“One, two, one, two, your attention, please!”
Chris Horn: “Every morning, Monday through Friday, those words reverberated through the intercom as the school principal started the day with homeroom announcements.
“It wasn’t just any school — it was University High School, located on the campus of the University of South Carolina. University High was in operation for nearly 35 years, and 60 years ago, 1966, the school closed. But the memories live on.
“I’m Chris Horn, and on this episode of Remembering the Days, we’re going back to 1932 when USC’s education college took up residence in a brand-new building on Sumter Street and simultaneously opened what was called a laboratory school right there in the same building.
“University High School was a joint venture of USC’s education college, the Columbia City School system and the state of South Carolina. Now, USC wasn't the only university to have operated a high school. The nation’s first laboratory school had opened in 1896 at the University of Chicago, and by the 1930s, there were about 200 lab schools in operation around the country. They were a built-in venue for universities to train their students who were studying to become secondary school teachers.
“You probably remember having practice teachers in some of your classes back in the day. At University High School the practice teachers took their USC classes on one side of the education building, then walked to the other side of the building, which housed the school, to do their practice teaching.”
Bonnie Williamson Haynes: “We knew they were students at the University of South Carolina and that they were there to learn how to be teachers. And we loved them because they were young, they could relate to us, and they were tolerant. If we got off the subject in class, it was kind of OK with them, you know, they would talk to us about other things. They would share a little bit of themselves. They were fun to be with, so we always enjoyed them.”
Chris Horn: “That’s Bonnie Williamson Haynes, who began attending seventh grade at University High School in 1960. Early on, the school had added seventh and eighth grade sections to become a combined middle school/high school.
“Patricia Buckner-Mullins also had fond memories of the practice teachers.”
Patricia Buckner-Mullins: “We had good experiences with the practice teachers, and we knew they were coming. And you just didn’t know — it’s like a box of chocolates — you didn’t know what you were going to get. But we still had our permanent teachers that were always there, and watching, and interacting, and it was good.”
Chris Horn: “When University High School began in 1932, public school systems across the South were segregated. At that time in Columbia, there was one high school for white students — Columbia High — and one high school for Black students: Booker T. Washington High. Because it was located on the campus of USC, which didn’t desegregate until 1963, University High School was for white students only. The school closed in 1966, before public schools in Columbia began desegregating in earnest.
“So what was it like to be a student at University High School? Well, I am indebted to Christian Anderson, a USC education professor who studies the history of higher education. Ten years ago, he asked some of his students to record conversations with a number of University High School alumni.
“Christian was a little surprised by what he heard.”
Christian Anderson: “I mean, I’m not an expert on this. I’ve never done any kind of systematic study of how people feel about their high schools, but just anecdotally, I have never seen a more devoted alumni base of a high school.
“I have never heard a negative word about it. They love the school. They love their classmates. They love the teachers. They loved being on the university campus. The only negative thing they have to say about it is that it closed.”
Chris Horn: “Here are a few reminiscences from University High School alumni that illustrate the point Christian made.”
Patricia Buckner-Mullins: “It was the most special school in all of Columbia. It was … It had the best reputation, the best. At the time, people knew when you said ‘University High.’ ... It was something you could put on a job application, and they were aware of University High School, like ‘Oh!’ ... ”
Richard Eckstrom: “I remember the night I graduated, the sadness I felt, that, really, I’ve dreamt about that. The sadness I felt because I loved those teachers. I really did. They were really serious about teaching, and they would require a lot of attention and focus on work. And at the time, it wasn’t very pleasant, but as I was graduating and looking back on the six years that I'd just spent with the same group, it wasn’t a lot of teacher turnover. I mean, they were just a devoted group of teachers. It was their life.”
Chris Horn: “University High School was small: about 375 students in the entire student body from one year to the next. Like other schools, they had a yearbook, called The Bantam, and a school newspaper, called The Biddie. Those names were, of course, nods to the Gamecocks since the school was part of the USC campus.
“The school librarian, a woman named Hannah Timmons, was sort of the glue who helped connect everyone and nurtured the esprit de corps that characterized the school over the years. Along with running the library, she was also the yearbook advisor.
“Another remarkable individual at the school was the basketball coach, Cy Szakacsi, whose teams notched 268 wins and only 54 losses during his long tenure. He had been a football, basketball and baseball star at USC in the late 1940s, and after his stellar coaching career at University High School, he notched more coaching success at several other high schools in Columbia.
“About 1,300 students graduated from University High School during its 34 years of operation. Among them were some of the children of two former presidents of USC — Donald Russell and Tom Jones. And some University High School graduates went on to attend USC. I ran across one who majored in education at Carolina and did his practice teaching at his old stomping ground, University High. Talk about full circle!
“There are a number of former University High School students still around. You can hear some of their stories by going to USC’s main website and doing a quick search for University High School. You’ll find a treasure trove of the school’s yearbooks and those oral histories that I mentioned earlier.
“In the time remaining, I’m going to focus on one student whose journey, I think, illustrates what life was like at University High in the 1960s. Her name was Katherine Janetos Trimnal, and she graduated from the school in 1965, the year before it closed.
“Kathy, as she was called, heard about University High School from a friend, and she was determined to get in. The school had a limited number of seats available — you had to apply to get one — and there was only one left the day that she and her father went there. She told the teacher who was in charge of admissions just how much she wanted to attend.”
Katherine Janetos Trimnal: “I told him, I said, ‘I really have to come to this school. I cannot go to Columbia High.’ He said, ‘Well, you have to have at least a B average.’ I said, ‘A-.’ I said, ‘Look. Here it is. I just heard that this school is small. The classrooms are small. You have great teachers, a wonderful sports program. You have a lot of activities. I will fit right in.’ And he said — and he took a while — he said, ‘Well, let me see if we have a space. Let me see if we have a seat for you in one of our classes, for either 9A or 9B.’ And he said, ‘Well, 9B is full’ — and he really took his time — ‘9A, there’s one left, and you can have it.’ I just felt so happy and so relieved.
“Because my dad was a businessman, and he had done so many business deals with me present, I knew that he would always shake the hand of the person he was agreeing with. And the handshake was a bond. And I reached across the counter and offered my hand to Mr. Summer, and he shook it. And that was the beginning of my life, my four years, at University High School.”
Chris Horn: “Kathy started her freshman year with a bang, playing guitar in a school talent show that prompted one of her teachers, Hugh Summer, to encourage her to form a singing group.”
Katherine Janetos Trimnal: “I just started asking around, and I knew a few folks who could sing well. And I said, ‘Listen, why don’t we get together? And we all loved Peter, Paul, and Mary, and the Everly Brothers were very popular then. And we all got together and started. I got the sheet music, and we just started doing our thing. OK, look here. I've got to show you this picture. See? [shows photo to interviewer] Here we are, onstage, performing. The Ladybugs. That’s me. We were hitting the big-time. We were on stage — in school.”
Chris Horn: “They called themselves the Ladybugs, which — I don’t know — might have been a wink and a nod to the Beatles, who were part of the British music invasion back then.
“Kathy had a lively four years at University High. She played basketball, was a member of the National Math Club, helped with the school newspaper. Three times she received an award for academic achievement and participation in activities, and she had a perfect attendance record. She was even captain of the school bowling league her senior year, 1965. On top of all that, she helped her parents when she could at the family restaurant they ran in downtown Columbia.
“When it was announced that University High School was going to close in 1966, Kathy wrote a column in The Biddie, the school newpaper, which sparked a letter-writing campaign to try to convince USC to reconsider its decision.”
Katherine Janetos Trimnal: “But I had those 200 letters, and I went to see Principal Harvey, and I said, ‘Mr. Harvey, my classmates and our fellow students here really love this school. I mean, I’ve got a bunch of letters.’ And he was taken aback. He said, ‘Are those about the closing of the school?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ And I think he was impressed that I was able to get that much response.”
Chris Horn: “But the die was cast. The College of Education had grown considerably since the early 1930s and needed the building space that was occupied by the high school. Also, several other high schools had opened in Columbia over the years, offering plenty of options for USC education students to log their practice teaching hours.
“Today, if you walk around Wardlaw College, the home of the College of Education at USC, you’ll find scant evidence of the old high school’s existence. The building has been renovated, removing most of the vestiges of University High. But while the high school at Carolina is gone, the memories live on.”
Patricia Buckner-Mullins: “It’s just sad when you go by, and I see that beautiful building, and that nobody knows today when I say, they are like, ‘Where did you go to school?’ ‘University High.’ ‘What was that? Where was that?’ And they don’t realize that it ever existed. And that is very sad.”
Chris Horn: “Well, that’s all for this episode. On the next Remembering the Days, with Halloween just a few weeks away, University historian Evan Faulkenbury takes us on a spooky tour of ghost stories and things that go bump in the night across the university campus. That’s next time on Remembering the Days.”