I spoke to the Roosevelt High School class of 1960 reunion Thursday at the Waialae Country Club. I gave them a quiz — a “final exam” — that tested their knowledge of the school, coaches and students.
They did pretty well on the test. They “passed,” I told them. They can keep their diplomas. But there are a lot of interesting things about the school the general public might not know.
Temporary location
President Theodore Roosevelt High School began in 1930 in a temporary location, a mile west of the current campus, around Punchbowl on Captain Cook Avenue.
What today is a derelict Hawaii Housing Authority building was once a quarry and later the site of four different schools.
It was the location of the Territorial Normal School, which certified teachers, beginning around 1905, then became Roosevelt High School’s temporary campus in 1930.
It was Puowaina Elementary School from 1932 to 1937, then became the original location of Stevenson Middle School. It moved to its current campus in 1952.
From 1883 to 1928 the current campus was occupied by the Lunalilo Home for aging Hawaiians. It moved to Koko Head in 1928 and took over the site of a Marconi telegraph station hotel.
Where did the nickname Rough Rider originate?
Theodore Roosevelt served in the U.S. Volunteer Calvary in Cuba in 1898. It was called the Rough Riders.
That moniker came from the famous traveling Western show, “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World.” It began before 1893.
English Standard school
Roosevelt was an English Standard school from 1930 to 1960. Prospective students had to pass an oral test in English proficiency. Parents who might have sent their kids to private schools now had a tuition-free public alternative.
President Abraham Lincoln Elementary was the first official English Standard school in 1924.
The policy was controversial, and by statehood in 1959 it was becoming a thing of the past. The Roosevelt class of 1960 was the last to be English Standard.
Roosevelt colors
Roosevelt’s original school colors were green and gold, the same as Leilehua High. When the two schools had to play against each other in sports, it became apparent that a change was needed. In 1939 the Roosevelt student body picked new colors: red and gold.
Paint Brush Trophy
Roosevelt 1935 student body president Lex Brodie, Rufus Hagood and Gibby Rietow snuck onto the Punahou campus following one football loss and painted Pauahi Hall’s dome in Roosevelt’s school colors.
Punahou retaliated by painting the Roosevelt dome buff ’n’ blu the following year. But the friendly rivalry escalated to a brawl. Rocks were thrown and a student hospitalized.
Students from each school met in 1949 and created the Paint Brush Trophy, which the winning team would keep following a victory. The fighting would stay on the gridiron.
The rivalry ended in 1970 when Roosevelt joined the Oahu Interscholastic League and didn’t play Punahou regularly. The Punahou archive has the trophy to this day.
Coaches
Neal S. Blaisdell coached Roosevelt’s first Interscholastic League of Hawaii championship team in 1936. He had pitched 10 years earlier for the Baltimore Orioles. After 20 years of coaching at four schools and a stint with tuberculosis, he was elected mayor.
Another great football coach was Edmund Vasconcellos, whose nickname was Ticky. How did he get that moniker?
Ticky and his brothers grew up on a sugar cane plantation in Paia, Maui. Ticky’s daily chore was to feed the chickens and he’d call out, “Tick, tick, tick,” at feeding time. His brothers teased him about it by calling him Ticky, and the nickname stuck.
Ticky coached from 1955 to 1957 and was athletic director until 1965. His teams won three ILH championship games. In 2007, Roosevelt’s stadium was named in his honor.
His four F’s of coaching: You had to be fair, you had to be firm, you had to be friendly and you had to have fun.
John Bellinger
Roosevelt had many great students, such as John Bellinger, who was chief executive officer of First Hawaiian Bank. He co-captained the 1940 football team and called all the plays, even though he wasn’t quarterback.
Bellinger described one game against Kamehameha. “I played end and called all our plays in the huddle. The coach sent in a sub telling me to call a pass. I rejected the play and called a line play (run).
“The coach sent in another substitute with the same pass play. Again, I ignored him.
“In comes another sub with the same pass play, but with a threat. I was told that if I didn’t call the coach’s pass play, that I would sit out the entire second half on the bench.
“So, I called the play the coach wanted. An alert Kam defensive halfback intercepted the ball and sprinted 55 yards for a touchdown.
“Needless to say, the coach came over to me during the halftime intermission and apologized. He never called another play from the bench for the rest of that season.”
In 1941, Bellinger graduated from Roosevelt and attended the University of Hawaii for about three months until Pearl Harbor was attacked. That was the last time he attended college.
After World War II he was hired at First Hawaiian Bank as a teller. About 27 years later he was CEO and called all the plays.
Alfred Apaka Jr.
This 1937 graduate had a golden voice. Bob Hope “discovered” Apaka at Don the Beachcomber’s in 1952. This led to appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and “The Dinah Shore Show.”
Hannibal Tavares
Tavares graduated in 1939 and became a Maui police officer. He left that job to become a teacher, then was elected to the Maui County Board of Supervisors in 1955. His daughter, Charmaine Tavares, and he were both elected as Maui mayor, at different times.
Yvonne Elliman
Elliman graduated in 1969. She moved to London and walked the streets barefoot wearing a muumuu. “I couldn’t wear shoes,” she said. “They hurt too much.” Andrew Lloyd Webber heard her sing and hired her to act as Mary Magdalene in his play “Jesus Christ Superstar.” She was 18.
Her big hit was “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.” Later, she sang “If I Can’t Have You” on the Bee Gees’ “Saturday Night Fever” album. She loved acid rock and wanted to be a female Jimi Hendrix, she said.
James Shigeta
This 1947 grad entered Ted Mack’s “Original Amateur Hour” contest in Hawaii in 1950 at the Princess Theatre and got to travel to New York to compete on national television. He was one of the first Asian Americans to play romantic, leading male roles.
He’s been in over 80 movies and TV shows, including “Flower Drum Song” and “Die Hard.”
Kui Lee
This young man was kicked out of Kamehameha and did better at Roosevelt. When his wife left him, he wrote “I’ll Remember You.” Don Ho, Elvis Presley, Tony Bennett and Andy Williams recorded it, too.
Other hits included “The Days of My Youth,” “Lahainaluna” and “Ain’t No Big Thing.”
Bruno Mars
A superstar from the class of 2003, Peter Gene Hernandez is his birth name, but he took his stage name from wrestler Bruno Sammartino.
Hendrix inspired Mars to take up the guitar. At Roosevelt he was in a group called the School Boys.
In 2010 he released his first studio album, “Doo-Wops & Hooligans,” with the hit “Just the Way You Are,” selling 15 million copies.
Other hits include “Grenade,” “Uptown Funk,” “Locked Out of Heaven,” and “24K Gold.”
Noteworthy graduates
Other noteworthy graduates include entertainers Emma Veary, Peter Moon and Danny Kaleikini; UH football coach Larry Price; Alexander & Baldwin CEO Bobby Pfeiffer; Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice William S. Richardson; and Charles Pietsch, who developed the Kahala Hilton.
The Roosevelt class of 1960 and all who staffed or attended the school have a lot to be proud of. You’ve made a sizable impact on Hawaii and the world. Congratulations to you all.
———
Bob Sigall is the author of the five “Companies We Keep” books. Email your questions or suggestions to Sigall@ Yahoo.com.
