What makes Nolan Catholic High School special? Mary Walsh Blaschke’s answer is both spontaneous and sincere.
“The best education I ever received was here at Nolan, and I’m including my college experiences,” said the class of 1967 alumna who went on to earn an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Arlington and a master’s at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. “You walk into the building and can feel this school is different.”
The veteran math teacher and counselor returned to her alma mater Oct.8 for a pre-football game tailgate party honoring Nolan students who graduated from 1962 to 1969. About 50 former students attended the outdoor barbecue picnic.
Reconnecting with alumni is just one of the ways the Bridge Street campus is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Opened in 1961 under the Our Lady of Victory name and accreditation, the school was renamed Nolan High School the 1964. The following year, the first group of students enrolled all four years on campus, graduated.
Dave Blaschke is a member of the Class of ’65. His siblings Donna, Dennis, and Douglas are also Nolan graduates.
In the mid 1960s, the school’s football team practiced on a field of rocks and dirt, and the building had no air conditioning, but Nolan was already proving its academic excellence.
1963 graduate Bob Galvan, who was a football and baseball letterman, tosses the coin at the beginning of the Vikings' game.
“Back in 1965, there was no SAT. It was called the College Entrance Examination Boards,” Blaschke remembered. “And the top three scores in the city of Fort Worth came from this school.”
When the school opened, most of the faculty came from the Marianist community or the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur. Academics placed a heavy emphasis on theology, the sciences, and Latin. Today, the school’s visionary ecology courses, theater, and music programs as well as a strong college preparatory curriculum, draw students to the East Fort Worth location.
Judy Parnell Vader is pleased her granddaughter, freshman Abby Pfaff, will become a third generation Nolan graduate when she receives her diploma in 2015.
“Time goes by so fast,” enthused the proud grandmother. “We’re just glad she’ll have the same opportunity we had to experience the Nolan family. And we hope she enjoys the school spirit as much as we did.”
For Rosemary Hayes, the family-like atmosphere distinguishes Nolan from other high schools. The 1966 graduate served as the school’s admissions director in the 1990s.
“A lot of us have given back to the school because of that feeling of family,” Hayes explained. “It’s what you remember growing up. We knew everybody in our class that’s for sure.”
Class size at Nolan ranged from 100 to 150 students in each grade level during its first decade. The entire student population was much lower than the 1,100 teenagers currently enrolled and so was the tuition rate. Anna Caesar, class of 1968, recalls her mother paying $22 a month to send her children to Nolan. Eventually all eight of her brothers and sisters, Jean, Clare Mike, Marie, Susan, and David graduated from Tarrant County’s only Catholic college preparatory school.
Another difference noticed by alumni is the school’s improved campus.
“They have incredible facilities from what I remember in 1963,” says Bob Galvan, a former Nolan football and baseball letterman who was invited to toss the coin at the beginning of Nolan’s football game against Bishop Lynch. “It’s really special for me to be here tonight.”
Before the football field was constructed, the team played at Handley or Trinity field. Current Nolan athletes enjoy a state-of-the art softball field, renovated track, stadium and a multi-purpose activities center that houses locker rooms, training facilities and an expansive arena.
The Viking team lost the Friday night gridiron contest to its chief rival, the Lynch Friars, but 1968 graduate Tom Kleuser remembers when Nolan’s main rival was Jesuit Preparatory.
“Everybody hated Jesuit but now they’re not in our league,” says the Fort Worth orthopedic doctor whose three sons, George, Charlie, and John followed in his Nolan footsteps.
1968 alumna Anna Caesar looks into her husband and high school sweetheart Wes White's eyes as she holds a picture from their prom more than 40 years ago.
Dr. Kleuser ran cross country and track at Nolan, but today you’ll find him standing at the sidelines helping the football team.
“The school has such a warm atmosphere. You come back here after 40 years, and everybody makes you feel at home. They’re glad to see you,” he explained.
Alumni director Pat Pierette said the heart and soul of a school lies with its graduates. A high percentage of Nolan grads express their loyalty by sending their youngsters to the school.
“They are examples to the current students and the community at large of the educational and spiritual formation they received during their years at Nolan,” she told the North Texas Catholic. “It’s that formation that makes them good citizens and good Christians.”
Anna Caesar’s visit to her alma mater was especially meaningful. Her guest was the boy she took to the Nolan prom more than four decades ago.
“After graduation, I went to college; he went to Vietnam, and we didn’t see each other for 41 years,” she says, while holding up a snapshot they posed for before the prom.
They reconnected three years ago when her old boyfriend, widowed after 32 years of marriage, got her phone number from a relative. The high school sweethearts married in July, 2009.
“He graduated from Carrollton High School but feels as if he’s part of the Nolan community,” Caesar says.
Wes White, her new husband, fondly recalled his youthful exploits at the more regimented Catholic high school.
“I came over here one day on my motorcycle and was very glad when they didn’t kick me out,” he chuckled.
Copyright © 2011 by North Texas Catholic