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Class of 1958
New Britain, CT |
'The Dungeon is open for business' |
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New Britain High School Memories New Britain City Memories
Memory Stroll through the Fifties
Memory Stroll No.
1: Can You Remember
the Beat? A List of Hits from 1955 -1958? Memory Stroll No. 5: Do We Remember These? (A musical tour through the 50's with the Statler Bros. Make sure your sound is on) Dance Tickets - check out tickets from fraternity dances in 1957 and 1958. (Courtesy of Ronald Zaniewski) Short Stories This area presents short stories from classmates of life at NBHS. Send your short stories to the Reunion Committee under Contact Us or send it directly to Carl Sgamboti at sgamboti@comcast.net. There he goes again! As a member of the NBHS Track & Field teams from '56 to '58, I had the privilege of being the teammate of many physically talented individuals. Also, during that time, I experienced lifelong memories many of which were instigated or inspired by our highly honored & renowned coach Irving S. Black. Most of the incidents were serious in nature, but Irv had a comical side to his larger than life personality. This particular incident took place at a track meet in the Trinity College field house that was serving as a practice venue. Irv was timing distance runners with his trusty stopwatch. After most of runners had completed the event and Irv had dutifully recorded their race times, he began to leave the area to monitor other events when one of our runners finally caught up to him and blurted out "What's my time, Coach?". Irv, without pause, simply said, "I don't know, I don't have a calendar!". Submitted by Reno Mastriani Golden Hurricanes or Golden Mustangs? Date: December, 1955. Place: NBHS Auditorium. Purpose: To pick a nickname for the school's athletic teams. The Story: Prior to this date, all athletic teams at NBHS were referred to with the uninspiring nickname of "The Red and Gold". 1955 was a special year at the school because two things related to sports happened. First, the football team won the Class LL State championship and second, the team was invited to play a post-season game in the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida against Miami High School who won their State championship also. We just simply couldn't send our "grid-iron warriors" into the lion's den with the intimidating name of "The Red and Gold", now could we? The school decided to pick a more fitting nickname for our teams. I don't recall exactly how we ended up with two choices but they were "The Golden Mustangs" and "The Golden Hurricanes". Both names evoked speed and power, exactly what we wanted. With a voice vote, we picked "The Golden Hurricanes". But why? We old coots will recall that 1954 and 1955 were big years for hurricanes in Connecticut. On August 31, 1954, Hurricane Carol left a path of destruction. Then, a year later on August 13, 1955, Hurricane Connie swept through the state and left a mess followed five days later by some real devastation from Hurricane Diane. Do you think these recent experiences had any impression on us 15 -18 year olds? Well, we voted and from then on the sports teams at NBHS were to be known as the "The Golden Hurricanes". Even though our class was the youngest of three classes at the school, we can still take pride in knowing that we played a part in selecting the nickname for the school's athletic teams...a name that has endured for 51 years so far. Submitted by Carl Sgamboti Recollections on a Hurricane Funny that you should mention the football team name debacle. I recall it as you did. I think that some group of adults (like a football boosters organization) had gotten together and come up with the "Mustangs" for the team with no "student" input. When it was announced, it caused a bit of an uproar. Most of us thought that Mustangs had little or nothing to do with who we were in the "Hardware City" and we all recalled Hurricanes Diane and Carol, so it ended up with that theme. I delivered the Hartford Courant the morning that hurricane Carol passed by New Britain. Corbin Avenue, south of Steele Street, had rain water an inch or two deep flowing fast enough to make crossing difficult. By the time I finished my paper route and walked home, Willow Brook was higher than I'd ever seen. It was totally filling the space under Corbin Avenue and had collapsed the pavement such that there was a red truck stuck and abandoned there with front tires over the edge and water flowing both over and under the bridge. I walked across the small triangular park to the Lincoln St. side where the pavement was still OK and crossed there. Sometime after that, it collapsed too! I lived up the hill on Corbin Avenue next to Avery's Bottling Works. Click here for information on Hurricane Carol Submitted by Russell Ginns
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