Seneca High School - Arrow Yearbook (Louisville, KY)

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Lonesome's Legend 541 aj: .. . .. Senecafs football stadium as it appeared in 1959. l've learned that lookey tharv isn't good English, but that's the way lfelt when I first saw Seneca. It seemed so big when I first arrived here in November 1958. I was told that thirty-four new classrooms had just been added to the original thirty-one rooms that were dedicated February 25, 1958, and that almost fif- teen hundred students were enrolled instead of the orig- inal 862 young Redskins of 1957. However they were still running true to form, rushing through the wide hallways to beat the bell to their classrooms, worrying about homework and exams, and making good grades. I also learned that the school had opened under the name of Goldsmith Junior High School and on Nov. 14, 1957 had selected the name Seneca by 414 votes over Goldsmith 155, Cumberland 93, Watterson 65, Glen- dale 35, Beargrass 14, the colors red and gold were Seneca's 1959'Redskin football squad. ,Az yt K X fx Kg favored over others, and finally a little later the student body had chosen to be called Redskins rather than War- riors, Braves, or Indians. This had happened before I came to assume the duties of chief and mascot. Did I ever feel exalted in spirit! To know that with all the handsome Indians available for the job, they had chosen ME-pot-bellied, beak-nosed, back-woodsy ME!! They even painted pic- tures of me on the walls and wore me on sweatshirts and pep buttons! Whoops-s s-sl!! I decided right then or Dick Simpson and Steve Banes compiled this Lonesome using photos of Seneca teachers, and the floor inlay of Lonesome was a gift from the Seniors 1965. 72 L 2 59 , . ,fag f ,lay- , L 25. fs 3541 2 -5014 ,W 335934 f www

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the last fifty years. In Jefferson County when Mr. Orville Stivers became Superintendent of Schools in 1910 there were ninety-six one and two room schools, grades one through eight scattered throughout the county. By consolidating these the one room school was practically eliminated and forty-five schools resulted. By 19-149 a system of county high schools had emerged which would make it no longer necessary for county pupils to attend the Louis- ville high schools. Since the coming of Mr. Richard Van Hoose to the superintendency still greater strides have been made. When school opened in September 1966 there were fifty-three elementary schools, forty of which have been built since Mr. Van Hoose took over, and a total of fifteen high schools thirteen of which have been built in the same time span. That is a record breaking as well as back-breaking job to have accomplished since 1950. The curriculum changes instituted in this same era have made the Jefferson County schools second to none in the state, too. If 1 hadn't been around here so long, going to so many football and basketball games played at all of these high schools, I would be hard to convince of this fact, but my beady little eyes have seen every one of them, and it,s TRUE! Follow me as I lead the next cheer for those far-sighted men who realized the need for building these schools. 1 tell you this in all seriousness, Redskins. Every morning when we rise to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America my headfeather lit- erally stands on end and 1 have to suppress an almost irrepressible desire to leap on the roof of the loading dock, give a terrific war whoop, and yell, All for Sen- eca, stand up and hollerfi Mr. Al Capp, my first real friend, wouldn't recognize me as the same Little Joe or Lonesome Polecat that he used to know down in Dog- patch and I can just hear Li'l Abner and Daisy Mae 7 saying, Coll-e-e-e, lookey thar! '-- 4, 1 P 1 .. Q 31, x i In if i fills ,gi 4 A X - s ag, ,4 ' it . 'i 5 . 1 j. iz - L' fi 4 ' 1 - , .asw f011H1xf 1' cl f .' A454 -Kg .-'y..:j - ,4 ,Q

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Mr. Wich with the 1959 drum major, majorettes, and band. and there that I would make good on this job. They weren,t going to confuse ME with my scalp-mad an- cestors. That first year at Seneca was a busy one for me. Everyone pitched in and with all those mothers, the Dad's Club, the teachers, and the students working to- gether, a dreamed-of stadium began to materialize. In October 1959 we had a regulation football field ready for those football games. Those 'sunny days on that new field were the best ever. My band had gorgeous new red and gold uniforms to wear when they put on their half-time spectaculars, and my gridiron warriors had red, white, and gold outfits to don when they faced the opposition. l've always felt about my braves the way King Arthur must have felt about his knights of the Round Table. To me they are unbeatable because they have the right purpose in mind-to bring glory to Seneca as a result of their having disciplined their fine young minds and physically fit bodies to -withstand the hardest attack. Our fencing team always appealed to me for somewhat the same reasons. They were keeping a tra- ditional sport alive when they practiced, and the dex- terity with which they learned to handle the blade fitted in with my pictured vision of the armored medieval knight going into battle, determined to gain honorable victory for a just cause. As you may have guessed by now, I made it my business to attend some history classes-not many were offered in Dogpatch. Seneca was a leader in the adoption of many aca- demic changes in the Jefferson County schools. The Mr. Matthews and Mr. Mayer sponsored the fencing team.