St. Sebastian's School: The 60-Year Survivor
Boston's William Cardinal O'Connell founded St. Sebastian's Country Day School on Nonantum Hill in 1941. The mission statement of this new Catholic boys school clearly defined twin goals of educating students in the classics and in an understanding and appreciation of Catholic morals and ideals.
Live and Learn
Cardinal O'Connell installed Msgr. McInnis as the School's first headmaster and charged him with the duty of academically and spiritually enlightening the 19 boys enrolled in the School. An early tradition installed by Msgr. McInnis was the First Friday Communion Breakfast, which was designed to give the boys a chance to take Communion and their first meal of the day together.
Hank Barry '45, GP'01 recollects that the First Friday Communion Breakfast wasn't very spiritual for a bunch of 14 year olds. "We did enjoy having pancake eating contests. I happen to win the contest one day and got very sick and had to go home, but I guess I did learn something from that," Barry says. Barry was still having learning experiences as a senior when he and two of his buddies tried to flout the smoking rules. Msgr. McInnis had decided that the boys could all smoke at the gym foyer for ten minutes at ten o'clock in the morning, but the boys decided as seniors that they had earned certain privileges. Barry recollects the seniors thinking that instead of going all the way to the foyer, they would smoke behind the lockers. "We figured nobody would know the difference. The only one who did know the difference was Msgr. McInnis because the smoke was emanating into his room. And the three of us really got taken over the coals!"
Having survived St. Sebastian's, Barry and 12 other seniors were graduated on the campus of Cardinal Cushing's residence, while six more of his classmates, who had survived military service in World War II, picked up their diplomas later.
After the war, in June 1946, Father Barrett took on the job of educating and enlightening the students at St. Sebastian's. "I lived there for exactly 25 years to the day," he says. "On a typical day, we got up about 6 A.M. and said Mass. The Headmaster would say Mass for the students before school and we'd have class from 9:00 to 3:00. We all taught at least four classes a day. There were plenty of characters both on the faculty and in the student body, so there was always something going on," he says.
Fr. Edmund Fitzgerald '49 remembers the incident of the missing sacristan table. One morning when he went to set things up for services, the table was gone. He went to Msgr. McInnis to alert to him to the mystery only to find the priest using the missing sacristan table as a stand for his new 14" black and white television set. It was the first television on the campus and the screen was so small that it was necessary to put a bowl of water or a giant magnifier in front of it in order to see the images. Programming only ran for a couple of hours at night and the privilege of craning to see the tiny, snowy images on the only set on campus was reserved for the faculty and an occasional lucky student who might be invited to squint at a western flickering on the screen.
In July of 1949, Msgr. Shea joined his friends Fr. Gilmartin and Fr. Barrett as faculty members of St. Sebastian's. Fluent in French, Msgr. Shea was expecting to teach French I and II. He was quite dismayed when acting Headmaster Msgr. Charles Flanigan informed him that he would also be teaching Spanish I and II. Msgr. Shea recalls that when he told him that he had never studied Spanish before, Msgr. Flanigan replied, "Well, these are the summer school boys. They all flunked this, so they're not too smart. And all priests know Latin. And people who know Latin can understand any language."
Instead of being confident about his first day of teaching, Msgr. Shea spent a sleepless night wondering what he was going to do, but he believes the answer came to him overnight through the Divine Intervention of the Holy Spirit. "When I went to school the next morning I said, 'Now the reason you bad boys flunked your Spanish this year is that you didn't know your English grammar.' I told the class. 'So we're not going to do a thing in this class for three weeks except review our English grammar.' And then for the next three weeks, I went every afternoon to take Spanish lessons at the Berlitz School!"
Msgr. Shea's friend, Fr. Barrett, had a few tricks up the sleeve of his cassock, too. "I remember that in one particular classroom I had, the blackboard was on the wall facing the corridor and there were two doors on either side of the blackboard. I could turn around and write on the blackboard without any worry about anybody cutting up because I could stand at the blackboard and I could see every single thing that was going on in back of me from the reflections in the windows of the doors. The kids used to wonder, 'How in Hell does he know what we did'' It took them a long time to figure that one out.
According to Steve Maskell '74, if Fr. Barrett did catch a boy cutting up in class he had his own unique way of dealing with him. "Fr. Barrett had a good arm for eraser throwing. I often left his class with chalk in my hair," he says.
St. Sebastian's had rigorous academic standards right from the start, recalls Henry T. Lane '49, P'77. "Msgr. McInnis started Black Monday and Msgr. Flanigan, who became headmaster in 1952, and the others had it, too. If you weren't meeting the academic standards, you were dismissed on a Monday. You'd come in and they'd call your name, they'd take your books, you'd clean out your desk and you were gone. It was a rigorous discipline that he had."
As rigorous as the academics and the discipline were at St. Sebastian's, many students thrived on the challenge and look back on their experiences at the School as the best time of their lives. Besides, recalls Steve Brady '60, the students had their own tricks up the sleeves of their blue jackets.
"There was a classroom over the porch on the right side of the building where we discovered that if we jiggled the balls of our feet up and down without our heels ever touching the floor, we could cause the closed door of the classroom to rattle, causing an annoying sound," he explains. The students would jiggle until the teacher would stop to listen in an effort to locate the cause of the rattle. "Of course, it was just at that moment that the students would cease jiggling their feet and the rattle would stop and there was absolute silence in the room. And wouldn't you know it, just as the teacher would start talking again, the jiggling and rattling would start again until the teacher halted the lesson again."
According to Brady, this delicate operation in psychological teacher torture would only be exercised two or three times on any given day. "It was always a challenge as well as a battle of wits between the students and the faculty," he says. "We did have a very endearing attitude toward the faculty, which was probably what drove us to do these things, which were our way of showing that we cared."
The faculty usually caught on eventually and came up with some new tricks themselves. Brady recalls that Fr. Sylvester used to remove his Roman collar in the classroom always revealing a tiny swatch of white t-shirt. "Then one day, he started wearing colored t-shirts. The next thing you know, the students would be trying to guess what color he would be wearing on a particular day and we would record the survey results on the blackboard before he came into the room," he says. This went on for a while until one day he came into the room and perused the results posted on the blackboard regarding what color the students had guessed he was wearing that day. "He then announced that these colors were all incorrect. We figured he must be trying to trick us and had gone back to wearing just plain white again. Actually, he had done us one better. He removed his collar and opened wide his cassock to reveal a striped t-shirt!"
The priest faculty was well trained to educate their charges both academically and spiritually and many parents were relieved to know that their sons had such strong examples of the moral values that they themselves tried to teach at home. But by the end of the 1950s and into the sixties, there seemed to be a great shortage of newly ordained priests who could teach at the school. As it became necessary for St. Sebastian's to hire lay faculty, Henry Lane, Jim Lydon '45 and Hank Barry returned to the school as teachers.
Barry was hired to teach math and physical education and serve as a coach at a rate of $60 a week. "I can still remember driving up the Hill as a faculty member in my old $25 Packard. These three students who I taught and coached passed me on the Hill in their fancy convertible. 'See ya later, Mr. Barry!' they shouted. And I said, 'I'll see you guys later in class!''
Don McCulloch '63 was one student who was often seen driving around campus. Due to the fact that McCulloch had exhausted all the Latin available at St. Sebastian's, he had made arrangements to take Latin off campus at Boston College in his senior year, which was something very few students ever did. "The deal was that I could go off campus, but I used to have to drop off Fr. Harney's shirts at the dry cleaner's when I went over to B.C. for a Latin lesson. The treat there was that he had just gotten a brand new, very handsome Pontiac GTO. I have fun memories of getting in that black GTO with the stick shift and rocketing off the campus to the envy of some of my classmates who had to sit on campus while I got to sneak away for about an hour twice a week."
McCulloch remembers Fr. Harney, the teachers and the coaches as strong characters. "Henry Lane was one of my favorites," he says. "This guy would just kind of blow into the classroom and it was just an energy level that you couldn't believe. I think even while he was teaching us he was sizing kids up for hockey and baseball because he coached both of those sports."
McCulloch recalls a technique that the students often used on Henry Lane to get out of doing any actual work in social studies. "Somehow we could always get him distracted with a debate about which was the greater sport: baseball or hockey. We could probably kill half an hour by getting him going. And then we didn't have to read about Morocco or Ecuador or whatever we were supposed to be doing."
John Harrington P'70,'71,'74,'80, '81 was very interested in what his sons were learning at the School, so he usually inspected their homework and classroom papers when they got home from school. "I noticed that many of the priests did things to inspire the boys to pay attention. But even I was surprised upon inspection of a Latin paper to see that the priest had translated a popular Irish song into Latin to see if the boys were paying attention."
Harrington has always been impressed by the School's ability to adapt to the lay faculty, changing cultural influences and in difficult financial times. The 1970s and early 80s were a tough time of transition for the school.
Morris Kittler P'85, '87, '90, Dean of Students, who has been a faculty member since 1970, remembers having to bring some of his own supplies over from his job at Boston College to use at St. Sebastian's when he first started working here. "Teaching material, particularly in the bio sciences, was lacking. You could requisition supplies like chalk and erasers, but things were a little tight and it was just easier to bring a box of stuff back and forth from my other job," he says.
Michele Cusack P'88 recalls when her family first started their relationship with St. Sebastian's. "When we first went to the School, the ceiling tiles were falling down on us. And I thought, 'Oh dear, this isn't going to work.' But they fixed them all and just kept on improving. And overall, we've all been very happy," she says.
Changes over the last 60 years have improved the physical campus and broadened the academic achievements of the students, but the vision of its founder to academically and spiritually enlighten the young men of St. Sebastian's has remained intact.
Athletes & Arrows
Academic and spiritual development have always been key elements in the success of the School, but the sports program is just as valued by the faculty, parents and students. Over the years, the School has progressed from having a gym with a dirt floor to having brand new tennis courts in the quest for athletic excellence. As far back as the 1940s, hockey seemed to dominate the sports scene.
Hank Barry '45 remembers when Fr. Russ Collins, Barry and several other students tried to create a rink on the football field that was held together with wooden boards. "We poured water in there all night long. Of course, we didn't realize that the field sloped as much as it did. The water went right through the boards and down into the homes of the people of Oak Square. Boy, did we get holy heck later!" he recalls.
According to Fr. Barrett, they did eventually build a rink next to the gym. "That rink was going morning, noon and night," he remembers. "Even when the School was closed for vacation you had kids in the neighborhood out there in the dark. My bed was on that side of the house and I'd hear the puck bouncing off the boards all hours of the day and night."
Bill Maguire '50 was able to take full advantage of the hockey program to further his education. "St. Sebastian's had a very strong hockey program and it helped me to get a scholarship, which allowed me to go to Boston College," he recalls.
Not all schools had rinks in those days. Don McCulloch '63 remembers feeling the thrill of being on St. Sebastian's outdoor rink in the winter. "The wind would come across that hill from one end of the rink to the other and it was about as cold as you can possibly imagine it to be," he recalls. "But we were up on top of the hill and the sky was filled with stars. It was just a magical place to be," he says. "But some days were not so magical," he admits. "When we'd have a foot of snow and practice would be composed of shoveling for about two hours and practicing for about half an hour!"
Pat Simmons, whose son went to St. Sebastian's in the 80s, recalls that her son actually hated hockey before coming to the School. "He hated hockey, he hated skates and he hated falling down, but when he came to St. Sebs and saw how everybody felt about hockey, he learned how to skate and became manager of the hockey team," she says.
The hockey teams at St. Sebastian's have been extremely successful and have a reputation for winning championships. Nick Coskren '05 attended the NEPSAC championship game last winter in Salem, New Hampshire and describes it as something he'll remember the rest of his life. "It wasn't just the team winning, it was the support that was there from the school, too. The game was an hour away, but there must have been about 100 students and teachers there supporting the team. It really showed the dedication everyone has to the School," he says.
The School community has certainly been proud of the success of the hockey team, but athletes don't live by hockey alone. McCulloch remembers a pronounced rivalry between some teams. "There was a huge factional kind of thing in a positive way between the hockey players and the basketball players. It was like a running verbal needling going on all the time. Coach Lane would say, 'what kind of sport is it when guys run around in their underwear.' I don't remember the exact reply, but it was something about shorts and garter belts."
Other teams labored on with little notice. Few remember that St. Sebs not only had a swim team, it also had a water polo team. Fr. Harrington, who was the swim team coach, started this club sport in 1949. According to Jim Harnedy '50, the informal league consisted of teams from Brookline, the University Club and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The sport is played like basketball only in water that is six to eight feet deep. "There were 15-20 boys on the team and you only played for about two or three minutes at a time before being subbed because you'd have these guys jumping on your shoulders and holding you under to get the ball. It was very tiring," he recalls.
Another little known sporting event was the St. Sebastian's Junior Horse Show. The shows were held in 1961 and '62 in Medfield. They were sponsored by the Flynn family whose son Brian was a student at St. Sebs. Of course, to prepare for all these off campus sporting events, it was important to be physically fit, which is probably why Hank Barry made his students do the duck walk in gym.
According to Steve Brady '60, the duck walk was an exercise that involved squatting down with your knees bent and then trying to walk in this difficult position. "As soon as Barry looked away a bunch of us would stand up and dash a few steps forward and then squat down again before he looked back. I don't think we ever did a duck walk for more than five or six steps at a time," Brady recalls.
In 1956 Henry Lane '49 joined Athletic Director Vin Murphy as the Assistant Coach of the sports department. "Vin Murphy happened to be a truant officer. He was always around in the public schools in Boston. And I'm not saying we got all the truants, but we got athletes he was familiar with," says Lane. "Vin was a great coach."
Just as Lane admired Murphy, students coached by Lane admire him. Don McCulloch recalls that Lane knew what he was doing. "He was a guy that inspired us."
Murphy and Lane set a precedent of great coaching that continues even today. Pat Simmons likes the role that coaches take as teachers, coaches and members of the larger community. "The coach knew how to keep kids in line. And if he spotted them around town doing the wrong thing, he reminded them when he saw them in a hallway,' she says.
According to Jed Doherty '86, being a coach at St. Sebastian's brings a whole new dimension to teaching. "Being a coach gives you a very different perspective and you see kids in a different light," he says. "They might not love the classroom and do just enough to get by, but maybe their true passion is out on the field or the rink or in drama. We get to see the kids really thrive on that passionate thing," he explains.
Students at St. Sebastian's do thrive, academically, athletically and spiritually because the faculty and parents work together to make it happen. Denise Mulroy P'02, '07 explains a tradition at St.Sebs in which every Friday night before a Saturday football game, a senior's family hosts a pasta dinner for the members of the varsity team and their families. "Everyone gathers at St. Sebastian's and caravans to the dinner. You can hear the cars coming up the street from a mile away there are so many. And the house gets filled with football players and their families. There are people eating off trays and tables everywhere you look. And they are the nicest group of guys. Every one of them is nice, respectful and moral," Mulroy says. "At nine P.M. when they all left my house, you'd never know that 60 boys had just been here."
Summing up the sentiments of many alums, faculty members, parents and friends who have been a part of the last 60 years of St. Sebastian's success story, Mulroy says, "I'd do it again in a heartbeat!"
Back to Portfolio