We are getting close to baseball season which means teams go south for Spring Training.
Last year CDH’s team was fortunate to be able to train in Florida. Just so happens that last year in March our classmate Dave Britz and his wife Barb happened to be spending the month near Tampa/St. Petersburg. Dave found out that the baseball team was nearby and playing in a seven team tournament with peer teams from around the country.
This was the first time CDH participated in such pre-season activity. Dave went for the first two games. CDH won the first game. Jake Mauer was one of the coaches and Dave asked him if after the game he could have his picture taken with the team. Jake obliged.
Unfortunately, Dave left town and never got a copy of the photo that was taken. At our last class luncheon Steve Walsh stopped by to share info on CDH with us. In the ensuing dialogue Dave mentioned he was fortunate enough to have seen the CDH baseball team in Florida and had his picture taken but he did not get a copy. Steve made note.
Steve Walsh was able to locate that photo of Dave Britz and sent it to him. Dave is now sharing that iconic image with us!
Of note, this team went on to have a rather successful season…..STATE CHAMPION IN THE LARGE SCHOOL DIVISION!
Yesterday 12 of your classmates had lunch and a couple of hours socializing with one another and with a guest, also a Cretin grad but 22 years younger than us guys.
Our guest was Steve Walsh a staff member at CDH who heads up the Alumni and development office.
Steve gave us considerable info on the current life at CDH and brought us the information on the current students receiving scholarships funded by the two endowments the class 63 has set up over the years.
Just to remind you, the class of 63 first established a scholarship back in 2003 when we celebrated our 40th reunion. This scholarship was set up to award tuition assistance to a deserving student and their family. The second scholarship was established in 2023 on the occasion of our 60th year since graduating from Cretin. The scholarship was put together to honor two of our classmates ( George Bonfe and Mike Ryan ) who led full and productive lives and did not let their physical challenges get in the way. This scholarship is given to a student who also does not let a physical challenge get in the way.
You can see details of the two students receiving class of 63 scholarships as Joe Schufman has updated the class web site. Included on the class website is how much we have in each endowment that allows us to award scholarships that amount to between 20 and 25% of the cost of tuition. Current tuition at CDH is $17000 per year.
for those who support CDH financially, if you choose, you can designate your donation to either or both of these class of 63 legacy scholarships.
The photo below shows four of the guys as they left the Pool and Yacht Club on the beautiful spring day with the frozen Mississippi river in the background. L-R in photo are Jim Hudak, John Runyon, Dave Moore, Joe Schufman.
This past week I spoke with two of our classmates who wanted to be sure I greeted everyone with a hello from them.
Greg Halbert wishes everyone well and Pat McDonnell who is recovering from a serious bout with pneumonia and a lengthy hospital stay, says he is anxious to get back to the monthly class lunches.
I got a call this morning from Steve Walsh thanking us for having him to our lunch. He says we are very fortunate to have regular gatherings of classmates, and he encourages other classes to do the same using the class of 63 and the class of 65 as examples.
Here is an interesting footnote about Steve Walsh that many of you might already know but for those who do not you will now.
I only recently became acquainted with Steve but knew of him from his days as the quarterback for Cretin’s championship teams.
After Cretin Steve went to the University of Miami and lead them to very successful seasons including the NCAA national Championship in 1987. For those of you who are college football fans like me I would call your attention to ESPN which has a series call 30 for 30 and look up a feature called CONVICTS VS CATHOLICS.
Next class of 63 lunch is THURSDAY March 12th——see you there
