What About School Spirit? (1958)

[Music] [Music] la so this is the famous hangout the place where lawence High plucks the downfall of every other school this is it think you dare to come in I don't know I am from Westport HIgh you know I'll tell them you came from [Music] Mar her name Jim her name down boy she's my cousin Sally Barber Tom Morgan your cousin oh this is too good to be true my cousin and I haven't seen her for a long time so go away let us rattle the family skeletons and pe oh Jim if I had a cousin I'd wanted to meet interesting people if you had a cousin like this you'd do just what I'm doing you protector so goodbye all right all right spoil sport this is a nice place Jimmy even the wolves are nice why they AR band oh they're from the high school service Club been out ringing doorbells we're trying to boost United Fund over the top I got everyone in my block signed up early this afternoon you spent your Saturday working for the United funds if it were anyone but you kids from Lawrence I wouldn't believe it that's pretty wonderful you know it well actually we had a lot of fun doing it I guess the town needs United Fund on you know you've really got it here at Lawrence we've really got what maybe you'll think I'm I'm kind of corny but but you've really got the right kind of schol spirit golly I wish the kids at Westport had a small idea of some of the things Lawrence has done what's wrong with Westport you got school spirit I can remember how you all came down here for the football game man I never saw so much Spirit sure we've got a sort of school spirit but here it's different your school spirit seems to be working in everything you do it doesn't make any difference if it's sports or debate or competition for a scholarship we know that Lawrence High is always going to be the hardest to beat and every student body in the state feels the same way you're not a big school that can't be the reason you're always on top so why are you well go it's hard to say but if you ask me I'd say Bob Corby had a lot to do with it Bob Corby I don't remember Bob Cory sure you do he was president of the senior class and all state the year we were freshman oh that Bob Corby but he's been yes he's been gone from Lawrence High a long time but he left his Mark you know I can remember a little bit of what it was like before his time we had then what everybody thinks of a school spirit a pep Club cheerleaders and plenty of [Applause] [Music] [Applause] noise whenever we won we really cut loose snake dances snarling up traffic and racing up and down streets blaring car horns and yelling it's certain the town's people didn't get much sleep and it's a wonder somebody didn't get killed sometimes noise wasn't enough sometimes it was kid stuff such as painting the school initials in places where they had no business to be if we'd had any sense we'd have known all this carrying on was a discredit to the school and then let's see yes it was still my freshman year we had a pep assembly it wasn't an unusual assembly some band music and some yells the members of the team talking to the student body but well I remember what Bob Corby said when it was his turn and now we'll have a few words from our team captain Bob Corby I'm not much of a speaker so I guess about all I can do is tell you what I think and how the boys on the team feel about some things the first thing I think is if we took a vote right here and now well it would probably be unanimous in favor of the basketball team not making speeches in assembly but no kidding but no kidding you probably don't realize it and I don't know just how to say it but all of you out there mean more to the basketball team than any one of us who play on it we spend a lot of time practicing and a lot of time learning the plays and sometimes well we get to thinking we're pretty good but when the day of the game rolls around well our insides get Shak and we begin to wonder if we're really going to be any competition for the the other team if it weren't for all of you and the way you feel about Lawrence High School we'd be just another basketball team you can feel that Spirit right now right here in this assembly we're all for lawence we're all for the team we want to try to do well and try to win everything that the school does and with that kind of spirit I don't see how we can lose well that threw it right into our laps Bob Corby was a hero to every kid in school and if he said the whole student body was a part of the team why we weren't going to let Bob Corby down those were the weeks when school spirit began to mean more than just noise if an an opposing team member was shooting a free throw we all kept quiet to give him a chance to make it good when Bob fouled out in the last minutes with the score tide we didn't Jer the referee we concentrated on supporting the players who were still in that's what Bob was [Applause] doing we all had a new idea of good sportsmanship that all of us wanted to live up to and it was heading us straight toward the championship Lawrence High was rated one of the top teams in the state and that's why when it happened right in the middle of the Season halfway to the championship Bob got sick really sick he was the spark plug of the team with him gone we didn't know whether the team would fold or not what really happened was that it worked just the opposite way people got to thinking about Bob in the hospital and everybody became more determined than ever to carry on with what Bob had started the coach never said we've got to win this one for old Bob he was too smart for that he knew that's what we were all thinking anyway well there was no foolishness at all after that everyone got behind the team in the way that it counted not calling attention to ourselves but letting them know we were for them and you know it was a thing that carried over into every classroom because when you get right down to it a classroom is a kind of team too students and teachers working together to accomplish something if you look at it that way you realize that there isn't anybody more on your side than the teacher is whatever class you're in the more we got behind them the more we realized that Lawrence had as good a faculty as any school they were teaching a full day schedule and then taking on other jobs for the good of the school jobs like helping plan constructive assemblies and working with intermural sports and all sorts of other things and we didn't want just the teachers doing things for the good of the school we we wanted to do them ourselves enrollments and debate and Dramatics and science clubs jumped way up before long we were as proud of our scholarship and extracurricular ratings as we were of our other victories one student won a National Merit Scholarship that year and everyone in school felt a personal pride in his accomplishment when visitors from other schools dropped into Lawrence I guess they could see that the building wasn't the newest or the biggest in the state but that didn't matter we knew any school would probably trade their shiny new buildings for what we had the reputation of being the best school in the state boy I'll never forget the championship game that [Applause] year the cheerleaders have knocked themselves out on New Yale's routines and the new stuff sparked the whole cheering section there wasn't an empty seat in the house the whole student body turned out even though the sports Riders favored Washington High to beat us by at least eight points after all we didn't have Corby that's what they thought you should have seen them every man on the team was an inspired ball player he had to be Washington High didn't stand a chance I was on the student council that year and I was one of those who went along when we took Bob Corby the championship trophy we had won well Bob here it is we did it yeah you did it gosh you guys were great in the tournament I'll never forget how you came from behind and walloped him I could feel it just lying here listening on the radio I knew just how the team felt with the school behind you every [Music] minute wish I could have been playing with you but I guess you just have to take things as they come your way anyway I'm glad I was on the team I'm just as proud of this trophy as if I'd helped you win [Music] it thanks fellas well I guess you remember what happened there are times when all the spirit in the world doesn't help sometimes you got to lose it was hard to realize that Bob was gone but in the end he'd shown us something else he'd shown that you can lose Like A Champion too I think it's wonderful the way you feel about him Jimmy but I think you're all wrong wrong why it happened just the way I told you I'm not saying that the order of evance isn't true I'm just saying that you're wrong to give Bob Corby all of the credit but it was Bob I know it was Bob all those things he said somebody says almost the very same thing in every pep assembly without making that much difference why every school has one thing or one person to be proud of the way you're proud of Bob Corby but how many of them carry it any further they would have if they' known Bob there are kids at Lawrence now who never knew Bob Corby oh can't you see the spirit was there all the time it wasn't all his doing that brought it out you're missing the point no I'm not I'm closer to it than you are if what you have at Lawrence depended on Bob Corby it would have died when he did but it hasn't it had to be all of you how can you argue with a woman but I did argue with her I argued with her for hours [Music] but you know since then I've been wondering more and more is Sally right was Bob Corby really less important than I thought to Lawrence High or was it Lawrence High that made Bob Corby important can any school build our kind of school spirit if it looks around to see all the things it has to be proud of and then supports them Win Lose or Draw I don't know what do you [Music] think oh