The Old Gym

 

Schumann Gym, Grand Island Central Catholic

Last Thursday morning I was sitting at school Mass in the old gym staring at painted cinderblocks and feeling tearful - because, naturally, a good cinderblock always makes you emotional.

The old gym is now Schumann Gym and named after our former and beloved athletic director, Howard Schumann. In the last decade or so, everything in that old gym has been renovated or replaced - new bleachers, new doors, new windows, new stage curtains. The floor was repaired many times due to a water issue that kept creeping up back in the 80's. Every once in a while the floor would buckle and swell into a gently rolling hill right under the east end basket. Our basketball players were used to it and became adept at running up one side of the hill to score a quick layup.  But it only bewildered opposing teams who tripped and fell together in a confused muddle. It was a definite advantage for our Crusaders. 

When they finally repaired the water issue and installed the first new floor ever, they ceremoniously named it the "Harry McConnell Gym Floor" after the gruff and colorful old janitor who buffed and mopped the old gym floor for some 30 years. But hardly anybody remembers that. It's just "the old gym floor" once again.

So now, almost 70 years later, the only original part of the gym is the old cinderblocks that create the four walls. For a long time, I remember the old gym as only "The Sweat Box". I swear you can still smell sweat from 70 years ago. I love that smell. It brings back a flood of memories. Until Central Catholic could finally install air conditioning in the late 90's, the gym was either the hottest or coldest space in the building. At the first school Mass every August in 98 degree heat, teachers strategically planted themselves at various points in the gym to catch fainting students. We much preferred fainting students to the ones who threw up. One August an eighth grade boy vomited all over the beautiful hair of a girl who was in the row ahead of him. She screamed and sobbed and never forgave him.

I suppose the old gym holds the most memories for all of us, doesn't it? It's where we competed in those thrilling volleyball, basketball and wrestling competitions or sat in the bleachers as part of the ever faithful Pep Club in the early years. We held band and choral concerts, pep rallies, musicals, and May Crownings in the old gym. Finally, we graduated and said goodbye to Central Catholic - all from the old gym. 

Small wonder I can't help but feel emotional about retiring. My 50-plus year memories of the gym are still vivid - some even more than others.

In the 70's and 80's, our mixed choir always performed "The Messiah" at Christmas time. It was a big event, and everybody crowded into the old gym to watch. Our kids would dress up in choir robes and sing from risers on stage. "The Messiah"  was a time-honored tradition.

One December after a weekend of basketball, the gym was especially hot. On the Sunday night of the performance, even the audience was perspiring in the crowded little sweat box. You can imagine how hot the choir members were enveloped as they were in heavy robes under the hot stage lights.

The choir managed to almost complete the hour long performance and had just begun the "Hallelujah Chorus" when Sam Daly, a sophomore, started swaying on the risers. In the audience we stared mesmerized until he tumbled from the top in seemingly slow motion. Our choir director Diane Erickson, to her great credit, continued to direct in spite of the unconscious boy lying beside her on the floor. 

Sam's older brother Gerry, however, could hardly stand it. Leaping from the bass section, Gerry unceremoniously picked his little brother up, slung Sam's arm over his shoulder, and carted him off the stage. 

The audience, traumatized by this sudden turn of events, watched in disbelief as the choir shoved right along with the "Hallelujah Chorus".

Then it was like dominoes.

Kids started dropping like flies. One after the other, some 15 or 20 kids toppled off the risers to lie in an unconscious heap on the stage floor. Every time another choir member went down, the audience gasped. Mothers in the audience screamed.

Diane Erickson never batted an eye lash. Pumping her arms even more furiously, she fervently directed the now decimated choir until the last "Hallelujah!" echoed weakly in the humid air. 

The curtains abruptly closed. You could hear surviving chorus members behind them weeping and wailing. In the audience we all sat in a state of shock. Thankfully, none of the kids were injured, but discussions about an air conditioning system turned fierce. It only took another ten years to raise the funds.

Not only was the temperature a problem in the gym - so were the bats. In the tall rafters of the gym, bats slept quietly seemingly impervious to the chaotic daytime noise of the kids in physical education classes. In the night-time hours, however, they chose to wake at inopportune moments - during school musicals, for instance.

One spring evening in the early 90's as George Sisson portrayed Snoopy in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown", three bats suddenly appeared on stage darting at George's tall white top hat. Thirty or so other musical members, who were obediently singing in the chorus, screamed and fled the stage. George alone remained, unperturbed by the bats, and even worked in some "bat" lyrics as they flurried above his head. It was a stunning performance and one for which I will always admire the courageous George Sisson. Nobody else but that exceptional, endearing boy could have pulled it off.

It's strange that after 50 years those wonderful and crazy times still seem so near - as if no time at all has passed, really. I love the old gym. Every big moment of high school seemed to unfold right there, in the heart of our school. 

By the way, the kids are convinced it's haunted. Is it you, Harry the Janitor? It's nice to think Harry might still be hanging around the old gym. Rest in peace, Harry. And watch out for the bats.