Saint Louis University High School

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St. Louis University High School

The original main entrance of Saint Louis University High School, known as the Jesuit Wing, faces Oakland Avenue.

Address

4970 Oakland Avenue

City

St. Louis, Missouri 63110

Established

1818

Type

Private Secondary, all-male

Affilations

Catholic, Jesuit

President

Mr. David Laughlin

Principal

Dr. Mary Schenkenberg

Grades

9 to 12

Enrollment

roughly 1,050

Mascot

Jr. Billiken

Colors

Blue and White

Mottoes

Religioni et Bonis Artibus
(Latin: Faith and the Fine Arts)
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
(Latin: For The Greater Glory of God)
Men for Others

Newspaper

The Prep News (Missouri's only weekly high school newspaper)

Yearbook

The Dauphin

School website

www.sluh.org

Saint Louis University High School (SLUH), a Jesuit Catholic high school for boys, was founded in 1818. It is the oldest secondary educational institution in the U.S. west of the Mississippi River, and one of the largest private high schools in Missouri. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Louis.

1 History
2 Academics
3 Facilities
- 3.1 Vision 2000
4 Activities
- 4.1 Sports and Rivalries
  - 4.1.1 Missouri state titles
5 Notable alumni
6 See also
7 External links
8 References

SLUH was founded in 1818 as St. Louis Academy. It quickly grew to include a college division, and the college was granted university status in 1832. The high school retained the identity of St. Louis Academy on the university campus until 1924 when it moved to its own facilities and incorporated separately under the name of St. Louis University High School. The school's new home, on Oakland Avenue, was a gift of Mrs. Anna Backer in memory of her late husband and alumnus George Backer. That facility, also known as Backer Memorial, has grown considerably over the years and remains the school's home. SLUH has been successful in its city location while many other private high schools have followed population moves to the western suburbs.

In 2005 SLUH hired the first lay president, David Laughlin, in its history.

SLUH is known for academic excellence, as recent test scores attest. In the school's class of 2006, four members attained the top score of 36 on the ACT Assessment, the most widely-accepted college entrance exam in the country. Nationwide, fewer than 300 students per year attain this score (out of over 2 million tests administered). Two students in the class of 2007 have achieved the top score of 36. According to the figures released in SLUH's 2005 annual report, the average ACT score for SLUH students is over 29 and SAT over 1300, while the national average on the ACT was only 20.9 in 2005. Virtually all graduates immediately enter colleges and universities.

Students participate in many extracurriculars ranging from a superior theatre department to sports to Missouri's only weekly high school newspaper, The Prep News.

The humanities receive a strong emphasis within SLUH's curriculum, particularly evidenced in the extensive language department, which has offered four year programs in Russian and Chinese for many years. In keeping with its strong Jesuit Catholic heritage, courses in Latin and Greek are offered, as are the popular choices of French and Spanish.

The national ACT score curve. SLUH's average for the class of 2006 was 29, and four students scored 36, the maximum.

Over the years, SLUH has been forced to expand to meet demands for new facilities and expansions that still keep it in the city. The first major expansion took place in 1956, when a new gym was built to replace the original gym in the main building. The new complex contained the enlarged gym (which is still used today), locker rooms, and several music facilities. A new library was added in 1970 and dedicated to Dr. James Robinson, a long-time history teacher at the school, who endowed it using his winnings from the Irish Sweepstakes.

In 1978, the school began soliciting funds for the "E-3" program (standing for "Education, Endowment, Expansion"), which helped to remodel the interior of the school (which had been largely unchanged from the 1940s and 50s), build up a large endowment and erect an upper field, faculty parking lot and the current football stadium on the Oakland Avenue side of the school.

1997 brought about a major refresh of the interior (a new paint scheme, new floors, several new offices and classrooms, and air-conditioning), but most importantly built the Joseph Schulte Theater/performing arts wing of the school, extending west on the Oakland side. It is named for long-time SLUH drama teacher and St. Louis theatre figure Mr. F. Joseph Schulte. The Schulte Theater has 350 permanent seats, and the capacity is expandable to 600 with the addition of bleacher seating in the balcony-like "loge" section. The theater is often rented to outside groups to perform plays and other functions.

A large recreation room was built in the basement of the Backer Memorial in 1945, and in 2001 it was formally named the Fr. Hagan Rec Room to honor Martin Hagan, S.J., a retired priest who spent more than 40 years on the SLUH faculty and was a longtime supervisor of the recreation room and rifle coach. The Fr. Hagan Rec Room includes over 20 billiard tables and also contains foosball, ping pong, bumper pool, and shuffle board. The Fr. Hagan Rec Room is a favorite hang out for students, especially freshmen, before school, during Activity Period, and after school. The SLUH Rifle Range is right next door to the Rec Room, and the Pettit Fitness Center and Weight Room is across the hall.

In the late 1990s, a large capital campaign to fund growth and expansion projects began. Called VISON 2000 (V2K), the plan included reducing class sizes, better integrating technology into the curriculum and increasing class options. More resources have been poured into academic enhancements than to any other part of the V2K plan, but the most visible aspects of V2K are the construction projects.

The early phases of the program included the addition of new teaching and counseling positions in order to reduce class size and teaching loads and to expand the curriculum. Over a period of eight years, 18 new teaching and counseling positions were added.

The physical improvements began 2004 when the stadium was upgraded with the installation of artificial turf to expand its usability. That same year, a new entry boulevard to the west of the campus was constructed jointly with the adjacent St. Louis Science Center. The construction continued with the addition of a new soccer/track complex and baseball field, new campus green space and a parking lot constructed jointly with the St. Louis Science Center.

In the Spring of 2008, construction will begin on the new Student Activities Center. This will be a free-standing field house which will contain two gymnasium spaces, offices and meeting space for the athletic staff, and some locker facilities. An additional portion of the Student Activities Center will be a space that will serve as the wrestling gym during the winter season, but will be a test-taking center and study area during the fall and spring seasons.

Upon completion of the Student Activities Center (scheduled for the fall of 2009), the existing gymnasium and surrounding spaces in the current building will be renovated into a new Multi-Purpose Commons. This area will serve as a new student cafeteria. It will also be a convocation space for all-school Masses and student assemblies. Plans call for the ability to sub-divide the space to provide banquet facilities of varying sizes for alumni reunions, meetings, and other gatherings.

Once the Multi-Purpose Commons are completed, the existing cafeteria and kitchen area will be renovated. A portion of the existing cafeteria will become the new “main office” of the school. Other portions will be renovated for academic purposes. Then, the existing “main office” in the center corridor will become a new “student commons” area, with offices for student clubs and activities. This location at the center of the school will be ideal for creating this new hub of student activities.

Some of the most popular student organizations are: Community Service Program (CSP), which sends students to sites across the area to work with the poor, disabled and aged; the Sisyphus literary magazine, offered twice a year in February and April; Student Council, which chairs the seniors-only "Blue Crew" cheering section at games; and Intramurals, which runs all year and includes events such as Music Trivia, Film Making, basketball, and "bashball", a sport popular among students at SLUH that is best described as a mix of rugby, ice hockey, water polo, team handball and American football.

Many students at SLUH participate in the fine arts, including chorus, dance, band, drawing, painting and ceramics. The theatre program (called the Dauphin Players), puts on four productions each year. They perform one major musical, one major drama or comedy, and two smaller "studio productions" which are usually edgier plays performed in front of a smaller, more intimate audience. The productions are known among many in the St. Louis area for their high quality.^{[citations needed]}

The school is also noted for the Senior Service Project (or Senior Project). Seniors are given three weeks away from their studies at the start of the Spring semester and work full time on a service project with a not-for-profit agency. Most projects serve in and around the St. Louis area, but also offered are projects in Honduras and other places across the globe. SLUH is one of the few schools that provides time away from studies for this type of activity, which the school sees as critical to its Jesuit mission of educating "men for others". SLUH was among the first Jesuit schools to introduce this program, doing so in 1970.

SLUH's athletic teams are known as the Junior Billikens, or Jr. Bills. They are very competitive in the Metro Catholic Conference and are the current holders of the All Sports Trophy for that conference.

American football (1970)
Cross Country (three times, most recently 2007)
Soccer (1971, 1991 and 2003)
Basketball (4 times, most notably beating Bill Bradley and his Crystal City, Missouri, team in 1960)
Tennis (1970 and 2006, as well as a 2007 singles state title for Abe Souza)
Track and field (2006)
Water polo (12 times, most recently 2007)
Swimming (twice as a team, most recently 2003, with numerous individual champions)
Volleyball (three times, most recently 2007).

They have also won the national racquetball title three times, most recently in 2004. Before the inauguration of a state-wide Missouri football title in the late 1960s, the Jr. Bills football squad won ten city championships, retiring the St. Louis Globe Democrat City/County trophy, which sits proudly in one of the trophy cases by the school's switchboard.

Its biggest rivals in athletics are two other all-male Catholic schools, De Smet Jesuit High School and Christian Brothers College High School (CBC). The De Smet rivalry is a relatively recent development, since De Smet has only been open since 1967. The fact that both schools are operated by the Jesuits, however, brings a special fervor to their competitions.

The rivalry with CBC dates back to the early 20th century. For years the schools were located just two miles apart along Oakland Avenue/Clayton Road. The intensity of the rivalry was showcased for years at an annual football game played in Busch Stadium rather than on either school's home field. That practice ended in 1995 when Busch Stadium was remodelled into a baseball-only facility. The soccer rivalry has heated up in the last decade. In 2003, when both schools had nationally-ranked soccer teams, the district playoff between them was attended by over 6,000 fans. Perhaps the signature event of the rivalry is the Running of the Bills, an annual event during which many members of the student body run to a football game from near by Forest Park clad in blue paint to cheer on the Jr. Bill football team.

SLUH also competitively participates in many academic sports, such as math contests, Math League, Speech Team, Mock Trial and Quizbowl (Academic Team). SLUH has placed as the top scoring high school in the Missouri chapter of Math League for five years running.^[1] The Quizbowl team of 2006-07 won the title for SLUH's district, won second place at the state competition, and won the individual second place medal at the state level.^[2]

SLUH's Latin Club also competes yearly in Missouri Junior Classical League's Certamen competition in Columbia Missouri. In 2007, both the freshmen and varsity team took first place.

One of the many things that makes SLUH unique is its rifle team. It is one of very few schools in the area to have a rifle range and team. The "Riflebills" have won countless awards, including national titles, in both .22 calibre smallbore rifle and air rifle competitions. In 2007, the team switched to the exclusive use of air rifles, due to a lack of interscholastic competition available in smallbore rifle.

Academia

Robert J. Scherrer, physicist and science fiction author. Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University.^[1]

Business

Jack Boehm, former President and CEO of Valvoline Oil Company.^[2]
Kevin P. Mansell, President of Kohl's Department Stores.^[3]
George A. Schaefer, retired CEO of Caterpillar Inc., the heavy equipment maker.^[4]
John T. Schuessler, Retired Chairman of the Board and CEO of Wendy's International.^[5]

Clergy

Most Reverend Michael J. Sheridan, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs[6]

Entertainment

Chris Albers, Emmy Award-winning comedy writer for Conan O'Brien, David Letterman and Jon Stewart.^[7]
Michael Beugg [8], Academy Award nominated movie producer. Executive Producer for Little Miss Sunshine, Thank You for Smoking, and many others.^[9]
James Gunn, filmmaker and screenwriter (Scooby-Doo, Dawn of the Dead, Slither)[10]
Matt Gunn, writer for HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher, 2006 Emmy co-nominee (in Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program)^[11]
Sean Gunn, actor (Kirk Gleason - Gilmore Girls)^[12]
George Hickenlooper [13], award-winning filmmaker
Robert Hyland, ground-breaking radio executive at KMOX who created the talk radio format [14]
Ken Kwapis, film and TV director [15]
Timothy Sexton[16], Academy Award-nominated screenwriter for Children of Men [17]

Government

Raymond Gruender, federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit [18]
Mel Price, former U.S. Congressmen from southern Illinois [19]
William F. Quinn, first governor of the state of Hawaii, and former president of Dole Pineapple. [20] [21]
Eugene R. Sullivan, former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals (Armed Forces). Served as counsel on Richard Nixon's defense team during the Watergate hearings, and as governor of Wake Island, a U.S. possession in the Pacific.[22]
George "Buzz" Westfall, former 4-term St. Louis County Executive and 3-term county Chief Prosecutor.

U.S. Sacagawea dollar coin, showing Charbonneau on his mother's back

Historical

Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, nicknamed by Captain William Clark as "Pomp," son of Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau members of The Corps of Discovery/Lewis and Clark Expedition, pictured as an infant on the U.S. One Dollar Coin.