Waltrip Trivia Page

Reading Dr. Teddy Pope's comments brought back a flood of memories. As a member of the famous first graduating class of Scarborough back in 1971, I had been uprooted from my beloved Waltrip (where I had been very active in the band and had lots of friends in that organization) and forced to go to a new school that had been open only two years as a junior high school, but was now anointed as a junior-senior high school! I had been hearing rumors that this would happen all during that summer of 1970, but I had assumed that the transfer would not be applicable to seniors. That's what I got for thinking.

I showed up for the first day of school at Scarborough in September 1970 feeling as though I were checking into Alcatraz. I hated everything about the place, especially the junior high kids darting about. I was 17 years old and surrounded by 13-year-olds!

I was a member of Scarborough's first high school band. We had no uniforms, so all band members wore button-down short sleeve orange shirts, white duck pants and white shoes. No hats. Since there was no standard for buying the shirts (yes, each band member had to buy his/her own shirt and white pants.....I believe my mother bought mine at Sears), there were about 80 different shades of orange on display when the band took the field at football games (the football team played junior varsity that year....they did not qualify yet for varsity games). I can still remember the humiliation of marching in our orange shirts and white pants while the opposing band marched in their flashy uniforms. One of our favorite marching pieces that year was the theme from "Hawaii Five-O".

I also remember the school song contest. The music department hired a few composers to come up with a school song for Scarborough and, after many terrible submittals, we finally arrived at the one we currently have ("As Spartans of long ago did fight, so let us now be in strife.....").

Although about 100 former Waltrip students had been brought to Scarborough against our wills that fall of 1970, we eventually realized that there was a very good side to this. We had the opportunity to begin new traditions. We "blazed the trail" for generations of future Spartans who are still coming to Scarborough. We were treated with awe and respect by the younger students and even by the faculty. At the end of the year, our class picture was put on display in the auditorium lobby trophy case and stayed there for many years (I do not know if it is still there, but it should be!)

So Scarborough Spartans.....remember that the class of 1971 (now 53 year old geezers) is still watching you. Make us proud!

Just an addendum to the first year of zoning in HISD. There were those of us at Hamilton J H in 1971 that had aspirations of graduating from Regan, but due to the new zoning regulations, were forced to go to Waltrip in '72. I guess it all worked out.

First of all, thank you for listing the Alma Mater for Waltrip High School on your site. I am somewhat surprised that the Alma Mater is still known to the student body as a lot of original Waltrip things have gone away.

While the listing of the words for the alma mater is correct, it is not the complete Alma Mater. It is only the first verse. Since I wrote the Alma Mater along with Dr. Joe Stuessy, I would like to see the second verse included. It is as follows:

"Long we shall remember thee, May mem'ries never fade.

Honesty, integrity, These traits we have portrayed.

Qualities we'll cherish, Always glorify,

Thee we'll always honor,

Our Waltrip High."

I fully realize that this is not great poetry or prose, however I feel it should be included since the Alma Mater is two verses not just one verse.

Dr. Jon Enloe

metsinger@aol.com

Trivia Item	Photos	Submitted by:
PTA Brick Patio dedication 10/2/10	Link	Web Master
The Waltrip Band played for President Kennedy the night before his assassination. My husband, Richard Gamel, was in the band and got to meet him. Also, he had an older cousin who was an attending physician in the emergency room at Parkland Hospital when they brought in the President. Kind of ironic that you would have two family members touched by the same historical event.		Linda Gamel
The professional wrestler known as The Undertaker graduated from Waltrip in 1983 as Mark Calaway. He was a member of the basketball team.	Year book photo / Basketball team photo	webmaster
The actor Patrick Swayze Graduated from Waltrip in 1971 See Yahoo bio	Year Book Photos	webmaster
Kennan McCardell, receiver for Tampa Bay, is from Waltrip. I he caught a touchdown in Super Bowl XXXVII.		Brad Neidecker
Did you know that Texas Senior Senator John Whitmire graduated from Waltrip in 1968?		Debbie Sterle Waltrip Graduate 1970
Do you know why there is such a rival between Waltrip and Scarborough? The first year for high school at Scarborough was 1971. Tenth & eleventh graders that had been attending Waltrip that lived in Scarborough's zone now HAD TO go to Scarborough H.S. Seniors had a choice to stay at Waltrip or transfer to Scarborough. Just a tidbit for you: I moved to Houston in 1971. I understand that 1971 was the first year for zoning in HISD. I graduated from Scarborough in 1973 (the first class to go all three years of high school at Scarborough). Scarborough was a Jr./Sr. High School then (imagine letting your 6th grader going to school with seniors!!). Homecoming at Scarborough was always with Waltrip. My Sr. class, 1973, was the only class/time that the Ram (the one we just brought out again this year) was stolen by Scarborough students. They pretended they were cheerleaders from Waltrip and the custodians let them in and they took it. They were suspended and had to miss homecoming activities. I was dating a football player and he was also in ROTC. He and a group of other football players and ROTC members would spend the night on campus homecoming week to protect the school. The feelings, Scarborough VS Waltrip, were the same then as it is now!		Joni Straker
The first senior class of Scarborough was composed of about 100 students who resided within the Scarborough attendance zone who had been Waltrip students, many of whom were student leaders at Waltrip. They and their parents were disgruntled about their being made to go to Scarborough when it opened as a relief junior- senior combination school from Waltrip, Frank Black and Hamilton. They did things like picket the HISD building, stand up at the ball games when the Waltrip school song was sung or played by the band, wear Waltrip colors to school, etc. The Scarborough administration and teachers bent over backwards to please these students, their plight being understood and empathy was extended. However, Board policy was upheld. Shortly before Thanksgiving, as I best recall, because of so much pleading and unhappiness caused by these students and their parents, they were told by board of education action they could return to Waltrip and make an orderly exit from Scarborough. These students were called to the auditorium by the administration, Woodrow Fromain, Principal at Scarbrough and previously principal at Fonville, and Perry B. Pope, then Assistant Principal at Scarborough and later principal at Waltrip, to be told the news, with the senior class president presiding. The students discussed the situation. They decided that by then they were content with being Scarborough's first senior class and they voted to stay at Scarborough. Thereafter, they exhibited loyalty and outstanding leadership at Scarborough as the first graduating class.		submitted April, 2004 by Dr. Teddy B. Pope, former counselor at Waltrip, English teacher at Scarborough and Director of Homemaking Education for the Houston Ind. School District, now retired.
Reading Dr. Teddy Pope's comments brought back a flood of memories. As a member of the famous first graduating class of Scarborough back in 1971, I had been uprooted from my beloved Waltrip (where I had been very active in the band and had lots of friends in that organization) and forced to go to a new school that had been open only two years as a junior high school, but was now anointed as a junior-senior high school! I had been hearing rumors that this would happen all during that summer of 1970, but I had assumed that the transfer would not be applicable to seniors. That's what I got for thinking. I showed up for the first day of school at Scarborough in September 1970 feeling as though I were checking into Alcatraz. I hated everything about the place, especially the junior high kids darting about. I was 17 years old and surrounded by 13-year-olds! I was a member of Scarborough's first high school band. We had no uniforms, so all band members wore button-down short sleeve orange shirts, white duck pants and white shoes. No hats. Since there was no standard for buying the shirts (yes, each band member had to buy his/her own shirt and white pants.....I believe my mother bought mine at Sears), there were about 80 different shades of orange on display when the band took the field at football games (the football team played junior varsity that year....they did not qualify yet for varsity games). I can still remember the humiliation of marching in our orange shirts and white pants while the opposing band marched in their flashy uniforms. One of our favorite marching pieces that year was the theme from "Hawaii Five-O". I also remember the school song contest. The music department hired a few composers to come up with a school song for Scarborough and, after many terrible submittals, we finally arrived at the one we currently have ("As Spartans of long ago did fight, so let us now be in strife....."). Although about 100 former Waltrip students had been brought to Scarborough against our wills that fall of 1970, we eventually realized that there was a very good side to this. We had the opportunity to begin new traditions. We "blazed the trail" for generations of future Spartans who are still coming to Scarborough. We were treated with awe and respect by the younger students and even by the faculty. At the end of the year, our class picture was put on display in the auditorium lobby trophy case and stayed there for many years (I do not know if it is still there, but it should be!) So Scarborough Spartans.....remember that the class of 1971 (now 53 year old geezers) is still watching you. Make us proud!		Submitted by A. Todd Unrath, RA Sept, 2006
Just an addendum to the first year of zoning in HISD. There were those of us at Hamilton J H in 1971 that had aspirations of graduating from Regan, but due to the new zoning regulations, were forced to go to Waltrip in '72. I guess it all worked out.		Holly Platt
Shelley Duvall was born in Houston, Texas, July 7, 1949. She is a 1967 Graduate of Waltrip High School. Duvall's film career began when Robert Altman discovered her in Houston while filming Brewster McCloud in 1970. He gave her a small part in the film. Duvall was given larger roles in later Altman films including McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Thieves Like Us, Nashville, 3 Women, and Popeye. Since Popeye, Duvall has only appeared in a few films. She has produced high-quality children's programming for cable TV and home video. She has won numerous awards as the producer of "Faerie Tale Theatre," "Shelley Duvall's Tall Tales," and "Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories."		Jane Arnett, Media Specialist Waltrip H. S. Library
Barbara Olson, a conservative commentator on CNN. Graduated from Waltrip High School 1972. Barbara Olson was killed on September 11, 2001, when the airplane she had just boarded for Los Angeles was hijacked by terrorists and crashed into the Pentagon.		Jane Arnett, Media Specialist Waltrip H. S. Library
Elizabeth Pena and Jennifer Ertman Memorial	Link	Web master
First of all, thank you for listing the Alma Mater for Waltrip High School on your site. I am somewhat surprised that the Alma Mater is still known to the student body as a lot of original Waltrip things have gone away. While the listing of the words for the alma mater is correct, it is not the complete Alma Mater. It is only the first verse. Since I wrote the Alma Mater along with Dr. Joe Stuessy, I would like to see the second verse included. It is as follows: "Long we shall remember thee, May mem'ries never fade. Honesty, integrity, These traits we have portrayed. Qualities we'll cherish, Always glorify, Thee we'll always honor, Our Waltrip High." I fully realize that this is not great poetry or prose, however I feel it should be included since the Alma Mater is two verses not just one verse.		Dr. Jon Enloe metsinger@aol.com
Congratulations on the opening of Julia W. Kahla Middle School in Cy-Fair ISD The dedication was Sunday, October 9, 2005. Mrs. Kahla was Waltrip's speech teacher when the school opened. She then went on to be a teacher and an administrator in C-Fair I.S.D. The 1963 graduating class of Waltrip has donated $100.00to the library at Kahla Middle School in her name and challenges other classes to honor her memory by matching this donation.		Delinda Holland