• Enrollment stood at 920 for grades 7-12.
• Because of a shortage of brothers, Brother Andre taught four classes. Principals of that era often taught one or two classes, but not four.

• Only one assistant from the championship '55 season continued - Henry Perret.
• Bobby Nuss ('48) returned to his alma mater after two years in the military to be line coach and head track coach.
• Another alumnus, Ray Breaux ('45), joined the staff from De La Salle, where he was assistant basketball coach. Ray also replaced Carl Lavie as head basketball coach.
• Emmet Michel served as varsity assistant and JV coach.

The Catholic league welcomed a new member for 1956.

• Holy Name of Mary in Algiers, the class B state champions in 1955, moved into the AAA ranks.
• The Blue Knights would play a full Catholic league schedule and have a huge impact on the title race.

St. Aloysius will field for the second time in as many years a forward wall that compares in weight with many a college team. This year's stalwarts average just under 200 pounds per man. The exact weight is 195. In the backfield the Knights average 177.

• Douglass liked his backfield, calling it the best material in that area in many years.
• Senior Tom Schwaner would direct the T formation "belly series" offense. Most plays started with the QB putting the ball in the belly of the FB (Ron Mineo), either letting him take it on a plunge or pulling it out and pitching to the trailing HB (Bobby Meyers or Ed Schellhaas) or keeping it. Since Tom wasn't the swiftest of runners, he usually pitched it. Occasionally, a crossbuck against the flow to one of the HBs kept the defense honest.
• The media favored Aloysius facing Easton again for the City Crown. However, the state prep reporters didn't rank the Crusaders in the Top Ten to start the season despite 21 seniors on the roster.

• Joe Yenni's Warriors, who lost a whopping 24 lettermen from their maiden team of 1955, relied on the speed of their backfield, three of whom were members of the all-state mile relay team: Jack Brazil, Red Cannon, and Harold Bartholomew. Charles Kellum directed the offense under C. Karl St. Pierre, a 200 lb T, was the only returning regular.
• Douglass made several changes in his lineup. David Mooney, a transfer from St. Stanislaus, moved in at one T spot in place of Robert Smith. With Mineo down with the flu, Lenny Stein took over at FB. The strap­ping 185 lb junior had been recruited in the school yard in the spring.

• Former LSU star Arthur "Slick" Morton coached the Lumberjacks, who had tied Easton 7-7 and beat McComb 7-6.
• A passing duel between Schwaner and Larry Stringfield loomed.
• Bogalusa would be without its star FB Mark Stupka. But Morton could call on Leonard Mayfield.

• Buck Seeber's Tigers had beaten Thibodaux and LaGrange but lost to Jesuit.
• The Knights were banged up from the Bogalusa game, with Picou and Mineo suffering leg injuries. Roy would play but not Ron.
• For some reason, Douglass moved Ryan to G for the fray.

• The 2-1-1 Crusaders rated as heavy favorites over the Buccaneers, who tasted victory for the first time in their last game over McDonogh after two losses.

• After all the grief that Jesuit had caused Aloysius in 35 years of football, the Crusaders had beaten the Blue Jays three of the last four years.
• The Jays entered the fray with a 2-2 record. The losses came to Baton Rouge (34-0) and Redemptorist (12-7) with the victories over Terre­bonne (7-6) and Murphy of Mobile (13-6). The only team in the area that still ran many plays from the single wing, Eddie Toribio's eleven had scored only 27 points for an average of 6.4 per game. By contrast, Aloy­sius had scored 68 in five games for a 13.6 average.
• Toribio counted on his passing combo of Butch Dastugue and Fred Schwartz.
• Douglass reported all hands on deck except Mineo.
• The starting time for the game was advanced from the traditional 2:30 to 2 pm to allow fans to get to the Holy Name rally at Pelican Stadium.

The season's top crowd, 7,000, saw the Crusaders extend their string of holding Jesuit scoreless to nine quarters as the Knights exploded in the second half.

• The Rams, ranked #9 in the AP statewide poll, had won all three Catholic league games they had played.
• Joe Galliano's scrappy hard-nosed lads, the pride of the Irish Channel, defeated Jesuit 12-7, a smaller margin than the Crusaders enjoyed over the Jays. A 13-13 tie with Fortier marked the only blemish on the Rams' 4-0-1 slate.
• Douglass would again be without Mineo and Carroll.
• Meyers particularly wanted to win this game because he grew up in the Redemptorist neighborhood.
• Despite the loss to Easton and the Terrebonne tie, Andy considered his '56 team as good if not better than the '55 champions at this stage of the season.

Four times this season St. Aloysius opponents have picked up Cru­sader fumbles and returned them for touchdowns, accounting for 24 of the 61 points tallied against Andy Douglass's team in seven games.
Terrebonne backs galloped 70 and 46 yards with a fumble, East Jefferson returned a fumble 80 yards and Redemptorist moved one back 78 yards across the Crusaders' goal line.

Aloysius continued league play with the annual clash with Holy Cross.

• Lou Brownson's Tigers continued at the top of the statewide United Press poll after beating De La Salle 34-19 to preserve their distinction as one of only two undefeated AAA teams in the state. The Bengals' only close game was a tie with Sulphur.
• HC came out of the Cavalier tussle badly battered. John Williams suffered a broken hand, and star HB Joe Sciortino and Marty Guttuso had leg injuries, knocking all three out of action.
• Aloysius, on the other hand, would be the healthiest it had been in some weeks, FB Ron Mineo's return to action being noteworthy.
• With their recent success against the Blue Jays, the Saints actually had a better record against Jesuit, 6-24-3, than they did against Holy Cross, 4-29. The Knights had a chance to do something they had never done before: beat the Tigers in back-to-back seasons, a feat they had accomplished against the Jays in 1954-5.
• Some Crusaders would wear new leather helmets that Douglass ordered to afford better protection than the plastic ones.

The Crusaders enjoyed an off week, during which two significant events impacted New Orleans Prep sports.

• On Wednesday, November 7, Brother Reinald, C.S.C., headmaster at Holy Cross, released a statement: "Mr. Louis Brownson is no longer affiliated or connected with Holy Cross. Joe Ernst is in charge of the football team. He is aided by Eddie Heider. The school will not appoint a head coach until late spring or summer."
• It's not clear whether Brownson coached the game against Aloysius the previous Sunday.
• Three nights later, Brownson's former team took the field for the crucial game with Redemptorist. No doubt stunned by the loss of their coach, the Tigers fell 6-0 to assure the Rams a tie for the Catholic title.

So Aloysius had a simple task: beat Holy Name and De La Salle to force a playoff with Redemptorist.

• The Blue Knights from Algiers, in their first season in the Catholic league, gave Redemptorist and Holy Cross a battle and defeated De La Salle, West Jefferson, and Picayune (MS).
• Coach Harry Hahn, former Tulane lineman, could call on two of his co-captains, both class B all-staters in 1955, in the person HB Huey O'Connor and G Jimmy France.
• The Knights scheduled homecoming for their season finale, giving them an extra edge in the motivation department.

• Q1: Aloysius scored first, taking advantage of a poor Don Wattigny punt to his 36 early in the period. Schellhaas put on a one-man show, moving the ball to the 2. From there, Schwaner sneaked over. However, his PAT attempt went awry, a mistake that would prove crucial.
• Q2: The Knights took the lead when FB Al Ott sparked a drive to the 26. Ed Robichaux skirted RE, cut to the middle, and scored standing up. Camile Bourg converted.
• Q3: The defensive battle persisted through the scoreless quarter.
• Q4: Aloysius sustained two long drives in the final 12 minutes. The first started on their 36, from where Meyers gained almost all the yardage to the 8 where they were finally halted. The second march started at mid­field with about four minutes remaining. Once again, it was Meyers in the driver's seat. He carried four times for 16y and completed a 21y pass to Picou. The most crucial play, however, was an offsides penalty that gave SA the ball on the 1 and set up Schwaner's second TD of the afternoon. Tom added the point to make it 13-7 as the celebration started. The Crusaders now prepared to kick off as Holy Name de­ployed the most dangerous returner in the city in the person of Wattig­ny. Douglass had formed a special kickoff coverage team early in the week to get as much speed on the field as possible. But several offens­ive players on the unit came off the field exhausted on the unseasona­bly warm afternoon (68° in the shade). So Andy put in some younger and slower players as substitutes for offensive stalwarts. Instead of kicking out of bounds or on­sides, he told the kicker to "kick deep." Wat­tigny took the ball on the dead run at the 25, broke outside, and did "an epic dance down the sidelines" all the way to the end zone. When Bourg split the uprights, the home side went wild.

Their hopes dashed for a second straight crown, the Crusaders had to pull themselves together for the finale against De La Salle.

• The 7-3 Cavaliers had accepted an invitation to travel to Reserve for the fourth annual KC bowl game against host Leon Godchaux High. The game was scheduled for Sunday, November 25, just two days after the Aloysius encounter.
• The DLS-SA clash matched two outstanding backs bidding for all-prep recognition: Donald Bossier and Robert Meyers.
• The line battle matched Errol Linden, Terry Sarrazin, and William Daly for Johnny Altobello's squad against Guy Carriere, Louis Lorio, and Roy Picou.
• Douglass's 23 seniors had compiled a 19-9-4 record the last three years, the best ever for one group of Aloysians. He promised the squad this would not be their last game.
• The Crusaders wanted to preserve their #7 ranking in the AP's AAA statewide poll. Redemptorist held the #2 spot behind Baton Rouge.

• The Indians of the Big Eight didn't have a winning record, 4-5-1.
• However, they would be bolstered by the return of senior QB Kenny Thibodeaux who missed four games in a row before seeing action in the 7-6 loss to Gulfport on Thanksgiving Day.
• Biloxi's linemen averaged only 172 lb compared to the Crusaders' 193.

• Q1: A. J. Holloway and Glen Williams started a 65y march with runs of 19 and 17y, respectively. Thibodeaux took to the air, first completing a 20-yarder to Williams, then throwing a screen pass to Holloway who went the last 20. Joe Balius's try for the PAT sailed wide. The Crusa­ders responded with an 80y drive to the 10 but failed to convert a fourth and one.
• Q2: Donegan intercepted his eighth pass of the season and returned it to the Indian 45. Runs by Meyers, Schellhaas, and Stein and a pass from Schwaner to Picou brought the ball to the 9. From there, Bobby knifed off LT for the TD. Schwaner booted the ball through the uprights to give SA a one-point lead going into the break.
• Q3: The game descended into a defensive battle with neither team making any deep penetration. However, late in the period, the Saints recovered a fumble at midfield and drove for their second TD.
• Q4: Once again, it was Stein, Meyers, and Schellhaas who did the work as Biloxi couldn't stop Douglass's hard running trio who picked up 4, 5, and 6y consistently. Schellhaas climaxed the march with a 5y run, and once again Schwaner converted.

Shrimp Bowl Awards

• Best lineman: Frank Barletta, St. Aloysius
• Best back: A. J. Holloway, Biloxi (with stiff competition from Meyers and Schwaner)
• Sportsmanship: Harold Erikson, Biloxi

Times-Picayune All-Prep

All-City and All-Catholic

• Bobby Meyers, 18 160 5'9" Senior

Honorable Mention

• Guy Carriere, Louis Lorio, Roy Picou

St. Aloysius Football Banquet Awards

• Best Defensive Player: Guy Carriere, James Donegan
• Most Unheralded: Edmond Schellhaas
• Most Conscientious: Sidney Raymond
• Most Improved: Roy Toepfer
• Sportsmanship: Edward Ryan
• New Orleans Quarterback Club Scholastic Award: Robert Foret

• The season results show they were at least close to their predecessors. The loss to Holy Name derailed a repeat championship but, like the '55 team, the '56 aggregation topped Jesuit, Holy Cross, and De La Salle and tied Redemptorist.
• The fact that the Rams handled Easton so easily in the city playoff leads one to believe that the Crusaders would again have turned the tables on the Eagles after the opening defeat had they earned the chance.
• The Saints played old fashioned football with a strong running game and solid defense.
• The Shrimp Bowl triumph capped an outstanding season.

1957 Season

1955 Season

Link to any particular season from these pages:

Summary of the 1940s

Summary of the 1930s

Summary of the 1920s

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