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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