Spirit of 7-6

Today, Sunday February 21, 2010, marks my third month of being smoke free!!!

I've been burning money too long!

Back in November, I decided to quit smoking after a pack-a-day for 45 years.   I figured I had bought a house and never lived in it.  Also, it was time to quit if I wanted to continue the chance of fulfilling my dreams.  Anyway, after three months, I now know that a lot of people probably wished I hadn’t smoked in high school – like my girfriends, Nancy Perkins, Rita Smith and Kathy Madden (especially Kathy a few years ago!), and my kids and grandkids today and Linda.  I can now smell smoke on others.

My taste buds have changed some too.  I actually ate some asparagus a few weeks ago and liked it!  Anyway, I just thought I let everyone who knows me know that I have managed to kick the habit!

Not to worry!  I am not going to be one of those really obnoxious former smokers.  In fact, I’ve continued to hang out with those who do smoke and have no problems with them.

Mike Roberts

WEB NOTE:  The following is reprinted from the Terre Haute Tribune Star.  Terry Dischinger was a 1958 graduate of Garfield High School.

By Mark Bennett

The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — A half-century after contributing to one of international basketball’s most dominating performances, Terry Dischinger and his USA Olympic teammates have not been forgotten.

The 1960 U.S. men’s Olympic squad has been nominated for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. The hall announced its 2010 nominees today. The final selections for the Class of 2010 will be announced Monday, April 5 in Indianapolis, prior to the NCAA men’s championship game.

Dischinger, a Terre Haute native, was the fourth-leading scorer on a U.S. roster that included four future Naismith Hall of Famers — Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas, Jerry West and Walt Bellamy. Dischinger, a 6-foot-7 forward from Purdue at the time, averaged 11.8 points per game in eight games. Robertson and Lucas averaged 17 per game, followed by West at 13.8. Bellamy scored 7.9 a game.

Continue reading Dischinger’s 1960 Olympic team nominated for Hall of Fame

I am Mike Landes son-in-law and my wife Tina was given his letterman jacket after his death.  The jacket is missing the G letter and I am trying to find one to complete the jacket can someone help me find one for her.  I would greatly appreciate it and so would my wife.

Neil Boykin

wboykin3@nc.rr.com

Garfield's 1966-67 Basketball team that went 21-3. Click for larger view.

by Jane Buchholz Gallagher Class of 1967

This article is reprinted from Randy Andrew’s Class of 67 web site.  It was written by Jane Buchholz of the Class of 1967.

Every so often the stars align, the right combination clicks, and a good time is had by all. Such was the case of our high school basketball team in 1967. My high school, Terre Haute Garfield, no longer exists, as it was consolidated into Terre Haute North High School. Boys’ high school basketball tourney time always calls for a nostalgic trip back to that glory year when I was a senior.

Our class fell in between the time of preppies and hippies. Our senior boys were called into the office for wearing Levis, madras plaid shirts, and loafers without socks. We were pre-Woodstock, not into the make love not war era yet, nor were drugs a problem to be dealt with. We lived for the social life provided by the school activities. A big highlight of the year was basketball season. The ‘66-67 boy’s basketball team provided a season of 21 wins and 3 losses. The ten talented players worked hard together. They played a hard press game, and it became a challenge to the fans to urge them to scores of over one hundred. The local Burger King would have food give-aways if the team scored over one hundred. The fans followed the team in caravans to the out of town games. The cheer block practiced their special cheers and our class was the first to have a ‘Spirit Stick” which a cheerleader would wave and our crowd would maintain a deafening roar until she lowered the stick. Max James, the team manager, even came up with a theme song for that year’s team. It was to the tune of the Monkee’s song “Hey, Hey were the Monkees”, with the words changed to Hey, Hey we’re the Eagles. Soon everyone was singing the song. The Garfield Purple Eagles were on a roll by the time the sectionals came around. At that time there were eight teams in the sectionals and games were played Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The Purple Eagles sailed right through the sectionals and it was on to the Bloomington Regional.

Continue reading Memories on the Porch…”Hey Hey, We’re the Eagles”

Take the new Garfield History Quiz and see how you stack up!  Click on the link below or go to the Fun Stuff Tab and click on Garfield History Quiz #2.

Take the Quiz!

On Nov. 20, 2009, a plaque inscribed with the name of Herald Cox was included in the first seven “local legends” to be inducted into the new Walk of Fame to be located in the sidewalk along North Ninth Street and Wabash Avenue.

Cox was an American bacteriologist. Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, he graduated from Garfield High School in 1924 then from Indiana State Normal School, now Indiana State University, in 1928 before obtaining his doctorate from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In the 1930s, Cox joined the U.S. Public Health Service as Principal Bacteriologist at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton, Montana.  While there, he studied rickettsia, a group of organisms that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever and typhus.  In 1938, he discovered that rickettsia could be grown in fertile egg membranes, which led to the development of vaccines to combat Rocky Mountain spotted fever and vaccines for several strains of typhus.

The family Coxiellaceae and the genus Coxiella, which contain the organism that causes Q fever, are named for Cox.

In 1942, Cox became head of the Virus and Rickettsial Research Department at Lederle Laboratories in New York. At that time, public health attention focused on finding a vaccine for polio.  Cox was one of many researchers competing to find a breakthrough, which is generally credited to Jonas Salk.  Although Cox’s egg technique was in widespread use by 1943, it had not been successful for polio. In 1947, John Franklin Enders and others demonstrated that monkey tissue provided a suitable medium to grow the virus in the lab. Salk employed the Enders method, incubating the virus using rhesus monkey kidneys and testicles. Cox eschewed the technique because of the danger monkey virus represented. In October, 1952, Cox reported that he had grown the Lansing strain of polio virus in fertile hens’ eggs, and in 1961, he announced an oral polio vaccine. Meanwhile, human trials of Albert Sabin’s successful oral vaccine had begun in 1957, and it would be licensed for general use in 1961.

Within Lederle Laboratories, Cox competed with co-worker Hilary Kiprowski, as each had developed a successful polio vaccine. Cox retired from Lederle in 1972. He was later director of cancer research at Roswell Park Memorial Institute, where he concentrated on cancer immunology.

Herald Cox died in 1986.

Others inducted along with Cox were Theodore Dreiser, Herman Hulman, Chauncey Rose, St. Mother Theodore Guerin, Benjamin Sherman “Scatman” Crothers and Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown.

Randall Svihla sent this picture of the Spirit of 76 painting that hung in the hallway of Garfield High School.  Anyone remember it?  Randall was a sophomore during Garfield’s final year.  Thanks for sending the photo for all of us to remember!  You can click on the painting for a full-size view.

Spirit of '76 painting