Thursday, September 24, 2020

Admiral King Cheerleaders – Sept. 11, 1970

Back when Lorain had several high schools, the Journal used to feature a photo of each school's cheerleading team in the weeks leading up to the football season. 

The above photo, featuring the Admiral King High School cheerleaders, ran in the paper on September 11, 1970 – fifty years ago this month.
I like that the photo's headline can be taken not only to mean to cheer for the school’s team, but for the man as well.

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Even after all these years, I still think the Lorain school system goofed when the Admiral King name was discarded as a high school name, and reassigned to an elementary school.

From a practical viewpoint, having the one high school in Lorain called Lorain High School made sense. And it was nice to let the kids decide what they wanted to be called, with the final decision being ‘the Titans.’ 

But a lot of history and pride was lost when the Admiral King name was abandoned. Never again would the name of Lorain’s most famous and accomplished son get regular exposure on the evening sports reports. Anyone who followed high school sports knew that Admiral Ernest J. King was from Lorain, Ohio. While Lorain will never forget him, he is doomed to be forgotten by the general public.

By going with the Titans, Lorain lost the opportunity to keep a maritime theme (the Admirals) for its sports teams as well, despite the city’s shipbuilding history, its harbor, its river, its iconic Lighthouse, its location on Lake Erie, etc.

Meanwhile, other nearby cities like Vermilion (the Sailors) and Avon Lake (the Shoremen) got it right, and reinforced their lakefront heritage and identity with their team names.

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UPDATE (October 4, 2020)

A month later, the Journal published photos of both the Southview Saints cheerleaders and the South Amherst majorettes.

From October 14, 1970 Journal
From October 17, 1970 Journal

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7 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 24, 2020 at 8:52 AM

    Boooo! All the cool people know the Steelmen and of course the Lady Steelmen is the better choice for the high school mascot. You can't build ships or cars without steel and Lorain was built on steelworkers for over 100 years.

    You can name a bridge or a street or even the pier for Mr. King, but the school should be the Steelmen!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. -Alan D HopewellSeptember 24, 2020 at 10:36 AM

      AKHS was always the coolest high school in town, laddie.

      Delete
  2. Dan BradySeptember 24, 2020 at 9:15 AM

    A lot of the public (especially LHS alumni) felt the same way as you when the decision was made to call the ‘new’ school Lorain High School, that they should have got back to the original Steelmen mascot. The steel mill was responsible for the city becoming what it was. I guess the idea was to completely abandon the past (the steelmaking heritage) and start fresh. But I do agree with you that Steelmen would be better than Titans.

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  3. -Alan D HopewellSeptember 24, 2020 at 10:32 AM

    The pretty black lady in the center of the photo was the older sister of my late friend, Micheal McDowell. He had three older sisters, and I (we all) had crushes on all of them.

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  4. AnonymousSeptember 24, 2020 at 3:27 PM

    It's too bad kids today will never experience the cross-town friendly rivalries of years past. It's funny how old geezers like me will still throw some shade at our old high school nemesis whenever we get the chance. Go Steelmen!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Annie FischerOctober 19, 2023 at 11:22 PM

    Hi nice readingg your post

    ReplyDelete