Sugar Land High School Drum & Bugle Corps

I want to thank Buddy (SLHS '47) and Billie (SLHS '56) Blair who let me scan the pictures that appear in this blog entry. They show the SLHS Drum & Bugle Corps which played and marched at football games from 1928 to 1940. These photos show the Corps in its final year 1940. We couldn't identify all the girls, so I've posted a clipping from the 1940 Sugar Land - Rosenberg game program, which may help identify the subjects. (If you recognize anyone, please let me know.)



The first photo below shows Muffet Guenther Gideon (SLHS '41). The second photo shows Muffet and two twirlers. Buddy thinks the third picture shows the Corps officers.



We're not sure about the first photo. The second shows the entire Corps. (I don't see Daniel Prikyl although he's listed in the program.)



The first photo below shows Beanie Blair Petrosky (SLHS '42) in her Corps uniform. (You'll see her in a band uniform in the next entry.) The second photo shows Hattie Mae Woods, who was the faculty sponsor for the Corps. (You'll see a second photo of her in the next entry, too.)

The third photo has been a puzzle for some time. The quality isn't real good, but I think that's Harry Thompson at the microphone. I can't identify the other two men in the foreground. That is the Drum & Bugle Corp in the background. (Their uniforms help identify them.) At first I wondered if this was a bond drive or some sort of patriotic event held at the football field during WWII, but that's not possible since the Corps was converted to a band in the fall of 1941. I think this may be the opening ceremony for the football field in 1939. SLISD added lights and stands to the field that year, so they may have held a ceremony to mark the new changes.

Sugar Land High School Band, 1940s

This entry contains more photos from the Blair family album. They helped me determine when SLHS converted it's drum & bugle corps to a coed band. The conversion occurred just before the 1941 football season.

Buddy and Billie gave me the first two pictures below, which show Beanie Blair Petrosky in the 'new' band uniforms. Her younger siblings, Bertha and Buddy, appear in the second picture. Buddy was in the 5th grade, so they pulled students from much lower grades to participate in the band. That must have been a treat for those younger students.

My aunt, Mayme Rachuig Hause (SLHS '48), gave me the third picture. It shows Hattie Mae Woods in 1947. I don't know if she was the yell squad sponsor at this point, but she was still the high school girls' phys ed teacher.



My aunt gave me the following scans, which come from photos taken in the 1946/7 school year. The first shows the band's drum major and majorettes. From left-to-right: Sally Rachuig Kelly (my mother), Margie Wappler Buchanan, Taz Watson, and Gloria Laperouse Krehmeier. The second shows Taz Watson, and the last shows the entire band on the stage in the school auditorium (now the Lakeview Elementary Auditorium). The band director was Mr. Jerry L. Bryan. His young son Butch (in the white uniform) was the band's mascot.



The next picture shows the Gator band marching in the Fat Stock Show & Rodeo parade in the late winter of 1947. They are passing the Rice Hotel on Main Street.

Game Program: Dulles vs. Lamar, 1969

I posted a game program from Dulles High's 1969 football season last week. The Alvin game was a home game. Dot Hightower had a program from the Lamar game for the same season. It was an away-game played in Rosenberg, so I thought I'd post it since it has lots of ads and interesting items for those of you who have connections with Rosenberg.

SLHS Campus Chatter, October 26, 1928

Here's a SLHS student newspaper published 82-years ago almost to the day.

Dulles High School's Class of 1966

Scotty Hightower Bass (DHS '66) collected the following individual school photos for a class renion. She'd also saved the class history printed in The Fort Bend Mirror. Notice they were the first class to attend all 4 years at the Dulles Avenue campus. (The first campus was at E.A. Jones Elementary. The high school moved to its current location in March, 1962.)

Also notice the Class of '66 was the first integrated class to graduate from FBISD. The class history includes students who attended M.R. Wood High School up to the fall of 1965.

Sugar Land Jr. High Cheerleaders Honor Dugan Hightower, Fall of 1970

This is a Fort Bend Mirror photo published on November 11th, 1970. It shows Sugar Land Jr. High's cheerleaders honoring Principal Dugan Hightower with a cake at the end of the football season. Mr. Hightower was principal of Sugar Land Jr. High when I was a student there. (In those days the Jr. High was located at what is now Lakeview Elementary.) I don't recall anyone giving him a cake in our era. I think we just gave him trouble.

(This item comes from the Hightower family archives.)

The Norsemen Hatchet, April 1st, 1971

The Fort Bend Mirror published an edition on April 1st, 1971, which meant the Viking Shield staff could pull a stunt when publishing the weekly Dulles newspaper. I thought it was funny. If you remember teachers from that era, check out the article, 'Seniors Elect Perfect Profs' at the top of page 2. They elected Miss C. Moore as most understanding and Mrs. McGinnes as most energetic!