Category: Move to Coeducation: 1980-1989

  • Chalk-Dust Memories: The 1980s

    Phyllis Molinelli Phyllis Molinelli started working at SI in 1978 as a secretary for counseling, campus ministry and student activities. In 1983 she became a sophomore counselor and has, over the years, served as department chair and head of various counseling task forces. She retired in 2005. When I first started working at SI, I…

  • The Old School Comes Down

    Some SI alumni cringed in disbelief and others were first in line on March 13, 1987, when USF announced the Wrecker’s Ball to demolish Loyola Hall, the site of the fifth SI campus on Stanyan Street. The college wanted to tear down the old school to make way for the Koret Health and Recreation Center.…

  • The Fight Against AIDS

    In the 1980s, the AIDS epidemic struck the U.S. with a vengeance, with ground zero in San Francisco. Two SI grads, over the years, have led the fight against this terrible disease — Dr. Eric Goosby ’70 and Dr. Joseph O’Neill ’71 — as AIDS Czars in the Clinton and Bush administrations. In the 1980s,…

  • Fr. Kolvenbach Visits SI

    For the second time in SI’s history, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus came to visit. (The first was a 1971 visit by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ.) Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ, Fr. General of the Jesuits, toured high schools and colleges in the California Province between November 28 and December 2, 1989, stopping…

  • The Murder of the Priests

    On November 16, 1989, Salvadoran soldiers murdered six Jesuits and their two co-workers at the University of Central America during that country’s civil war. Dick Howard ’67, then a Jesuit priest, was one of the first on the scene the morning after the shooting. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said in a Genesis IIinterview.21 “I…

  • Earthquake

    On Tuesday, October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m., a 7.1 earthquake hit the Santa Cruz area, sending shockwaves through the Bay Area and killing 63 people. Fr. Prietto was jogging at the time and recalls that “the jolt of the earthquake was so strong it literally knocked me off my feet.” Power went out all…

  • The Pope Comes to Town

    On September 17 and 18, 1987, Pope John Paul II made a historic visit to San Francisco and celebrated Mass at Candlestick Park. More than 120 SI students and a host of faculty served as volunteers for the event as ushers, traffic directors, security assistants, schedule coordinators, resident experts and entertainers during the two-day visit.…

  • Extracurriculars 

    National Championship in Debate In 1986, SI’s Speech and Debate Program won the National Championship Sweepstakes Trophy from the National Forensic League in Tulsa, Oklahoma, recognizing SI as the top school in the country in legislative debate in a field of 1,500 competitors. The award paid tribute to a dozen years of excellence by past…

  • Athletics

    Baseball After a 3-year hiatus, Jim Dekker ’68 returned as head coach of the varsity baseball team in 1983. The team that year finished 13-10 and included such standouts as Chris Gaggero ’83, who led the league in strikeouts, and Duffy Aceret ’83, who was the team’s leading hitter. Tim Reardon ’86 and Arnie Sambel…

  • The Graduate at Graduation

    Between 1980 and 1983, the SI faculty met from time to time to hammer out a document that, over the years, has become known as the “Grad-at-Grad.” The JSEA asked each of the Jesuit high schools in the nation to create a “Profile of the Graduate at Graduation,” and Fr. McCurdy made this a part…