Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The Marketing of a School or Team


I was a Kennedy Falcon and a Reavis Ram (I also went to Fry and Maddock but can't, for the life of me, remember what I might have been -- the French Fries? the Maddock Marauders!?). The marketing of a high school is intense (the school jackets; the two-pocket folders with a Reavis Ram on it; the pencils with the school's name in gold-inlay; even the gym clothes we wore: polyester with Reavis insignias on them). On a much smaller scale, our grade school sold us some crap, too. I owned a Kennedy Falcon's T-shirt. I'm pretty sure I have a Kennedy Falcon's pin, too, but why would I have bought a pin? Could I have won it for something? Unlikely but possible, I suppose.



All of this is by way of saying that a reader of the blog sent to me (a long time ago) some photos from his school and baseball team (I think these two were for a baseball team), and I'm finally getting around to posting them here. If you still have some of your stuff, I'd love to post it, too. Recently, I found a Kennedy Falcon ribbon...but, again, what the hell did I do to earn it? It certainly wasn't for winning the 50 yard dash, unless they gave one for coming in second to last...which I doubt. (You have to trust me when I tell you that I made a concerted effort not to be last.)

12 comments:

Unknown said...

The team name for Fry School was the Fry Vikings. I graduated from their in 2001. Unfortunately, it is closed now since Liberty JR High opened.

John McNally said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John McNally said...

That's right -- the Fry Vikings. Were the colors purple and white, or am I thinking that because of Minnesota's colors? Thanks for reminding me!

Unknown said...

Hi John,
Born, Feb. 24th, 1955 & lived at 2016 W. 80th St. Chgo. (Little Flower). Burbank holds many fond memories. The annual family pilgrimage to Playland Park was always fun. It seemed so far away as we traveled west for miles on 79th street, in my dad's 1960 something Chevy Impala. Korvettes Dept. store was great! I remember getting a guitar shaped corkboard there. I enjoyed going to Value City for years and walking along the stonework that brought back so many good thoughts of Korvettes. I worked at both Ford City Banks and yes, have my own stories, not suitable for print. The pizza place by 87th & Central is now Grassano's. The first place, Tafdes was soooo "campy" and early sixties, nothing can compare! When I was growing up, I always thought of Burbank as "greasers" and hot rod cars. THIN CRUST PIZZA ROCKS! Your fan, Jean.

Scott Batzel said...

Hi John,

I was a proud Maddock "Mohawk" from K-8. I'm not sure if they still use the Mohawk as their mascot given the controversy of using Native American names for sports teams these days.

The school paraphernalia I most remember owning was a vinyl book bag (these were the days before backpacks and rollaboard luggage for hauling your textbooks) with a drawstring. It was blue and white (schools colors) with a caricature of a grinning Mohawk kid (à la Chief Wahoo) with the classic Mohawk haircut. I believe he had a tomahawk in his hand but that just may be my memory playing tricks on me. My mom gave me the 2 or 3 bucks it cost to purchase it from the PTA lady. There was a place for your name and I remember her printing my name on it in magic marker. I used it for a couple of years (3rd and 4th grade?) until it became uncool to have one. I probably could have gotten a couple of more years out of it had the Mohawk kid been holding a bloody scalp in his other hand.

Anonymous said...

Fry Vikings, and their colors were blue and white.

Anonymous said...

Are there still two baseball leagues? Back in the day there wasBurbank American was over by Kennedy school. Burbank National had teams playing on 77th, between Narragansett and Mobile Avenue.

Also I think Fry's colors were blue and white.

Anonymous said...

me and my freinds that lived by state rd. park(thats what we called it back in the day) spent more time swimming in the park pool after hours than when the pool was open during the day.you had to wear your gym shoes in to flip that high fence and stay in the water...no diving boards

Anonymous said...

who remembers the great flood of 1976..85th &neenah was the center and the deepest.the resevoir got backed up...everyone used to sled at that resevoir when it snowed.burbank chopped the hill down,it isnt steep anymore

Anonymous said...

remember the 1979 walk-out reavis staff would not let students fund raise for dale h. who got chopped up and left for dead by mike l. reavis had earlier let students fund raise for a jock who had gotten into a bad car accident..it was always the jocks vs. burnouts

Anonymous said...

back in the 70's peope could smoke on the patio at reavis...its not that way anymore

Anonymous said...

It's definitely still the Maddock Mohawks and Fry School was reopened to house the behaviorally challenged kids