Tinley Park High School - Scythe Yearbook (Tinley Park, IL)

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Above: A standing ovation greets the Vice President. Left: The Titan football team forms an honor guard as Vice President Ford enters the gym. On Augmf 9, 1974 gefay R j0l'J 7 ecame our nafion A 38fA Hedzdenf

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A Vice Presidential Photo Album i I K'

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THE VICE PRESIDENT VISITS TINLE Y PA RK HIGH SCHUUL Vice President Ford acknowledges the enthusiastic cheers of the crowd. It all seemed too astonishing to be true. Yet there on the T.P. H.S. gymnasium stage was the Vice President of the United States telling anecdotes about his family life and presenting individual trophies to members of Tinley Park's championship football team. The whole idea of a Vice Pres- idential visit had started out as a pipe dream by the village trust- ees as part of the community's observance of Youth Week. In fact, Representative Ed Derwin- ski was in Dr. Ted Nelson's of- fice telling him there was only a 10 per cent chance of such an event occurring, when the phone rang: the Vice President's liai- son man relayed Mr. Ford's ac- ceptance to Dr. Nelson. The impact of the visit hit students when they saw the se- cret service ticking off the sec- onds it would take the Vice President to walk down the main corridor to the stage entrance. Special identification tags were issued for the occasion. Although awed by the security precautions and panoply attending the event, the entire community pitched in to make Mr. Ford,s Tinley stop- over a resounding success. At approximately 11:00 a.m. on February 14, Vice President Ford was escorted into the gym, heralded by the fanfare of the Michigan Fight Song. It took at least ten minutes for the waves of applause to stop before the Vice President could begin his speech. A Tinley jersey with the num- ber 48 - Mr. Ford's number while an all-American at Mich- igan - and an autographed football from the team were pre- sented to the Vice President. He seemed completely at ease and delighted with the whole pro- ceedings. That evening students and parents had the treat of seeing themselves filmed and inter- viewed on the major tv net- works. Without meaning to be smug, it can rightfully be said that all the Chicagoland Area and the entire nation also had the opportunity to see the dif- ference a little pride makes.