Note from blog editor: Richard submitted the following post for our class personal history site at http://blackbear62.wordpress.com. I thought it was also appropriate for this general purpose class blog.
BLACK BEAR PRIDE
Black Bear pride lives on! It's been 33 years since Tuscaloosa High School (THS) closed; obeying a 1979 federal court order to desegregate the Tuscaloosa City Schools system and which also mandated that no new school in Tuscaloosa may ever take the nickname Black Bears. Perhaps no mascot is as beloved and it's not hard to spot Black Bears stickers that grace vehicles, boats and homes. Occasionally, on shadowy, crisp and cold autumn nights at Denny Stadium one can still hear the thunderous cadence of Director Tommy Hamner’s THS Million Dollar Band and glimpse the images of the formidable 1962 Black Bears; Jimmy @195 lbs, Jim, John, Jon Rey, Charles, Danny, Buddy, George, Eddie, Scotty, Ralph, Jerry, Morris, William and Lester lining up in Coach Henderson’s fierce offense commanded by Bobby and dogged ‘Red Dawg Blitz’ defense led by Billy cheered on by Margaret, Beppy, LuLu, Mahaska, Lyn and Katie Lou. Or on frosty winter evenings walking by Foster Auditorium listen for the drumbeat of a basketball and the faint squeaking of Chuck Taylors as Clyde, Tim, Ernie, Charles, Paul and Eddie lead the Black Bears at the Bama state Tournament running Coach Tarleton’s vaunted ‘shuffle’ offense.
THS graduates gushed out of Foster Auditorium fifty years ago filled with wide eyed eagerness, energy and anticipation. Since then the Class of 1962 has accomplished much and is forever indebted to the teaching/examples of mentors such as; Ms. Joy Box’s (three-sentence paragraphs), Ms. Marion Smith’s (mathematical exactitude), Coach Tarleton’s (commitment to winning), learning life lessons on Science Teacher Charles Findlay’s pig, hay and straw farm, Coach Danner’s paddle, Coach Pete Pierson’s Shop Class, (“A place for everything and everything in its place”), Principal Hal Greer’s fair discipline, Mr. Tennis Jackson’s pride in maintaining the THS Facility as the Building Engineer and Ms. Althea Gardner’s dedicated cafeteria work ethic, and great Chili & Cheeseburgers. Being well-prepared we were launched from Foster Auditorium to live and witness incredible history including:
1962 U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces the existence of Soviet missiles in Cuba
1962 Later Soviet Union leader Khrushchev orders their removal.
1962 UN General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's apartheid.
1962 U.S. Mariner 2 flies by Venus first probe to transmit data from another planet.
1963 South Vietnamese Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated
1963 US President John F Kennedy assassinated.
1964 & 65, 73, 78, 79 University of Alabama, National Champions, Coached by Paul 'Bear' Bryant, also winning in 1961
1964 Civil Rights Act passed in US.
1964 US become heavily involved in Vietnam War.
1967 First human heart transplant performed in South Africa.
1968 Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated.
1969 Neil Armstrong becomes first man to walk on Moon
1970 Classmate Larry Stallings killed in Viet Nam.
1974 Watergate Scandal - Richard Nixon resigns as President.
1975 US leaves South Vietnam.
1975 Ed Roberts introduced personal computer, the Altair 8800.
1976 Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs released the Apple I computer.
1977 Elvis Presley died at Graceland on August 16.
1979 Central High School formed by Tuscaloosa and Druid High.
1979 Federal court orders no school in Tuscaloosa may take the nickname Black Bears.
1980 John Lennon shot.
1986 Chernobyl nuclear power station explodes.
1989 Berlin Wall demolished.
1991 Operation Desert Storm (17 January – 28 February)
1995 Microsoft releases the Windows 95 operating system.
2000 George W. Bush Elected President (Bush vs. Gore).
2001 9/11/01 World Trade Center, Pentagon, Shanksville 2,985 people killed.
2001 Operation Enduring Freedom, War in Afghanistan.
2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom March 20, 2003 to December 18, 2011.
2004 Tuscaloosa High School built in 1954 for $2,264,993 is demolished.
2005 Hurricane Katrina.
2006 Pluto declared not a planet.
2006 Hussein hung in Baghdad.
2009 Coach Marion Columbus “Pete” Pierson died January 19.
2010 Barack Obama becomes president.
2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
2011 Attempted assassination of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
2011 Thomas J. Tarleton, age 82, of Tuscaloosa, died April 1.
2011 Marion Wright Smith died in Huntsville, AL on December 24, 2011.
2011 Arab Spring - Egyptian Revolution of 2011 begins in Egypt,
2011 Final Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery.
2011 Fidel Castro resigns from the Communist Party of Cuba.
2011 Osama bin Laden is killed.
2011 The world population reaches 7 billion inhabitants.
2011 April 27 Tornado devastates Tuscaloosa
2012 Crimson Tide wins BCS National Championship.
2012 Tuscaloosa High School 50th Reunion, June 1.
2012 Transit of Venus (between Earth & Sun) occurs on June 6, 2012. This is a rare event the next pair will occur in 2117 and 2125.
50 years ago the war in Viet Nam was fomenting Vice-President Lyndon Johnson, in a speech, referred to Army Specialist 4 James T. Davis, Livingston, Tennessee killed by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) as the first American Soldier to die in Viet Nam on 22 December 1961 and 58,147 were to follow. One of our own Larry Stallings was killed 12/01/1970. Many of our classmates, friends and relatives have served in the Rangers, Special Operations, Infantry, Artillery, Corps of Engineer, Signal, Logistics, Marines, Riverines, Medical Corps, Air Forces, Intelligence and Engineering in military and civilian capacities there and in Desert Storm/ Afghan war/Operation Iraqi Freedom and elsewhere in the world.
Out of the THS class of 1962 three hundred and thirty-eight (338) sixty-one (61) 18% have passed. Today, age 70 is now the new 50! There are many exciting things to look forward to in the next thirty years! Three nascent sciences, gene therapy, stem cell use and nanotechnology, will come of age. When combined they hold the promise of curing nearly every thinkable illness. Stem cells can be used to repair damages in organs and tissue, or to simply replace faltering organs. They will soon obviate the need for organ donors. Nanotechnology processors so small that they can be injected into your blood stream in billions to repair and regenerate tissue as it degenerates, enabling a continuous rejuvenation of all organs. Gene therapy which can take both a proactive and a preventative nature. Upon analyzing your deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), your doctor will have the ability to change or fix the relevant chromosomes. Most forms of cancer, Heart disease, Arthritis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s will be cured.
In regard to technology the Internet will outreach televisions in the US. Masdar City being constructed in the United Arab Emirates will be the first sustainable zero-waste, zero-carbon city. Scientists will resurrect the Woolly Mammoth – Extinct for 5,000 years, new technologies will allow cloning of the DNA of the Wooly Mammoth. Lunar Tourism Emerges – A company called Space Adventures will sell the first tickets to the moon. The New Horizons Pluto Probe Arrives on Pluto – Will transmit pictures back from the icy planet, 4 billion km away. Holographic Versatile Discs or HVDS Replace Blu-Rays – It’s possible that solid state memory may make this technology useless, even though each disk will hold as much data as 200 DVDs. Computers Break the Exaflop Barrier - That’s 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 calculations per second.
LightPeak technology will take over USB 3.0, and provide upwards of 100 gbit/s transfer rates.LightPeakis the code name for a new high-speed optical cable technology designed to connect electronic devices to each other. Through stem cell research, any acute spinal cord injury will be able to be treated and cured. The International Energy Agency Fusion Reactor will be switched on providing an almost infinite amount of clean power for the world. Through Brain Machine Interface Technology you will be able to text message simply by thinking. Nanotech Clothing and Carpet will be mainstream providing self cleaning carpets, as well as completely waterproof clothing made possible by nano technology. Secure Digital Cards will be available with 1 Petabyte of Data.
Vertical farming will become mainstream with skyscrapers filled with vegetation helping alleviate world food shortages. Wireless Electricity is Mainstream and all electronics will have an antenna and get their power from a single electrical node in the center of one’s home. Human Like Artificial intelligence that mimics that of man becomes available. TeraBit Internet Speeds Emerge. Weather Forecasts become 99.9% accurate. Finally a Man will step foot on the Mars. Internet 4.0 Emerges and everyday Appliances, Cars, and other items will be connected to Internet. Devices with 100 Gbit/s Transfer Rates will emerge. Human Brain Simulating Computers Emerge with computers capable to simulating a human brain and the step towards Cyborgs. Immortality Coming Close to Reality –as technology progresses we may be able to extend the average human life by an additional year or more for each year of additional research.
In addition to all of this progress in the words of our Legendary THS Class of 1962 Singer, Songwriter, Guitarist, Producer and former Muscle Shoals Sound Lead Guitarist the late Eddie Hinton's song ’Everybody Needs Love' from his album, Letters From Mississippi, “…. there are sunsets we can cry over, put our troubles on the run but more than all these miracles above, oh people, we got love everybody needs love love love………………”
Dedicated to our Classmates, Teachers, Coaches, Friends and Relatives that have passed on.
Richard de la Menardiere, THS 1962, 204 Sandbridge Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23456
H 757 513 1790
