I started high school in September 1968 at St. Ignatius High School which was located at Stanyan & Turk Streets in San Francisco. It was my first year of high school, but it would be the last year the school would be located at the Stanyan Street campus. In September 1969, S.I. moved to a spectacular new campus at 37th Avenue & Rivera Street in the Sunset District -- and changed the name of the school to St. Ignatius College Preparatory.
It was an honor for me to have the opportunity to attend one year of classes at 222 Stanyan Street. My father attended school at that campus, as did my brother, Tom. It had history. It had memories.
After S.I. moved to the Sunset District, the Stanyan Street campus was sold to the University of San Francisco. The property was adjacent to the U.S.F. campus, so it was a logical sale. A few years later, U.S.F. opened the Koret Health Center -- a state-of-the-art facility which included a gymnasium large enough for three full-size courts, a huge indoor swimming pool, and exercise equipment for use by students, faculty and alumni.
My first visit to the Koret Center didn't happen until last night when the St. Lawrence varsity basketball teams played games there. The boys' game began at 5:30 pm. The team was exhausted after tough games on Monday and Wednesday nights. They had won both games, but they were physically depleted. The starting center for St. Lawrence had sustained a minor concussion earlier in the week and was unavailable to play -- and the starting point-guard was feeling a bit sick from the car ride to The City. Despite their weakened state, the team took the court against Jewish Community High School.
With all due respect, the game should not have been as close as it was, but JCHS played a good game, and St. Lawrence struggled. After falling behind by as many as 10 points early in the game, the Celtics were able to tie the game at 34 points by the end of the 3rd quarter.
With about 20 seconds remaining in the 4th quarter and the game tied at 45, JCHS had the ball. The shot clock was ticking away... 6...5...4...3... Their point guard, hoping to avoid a shot-clock violation, launched a 3-point attempt. Brendan jumped up and blocked the shot, gained control of the ball, drove the length of the court and slam-dunked it. Unfortunately, even though Brendan had gained control of the ball prior to the shot-clock violation buzzer sounding, the official blew the whistle to stop the play. It was a bad call, but SLA still got the ball out of bounds with 13 seconds left to play.
The SLA point guard got the ball and let the clock wind down to .06, then he drove down the left side of the lane. As the defense collapsed around him, he lofted the ball high near the basket. Brendan, coming into the lane from the left side, jumped up and caught the ball. Without coming back down, he turned and shot the ball against the backboard and into the hoop to give the Celtics an exciting 47-45 victory.
It was a great game -- and a wonderful homecoming for me to the Stanyan Street campus. The Koret Center looks nothing like the old S.I., but the memories of that campus, and all who attended school there through the years, live on.
