Parents, Coaches, Teachers, and Students Lobbied for the Return of Freshmen and Jayvee Sports at Warde in a Special Meeting 37 Years Ago Today

Strong support for the restoration of freshmen and junior varsity sports at Andrew Warde and Roger Ludlowe high schools was voiced at a special meeting of the Fairfield Board of Education at Warde on this date, Monday, August 7, 1972, according to a story which appeared in the Bridgeport Post the following day.

While proponents for the restoration did not specify any sum of money, school officials reported that about $30,000 had been cut from the athletic programs, due to the $1 million cut made in the May 25 referendum.

Mrs. Dudley Grape, a leader in the drive to restore the programs, offered several reasons for the move. She said, "For the least amount of money, we will be affecting the most amount of students. We firmly believe that physical education and competitive sports are an integral part of athletic achievement.

"We feel the extra-curricular sports program stimulates school spirit and involves countless boys and girls in spectator roles as well as those actively participating. We also involve our bands and cheerleaders. We are deeply concerned that once we eliminate this sports program, it will take several years to reinstate it at its present level."

Charles J. O'Leary, board chairman, told the gathering, most of whom appeared to favor the reinstatement request, that it is not necessary to prove to the board the desirability of restoring the athletuic program which had to be curtailed as a result of the budget cut, since the programs were part of the original budget.

Mrs. Grape told the board that 623 parents of freshmen and sophomore students had signed cards asking for the restoration of the program, along with signatures of 672 students affected. She said the referendum cut was a serious blow.

"Already too few children are able to participate. We need more coaches, more teams, more opportunity for all boys and girls interested in learning physical skills on a competitive basis. She argued that the varsity programs may be affected and school spirit endangered.

A warning that the two Fairfield high schools would have to withdraw from the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference within a two-year period if the freshmen and jayvee programs were eliminated was sounded by the late Warde football coach Bill Davis and Ludlowe football coach Emil Taft.

They both said that the training the students received in pre-varsity sports was important to prevent injuries on a varsity level. Without this competition, too many players would be hurt in varsity competition.

Fern Tetreau, Warde's first football coach and one of the gentleman after whom the school field is named, said the physical and mental development of students was important. Sports, he said, serve to help students turn away from the bottle and drugs, he said.

The late Fred Klee, a teacher and track coach at Warde, suggested that parents take a "broader and deeper persepective of the problem facing us all, that you direct this zeal and employ your powers of organization to reverse this ominous trend toward inferior education."

He asked, "Would you be quite content to let matters rest in the school system at large as long as sports alone were taken care of? Would you be satisfield to see your schools still crippled by the other effects of this massive $1 million cut?

"It is not enough to meet our children's physical needs while denying them those conditions designed to impove the skills and thought processes so vital to their future," Mr. Klee said.

Paul

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