Picture from the Past

Pictures from the Past - III

Organization of Prep League

Times-Picayune Article October 11, 1915.

PREP SCHOOLERS WOULD ORGANIZE
Claude Simons Hopes to Launch Athletic Body at Meeting Today.

Organisation of a Prep School Athletic Association will be held this afternoon at the Manual Training School at 4 o'clock. Coaches and those interested in prep school athletics are requested to attend the meeting. Claude Simons, Manual Training coach, will be the chairman of the committee. "Bobo" O'Brien of Jesuits will assist Simons in the organization. Coach Roehm of Boys' High School, Coach Lewis of Rugby, and other athletic directors are expected to be on hand.
That the P.S.A.A. will do much for athletics in city prep schools, Coach Simons had no doubt.
"I believe an organization such as we intend to make the Prep School Athletic Association," said Simons last night, "will boost athletics in the city fifty per cent. I always have wanted to organize such an association, but until a talk with Coach O'Brien Friday, I never had encouragement to do it. We have started now and I hope we will succeed.
"Our plan is this: Athletics need boosting and the P.S.A.A. will do the best to boost the city and state. First, we will organize the city schools. If we are successful in this we hope to branch out and make the association a statewide one, with regulations to govern athletics in every school of Louisiana. That, of course, will not come until later.
"In New Orleans there are six or seven prep schools, Boys' High School, Jesuits, Rugby Academy, Holy Cross, Chenets, St. Aloysius, Manual Training turn out athletic teams that play each other. Some of the schools have several hundred students to pick teams from, others are not so fortunate. In ever case, however, nearly all the city schools are represented by a football team or teams. Baseball brings a prep school league with generally six teams entered.
"Rules to govern contests between team which participate in such leagues are lax and in many cases we are forced to use the rules that are catalogued. Such rules are not always to be applied to school teams, and as a result they have direct effect on some team, and seriously handicap that team. With a prep school association, however, all this would be changed. We would have rules to govern cases that might arise only among school teams. We could meet every arising issue and settle all disputes."

Claude "Monk" Simons Sr.

Comments:

Manual Training School, founded in 1903 by Isidore Newman, was renamed for its founder in 1931.
"Jesuits," as Jesuit High School was consistently called a century ago, was located at the corner of Baronne and Common Streets next to the Church of the Immaculate Conception. The school moved to its Carrollton Avenue location in 1926.
Rugby Academy was founded in 1884 on the corner of St. Charles Avenue and Bordeaux Street. Run like a military school, Rugby closed in 1970.
Boys' High School was the first high school in the State of Louisiana - 1843. In 1911, it was renamed Warren Easton High School in honor of the first Supervisor of Education in the city and state. However, as the above article shows, it was still commonly referred to by its original name. 1915 was the school's second year in its location on Canal Street.
Holy Cross High School, the second establishment in the United States after the Notre Dame University of the Holy Cross priests and brothers, had been located at 4950 Dauphine Street since 1871.
"Chenets" was Chenet Institute, founded by Henry Chenet in 1892 as a non-denominational, private, college-preparatory high school. It was located at 3507 Magazine Street.
Founded in 1869 in the French Quarter, St. Aloysius (colors black and red in 1915) had been located on the corner of Esplanade Avenue and N. Rampart Street since 1892 when the Brothers of the Sacred Heart purchased the school formerly run by the Ursuline Sisters.

Original St. Aloysius High School at Esplanade and Rampart

Claude Simons' decision to found the prep athletic association in October 1915 gains added significance when you take into account the hurricane that plowed through the city September 29, 1915. With winds peaking at 145 mph, it killed 275 people and caused $13 million in damage (in 1915 dollars).

Claude "Monk" Simons, Sr., was 28 years old when he started the prep league. He moved to Tulane in 1920 as head coach of both basketball and track & field but continued to be involved with his fledgling prep association. He was also a pioneering athletic trainer from 1926 until his death in 1943.

Claude Simons Jr. became a star running back at Newman and Tulane, scoring two touchdowns to help the Green Wave defeat Temple 20-14 in the inaugural Sugar Bowl January 1, 1935.

Perry Roehm was the first adult coach of Boys' High School (1909) and coached all the sports for 18 years. He started a conditioning program for his athletes that made his teams powerhouses, especially in football. He was immortalized by having the baseball stadium a few blocks from the Elysian Fields Avenue overpass named for him in 1949.

All-Prep Guard 1932

John Clesi, All-Prep G 1932

Results for the 1931-32 St. Aloysius Panthers varsity basketball team

Coach: W. E. "Prof" Jones

Warren Easton 9-17
Holy Cross 28-16
Fortier 24-4
Jesuit 26-30
Newman 30-31
Peters Commercial High 20-19
Warren Easton 21-20
Holy Cross 25-20
Jesuit 18-23
Newman 21-18
Fortier 31-15
Peters 25-28

1960 St. Aloysius State Qualifiers

1960-61 St. Aloysius 8th-Grade Basketball Team

The picture and caption are from the Aloysian. "Messina" is actually Frank Pausina.

1960 Baseball

Looking forward to the 1960 St. Aloysius baseball season are:
Tim Ursin, Bobby Powell, Coach Henry Perret, and Nick Bonura

The Crusaders finished 2nd in District with a 7-5 record. Powell led the hitters with a .324 average while Ursin's 5-3 mark topped the hurlers.

Welcome, Andy!

January 30, 1965, was an important date in the history of Cor Jesu High School.

A Meet the Coach Banquet was held in the school cafeteria to introduce the 11-year-old school's first Athletic Director, Andy Bourgeois.
The 1956 graduate of St. Aloysius High School would oversee the introduction of interscholastic athletics on Elysian Fields Avenue the following school year.
The principal, Brother Roland Smith, S.C., revealed that plans for the new gymnasium would be put in the hands of a contractor in mid-March.
Also announced at the banquet was the name of the basketball coach for 1965-66: Bobby Conlin.
Bourgeois, a member of LSU's famed Chinese Bandits from 1958-60, had most recently been athletic director and head football coach at St. Aloysius High School in Vicksburg MS. Promising "we will have the most successful athletic program in the city of New Orleans," he announced plans to field a freshman football team, a junior varsity, and a varsity team.

Andy Bourgeois receives the first Cor Jesu athletic sweater.

1965-66: First Cor Jesu Basketball Team

The head coach was Bob Conlin assisted by Armand Bertin.
The Kingsmen defeated Ecole Classique, John Curtis, Prytania twice, and Sam Barthe.

1960 Relay Team

The 1960 St. Aloysius 440 relay team finished third at the state meet at Natchitoches and the 880 relay team took fourth place. Al Nastasi finished 2nd in the 100 and 3rd in the 220 at state. Paul Reinhardt gained 3rd in both the high jump and broad jump. The team finished fourth with 22 1/2 points.

Both relay teams finished second at the Meet of Champions at Behrman Stadium a week later. Nastasi reversed his finishes in the 100 (3rd) and 220 (2nd) from state. Reinhardt was one of three tying for first in the high jump (5'8").

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