the way to the city championship. I had plenty opposition from other writers in the sports world and most of them thought I was over optimistic to even give the Rams a second thought. Like the Rams, I stuck to my beliefs, in spite of the criticism and opposition we came across. Victory after victory followed the Holy Name game. Jesuit Q13 to '71, De La Salle Q12 to 7j, St. Aloysiusf13 to 13y, and Holy Cross16 to oy were all eliminated in order, by a group of boys that never knew when they were beaten. A week later, the Rams were pitted against the Warren Easton Eagles, a team far superior in human strength than the Rams. ' As mentioned before, no one except yours truly had given the Rams a chance for Victory on their way to the Catholic Prep title. Now for the big battle, the odds were heavily in favor of the Eagles. Againl knew the Rams were outmanned, but again I knew with the Rams it didn't matter. This fact made me stick with 'em. On that great day in early December, 1956, the Irish Channel was reborn, reborn by the acts of a group of about 25 boys and their coaches, backed by a student body and faculty second to none anywhere. Redemptorist eouldn't have been beaten with grandma's cane that glorious day. Everything Easton tried, the underdog Rams threw back at 'em. It was the greatest thing the Prep League ever witnessed. It reunited a mass of people that seemed to have gone astray. This intangible spirit and cooperation among Ram players, coaches, parents and teachers carried over into the basketball and baseball seasons producing many other startling victories never before known to the school and parish. This group of boys will live forever in the hearts of every Irish Channel resident because they did what everyone said was the impossible. CONGRATULATIONS to the finest group of young men and coaches I have ever been ac- quainted with or ever hope to meet the rest of my life. 194-6 1956

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With such a BONFIRE to warm up the crowd. the PEP RALLY was really a Peppy one Encouraging words to students by Director and Prefect, , . sand R1P'S performance, , ,helped much to speed us on no VICTORY

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After the Warren Easton Game FIND 'XOLRSLIF Sk ff: CRES