The Senior Year

By James Colombo

Since 1927, the Christian brothers at St. Nicholas Catholic High School in San Francisco have created a hell that has changed the lives of eighty students each year. They were the lost souls, the sacrifice made during the roller coaster ride through hell that prepared the one hundred and sixty survivors for lifes journey. This book is dedicated to the eighty guys who could have been but never were because of the experience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543427783

James Colombo

**to follow

Book preview

St. Nick’s Prologue

The Senior Year is the continuation of St. Nick’s Outlaws, that discussed the freshman, sophomore, and junior years and how life changed in 1963 to 1964. The story tries to discuss the death of President John F. Kenney and the loss of Camelot, the changes in life styles, like a moth to a butter fly, and the changes in San Francisco during that time.

Since 1927 the Christian Brothers at St. Nicholas Catholic High School in San Francisco have created a hell that has changed the lives of eighty students each year. They were the lost souls, the sacrifice made during the roller coaster ride through hell that prepare the one hundred and sixty survivors for life’s journey. This book is dedicated to the eighty guys who could have been, but never were, because of the experience.

This story begins on the first Saturday in March 1960 when six hundred fourteen- year-old boys took an entrance exam hoping to qualify so that they might be one of the two hundred and forty innocent lads that would be chosen to walk into hell the first Monday in September 1960. Four years later only one hundred and sixty men returned from hell, leaving eighty lost souls to wonder in the land of Nod trying to find their way back. The Christian Brothers enjoyed watching the weak wilt on the vine and slowly succumb. They referred to the carnage as the St. Nick’s experience. The students called it the meat grinder, because, The Christian Brothers would try to crush the will and spirit of the individual, producing obedient, Catholic students who didn’t question authority nor challenge doctrine. It was a test of will for the students in holly prison.

. The outlaws were a group of athletes who saw the reality of the game the Brothers played and understood the consequences of who they were, and where they lived compared to the other guys who went to Saint Ignatius or Riordan Catholic high schools. The Outlaws fought back and created an underground that circumvented the system. These challenges forged them into men they would become.

They never accepted the meager portion of life served by the nuns, the brothers, or society. They wanted what the other guys had who lived in the nicer part of the city in new homes and went to better schools. They wanted respect and a chance to go to college.

The Outlaws began the first Friday in November 1960. It was the fifth soph/frosh football game against Mission High School, a public high school consisting poor Blacks students from Hunters Point and The Bay View District and poor Mexicans from Potrero Hill and the Mission District. The team had had a miserable week of practice and their Coach had called them misfits and outcast, because too many mistakes were made. Mission had scored with their first two possessions and St. Nick’s was getting its ass kicked. It was third and ten on St. Nick’s thirty six-yard line. The Coach was humiliating them by yelling the plays from the sidelines. Years of ridicule and intimidation by the nuns, living in the poor part of the city, and surviving the harassment by the neighborhood gangs had festered and their frustration gushed into a flood of rage of anger. The players stood in the huddle and heard the anger in their quarterback’s voice. They raised their heads and saw the fire in Augie’s eyes when he said, Gentlemen follow rules. We’re outlaws. We have no rules. We’ll do what we have to do to win. We’re St. Nick’s Outlaws. A dormant St. Nick’s team woke up and became warriors that day defeating Mission High School 35-14. Some of the hurt was gone, but the anger grew. The games became arenas to vent anger, frustration, and earn respect. The Outlaws became blood bothers because each teammate had sacrificed himself for the team and accepted the pain, the price paid by each warrior. Augie led the Outlaws to a championship in their senior year, and respect.

The book My Blackberry Winter by Robert Penn Warren described time as change rather than motion. Motion is the movement of hands on a clock. Change is depicted as a drop of water falling from leaf to leaf on a tree until it hits the ground. We are the drops of water passing from leaf to leaf. Each leaf is an experience in life, a passage of time until the drop of water hits the ground, and the journey ends.

39

It was Wednesday, September 5th, 1963, and Jim saw the light at the end of the tunnel. This was it, his senior year and Augie and he were in the courtyard sitting on the same bench they had sat on for the past two years reviewing the freshman plebes and swapping stories about their summer adventures.

Hey, Augie. How’s it going’ asked Jim.

Great, how about you, Jim?

Swell. How was your summer?

Far out, man. I went to a logging camp in Northern California to earn money for college. Augie pulled up his right pants leg and showed Jim a scar on his tan right calf from falling off a tree when he was topping it.

That’s nasty, man. How did it happen? asked Jim

The tree split in half while I was cutting the top off and the force from the rupture knocked me off the tree. I lost my balance and swung the chain saw cutting my safety rope and my right calf muscle. I fell about thirty feet, landing on limbs and branches on the way down braking my fall. When I hit the ground, I bounced and landed on my side. It took thirty-five stitches to close the cut.

Wow, Augie. That was one mean fall.

Right on, and he pointed at a scare below his left eye, and a long scar on his left arm. Jim told Augie about his polar bear tattoo.

That’s cool, man. When can I see it?

When we hit the showers, Augie.

Restoni joined them and said, Mr. Mazetti died August 8th of cancer. He was thirty-seven, and was survived by his wife and a seven-year-old daughter.

Since May the students had noticed that he was losing weight and when school ended in June his jackets hung on his shoulders. The husky stud was becoming a hollow man.

That’s too bad. He was a good man, said Augie.

Lay teachers at St. Nick’s were paid $4,800 a year. The Christian Brothers offered to pay the funeral expense, and the Alumni Association pledged to help Mrs. Mazetti with her daughter’s education. Mr. Mazetti had a $50,000 term life insurance policy that would help with basic needs, but left a challenging void. The seniors took a collection and had two car washes to raise money for Mrs. Mazetti. St. Nick’s took care of their own.

Brother Michael was the homeroom brother in Room 403 and he was also their Religion teacher. He was a good man and had taught Latin in lower division. Brother Robert taught Trigonometry in the fall and Calculus in the spring. Brother Daniel taught Physics and it was another year with Brother Crater, so Jim and Augie sat along side of Azzoni in Physics lab. Then it was lunchtime followed with Literature and Speech with Brother Harold, then English with Mr. Nelson, who had replaced Mr. McTee the year before, and The Mole, Brother Clovis, who taught Civics in the fall and U.S. History from the end of World War II to the present in the spring.

The Outlaws were members of the freshman football team with the exception of Duke and Rensom. Last year most of the Outlaws had played varsity football and a few like Jim had played junior varsity football. Now all of the outlaws were reunited on the varsity football team. It was like the good old days when Jim played soph/frosh football with Rensom, Bautista, Augie, Jensen, Teague, and Garcia. Last year St. Nick’s had lost to Saint Ignatius in the city championship football game. Augie talked about the possibility of a sweep, beating S.I. in football, basketball, and baseball in their senior year. The last time St. Nick’s had swept S.I. was nine years ago.

Friday after Civics class the lads went to the gym for physicals, to fill out insurance forms, get their uniforms, and a copy of the playbook. When Coach Kepen was their soph/frosh coach he had called them outcasts. Coach Kepen didn’t know at the time that he had touched a sensitive nerve among his players. Augie never accepted being an outcast and had modified it to outlaws. His interpreted of an outlaw was someone who did whatever was necessary to win on the field, in class, and to succeed in life.

The Christian Brothers in their infinite ability to save a dime had hired a nurse to attend to basic first aid to satisfy the state requirements for medical personnel. Nurse Cooper was an alcoholic and retired last year and her replacement was Nurse Kindell, who was thirty-four, single, a bleached blonde about five foot six, and one hundred five pounds of lesbian love. The lads called her the Assburn Queen because all maladies known to mankind were cured with a single Bayer aspirin.

Every athlete had to have a physical at the beginning of each season. The lads stripped to their shorts, Nurse Kindell lined up the players, and one by one grab each lad’s gems as he turned his faces, and coughed. She had a rhythm to the exam. It was one, two, three, cough, like dancing to a waltz. Any gent who became erect got thumped with her reflex hammer held in the other hand, like getting hit with a small rubber tomahawk. It was the lads last year, so what the hell. All of the players dropped their shorts, saluted nurse Kindell, hoisted the rifle, and displayed their manhood, assuming that she might be curious. She did an about face and walked to her desk, opened the drawer and displayed a large black rubber mallet. Instantly the lads shouldered their weapon and pulled their shorts up. She proceeded with a cold stare of authority and grabbed their gems, and said, Cough! Augie, Garcia, and Jansen saw Jim’s tattoo for the first time, and said, Far out. When she approached Jim, he lowered his shorts and she saw the polar bear. She smiled and said, Cute. She grabbed his gems and he coughed. Then she proceeded and waltzed down the row of gents, one two, three, cough, carrying the mallet in her left hand.

Garcia had been injured last year when St. Nick’s played Saint Ignatius in the championship game. He had rehabilitated from knee surgery and hadn’t lost much speed or strength He was ready for the opening game against Lowell. The first week the team did stretching exercises and ran to get into playing shape and the second week the team started hitting with full pads. Jim had improved in speed and strength, and gave Garcia a challenge for the starting job at fullback. The starting halfback was Chris Rensom. He and Garcia had played for two years and knew each other’s moves. Last year Garcia was all- city and Rensom should have been, but he was second team behind a junior track man from Galileo High School named Simpson, who had good speed running from side to side, but had no ability running up the middle. St. Nick’s second game of the season was against Galileo. Rensom and Garcia would get another look at Simpson and they were looking forward to showing the guy from Potrero Hill their abilities.

Lunchtime in the cafeteria wasn’t the same. Senior’s rule was abolished and Marcus and Braxton had graduated leaving the piano silent in the corner. Brother Justin played classical music over the public address system during lunch. On rainy days the guys would read Time or Newsweek in the cafeteria. Before, when it rained they went home a half-hour earlier, because they couldn’t go out for recreation. Brother Malkey was told to behave more responsibly, so Moonface didn’t sing at any of the rallies. The students began an underground movement to fight back. Each time Brother Justin took something from the students, they took something from Brother Justin. Brother Justin had an autographed picture of Pope Pius XII hanging in his office. The lads replaced the picture one morning and when Brother Justin arrived at his office he saw a smiling Ed Sullivan instead of the Pope, he exploded. The inter com beeped signaling a forth coming message from Brother Chicken crap.

This is Brother Justin. Someone has broken into my office and stolen my autographed picture of Pope Pious the Twelfth. I will not tolerate thieves at St. Nick’s. Lunch recreation is suspended until this matter is resolved.

There was a long pause, then, I have been advised that I can not punish the entire school because of one persons act of larceny. The senior budget will reimburse the cost of my portrait. That is all. There was silence for a moment then Brother Michael continued reading the announcements, then he tried to quash a smile followed by a hearty laugh, Ed Sullivan instead of the Pope. The students sat silently using discretion.

Actually, several of the guys were involved. It took a bottle of Johnny Walker Black label that Ciaffi bought from the Turk to relieve Casmir of the key to Brother Justin’s office for an hour. The Brothers had Morning Prayer from 6:30 to 7:00 AM each day. At 6:35 on the morning of the dawn raid Bautista was the look out and Augie entered Brother Justin’s office and cut the portrait of the Pope from the frame. Augie and Jensen tapped the picture of Ed Sullivan to the back of the frame. Augie handed the picture of the Pope to Teague, who walked by on time. Teague had a long body, and wrapped the painting around himself, then pulled his sweater down covering the painting, and casually walked down the stairs. Teague passed the clerical help, the nurse, and gave the key back to Casmir when they passed the administration office. Teague when into a stall in the men’s room and folded the picture into a brown paper bag, and latter hid it in his locker.

After school the guys gathered at the park and watched Augie ignite the picture and they cheered while watching it burn in a trash can. The next day the student presidents of the four grades and the school student body president met with the faculty, and after an hour meeting the faculty reinstated senior’s rule. It was agreed that a senior should have some privilege. Brother Justin had cherished the portrait of Pious the twelfth, and wanted someone’s head and he was determined to remove all tradition, and impose his will.. Brother Raymond reminded Brother Justin that when they attended Mount La Sale as seniors they had some privileges, and backed the seniors to further distance himself from Brother Chicken crap. Brother Raymond supported the seniors every chance he had because he despised Brother Justin being a politician instead of an educator.

The Alumni association donated Sports Illustrated instead of Time for the guys to read on rainy days. Occasionally pictures of Playboy centerfolds were pinned on the cafeteria bulletin board. Once someone called Chicken Delight and ordered fifty boxes of chicken dinners for Brother Justin’s birthday party. The Mexican cook and his helpers spoke little English, and had signed for the delivery when the dinners arrived. The receipt said happy birthday Brother Justin and when Brother Justin walked into the kitchen, the helpers sang happy birthday in Spanish. It was the day after his birthday and the Brothers ate Chicken Delight for dinner that night.

The following day Brother Justin declared war and spoke at lunchtime to the upper division, then to the lower division at their lunchtime. Those who were responsible for the Chicken Delight fiasco, his missing picture of Pope Pious XII, the mysterious centerfolds on the cafeteria bulletin board, and the Playboy magazines in the faculty bathrooms had two days to come forth, or the student body would suffer. Two days passed and, no one stepped forward. There were a few like Azzoni who thought about squealing until they were persuaded to reconsider while standing naked in the weight lifting room with the varsity football team. The student council met with Brother Justin and they agreed that the lower division plebes shouldn’t be punished for what seemed to be upper division pranks. Therefore, Brother Justin couldn’t cancel pep rallies or dances. Members of the Alumni Association and the Father’s Club no longer had time to volunteer their services for charity and they reminded Brother Justin that he was putting himself in a precarious position. Brother Justin called it mutiny. Most of the brothers and lay teachers agreed with Brother Raymond’s proposal to have an open discussion between Brother Justin and the faculty regarding the budget cuts and school morale. The faculty had challenged Brother Justin’s absolute authority, and he had to show cause for his actions. He refused to attend such a heresy of disobedience by the faculty. Brother Raymond received a letter from Brother Paul informing him that Brother Justin’s loss of control at St. Nick’s was being observed by the Regents and that Brother Justin was sinking fast.

* * *

Jim got a job at Kezar Stadium through Foxie Gannon selling programs at Forty-Niners football games. He made a few bucks, and saw the game for free. A couple of times he was able to sneak Lupe in to see the two expansion teams, the Vikings and the Falcons. Jim spent less time with her because of school, football, and selling programs on Sundays. Lupe began working part time at the National Dollar store on 20th and Mission. They agreed to concentrate on school and they needed spending money. Monday’s were a time to mend football wounds. After practice on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays Jim met Lupe at work, they walked home together and she told him all of the gossip at school. Saturdays and Sundays were spent going grocery shopping, going to Church, going to Mission Dolores Park, or watching a movie the El Capitan Theater and getting more free dishes.

Fridays were game days for warriors dressed for battle and were blessed prior to engaging the enemy. Mr. Kepen used the symbolism of the Crusades. It was a holy war and when the team broke their sideline huddle they would yell, No prisoners. No one surrenders. This is war! The team became holy assassins and ran onto the field. The insanity ended when the game finished, Lupe was always there, and reality re-entered Jim’s life.

The following Friday, September 21st St. Nick’s had a pep rally for the beginning of the varsity football season. Brother Justin gave a brief speech about teamwork. If we were going to reach our destination, all of us have to row together in the same direction, he said. The students took that as a small victory, and disbanded the underground. Brother Justin was a savvy politician, and saw his shining star diminishing. The pep rally was mild compared to years past. Ace and Deuce O’Connor had graduated and Dancell was a junior and the new cheer-leader. Augie thought that as seniors they didn’t show much spirit by abdicating to a junior as cheerleader. Last year the varsity football team had lost two games to Saint Ignatius. One during the regular season and the other was the championship game. In two hours their quest would begin with the goal to play in the championship football game on Thanksgiving Day at Kezar stadium.

Garcia was the starting fullback, and Jim was second string. Garcia was a good blocker, but Jim had better hands catching the ball, and played when it was third and long. Jim also played on special teams and was a headhunter on kickoffs and one of the guys in the wedge when receiving the kickoffs. It was a head on collision ending in a pile of twisted bodies. Every time Augie and Jim entered Kezar Stadium and walked to their lockers, they felt like gladiators entering the Coliseum in Rome. Sometimes they heard the lions roar.

40

The previous Sunday Jim had sold programs at Kezar Stadium for the Washington Redskins-San Francisco Forty-Niners football game. The next Friday he was a headhunter standing on the thirty-yard line at Kezar Stadium waiting for Dias to kick off. The whistle blew and the game against Lowell began. St. Nick’s kickoff team ran up to the forty-yard line and Dias kicked the football. They charged down the field like runaway cars destined to collide. The receiving team has eleven players. They use five players to form a wedge to create a crack or a seam for the running back to escape into the open field pass the first wave of headhunters who attacked the wedge by throwing their bodies at the blockers. They were the sacrifice made to contain the running back. It was like getting into a car, and driving head on at the speeding car that was heading towards you. Each collision was different. The receiving team executed an attack, and the kickoff team tried to destroy it. If the kickoff team stopped the runner from crossing the twenty-yard line, they succeeded. If the receiving team ran beyond the twenty-yard line, they succeeded. St. Nick’s stopped the running back on the Lowell sixteen-yard line. Once the enemy was engaged and Jim got his first hit all of the butterflies were gone. For three hours the players concentrated on the game and the crowd noise and the bands were a constant roar that the players tried to ignore.

Lowell failed to make a first down, and had to punt. Jim was a blocker for the receiving team and St. Nick’s began on offense on their thirty-seven yard line. Augie began the first series by featuring Rensom running traps and sweeps on Bautista’s side. Bautista had his crocodile smile at lunchtime. The first play was a sweep to the weak side, the left side and the flow of bodies was like a Swiss watch. The line created the hole, Garcia sealed the left side with Rensom following. It was a play that the team had run hundreds of times. St. Nick’s wanted to dictate the flow of the game with ball control by running. Garcia blocked the middle linebacker, allowing Rensom to run for six yards. Rensom was a punishing runner who never ran out of bounds. He would rather stick his helmet in the tackler’s gut and run over him. St. Nick’s played a game of attrition.

The next play was a 31 blast: The play began and the line opened a hole in the middle. Garcia quickly hit the hole and plowed through for seven yards. He saw some daylight, and turned right. Teague, the tight end, was blocking the strong safety into the path of Garcia, who was running at full speed. Garcia stopped and tried to avoid the falling safety, who fell on Garcia’s legs. When Garcia landed on the ground his right foot was twisted and on fire. He couldn’t move it. The trainer ran to him. Garcia was squeezing the trainer’s leg with his right hand. He wanted to see his leg. Lay down, said the trainer.

Is it broken? Am I bleeding? asked Garcia.

Lay down, damn it," said the trainer. Garcia tried to look at his leg again.

It’s bad, is it . . . ?

Yeah. It’s broken and your bleeding. Now lay still so that I can stop the bleeding, said the trainer. Garcia began to swear and pound his left fist on the ground. Coach Kepen yelled, Twenty-two. Jim suddenly realized that he was the starting fullback, and ran on the field and joined the guys in the huddle. Augie called 31 blast and would get Jim into the flow of the game. Bautista slapped Jim’s hip pads and said, Let’s go, man. The others ignored Garcia while he was