Post-War Growth and Glenbard East
By the 1949-50 school year, the enrollment was 1,206 and three new teachers were added to the faculty. This was the year the Pep Club was organized and started sponsoring student buses to out-of-town games; Henry J. Firley, English Department Chairman, won - the Midwestern Writers’ Poetry Prize for his poem "Sundown and Dawn Together"; and Rosamund DuJardin, a local author, used Glenbard and Glen Ellyn as the background for her book Practically Seventeen.
It was also a year when the DuPage Tuberculosis Association sponsored a project to provide a free chest x-ray for all Glenbardians |
The Class of 1923, the first class to graduate from the Castle and they had their reunion and homecoming in the fall of the 1950-51 year. And the Glen Bard reported that a donkey basketball game was held and Principal Fred Biester was the last faculty member to remain on his donkey.
The faculty numbered 61 during the 1953-54 year, and the Glen Bard under the leadership of Miss Helen McConnell first received an award for superiority among high school newspapers in the nation.
1954-55 was pretty typical year for the athletic teams. In the West Suburban Conference the football team won 0, lost 7, and tied 0; the Cross-Country team won the Conference title; the basketball team had 18 wins and 7 losses (and won the DeKalb tournament); and the baseball team won 18 and lost 7.
At the start of the 1955-56 year the enrollment was 1,853. There were 67 faculty members and Driver Education was instituted as a regular course. In November 1955 a supporting shot was fired in the battle to relieve the very crowded conditions at Glenbard when a group of Lombard residents presented the Board of Education with a request for the establishment of a second high school to be located in Lombard. The academic facilities were stretched to the breaking point and the physical education/athletic facilities were so inadequate that the physical education program did not meet the mandate of the state.
In March 1956, the state courts decided that the area of Bloomingdale which had petitioned to leave the Glenbard District would remain in District 87. On May 26, 1956, after many months of promotion by the school administration, the voters of the district approved a bond issue to build Glenbard East and a new gym at the Glen Ellyn campus.
The faculty numbered 61 during the 1953-54 year, and the Glen Bard under the leadership of Miss Helen McConnell first received an award for superiority among high school newspapers in the nation.
1954-55 was pretty typical year for the athletic teams. In the West Suburban Conference the football team won 0, lost 7, and tied 0; the Cross-Country team won the Conference title; the basketball team had 18 wins and 7 losses (and won the DeKalb tournament); and the baseball team won 18 and lost 7.
At the start of the 1955-56 year the enrollment was 1,853. There were 67 faculty members and Driver Education was instituted as a regular course. In November 1955 a supporting shot was fired in the battle to relieve the very crowded conditions at Glenbard when a group of Lombard residents presented the Board of Education with a request for the establishment of a second high school to be located in Lombard. The academic facilities were stretched to the breaking point and the physical education/athletic facilities were so inadequate that the physical education program did not meet the mandate of the state.
In March 1956, the state courts decided that the area of Bloomingdale which had petitioned to leave the Glenbard District would remain in District 87. On May 26, 1956, after many months of promotion by the school administration, the voters of the district approved a bond issue to build Glenbard East and a new gym at the Glen Ellyn campus.
This was also the first year the Senior Washington, D.C. trip travelled by airplane instead of by train. There was one other item of interest in the 1955-54 Pinnacle. On page 100 under Senior Royalty, "The Pinnacle staff thanks Fran Allison and Burr Tillstrom of Kukla Fran and Ollie for selecting the 1956 King, Queen and Court.” (See photo, right)
1956-57 was another year of crowded classrooms and corridors, and inadequate physical education facilities. Some relief seemed to be on the horizon as construction on a new gym was started. |
Biester Gymnasium Constructed
The architectural rendering of Biester Gymnasium. When classes started in September 1958 with over 2,400 enrolled students, the gym was ready for use, including classrooms in space that was to be used as dressing rooms in the future. On December 7, 1958, the new gym was dedicated to Fred L. Biester in recognition of his service to the youth of the community. This rendering was “lost” until the spring of 2017 when Adrian, our maintenance foreman, found it.
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Glenbard East Built, Glenbard West hires new principal
Work on the Lombard school was underway and even with some serious construction delays plans were being made to open at least part of the building in the Fall of 1957.
In July, 1957 Mr. Fred L. Biester was formally appointed superintendent of District #87 and when school started in September, Glenbard Township High School became Glenbard West High School with Mr. David H. Miller as Principal. (Picture taken from the 1959 Pinnacle when Mr. Miller served as an Administrative Assistant.) Mr. David H. Miller becomes the third principal. |
Homecoming Bonfire begins in 1952, Hi-Y, and the Woodchucks
The first, traditional Homecoming Bonfire was built by students in Hi-Y in the fall of 1952.
According to the 1940 Pinnacle yearbook, “The Hi-Y Club, a boys’ organization, is the high school branch of the YMCA. Any boy who agrees to live up to the platform of clean living, clean athletics, and clean scholarship may join the club. The purpose of the club is to ‘create, maintain, and extend throughout the school and community high standards of Christian Character.”
A 1970 Glenbard West grad, Mark Luginbill wrote, the tradition of the bonfire “began in 1952 and continued annually into the 70's. It was then stopped for a number of years due to concerns that the bonfire was adding to air pollution. Happily, common sense has prevailed, and the bonfire is an annual event. Also, back in my day and dating back at least a decade, we had the torchlight parade. The torches were soup cans stuffed with balls of newspaper that had been soaked in kerosene nailed to a 3-foot stick. After the homecoming pep rally at Biester, we lit the torches, marched around the lake and encircled the wood pile and threw the torches onto the pile starting the bonfire. Remarkably, this was all done, to the best of my recollection, without faculty/firemen supervision.”
Luginbill continued, “One of my best memories is that in the second semester 1970 I was head of the Grounds Committee which was responsible for picking up litter on the campus as well as policing the parking lot. For a reason I don’t remember, my role merited a building key which among other things opened up the door to the tower. So, on nice days, after I made my round of the campus, I would grab my lunch and eat it out on the tower.”
According to the 1940 Pinnacle yearbook, “The Hi-Y Club, a boys’ organization, is the high school branch of the YMCA. Any boy who agrees to live up to the platform of clean living, clean athletics, and clean scholarship may join the club. The purpose of the club is to ‘create, maintain, and extend throughout the school and community high standards of Christian Character.”
A 1970 Glenbard West grad, Mark Luginbill wrote, the tradition of the bonfire “began in 1952 and continued annually into the 70's. It was then stopped for a number of years due to concerns that the bonfire was adding to air pollution. Happily, common sense has prevailed, and the bonfire is an annual event. Also, back in my day and dating back at least a decade, we had the torchlight parade. The torches were soup cans stuffed with balls of newspaper that had been soaked in kerosene nailed to a 3-foot stick. After the homecoming pep rally at Biester, we lit the torches, marched around the lake and encircled the wood pile and threw the torches onto the pile starting the bonfire. Remarkably, this was all done, to the best of my recollection, without faculty/firemen supervision.”
Luginbill continued, “One of my best memories is that in the second semester 1970 I was head of the Grounds Committee which was responsible for picking up litter on the campus as well as policing the parking lot. For a reason I don’t remember, my role merited a building key which among other things opened up the door to the tower. So, on nice days, after I made my round of the campus, I would grab my lunch and eat it out on the tower.”
As a member of the Grounds Committee, it was Mark Luginbill's responsibility to purchase of 15 gallons of kerosene that helped illuminate the parade. The receipt is shown, left.
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Hardwood floors are removed, then burned in Homecoming Bonfire
Due to the horrific 1958 fire at Our Lady of Angels (Catholic elementary school), Glenbard High School was soon required to remove all wooden floors. According to several faculty members (now retired), during one of the summers when Dr. Elliott was principal (1972-1987), seniors who had been hired to remove the floors asked where they should take the maple planks. “Chuck them over by the lake,” the principal said. In the fall, the homecoming pep rally burned the old floors in that year’s Homecoming Bonfire. To this day, seniors who build the fire are known as The Woodchucks.
To be a Woodchuck, students are required to apply for the honor. The day of the bonfire, students are excused from class as they stack the wood. Each one receives a special Woodchuck t-shirt, pictured at left.
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Football Party: 1957-58
From an August 22, 2018 Facebook post by Fred Beilfuss: This is to honor the members of the 1957 Hilltopper Football team—especially my oldest brother Willi (MVP) who was my hero growing up. The picture is from a party at our house for the seniors on the team ('58 graduates). They will celebrate their 60th Reunion this year (2018). An impressive group. I remember this event (I was 10) for the incredible amount of food they ate!
Back Row: Coaches Liz Astroth and Bill Kastrinos, Joe Kelly, Jim Bodman, Dick Maletich, (hidden Jim Hancock?), Paul Ek, Bill Gilbertson, Tom Johnson, Leon Gould, Willi Beilfuss, Bruno Moser.
Front: Wayne Smart, Butch Hahne, Tom Thompson, Walt Harrison, Jerry Peterson, Ned Pieron.
Back Row: Coaches Liz Astroth and Bill Kastrinos, Joe Kelly, Jim Bodman, Dick Maletich, (hidden Jim Hancock?), Paul Ek, Bill Gilbertson, Tom Johnson, Leon Gould, Willi Beilfuss, Bruno Moser.
Front: Wayne Smart, Butch Hahne, Tom Thompson, Walt Harrison, Jerry Peterson, Ned Pieron.