St Ignatius High School - Ignatian Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

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A s the rays of a vibrant August sun filtered through clouds of smoke hovering high above the Flats, and etched a long shadow across the gray pavement of the Near West Side, groups of young men converged on West 30th. Individuals, 1147 of them, from the near and far corners of Northeastern Ohio met in the shadow of the St. Ignatius tower for no apparent reason — except one. We, those thousand-plus students, gathered on that crisp August day because wo were St. Ignatius High School. We assembled as binks and jocks, editors and actors. Classical scholars and Romantic majors. Fast Stders and West Siders, rowdy seniors and timid freshmen (and some not so timid), wise sophomores and some not-so- wise juniors, brownies and burnouts, All-Senate footballers and All-Backyard intramural-ists; in short, each of us contributed in a different way, a way congruous to his own unique personality. We each viewed the school from our different viewpoints, our different perspectives, and we each gleaned something different from the experience. Embarking on the year that was, the 1147 perspectives became Ignatius; and as the year progressed, as our moods and views changed, so too did Ignatius. OUR BECOME

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4 THEME

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As we retrace the steps of our educational and emotional development. we recall the first, impressionable stages of our high school existence. We regarded Ignatius with a certain awe, a by-product of the aura or mystique traditionally surrounding the school. From our neophotic viewpoint, Ignatius appeared as a labyrinth of educational roles. personalities and activities which could not be adequately comprehended. We sat as static observers, absorbing whatever might be afforded to us at any moment. Gradually, our awe evolved into a certain pride as we became an active part of what we could only marvel at before. The labyrinth began to fit into a much more understandable pattern, and we began to sort out and utilize the opportunities which this understanding afforded us. From where we now stood, the intangible qualities of the school were assuming seeable, hearable, touchable, liveable realities. And slowly but surely we alighted from our seats, becoming less and less passive spectators and more and more active participants.