THE DETROIT CATHOLIC SCHOOL HERITAGE PROJECT

PICTURE OF THE DAY-CC SHAMROCKS IN THE 1945 WORLD SERIES

In the 1945 World Series, the Detroit Tigers played the Chicago Cubs.  1945 marks the Cubs most recent appearance in the Fall Classic.  The Tigers won the Series, 4 games to 3.

The picture above was taken on the field of Briggs Stadium (later known as Tiger Stadium), on October 3, 1945, before Game 1.  From left to right we have, Fr. James E. Martin, CSB, legendary Catholic Central Football and Baseball coach (see Michigan Sports Hall of Fame entry here).  Along with Fr. Martin are three of his "CC boys":  Joe Stephenson ('39)-Cubs catcher, Art Houtteman ('45)-Tigers right-handed pitcher, and John McHale ('39)-Tigers first baseman.

 From the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame entry for Fr Martin: 

Initiated Catholic Central's athletic program, was instrumental strengthening Detroit's 16-team parochial league; won 15 consecutive baseball titles, 1935-49 winning 115, losing 7. His players came up through Detroit's Baseball Federation, with 3 Class E squads and an American Legion Team in sandlot baseball, which he directed. Won six football titles, '36, '37, '38, '42, '43, '45, winning 96, losing 36, 10 ties; won five city titles '38, '39, '42, '43, '45 (Denby tie); won six basketball titles '37, '44, '45, '46, '48, '49 with 170-39 record; staged CC-Boys Town Football games in Briggs Stadium, '44 (crowd 43,359, 14-14 tie) and '45 (crowd 37,500 losing 14-12). Many of his players advanced to the pro game. Inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1978.

Thanks to Dr. Jerry Coyle (CC '47) for telling me about this picture at dinner last week, and then placing it in my hands less than 24 hours later-at a time when he had a lot of other things on his plate.

Pictured below is the cover of the Winter, 2013 Aluminator, the Detroit Catholic Central Alumni magazine.  The issue focuses on athletic coaching at CC, and the cover features the bust of Fr. Martin, sculpted by Ed Chesney of the CC class of '41.

PICTURE OF THE DAY-ST. MARY OF REDFORD DRUM AND BUGLE CORPS

The picture above shows my uncle (my mother's brother) and godfather, John Gerald Coffey, a 1942 graduate of St. Mary's of Redford Grade School in Detroit.  The photo was taken in front of the Coffey family home on Prest, just north of the parking lot of the Montgomery Ward store located at Grand River and Greenfield.  (I can tell because I can see the Augenstein house in the background.  Both houses still stand, though the Augenstein place is in need of a little TLC).

I am not sure what grade Unc was in when that picture was taken.  He always had a youthful face-still does, as a matter of fact.  John Coffey was the only one of the 4 Coffey children not to graduate from St. Mary's of Redford High School.  He went on to U of D High, graduating in 1946, and then to U of D College.  My grandmother's brother, and John Coffey's uncle, the Rev. Gerald B. Garvey SJ, was a Jesuit educator, and his name is given to a distinguished Alumni award at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio.   He served in the US Army thereafter.  He told me it was tough for him in the Army-he was always shooting, it seemed.  Shooting pool, it turns out.

On his return he married Jean Hamel and those9 Coffey children went to Our Lady of Loretto Grade School in Redford, and all graduated from a Catholic high school-Catholic Central, Mercy or Bishop Borgess.

The St. Mary's of Redford complex still dominates the north side of Grand River Avenue, half way between Southfield and Greenfield (the big city for me, growing up), but there are no more high school classes, no more grade school classes, and no more drum and bugle corps.  Sad.

But, the spirit of St. Mary's of Redford's schools lives on in its graduates as they carry on living by the values they were taught in those buildings.  And that is good.

1964 "QUIZ-EM" ON WWJ TV: ST. AMBROSE V ROSEVILLE SACRED HEART

Ed Golick's wonderful website, Detroitkidshow.com is the greatest collection of material on vintage local Detroit TV I have ever found.   I was raised when most of these shows aired, back when TV meant channels 2, 4, 7 and 9, period.  I remember Soupy Sales, Poopdeck Paul, Captain Jolly, Morgus, Jingles, Boofland and many of the shows covered.  But the site features many shows I had never heard of, much less watched.

One of these is "Quiz-Em", a local high school quiz contest that appeared on WWJ (Channel 4) from February 13, 1954 (Detroit Redford defeating Detroit Central) to December 1967.  Quite a run.  The "Quiz-Em" page on the site does feature pictures and a story about a January, 1964 installment of the show in which Grosse Pointe Park St. Ambrose High School took on Roseville Sacred Heart High.  The text of the story is provided by Tom Pfiefer, one of the St. Ambrose team members.  Ed Golich has graciously allowed me to use material from his site for this post.

According to Mr. Pfiefer, a retired Chief Inspector for the Railroad Police Department, the grand prize for winning the contest was a TV set for the school.  Questions were based on current events.  After regulation, the score was tied.  The tie-breaking question was not a current event question, but rather a question which called for a guess like "How many stars in the Milky Way?"  St. Ambrose lost the tie breaker.

Detroit Police Commissioner Edward S. Piggins once praised the show as “one of the greatest means of combating juvenile delinquency.”

Sadly, the show is now history as is St. Ambrose High (closed in 1972) and Sacred Heart (closed in 1971).  But, thanks to Mr. Golick and Mr. Pfiefer, the history of Quiz-Em as well as these fine schools live on.

Quizmaster Don Perrie and Special Guest Questioner Sonny Eliot

BISHOP GALLAGHER CATHOLIC SCHOOL "COLLAGE" UPDATE--76 SCHOOLS NOW REPRESENTED

The Bishop Michael J. Gallagher Society Catholic School "Collage" has not been updated since October of 2012.  The new version has 87 entries, representing 76 Catholic schools, both open and closed.  The additions begin on Row 10, as follows:

Row 10:  Second and Fifth from the left:  Detroit St. Joseph High School- closed 1964.  Third and Sixth-Detroit Rosary High School-closed 1974

Row 11:  Detroit Austin High School-closed 1977, Pontiac Catholic High School-closed 1988, Detroit St. Francis DeSales High School-closed 1971, Livonia Ladywood High School-open, Detroit Catholic Central High School-open, Farmington Our Lady of Sorrows-High School closed 1971; Elementary School open

Row 12:  Detroit Gesu Elementary School-open, Plymouth Our Lady of Good Counsel Elementary School-open, Warren DeLaSalle High School-open, Detroit Guardian Angels Elementary School-closed 1986, Warren St. Anne-High School closed 1987; Elementary School open, Detroit St. Scholastica Elementary School-closed 2012

Row 13:  Livonia St. Michael Elementary School-open, Warren Regina High School-open, Grosse Pointe Woods Our Lady Star of the Sea-High School closed 1993; Elementary School open, Royal Oak Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Elementary School-open, Birmingham St. Regis Elementary School-open, Southgate St. Pius X Elementary School-open

Row 14:  Mt. Clemens St. Mary-High School closed 1970; Elementary School open, Livonia St. Genevieve Elementary School-open,Seal of the Archdiocese of Detroit, Orchard Lake Our Lady of Refuge Elementary School-open, Dearborn Heights St. Anselm Elementary School-open

Row 15:  Westland St. Damian Elementary School-open, Clinton Township St. Thecla Elementary School-open, Dearborn Heights St. Linus Elementary School-open, Port Huron St. Mary McCormick Academy-open

DETROIT NEWS NEWSREELS-ST. THERESA CHURCH DEDICATION 1927

The Wayne State University Virtual Motor City Site-A Collection of Detroit News Newsreels is amazing for the history buff.  Short on description the site presents 400, 1920s era digital newsreels.  These were played in Detroit area theaters in the pre-talkie age.

The newsreel below is of the dedication of the then new St. Theresa of Avila church.  Click on the image to view the video. That church was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1989.  The parish and its Catholic elementary and high school are now closed, but the Allen Academy now occupies the school building and, based on a recent drive by, uses the church, the interior of which seems to be partitioned for offices.  The church building is located at the rather unfortunately numbered address of 8666 Quincy.  The parish buildings occupy a triangle of land bordered by Quincy, Radford, and Pingree (named after that great mayor of Detroit, Hazen Pingree).  In a larger context, the parish is just north of Grand River, between West Grand Boulevard and Joy Road.  The old Grand Riviera Theater was across Grand River.  You can see St. Theresa briefly, if you look real hard going eastbound on the Jeffries on the way downtown.

Now the esteemed Wikipedia site indicates that the church was built in 1919.  The Virtual Motor City site merely indicates that the dedication took place some time in the mid-1920s.  Well, this is one time that www.bishopgallagher.org can bring its superior research tools definitively answer that question.  According to "Through 20 Years 1915-1935", a history of the first 20 year of the parish-a book in my possession, the dedication took place precisely on September 5, 1927, by the Right Rev. Bishop Michael J. Gallagher, also referred to in this book as "His Lordship".  I rather like that.   At that time, my dad was 4 years old and my mother 1.

I will be uploading the entire booklet in the next few days, as it contains gems like this, from the year 1922:  "In the interest of Catholic Propaganda donations were requested to place the Catholic Encyclopedia in all schools."

And this, from 1920:  "The first attack upon the parochial schools was made in the fall of this year, and all Catholics were called upon to acquaint themselves fully with the pernicious attempt to legislate sectarian schools out of existence.  St. Theresa parish was well represented at the monstrous meeting at the Knights of Columbus hall on October 12."

The author of this book, Mr. Edward T. Walling, certainly did not lack for eloquence.

St. Theresa of Avila Church today-still beautiful 

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK ARTICLE AND ALBUM IN THE DETROIT FREE PRESS

First Communion Class, Gesu School 1926.  Gesu is still open.

The last week of January has always been Catholic Schools Week in the Detroit area as far back as I can remember.  The open houses and spaghetti dinners abound.  Patricia Montemurri of the Detroit Free Press wrote a nice article on February 1, 2013 entitled:  "Detroit area's Catholic schools shrink, but tradition endures".

Some distressing statistics are included.  Here is a excerpt from part of the article:

"Mercy is one of 96 schools enrolling 30,000 students in the six-county Archdiocese of Detroit. It's a far cry from Catholic schools' baby boomer heyday, when 203,000 students were enrolled in about 360 Detroit-area schools in 1964-65. At that time, nearly every parish had a school. There were about 55 high schools in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park alone, and nearly twice as many grade schools."

Patricia does know, first hand, about the shrinkage of Detroit Catholic schools.  She was a junior when Detroit Rosary High School closed.

I talked to Patricia briefly on January 31, and she was nice enough to mention the Bishop Gallagher Society in the article, as well as its mission of Detroit Catholic school heritage preservation.

As is pointed out in the article, there are many reasons for the decrease in the number of schools and students in Detroit area Catholic schools:

"Many factors have contributed to fewer Catholic schools in Detroit, including the city's heavy population loss; migration by white Catholics to the suburbs; the low number of African-American Catholics; the dwindling number of nuns to staff schools; escalating tuition costs, and the rise of no-tuition charter schools."

But, as Patricia Montemurri so rightly points out, whatever the numbers, the values taught and learned, and the traditions, continue.  The Bishop Michael J. Gallagher Society will continue to  work to preserve the memory of people and places: the schools, the churches, the teachers, the students, the coaches and the parents who have made and will continue to make the Detroit area's Catholic schools, great. 

One of the best parts of the Free Press coverage is the album of vintage photos now found on the same page as the article.  A couple are included in this post.

DeLaSalle High School Faculty Lounge 1951.  (Let's try to keep it down there, Brothers.)

Detroit CC football 1944.  That is a Detroit Public School, not Catholic Central in the background.