The Monday After: Glenwood's Eagles spread their wings

Five decades ago, Kyle Bradley, John Tarzan and Mike John knew as well as any of their classmates the nickname for which their high school was known.

A little more than 50 years ago, these three school chums – art students at Plain Local School District's Glenwood High School on 44th Street NW late in 1973 – paid tribute to the school's mascot with their paint and their brushes.

A majestic bird – born in their imaginations – looked down upon them from a gymnasium wall as they put bristles to cement blocks.

When their artwork was finished, an eagle, a majestic bird that continues to represent the long-merged Glenwood and Oakwood high schools as the Glenwood Golden Eagle, reminded basketball opponents – and other sports foes who came to play the school – which fighting avian they were playing.

"I believe it was an eagle spreading its wings and sitting on a log," recalled Bradley. "If you look up the 1974 Glenwood yearbook you can see a picture of me and John Tarzan working on it. I'm wearing the T-shirt for the Glenwood Class of '74."

"I've heard that it's still there, but I haven't been there to see it," said Bradley. "I have a friend who keeps telling me I'll have to get there."

Eagle still is mascot

Alas, their eagle no longer exists. According to school officials, it apparently was painted over during a remodeling or restoration of the building.

That isn't the only change.

Compromises were made concerning school colors, mascots and names during Plain Local School District's merger of Glenwood and Oakwood high schools into the current, newer educational facility, GlenOak High School.

"Everything was red and blue back then (for Glenwood)," recalled Beth Knappenberger, chairperson for the upcoming Class of 1974 reunion to be held in October.

When Glenwood and Oakwood merged in 1975, "they wanted to make things fair," she explained.

Glenwood's colors – red and blue, with the white of a uniform making it patriotic – were abandoned, and Oakwood's mascot – the Golden Raiders – also went by the wayside.

"They took Oakwood's colors, which were green and gold, and our mascot, which was the Eagle," said Knappenberger. "That's how they became the GlenOak Golden Eagles."

That nickname and those colors were maintained when Plain Local completed and opened its Community Campus for the 2006-2007 school year. Still, Knappenberger has a vivid memory of her old red and blue days at Glenwood. She even got to don the costume and play that mascot – Ernie the Eagle – on one occasion.

"It was an ugly costume," she said with a laugh, "and it was smelly."

Recalling a painting project

Similarily, Bradley remembers his own memories of painting the art students' version of the Eagle mascot on the gymnasium.

A photo published in The Canton Repository on Sunday Dec. 8, 1973, refreshes his memory. It shows all three students completing their artwork.

"GIANT EAGLE," the caption to the photo described. "Three art students at Plain Local's Glenwood High School put the finishing touches on a giant eagle they painted on a gymnasium wall. The students ... are Mike John, John Tarzan and Kyle Bradley. The painting should leave little doubt in the minds of opponents that they are playing the 'Eagles.'"

"Mike John was on the ladder and John Tarzan and I were under him," remembered Bradley. "We all had paint brushes in our hands."

Bradley remembered that Glenwood possessed a "great vocational program," of which art classes were a part.

"It had a print shop with presses and a wood shop with lathes and planers and all sorts of other power tools," he said. "It had a metal shop where kids would learn how to sodder and weld. There was an electrical class that gave you an idea how electronics worked. A lot of kids were in those programs. I was, and I also took art."

Class of 1974 plans reunion

The art background allowed Bradley to become president of his company, Big Kahuna Graphics in Canton. Bradley, along with Jim Cassler, president of Klingstedt Brothers printing company of Canton, plans to do "a couple of things behind the scenes" for the Class of 1974 50th reunion planned for the weekend of Oct. 4-6.

"We've had a reunion every five years since we graduated," said Knappenberger, the head of a committee of 12 that is planning the event. "We've never dropped the ball."

On Oct. 4, classmates will meet in downtown Canton for First Friday activities and other spur-of-the-moment gatherings.

"It's something free to do," Knappenberger explained. "We'll have kind of an informal walk around Canton."

Saturday should be special for students who now are half a century from their school days. A tour of the old Glenwood High School – now Glenwood Intermediate School – is being arranged for the morning. A dinner will follow later that day,

"About 6 p.m. we're having a paid buffet dinner at North Canton Eagles," she said. "We're playing our own music with our own playlist."

The tunes no doubt will be from "back in the day," played softly so the stories of the old days can be heard during abuntant dinner conversations.

Invitations already have been mailed – class reunion organizers have kept an accurate and updated contact list of classmates through the years – but if anyone from the Class of 1974 has been missed they can learn about the reunion by visiting www.glenwood1974.com or by going the class Facebook page, "Glenwood High School Canton, Ohio, Class of '74."

"Sunday usually is a travel day, so we don't schedule anything," said Knappenberger. "If people want to stay in town, we end up doing informal things."

People they come in contact with as the reunion weekend unfolds often ask the name of the school from which the class graduated so long ago.

"We tell them Glenwood, and they often correct us and say 'You mean GlenOak," said Knappenberger. "We tell them no, there was a Glenwood then."

You can almost see Ernie the Eagle nodding and holding a thumbs up in acknowledgment of the history lesson.

Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com. On "X" (formerly Twitter): @gbrownREP.

This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Grads of old Glenwood High recall Eagle and more on eve of 50th reunion