Freshmen from the Class of 1964 were featured in this page one photo in the February 24, 1961, issue of the Chronicle. Visible, from left, are Sandra McMeans, James Montanari, Michael Reavey, Kathleen Modry, Stephen Rice, Robert LeClair, and Robert Coleman. At left is Sr. Patricia Joseph and Sr. Geraldine Maria is at right.

Gene Ryzewicz had begun to take his place as perhaps Cathedral’s finest athlete . . . of all time. Page three reported he led the basketball team in scoring as the Panthers took three, over St. Joseph’s of Pittsfield, Tech, and Classical.

Page four cites Carol Horr (piano) and Brendan Montano (violin) as “musical teenagers” participating in the Young People’s Symphony and Junior extension.

Here’s the February 24, 1961 Chronicle

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Our class was pretty much absent from the first Chronicle of 1961. Of course, there was Christmas break and apparently a lot of snow since the last issue.

Three storms in only a few days in mid-January, the January 27, 1961, Chronicle said, resulted in one day off (January 16), but also the cancellation of the sophomore dance, basketball game against Classical, and several typing exams. Students also would have had January 20 off because of snow, but school was already closed that day so we could all watch JFK’s inauguration, on one of the coldest days in Washington, DC, for that event.

Jerome Webb as our sole representative in Chronicle pictures, at right. Jerome was on the chess team that had just defeated Longmeadow 7-0(!) to remain undefeated at 4-0.

In the first Literary Supplement of the school year, the class was represented with items by Ernest Gaudette, Lawrence Landry, and Dorothea Hammond.

In sports, basketball coverage started including freshman Gene Ryzewicz among the starting five. That wouldn’t change for four years, except for injury.

Here’s the January 27, 1961, Chronicle

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Happy July 4th. Hope the storms in the Northeast clear up for a nice weekend.

Remember how back in the day we often celebrated this holiday with family, neighbors, and friends with cookouts and fireworks in the backyard or at a lakeside cabin? You see a lot more sophisticated fireworks at the major events these days, but there is something especially memorable about even the small stuff going off close by. Personal pyrotechnics . . . in lots of places, a skill and thrill of the past.

November Chronicle freshman year
We got a little more mention in the Chronicle as we moved into the fall of freshman year. About time!

A bottom-page-4 article in then November 23, 1960, edition refers to us as “Eager Beavers” and cites scholastic activity of several members of the Class of ’64: Vincent Brown, David Rucinski, Maryellen Rooney, Diane Dillon, William Ligouri (sic), Thomas Roberts, Ellen St. Clair (sic), James Boucher, Paul Donahue, William Danoff, Mary Hurley, John Sheehan, Patricia Johnson, Mark Sullivan, Barbara Shean, Dennis Jacobi, Carol Organek, Alan Sponburgh, Gary Bushey, Patricia Canning, and Carol Forgemie.

Even the sports pages did not mention any members of the class, like, say, Gene Ryzewicz. That changed soon thereafter.

Here’s the November 23, 1960 Chronicle.

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Early on, we participated, apparently willingly, in “Frosh Day.” On that day each year, seniors were able to lord it over freshmen, requiring them to perform various chores and silly acts, e.g., walk backwards, carry seniors’ books, sing, etc. I believe that is George Shannon at left in the photo above from the Springfield newspaper. Recognize anyone else? Is it Jim Montanari in the middle?

Page four of the October 28, 1960 Chronicle had a picture of “frosh Edward Page” (at right) wearing the big bow that marked first-year students and an article recounting the various humiliations faced by the Class of 1964. Okay, so they weren’t “humiliations,” but I bet there were a few instances where freshmen were not having “fun” and I doubt this tradition existed for a whole lot longer in the same manner.

Anybody remember Frosh Day? Good times? Not so pleasant memories?

But, in the ways traditions such as these kept going, we were able as seniors to lord it over the Class of 1967, as shown in this picture from our PantherPix.

Below is the October 28, 1960, Chronicle. This was the issue right before the November 1960 election between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. A poll of CHS seniors in history classes (page two) showed a strong preference for Sen. Kennedy (88 percent) over Vice President Nixon (12 percent), and for the Democratic Party, by the same percentages. Yet, interestingly, 80 percent of those polled said they would vote for President Dwight Eisenhower if, hypothetically, he was running.

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Fifty years ago last week, we graduated from Cathedral. Our celebration of the 50th anniversary of that, however, doesn’t take place until mid-October. What does Purple Panthers ’64 do until then? . . . We go back to the beginning, September 1960.

The Chronicle of September 30, 1960, in its page two cartoon (above), presented us as babies. Based on the picture at right of this manly example of a freshman boy, that was about right. I was 13 when this picture was taken and, as I look at it now, I think “Didn’t we have mirrors in the house?” That hair . . . those glasses . . . that nose! Thank goodness for puberty.

Is anyone else willing to dare to send in his or her picture from freshman year. Please!

Freshmen were not mentioned by name in that first issue of the Chronicle (below). No surprise, we had been there only a few weeks. But we already had a big impact as a class. The page one article announcing a record enrollment of 2,600 students said freshmen numbered 800, largest of any class. Lots of round numbers used, so those were likely beginning-of-the-year estimates.

Upcoming are editions of the Chronicle from 1960-1, 1961-2, and 1962-3. We won’t be tying topics any longer to their occurrence a half-century ago. Here we go, with the first Chronicle we saw as freshmen.

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In the next-to-last issue of Cathedral Chronicle during our years, May 28, 1964, the big news was of our top two scholars — Barbara Shean and Paul Donahue. The lead story reported that each had been named National Merit Scholars, the only two from Springfield schools that year. Paul went on to Dartmouth and Barbara to Middlebury.

As for some of “the rest of us,” the Chronicle had pictures of Bill Devlin and John Dubiel with the project they would be showing at the national JETS fair (page four), a small feature on Ed “Doc” Verroneau wrapping up 🙂 his four years as athletic trainer (page five), announcement of Dennis Finnerty winning the Chronicle‘s good sportsmanship award (page five), and notice that Cathedral’s first musical — Brigadoon, with Frank Hurley, Rita Arsenault, and Janice Perry in major roles — would open that Friday (page four).

Also, Paul Langlois and Leonie Cormier are in a page one photo doing chemistry with Sr. James Francis, several seniors are successful nearing the end of their time as Panthers (page five), and three seniors are among the Western Mass.-champions Mathletes (page six).

One more issue to go, and that’s in only a couple of weeks!

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