Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans - The Book

Brother Martin Day at Ground Pat'i (Severn Avenue in Metairie)

Brother Martin High School Day at Ground Pati is Thursday, March 11th, from 11:00 a.m. till 9 p.m., at 2740 Severn Ave. (across from the Landmark Hotel). All alumni, parents, students and friends are invited. Please print out this flyer and present it to your server and Brother Martin High School will receive 15% of the net sales.

St. Aloysius College, shot from the neutral ground on Esplanade Avenue.  I'm guessing this was shot in the 1950s, judging by the car passing by on the right.  The source for the original photo is unknown; I found it as part of a slide presentation in the province office. 

St. Aloysius' Bill Roniger (SA 69) goes for a layup in the last-ever Cor Jesu-St. Aloysius basketball game, 1969. Tonight, Brother Martin plays Lafayette High for the right to advance in the state basketball playoffs. The game will be at the Conlin Gym.

(hat-tip to Gerry Keenan (1971) for the ID on the photo!

St. Aloyisus High School Band in the Krewe of Mid City parade, Carnival, 1966. The Krewe of Mid City used to start at Canal and St. Patrick Streets, down by the cemeteries. They set up reviewing stands at Canal St. and Jefferson Davis Parkway, where they held the "Greatest Bands in Dixie" contest. Each band would stop at the reviewing stand and do tune and marching routine.

The band contests are gone from Carnival parades, but Brother Martin High still marches. This year, they'll march in the Krewe of Carrollton and Krewe d'Etat parades. Carrollton rolls this year on 7-Feb, which is Super Bowl Sunday. Usually this is no big deal, people go to the parade and make it home in time to see the game. This year, Carrollton will move up their start time an hour to get everyone home to see Da Saints. The Krewe d'Etat parades on the following Friday.

Brother Martin's band doesn't get the on-street recognition that their Gentilly rivals from St. Augustine do, but they get the last laugh in concert. Once again, BMHS had more students selected to the LMEA District VI Senior High Honor Band than any other school participating. Seventeen Crusaders played the gig, including four of the five trombones and five out of the six drummers.

This is an event sponsored by Brother Martin High School--eat, enjoy, support!

Click the link above to download the PDF of the invitation. Bring that with you to Semolina on Monday so BMHS gets credit for your meal. Thanks!

I've never done a serious giveaway on any of my websites.  Time to change that! 

Here's how it works:  I'm giving away several copies of my book, New Orleans: The Canal Streetcar Line.  This will actually be four contests.

Contest #1 - Register as a user at CanalStreetCar.com, then tweet that you registered to @canalstreetcar on twitter or e-mail edward@canalstreetcar.com

Contest #2 - Register as a user at BoshBook.com (the website for my forthcoming book on the Brothers of the Sacred Heart), then tweet @canalstreetcar (or e-mail)

Contest #3 - Register as a user at YatCuisine (http://food.yatpundit.com) and tweet @yatcuisine that you did (or e-mail) 

Contest #4 - Register as a user at YatMedia and tweet @yatmedia that you did (or e-mail)

We'll randomly choose a winner from each of the four groups, but if we pick you twice, we'll pick another name. 

Brother Martin High School Marching Band in the Krewe of Alla, Carnival, 2009

Mr. Arthur Hardy, BMHS Band Director, with Band Captain Raul Prado and Drum Major Kurt Englehardt at the LMEA Marching Festival, 1978.  Hardy left BMHS in the 1980s to work full-time on Arthur Hardy's Mardi Gras Guide, which is the premier parade route/schedule publication in the city. Along with other photos of Hardy and his bands, I included a shot of the 1988 Guide cover:

The uniforms that Prado and Englehardt are wearing were the first "civilian" uniforms for the BMHS band.  Hardy and his then-assistant director, Mr. Marty Hurley (who took over as director from Hardy and continues in that position today) changed the uniform to a "corps" style when these uniforms needed to be replaced in 1982.

The St. Aloysius Column, located in front of the Ridgley Center at BMHS. This was the last remaining column from the fence surrounding St. Aloysius College at Esplanade Avenue and N. Rampart Street. It was moved from to BMHS in 1994.

The 1946 cheerleading squad, posing for a photo at Tad Gormley Stadium in City Park. The Aloysius cheerleading squad eas all-male until 1965.

This photo didn't make the book because the quality is so iffy. I've got a much better photo of the same squad that made it.