Traditions live on

Students pass by the statue of President William McKinley every day as they head for classes, but none of them ever walk on the oval of grass that surrounds it.

Tradition has made the grass in front of the administration building a patch of hallowed ground. Students are not allowed to walk on it until graduation day. It’s been that way since the late 1960s or early ’70s, said April Nakamura, the school’s student activities coordinator.

“Any random day if someone steps on the oval, someone will yell at them to get off,” Nakamura said. “Some days, the office ladies will open a window and lean out and say, ‘Get off the oval.’ The principal, too. It’s that sacred.”

During commencement ceremonies outside the administration building each May, graduates are allowed to walk single-file across the grass to get from their chairs to waiting relatives.

“We make a big deal about not stepping on the oval because it makes commencement more special when they graduate,” Nakamura said. “When they do step on it, it’s something they’ve earned.”

Heavy metal

The statue itself is a well-traveled piece of art.

The $8,000 bronze likeness, which rests on a 9-foot-tall granite pedestal, was created by Honolulu sculptor Gordon Usborne and cast in one piece in New York. It was shipped to Hawaii and dedicated Feb. 23, 1911, when the school was on the corner of Beretania and Victoria streets.

When the school moved to its present location in 1923, the 8-ton statue also moved.

All together now

McKinley’s school song, “Black and Gold,” has been sung by so many students that it’s more popular than — and is often mistaken for — the school’s alma mater.

Freshmen learn it during school orientation and never have to worry about remembering the words — “Black and Gold” is sung at every assembly, sporting event and special occasion. Reunions, too.

Written in 1955 by Richard Lum, the school’s band director at the time, “Black and Gold” became McKinley’s fight song. Lum, an alumnus of the school, started a tradition that is still carried out: At football games the band starts playing “Black and Gold” with three minutes to go to inspire players.

Pooling their talent

In 1923 McKinley students wanted a swimming pool on campus, so they grabbed picks and shovels and started digging.

They put in hours of work and held fundraising drives before turning over the job to a professional construction company, Davenport and Saiki. But there was enough money for only three months of work, and the job was halted.

Another round of fundraising brought in $12,000, and by 1926 they had themselves a pool, which was dedicated two years later.

Located on the edge of campus near where Blaisdell Arena is now, it featured an above-ground structure and a diving board. It was six lanes wide and 25 yards long and proved to be a training ground of Olympic medalists Ford Konno and his wife, then Evelyn Kawamoto, and William Tripp Woolsey, said former Principal Richard Sakamoto, who led the school from 1978 to 1988.

But maintenance problems doomed the pool, which was demolished in the late 1980s after not being used for several years, he said. The swim team that produced champions would typically drive to Manoa for practice.

“Most of the students and staff were not aware of the nonuse of the pool,” said the 81-year-old Sakamoto. “Nobody now probably even knows there was ever a pool there, only guys like me who were administrators there.”

Historic architecture

McKinley’s tree-lined campus, with its graceful red-roofed buildings, elaborate building entrances and arched windows, stands out among public schools in Hawaii. The distinctive architecture put the school on both the state and federal registries of historic places.

The first buildings were finished in 1923 and are considered some of the most elegant examples of Spanish Colonial revival architecture in Hawaii, according to documents filed with the National Register of Historic Places. The extensive use of elaborate terra cotta embellishment is the most lavish use of the style in the state.

Although the school expanded, the original buildings form the school’s quadrangle, which features a spacious lawn and 17 Chinese banyan trees planted by students in the 1920s. A few of the banyans have succumbed to disease, but most remain. Many years ago they were trimmed in the shape of a ball, prompting students to call them the lollipop trees.

When the Marion McCarrell Scott Auditorium was dedicated to a former principal in 1928, it  was the largest theater in Hawaii, with seating for 1,114 people. It served both students and community, with famous singers and lecturers appearing there.

Air support

During World War II the McKinley students held the mother of all fundraising campaigns and bought the U.S. Army Air Forces a bomber.

The students raised $333,600 in 1943, enough to buy a B-24J Liberator that was christened Madam Pele. A curvaceous woman rising from a fiery volcano was painted on either side of the plane, which flew successful missions in the Pacific.

Although it survived combat, the plane suffered extensive damage during a routine flight and was forced to land on Saipan, where it is thought to remain.

ENLARGE PHOTO.