Indianapolis Washington High School and the West Side: History, Facts, Lists, Biographies, Community Stories

© 2010 Eddie Bopp. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 11/18/2010

ISBN: 978-1-4520-7226-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-7421-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010912663

Printed in the United States of America

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

DEDICATION

To my late parents, Ed and Thelma.

And to my grandkids, Austin and Audrey Osburn,

may they enjoy their youthful environment in the 21st century

as much as I did mine in the 20th century

INDIANAPOLIS WASHINGTON &

The WEST SIDE

by Eddie Bopp

FACTS, HISTORY, LISTS & BIOGRAPHIES

Foreword by Senator Richard G. Lugar

Introduction

I.

The Near Westside

II.

School History by Decades

A HISTORY OF WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL

1920’s

1930’s

1940’s

1950’s

1960’s

1970’s

1980’s

1990’s

III.

Biographies

JAMES EMERSON CARTER (1930)

HARRY CHERRY, class of 1934

Lessons Learned from Legendary Luzar

CLOYD CURLY JULIAN

VIOLA BAZIS SANDERS

STROTHER MARTIN, class of 1937

AL CASE, class of 1938

GEORGE THEOFANIS

William Bill Mattox, class of 1953

BRYAN HUDSON, class of 1954

JERRY LAWLIS, class of 1956

HENRY HANK EASTER

LARRY GLAZE

WILMER ISENHOWER

The PURICHIA Family

The Wrestling OPP Family

Fred Van Abeele

The BOYD Family

JOHN BRADLEY

COACH BOB SPRINGER

Mr. JULIAN’S MY STORY

RALPH TAYLOR

GARY GUNTHER, class of 1965

BILLY KELLER

TONY BURCHETT

GEORGE McGINNIS

ANTHONY ALLEN-COOKSEY, class of 1974

I’M LAMON BREWSTER

HIGHBAUGH family

JOE SHIRES

BALDWIN family

JOE TOFIL

RICK LEON HIGHTOWER

LARRY AUSTIN, class of ’63

JERRY OLIVER

DAVE & JERRY SANDERS

BILL NIEMANN, ALL-STAR

BASIL SFREDDO

IV.

World War II

COMMITTEE of CORRESPONDENCE

JACKTOWN HEROES

WORLD WAR II WASHINGTON BOYS

LLOYD POSEY

CHARLES BRADSHAW

WILLIAM SATTERFIELD

THE PYATT FAMILY

V.

Washington Boys Killed In Action

WORLD WAR II

WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL –-VIETNAM DEATHS 1965-1973

VI.

Community Stories

THE GIST

FIFTY YEARS at HAWTHORNE CENTER (1923-1973)

HISTORY

WE SALUTE

Support

Presidents of the Board of Directors 1923-1973

1973 Board of Directors

1973 Staff

Article II of the Constitution of Hawthorne Social Service Association

MY SCHOOL 50 DURING THE FIFTIES

1931 Marion County Sectionals

THE WORKINGMAN’S FRIEND

FIRST SECTIONAL CHAMPS 1948

Tom Stevason, adopted Continental

The Coliseum Disaster and the JFK Assassination

RICHARD G. LUGAR

JIMMIE ANGELOPOLOUS

1959 Unbeaten Football Team

VII.

Scores, Records & State Champions

WASHINGTON HIGH FOOTBALL 1927-1994

Most Valuable or Most Outstanding Football Players 1927-1994:

Records against City/County/some notable teams for each era:

TEAM OFFENSIVE POINTS & TEAM DEFENSIVE POINTS (Fewest)

Regular Season Winning Streaks with losses at both ends of streaks

INDIANAPOLIS WASHINGTON BASKETBALL–-1928-1995

Consensus MVPs or Best Players (1929-1995) in Basketball

WASHINGTON Individual Athletic Achievements

VIII.

Special Distinction

Indiana Hall of Fame Athletes (Washington High connections)

GWHS ALL-TIME FOOTBALL & BASKETBALL

ALL-TIME WASHINGTON BASEBALL TEAM

WASHINGTON’S TOP ALL-TIME MALE ATHLETES

ALL-TIME MARION COUNTY FOOTBALL & BASKETBALL TEAMS

MARION COUNTY 20th CENTURY ALL-TIME FOOTBALL Players

MARION COUNTY 20th CENTURY ALL-TIME BASKETBALL

COACH BOGUE’S FOOTBALL CAPTAINS

Tofil-Springer-Newland Captains

IX.

Odds & Ends

HALL OF FAME Editorial

FEMALE ATHLETIC SPECIAL MENTION

What’s the common connection for these 30-Triple+ Continentals?

WASHINGTON HISTORY-U.S./WORLD HISTORY

GWHS QUIZ (answers in Indianapolis Washington and the West Side)

GWHS MT. RUSHMORE

All-Time All-Marshall (1967-1981) Coach Eddie Bopp 1976-1981

First Graduating Class—1928

Valedictorians and Top Academic Graduates

The Goal is Worthy of the Effort

SENIOR-JUNIOR CLASS PRESIDENTS & WASHINGTONIAN PRESIDENTS

Fall Queens

STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT + Surveyor & Yearbook Editor

Daughters of American Revolution Good Citizen, Drum Major, May Queen

Selected Lists

Dance Kings & Queens, Johnnie & Connie Continentals, George & Martha

Graduates from Yearbook pictures or Graduation programs

Cheerleaders

X.

Faculty Over the Years

1995–final yearbook of original school

XI.

Epilogue

XII.

Quiz Answers

Foreword by Senator Richard G. Lugar

As a freshman quarterback for Shortridge High School, I entered the Washington High School football field in 1946 for the first time, and thus began an introduction to not only George Washington High School, but the Westside of Indianapolis. This discovery, expanded dramatically when I returned in 1960 to Indianapolis from military service in the United States Navy. With my brother, Tom Lugar, I sought to restore the strength of Thomas L. Green and Company, a manufacturing business founded by my grandfather, Thomas L. Green, on the Westside of Indianapolis. We manufactured biscuit and cracker machinery, and we faced a very challenging turn-around situation. My brother, who had returned from service in the United States Army, had a Purdue University engineering degree and I tried to provide overall business management. My wife, Char, and I bought a house on the Westside. Quickly, we established banking relationships for the business and for our families, and learned to appreciate small businesses which were near our factory and our home.

Fortunately, I soon developed a wonderful friendship with Cloyd Julian at Indianapolis Rotary Club meetings. I found that he was the principal at George Washington High School, and through his invitation, I began attending meetings of the Washington High School Businessmen’s Club. Curly Julian gave me extensive tours of the high school, during which I met talented faculty and students. He encouraged me to provide summer jobs for some of the students and I was eager to do so.

Char and I also became regular attendees at Washington High School football and basketball games. We watched Ed Bopp star in both football and basketball roles, and I asked him to join our factory team during the summer of 1965, prior to his entry into Butler University. During those summer months, the two of us enjoyed workouts on the Washington High School athletic field, which included substantial running, calisthenics, and, at his insistence, various football passing formations.

Eddie was the Trester Award winner on the Indiana State High School Athletic Association Championship Basketball Team in 1965. Char and I, and our four sons, had watched all of the Washington High School tournament games, from the sectional through the final four, and we were wrapped up in enthusiasm for this Westside triumph with remarkable players and an equally remarkable coach, Jerry Oliver. I attended pep rallies in the gym and the final celebration of victory, and I wanted to make certain that Ed Bopp enjoyed a great beginning as a quarterback for Butler University.

Just before the 1964-1965 high school basketball season commenced, a group of Westsiders came to my office at Thomas L. Green and Company and strongly encouraged me to become a candidate for the Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners in the primary election of 1964. They argued, passionately, that someone needed to stand up for the Westside and provide much more equity for schools, students, teachers, and parents, who were our neighbors.

That School Board election came as Indianapolis was on the cusp of a civil rights revolution, already evident in many other large, northern cities. Nellie Carter, mother of noted Washington High School 1930 alum, Jim Carter, was the major organizer for the Citizen’s School Committee ticket on which I ran. A rival slate emerged and individual independent candidates entered the fray. For the first time, the School Board election brought about public debates, and even radio and television coverage. I was elected to the Board in May of 1964 and became much more heavily involved in the day-to-day activities of School Number 30, School Number 50, Washington High School, and the Hawthorne Settlement House, all in the close neighborhood of our factory.

After I was elected Mayor of Indianapolis in November 1967, I found even more opportunities to work with Cloyd Julian and a host of teachers and parents who had important dreams for the Westside.

These experiences flooded my memory as I returned on November 16, 2008, for the 80th Birthday Party of George Washington High School and to celebrate the rebirth of the high school, with remarkable new opportunities for students and the surrounding community. Ed Bopp made a comprehensive presentation, on that day, of the school’s athletic history, and shortly thereafter, I learned that he was preparing an even more comprehensive history of Washington High School and the Westside.

This book will be invaluable to all who love Indianapolis and are eager to learn much more about our Hoosier roots on the historical and productive Westside of Indiana’s capital city. I was excited to be the receiver for Ed Bopp’s football passes in the mid-1960’s, and I have been deeply grateful for his loyal friendship ever since.

I am honored to salute his vision and creativity as he provides the text for our salute to George Washington High School and the Westside, a history that we will pass along with enthusiasm and pride to our children and grandchildren.

Introduction

For nearly 60 years I’ve been intrigued by what I saw as the once unique nature of the near Westside of Indianapolis. And the focal point of that Common Culture was Washington High School. It only lasted for 68 years and its influence may be drifting further away into the past but the foundation from which many lives have evolved seemed a one-of-a-kind phenomena to me.

When Richard Such approached me in 2001 with his request that I write out a history of Washington High for his website, I was emboldened with the knowledge that I had already interviewed two iconic figures in our school’s history. I had visited Mr. Julian’s Kessler Blvd. home and videotaped about an hour of oral history from his memory bank in 1998. Within a year I visited Harry Cherry’s sister’s home in Speedway and did the same with him. I already had a leg-up with those two Continental legends. I had first met Harry in 1995 at the school’s closing but had known of his reputation since the ’50’s. I also knew of Mr. Julian’s west side pedigree even before I met him as I often watched him on Fridays when he would eat dinner at Huddleston restaurant before home football or basketball games in the late 1950’s.

And, in April 2008, Connie Higgins noted to me that Jim Carter was alive and well and living in northern Indianapolis. I was shocked. The first phone number that I called was the correct one and I set up a meeting where I interviewed Mr. Carter for one hour on videotape at his Geist area condo. I had first known of him when I obtained a college football trading card of Purdue All-American Duane Purvis in 1955-56. His three or four sentence biography read something like Duane was known as a Purdue Touchdown Twin along with Jim Carter. My dad told me that he’s the brother of ‘Swivel Hips’ Carter, another great player.

A number of personal stories bolster my concept that other Westside and IPS schools had an inferiority complex in their approach to Washington High School educational and athletic opportunities. But after intra-district busing began in 1971 (and then inter-district busing in 1981) realities changed dramatically.

I phone-interviewed Harold Negley, Tony Burchett, John Bradley, and Jerry Lawlis among others. Most of my information I have verified from more than one source.

Special people fed on the key features of our community—other people in a stable school setting. From Gingery to Julian, Bogue to Springer, Barbara Jean to Audie Watkins, Charley Money to John Bradley, Vi Sanders to Nancy Ehret, Leonard to Myron, Hester Baker Bock Erwin and Al Hamilton to Jo Jo and Basil and even Chico. They all added to the mystic, as well as reality, of a once proud school. Without those people and many others there would not have been a Washington High. But no individual made our school; our school helped make them.

I’ve seen revisionism in too many American History textbooks. Judging events and people in the past based on the standards of the present can be both disingenuous and inaccurate.

I want to set the record straight, albeit with my perceptions, as others may have seen things slightly differently. Facts are facts and opinions are opinions. Too many cannot understand the difference. But obviously one’s personal reality comes from how they perceive the world around them. In 2003 I received an e-mail from a former student who had attained a successful professional life in the adult world. He questioned my history of Washington High School on the website we had at the time. Just because I didn’t play sports doesn’t mean I wasn’t a success then or now, he wrote. I concurred and explained to him that I was only writing about my experiences and my knowledge about certain people who had impressed me in a dramatic way. Extracurricular prominence in high school did not necessarily manifest itself in adult success, I responded. My professional lack of success is a prime example.

So my personal lists are based on my biased opinions but also on my interpretations of the facts of the individual’s accomplishments. Actor James Cagney noted that we all live between our ears. And I believe that everyone’s life is a history book. So, to accumulate as much written and verbal information that I have concerning GWHS, I feel a need to share it as History. Misguided bar-talkers and wannabes be damned. I have much visual and some audio evidence as well as newspaper copies. The hard work of Ronnie Rogers, class of 1954, along with Gene Robertson when they put the athletic booklet together helped inspired me. And much thanks to John Bradley for all of the football scores. Basil Sfreddo also gave me a ditto with many of the basketball records. Richard Such (class of ’63), as earlier stated, established a very good website to which I was the main contributor but a few others also participated with stories like those from the Boyd and Isenhower families along with Larry Glaze’s insight on Frank Luzar’s mystic.

And the hard work and contact information maintained by 2009 Alumni President Connie Higgins along with fellow 1971 classmate Susan Worland Hartley was important. And they both sincerely avoid the limelight. Also, Al Case (class of ’38) offered invaluable stories and insight into the Washington culture as I intruded on numerous conversations between him and Jim Carter, class of 1930, during our monthly lunches. Both have given me newspaper articles and books to bolster my fact base. Jack Hensley and Joe Bridgewater, both class of 1948, are guardians of the Alumni Room located on the top floor of GWCS. Yearbooks and other memorabilia are available the third Wednesday of the month.

My Aunt Anita’s annuals from the early 1950’s along with my mother’s from the late 1930’s and my own from the ’60’s and early ’70’s were used as cross-references supporting oral history.

Chris Boylan, a positive teacher from new Washington Community School, presented me with the six State Championship team pictures. Tom Schott, from Purdue’s Sports Information office, sent me two photos of Jim Carter. Brad Cook, as IU’s Curator of Photographs in their Archives division, sent a good Harry Cherry photo from 1936.

My wife’s personal photo collection, the military photos (including those shared with me by over 13 different GWHS veterans of World War II who attended my four years of recognition assemblies in the early 21st century), and my buddies who served during the Vietnam era has helped give this book a balanced view of different generations of service men and mid-school-1960’s kids who had the common experience of Washington High School.

Mrs. Barbara McGrevy, Jack Woodson, Dennis Ludlow, Terry Sylvester, Cheryl Roberts, Bill Niemann, Dru Miller, Steve Midkiff, Kenny Baldwin, Bernard Garver, Danny Stamatkin, Chuck Dulla, Doris Purichia, Steve Satterfield, Larry Austin, Bob Tillery, Senifta Such, Jerry Sanders, David Beasley and Rick Sylvester all volunteered photos or newspaper articles used in this book.

I have indulged myself a bit including the Marshall All-Time team page and a few other personal acknowledgments. I do feel that I took the Washington Way to that far-northeastside school.

Baseball Hall-of-Famer Dizzy Dean once said, it ain’t braggin’ if you done it. And I can brag that against top Marion County teams that my teams (including the year that I departed when I continued un-paid workouts with players until I left in June as the principal, one time Washington track coach Tom Haynes, refused to give me a summer job at his school) were unique. Against top programs Cathedral, our Washington, Roncalli and Lawrence North from 1977-1981 Marshall was 13-1. The one loss, ending the 1978 season vs. Roncalli, concluded a week of my inability to quell two dope-smoking star players whose actions destroyed team morale. And Marshall is probably the only IPS school to defeat power-house Chatard in consecutive years since the 1960’s, including a 41-6 thumping. Marshall’s 27-game regular-season winning streak, I’m sure, is Marion County’s all time record. Consecutive 10-0 seasons were not matched until Warren Central teams in ’84 & ’85. Ben Davis has still not had consecutive 10-0 seasons nor did Washington or Cathedral in the 20th century.

Washington High’s personality, which was a compilation of a variety of human and environmental influences, was always my personal inspiration. I have made an intense effort to be accurate, though I’m sure that a mistake or two can be found.

I have only tried to analyze the 68 years of the original school, from 1927 through 1995. The Community High School, which opened in 2001, will write its own history. Hopefully it will be as inspiring to the younger generation as the image and reality of Washington High School was for me and most of my contemporaries.

I.

The Near Westside

The near Westside of Indianapolis can be described physically by referencing American means of transportation which were built or improved in the 19th & 20th centuries. The National Road (known as Washington Street or Road 40 to westsiders), White River, Eagle Creek, and the railroads (known during most of the 20th century as the B & O, New York Central, and Pennsylvania) helped describe our area.

Street names, community names, and the state government’s township system all help define the area name designations. The nine townships in Marion County (one of 92 Indiana counties) can be seen as a tic-tac-toe board. From the northwest (going from left to right) the township names are Pike, Washington, and Lawrence; then Wayne, Center, and Warren; and, completed along the southern border by Decatur, Perry, and Franklin. There are a number of small, incorporated towns with Speedway and Beech Grove as the two largest which have their own school and police systems.

Mayor Dick Lugar’s Unigov proposal, which was passed by our state’s General Assembly in 1969 and went into effect the first day of 1970, made the nine townships the new Indianapolis in most ways. But the school systems were still basically independent.

As the boundaries of Indianapolis grew in increments via state law, the city’s public schools paralleled its growth. Indianapolis had become the state capital in 1825. The Indianapolis Public Schools first emerged in the early 1850’s. Reformers of the era both before and immediately after the Civil War saw public education as the great equalizer as well as the view that private, European and slave state type schools helped perpetuate antagonism between the rich and the poor. Indianapolis High School opened in 1863.

Protestant ministers had implemented Sunday schools which taught morals, an idea that was first introduced in England. Public schools were the natural extension with the school year expanding from 110 to 180 days after the war.

An early superintendent noted that children from the lower walks of life were most susceptible to the immoral temptations and most in need of academic and moral teachings. His approach was similar to the Old Deluder Satan Act of 1639 in colonial Massachusetts which became the first Public School Act 137 years before the Declaration of Independence. An idle mind is the devil’s playground was a premise that most people accepted as one big reason for public schools; so, public schools were created to exhibit the democracy theory upon which our great nation was founded.

Manual Training High School became the second IPS secondary school in 1888 (moving into a permanent home near Meridian and South Street within the Mile Square area), so Indianapolis High School became Shortridge. Broad Ripple High School emerged circa 1890 but the Broad Ripple community didn’t become part of Indianapolis until 1923 so Arsenal Technical became the third high school in 1912 with its campus located on the Civil War arsenal on the eastside.

In 1927 when our school was reluctantly accepted by the school board (West Park minister Rev. Baker personally noted that a near-northside school board member stated that those kids west of the river won’t go to school anyway) the segregated Crispus Attucks school also opened. The tract of land upon which Washington High was built had been the home of two yearly circus visits. Flack’s Field, as it was called, was the annual home for two different circuses. Ringling Brothers and, later in the summer, the circus called The 101 Wild West Show. The disembarking spot at Belmont and the B & O railroad continued into the 1970’s.

When John Marshall joined ranks in 1967 at the peak of IPS enrollment there were eleven high schools. Howe (1937), Wood (1953, occupying the old Manual building when a new Manual opened on Madison Avenue), Arlington (1961), and Northwest (1963) were the other IPS schools.

By IPS Central Office statistics there were 62,586 pupils enrolled in IPS in 1939 with seven high schools. The peak total reached 108,703 during the school year of ’66-67. In 2005 there were 38,350 K-12th students. Mr. Charles Money, an early history teacher at Washington High, wrote that there were approximately 42,000 residents living west of White River inside the expanded Indianapolis by the early 1920’s. And there were only about 670 students attending elementary or high schools with maybe 60 high school graduates per year. A physically closer high school would certainly encourage more attendance and increase the graduation rate, both for the betterment of Westside society.

Center Township is roughly: north—38th St., south—Raymond St., east—Emerson Ave., west—Belmont St.

The George Washington High School attendance district was initially created in 1922 thanks to a state law allowing for the extension of Indianapolis across the center township border of Belmont Street into Wayne Township.

Center Township-Indianapolis (before 1970 and Unified Government) grew expediently in relationship to the growing population. Seventeen grade schools plus at least three Catholic schools (Assumption, Holy Trinity, and St. Anthony’s) sent kids to our school at 2215 W. Washington.

When the 1950’s housing development called Eagledale emerged those kids attended Washington High after 8th grade graduation from either School 61 or 79 along with those from School 90, which was to the northeast of 16th & Tibbs, until 1963 when Northwest H.S. opened. Flackville school, which fluctuated between Ben Davis and GWHS, on Lafayette Road and School 48 (grades 1-6 then on to #46) had some future Continentals. School 5, which once sent students to old Manual on Meridian St., was located on California and Washington St. where the IMAX theater is now located. It is currently commemorated with a historical society display titled Making Americans and includes two pictures of youngsters with a Continental connection: George Such (circa 1925), who had two children graduate from GWHS, and George McGinnis, our 1969 basketball star. The other grammar schools, which sent students to Continentaland, were: #s 16, 30, 44 (east of the river, north of 16th St.), 46, 47, 49, 50, 52, 63, 67, and 75.

Haughville, the most recognizable community in the Washington High district is often described as the area between 16th St., White River, N. Tibbs, and Michigan St. The area north of Bahr Park (Warman & Vermont) which is south of Michigan St. extending to Tibbs can also be included. And, the Stringtown area can be said to overlap the Haughville area. Stringtown normally is considered west of White River to perhaps Belmont St. But the Indianola area of old School 30 claims some of Stringtown’s homestead projecting south to the old New York Central railroad tracks and as far north as Michigan Street.

The Fairfax area is north of Vermont, west of Tibbs, east of Eagle Creek and up to 16th Street beyond the B & O.

Hawthorne can be said to include the area north of Washington St., south of the B & O railroad, east of Warman, and west of Belmont. Jacktown or Mt. Jackson is bordered by Washington High and the old Link-Belt property on the east, Eagle Creek on the west, Washington St. to the north, and the Pennsylvania Railroad to the south.

West Indianapolis (WI) is best visualized as the area surrounding Rhodius Park. But the boundaries can be said to be: Harding St. (E), Warman Ave. (W), Oliver Ave. (N), and south to Morris St. then to Minnesota St. almost to Raymond.

The Valley was another unique area. With Harding on the western edge and the White River natural boundary to the east, the Valley extended south to north from Morris Street to the Pennsylvania tracks. Oliver Avenue cut a swath down the middle, running east and west.

Other enclaves included Salem Park where a few families lived along, and directly north of, Washington St. between big and little Eagle Creeks as well as The Bottoms which were the few homes between Warman Ave. and Eagle Creek south of the Pennsylvania Railroad to Morris Street.

And the Rollings family, which ran a venetian blinds cleaning business from their home, lived in the last property on S. Tibbs on the east side near the Pennsylvania railroad, a 1½ mile walk to GWHS. They were allowed to attend Wayne Township’s Fleming Gardens elementary before heading to, what was considered well into the 1960’s, the better educational experience of Washington High School. Their last kids graduated in the 1970’s.

In any event, those kids west of the river experienced a unique era of social awareness, community growth then decline, intellectual challenges and varied physical activities as they experienced the community focal point called George Washington High School from 1927 through 1995.

II.

School History by Decades

A HISTORY OF WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL

My first recollections of Washington High are from 1952 when my Aunt Anita Bloomenstock taught me the words to the Fight Song. Beginning during that period and well into the 1960’s my mom and dad related stories to me about coaches and teachers and events from the early years. All stories were positive and optimistic. My mom graduated in 1939. I graduated in 1965. I taught and coached there from ’69-’76. I’ve also interviewed, on camcorder, Washington’s first two great athletes (Hoopy Carter and Harry Cherry) as well as Mr. Washington Curly Julian. Mr. Julian’s 90th birthday party was held December 2000 at the Propylaeum on North Delaware and generated much GWHS history as did his 95th party at his northeastside church, Broadway United Methodist. I have on 16 mm film the first renovation of GWHS in 1937-38. Among those I initially talked with were John Bradley, Jerry Lawlis, Tony Burchett, Bob Tillery, & Harold Negley. My mother was literally shocked when I coached a team that defeated Washington’s team in 1977. Washington WAS the community icon that was bigger than anything in our individual lives. My personal attitude has changed but I remember the past and feel that gives me a balanced opinion. Nonetheless, athletics and people are center stage. With a constantly changing legacy it will always be somewhat incomplete.

1920’s

In the mid-20’s the School Board pondered over two issues. The segregating of Coloreds into a high school with what became Attucks High was deceitfully welcomed. But a near-Westside school was reluctantly debated. Rev. Baker from West Park Christian Church and the founder of Hawthorne Community Center in 1923 argued the case for westsiders. One near-northside member stated, those kids west of the river won’t go to school anyway. But, grudgingly, construction was approved and George Washington High School opened its doors at 2215 W. Washington St. after Labor Day in 1927. Mr. Gingery welcomed students as the first principal serving until 1951. Only Tech, Manual, Shortridge, and Broad Ripple existed as fellow-IPS schools at that time as Attucks opened its school also in 1927.

Future Mayor of Indianapolis Phil Bayt from Haughville was our first All-City footballer in 1928. As a three year football, basketball, and track man Jim Emerson Carter became our first state champion when he vaulted 12’4.75 in the Championship meet at Tech in 1930. Carter’s mother was an original Citizens’ School Committee leader by 1932. In 1964 she approached nearby business owner, Dick Lugar, and encouraged him to seek a spot on the IPS School Board thus launching a career in public service which continues in the 21st century.

1930’s

The first four-year graduating class of 1931 included All-City tackle Ishmael Lawlis (whose son would set a basketball scoring record in ’56 at GWHS) and future teacher Frank Luzar (official in ’61 NFL Champ game). It was held at Cadle Tabernacle. One of 14 children born in Stringtown, Harry Cherry would graduate in 1934 and receive a full football scholarship to play for Bo McMillan at IU. The Enyert family ran a café which was initially next to the gas-filling station to the east (where most remember the Dairy Queen). Students and all of the team meals were served at the Enyert Café. Later it moved farther east and eventually sold out to what became Princess Tavern. Sixth-grader Georgie Enyert developed a crush on star Cherry. Years later they would marry. Joe Dezelan, Hop Howard, Swede Radcliffe, Lavern Burns, Louie Luzar, Cliff Baumbach (a Christian Scientist who died as a Purdue student after refusing medication for blood poisoning) and Dave Hine were just a few who helped run Bogue’s Box Offense and Pony Backfield. Baumbach (as is noted in Purdue University’s 100-year anniversary athletic booklet) was a starter as a sophomore at Purdue in football, basketball and baseball before his untimely death. And Henry Bogue was the legendary coach who was innovative but controversial. Curly Julian laughed that if he didn’t like your tie he was compelled to tell you. When he retired as Head Coach after the 1950 season (he retired in June of 1958 as a teacher) he noted to IHSAA Commissioner