On September 18 and 19, the members
of the Ignatius graduating class of 1965 will convene to celebrate the 50-year anniversary
of their graduation. This has a special
significance for me, because this class entered Ignatius the same year that I
started teaching math here in the fall of 1961.
My last day as a full-time teacher was in May of 2004. Two members of the class of ’65, Bob Achille
and Jim Luzzi, made it especially memorable.
As I was about to start my last class, there was Bob, sitting in the first
seat, first row, the same seat he had occupied on his first day as an
Ignatian and my first day as a teacher.
To commemorate my last day, Bob gave me a beautifully inscribed glass
“apple”. Jim, an Ignatius math teacher
and our first soccer coach for over 40 years, chronicled events by taking
photographs and, later, presenting me with an album. Both the apple
and the album still have a place of honor in my home
The years from Sept. ’61 to June ’65
were very eventful both at Ignatius and in the outside world. At Ignatius, one of the more significant
events was the dropping of football. (It
was brought back in 2003…if memory serves.)
I would have left St. Ignatius to coach somewhere else if it hadn’t been
for the fact that Carmen Pintozzi stayed and coached, cross country and Don
Lucas, the A.D., started the baseball team. They had both been football coaches, and they
were my friends. So I stayed to help
coach baseball. It turned out that we
were better in baseball than we had been in football.
From my vantage point, of far more
significance were the changes over the intervening 50 years. If there are class of ’65 alumni who haven’t been back since graduation, the
changes will astound them.
There
is a “new” gym (well over 40 years old, not counting up-dates), the athletic
field, tennis courts, baseball fields, and a theater. The old 4th-floor gym is now the
student library and the old asphalt backyard is now a beautiful garden. These are by no means the only changes, but
that gives you the idea.
In the so-called “real world”, the
class of ’65 were S.I. students when President Kennedy was assassinated and, they were witness, on live
television, to Jack Ruby killing Kennedy’s
assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. During the early ‘60’s, the War in Viet
Nam was escalating, which brought about peace demonstrations, largely on
college campuses. In August of 1963, Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I have a dream” speech, which
was an important event in the quest for racial equality.
Finally, but by no means least,
there was the escalating tension between the U.S. and Russia. The Bay
of Pigs fiasco and the Cuban missile
crisis were just some of the events that marked our history during the
years from ’61 to ’65.
I’ve heard it said that what makes
the “good old days” good is that we
survived them. There’s much truth to that statement.
To the any members of the class of
1965 who might be interested in joining their former classmates to relive the happier
memories, contact Christine Cesak at christine.cesak@ignatius.org or 312-432-8412.
