A First Century of Memories : Santa Ana High Marks Centennial

It has hopscotched all over town, fallen victim to an earthquake, been home to two mascots and had enough graduates to populate a small city.

It is so old that when one alumnus referred to the new building, he was talking about a structure built in 1935.

Still, the years have been kind to Santa Ana High School as it turns 100 years old. And its alumni are kinder still.

“It was a great, great school, and I have fantastic memories,” said Bill Miller of El Cajon, who was captain of the football team in 1953. “It was a really neat smaller school where we all knew each other, and we were very close.”

‘Part of My Life Since 1932’

“This school has been part of my life since 1932,” said Jack Pickering, who played football on its fields as a child, graduated from the school in 1944 and will retire as its head of physical education at the end of this year.

In a show of affection, hundreds of former students will gather on the grounds of their alma mater tonight as Santa Ana High begins its yearlong 100th birthday party with a barbecue and dance timed for the homecoming football game.

The response--600 were expected at the barbecue, 500 at the dance--has been overwhelming, organizers said.

“People are responding beyond our wildest imagination,” said history teacher Doug Dyer, a member of the Class of ’58 and the school’s unofficial historian. “People in the community feel close to this school.”

The school has been a venerable constant as the city and county have changed all around it--although it did take a few years for the school to find its niche.

The high school began in 1888-89, when the school board decided to continue classes beyond eighth grade in the upstairs quarters of the Central Grammar School on what is now Civic Center Drive, between Sycamore Street and Broadway.

Class of 1893 Was 13

The first class to complete the 4-year course--the class of 1893--numbered 13.

In 1900, the high school moved in with a junior college at 10th and Main streets, but the institution became crowded, so a separate campus for Santa Ana Polytechnic High School was built. It opened in 1913 at its current location, 520 W. Walnut St.

It was a grand campus, with an expansive front lawn and a main building of stately columns. A plaster owl sat atop the building; its teams were the Santa Ana Owls.

But in 1933, the Long Beach earthquake left deep cracks, so the structure had to come down.

“I started at the old high school,” recalled Victor Alleman, now 68 and still a Santa Ana resident. Then the old school was torn down; until the new one was completed in 1937, students attended classes in tents. His class of 1938 was in the first class to graduate from the new school.

The columns of the old building were replaced by a heavy Art Deco structure of poured concrete. This time, there was no plaster owl perching on the building’s roof. In 1939, a contest for a new mascot was held, and the school became known as the home of the Saints.

The student body has grown to one of the largest in the county, with 2,900 students. Demographics have changed too. The 1893 class was all white; the centennial class of 1989 is about 75% Latino, school officials said.

Appearance Much the Same

While a few new buildings were added in the 1960s and 1970s, the school’s appearance has changed little. With its open, expansive staircases, Spanish-style arched corridors, spacious foyer and shady courtyards, the school resembles few others in the area today.

It has been the scene of many good times, alumni said.

“I loved the school choir a lot,” said Bill Medley, formerly of the Righteous Brothers. “I’d come in to sing in the choir even if I was out sick that day.”

Medley, however, quit school after his sophomore year and enrolled in a nearby hairdressing school. As he finished his training there, his musical career took off.

Medley to this day remains grateful for the support he received from his high school singing teacher, Jack Coleman. The singer plans to return to the school early next year for a concert to be held in connection with the school’s centennial.

“The ‘50s were great times,” said former football captain Miller, now the director of mental health services for the Superior Court in San Diego. “We were kind of a wild and crazy, fun bunch.”

Antics Cost Teacher’s Job

Miller recalled that most football team members were in a chemistry class together and that their antics got their teacher fired: As the teacher was using hydrogen to make a soap bubble, the students goaded him into making it bigger and bigger, until it actually exploded and blew out windows when it came in contact with a torch.

The teammates felt so bad, they persuaded officials to rehire the teacher, who did make another impression. “None of his experiments went right,” Miller said, “but he’d say, ‘Let’s figure out what went wrong.’ It was a great learning experience.”

Former students also remember when Santa Ana, surrounded by bean fields and orchards, was considered a small town.

Vast acres of farmland were no more than a couple miles away, and farmers used to hire athletes during the winter to light the smudge pots in the fields that would keep the crops warm, said retiring coach Pickering, who was named the school’s Athlete of the Year in 1944 and was an all-league player in football, baseball and basketball.

“I could walk down 4th Street and know every shop owner by name, and he’d know me,” he said.

Making Class by a Whisker

Alleman, who ran track in his senior year in 1938 and who still runs 3 miles a day, said he lived just half a block away at 521 S. Parton St. and “could hear the first bell and still get to class on time by dashing through the fence. . . . I still drive by there and I shake my head. It was such a big house then, and now it’s so tiny.”

The unchanged campus retains “a strong feeling of loyalty” in former students’ hearts, said the school’s principal, Andrew Hernandez.

“I’ve run into people at all types of events, and when they find out I’m associated with Santa Ana High School, they’re full of questions. They’ll ask me, ‘Is this still there? Is that still there?’ ”

Hernandez said he often finds himself replying, “ ‘Yes, it’s exactly the same.’ ”

SAMMY SAINT REMEMBERS WHEN . . .

School mascot Sammy Saint adorned banners and posters throughout much of Santa Ana High School’s history. A sampling of public figures who attended Santa Ana High School includes:

Bill Bean: Outfielder with the Detroit Tigers.

Gerald Paul Carr: Astronaut on Skylab 3 in 1974.

Isaac Curtis: Former All-Pro receiver with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Caroline Gray: Model.

Diane Keaton: Winner of an Academy Award in 1977 for best actress in “Annie Hall.” Other movie credits include: “The Godfather” “Sleeper,” “The Godfather, Part II,” “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” “Manhattan,” “Reds,” “Shoot the Moon,” “Mrs. Soffel,” “Crimes of the Heart,” “Baby Boom” and “The Good Mother.” Keaton also directed the film “Heaven.”

Greg Louganis: Winner of Olympic gold medals for springboard diving and platform diving in 1984 and again in 1988, and a silver medal for platform diving in 1976. Louganis is pursuing an acting career. He dropped out of Santa Ana High School.

Ronald May: Santa Ana councilman and Santa Ana High School teacher

Bill Medley: Member of the Righteous Brothers singing duo and co-performer with Jennifer Warnes on the 1988 Academy Award-winning song “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from the movie “Dirty Dancing.”

Donn Moomaw: Former UCLA linebacker who was a Rams’ No. 1 draft pick in the early 1950s but chose the ministry instead of professional football.

Don Mosley: CBS radio correspondent in San Francisco.

Mark Schilder: Artist and actor.

Henry Thomas Segerstrom: Prominent Orange County developer, philanthropist and major contributor to the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Bob Webster: Winner of Olympic gold medals for platform diving in 1960 and 1964.

Dan Young: Santa Ana mayor.