MONDAY MEMORIES

Scott students fall back into high school routine

9/3/2018

In September, summer is still so close. Yet we all know that most recent iteration of it is gone forever to daydreams, vacations to memories, and work back to the front of life.

In this photo dated Sept. 5, 1959, Edmund Bridwell, 18, Chuck Kuzia, 16, and Curtis Carter, 17, get back into the swing of things making announcements at Scott High School — well, Edmund and Curtis make announcements as Chuck tests physics proofs of gravity through the medium of his chair.

OK, that’s giving Chuck a lot of credit. These three may have been mocking for the camera of The Blade’s Marty Reichenthal, but the reality of another school year is upon us, as it was them.

Jesup W. Scott High School has the most of these notched in its belt. Opening on Sept. 8, 1913, it stands as Toledo’s oldest high school. Built grandly on Collingwood Boulevard in the Old West End, it is named for a renowned Toledo do-gooder and former Blade editor.

From the day its doors opened, the Scott Bulldogs were to be reckoned with in sports. In this school year of 1959, the boys basketball team would repeat for a City League title.

As the identity of the neighborhood evolved through the Civil Rights movement burgeoning at the end of the ‘50s, Scott became a favored place for black community leaders to speak. Among famous orators to captivate viewers were the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks, giving way later to Muhammad Ali, Colin Powell, and former President Barack Obama.

Today Scott High still cuts an ornate, almost geological edifice in the continuously reinvented Old West End, anchoring a magnet point in the city of what Toledo was, would be, and, in many cases, remains.

Go to thebladevault.com/​memories to purchase historical photos taken by our award-winning staff of photographers, past and present, or to purchase combinations of stories and photos.