In the state of Mississippi, no school is truly recognized as part of the social landscape until it produces a football team. For St. Joe, this watershed moment came in 1948. Though facilities were lacking, the physical nature of the sport was a perfect complement to the hard-nosed families that made up the student body.
Daniel Mcnamara
We had two coaches. In the first two years, we had a coach that was a grad student at millsaps named Jay Jackson. He was actually from Meridian, Mississippi. And then coach Raphael came in for our last two years and high school and of course, he was a legend.
David Mcnamara
I played left halfback. And my brother Daniel played right halfback and our older brother john James Gabby McNamara, played fullback we had the entire backfield, except for the quarterback.
Daniel Mcnamara
It was so different than it is todays we practice at a field that was a grass field at the battlefield Park.
Sister Paulinus Oakes, RSM
We didn’t have much yard that they’re in it Oh, St. Joe
Bill Raphael
The were used for I don’t think there were real grass covered, they were mainly dirt. And it was hot, and dirty, and sweaty.
Sister Paulinus Oakes, RSM
The football was always a very integral part of St. Joe to everybody played unless you were physically handicapped, it seemed like you played and everybody was involved with football. I would say the whole High School was, well discipline competitive. We could hold our own anywhere, and I guess aggressive to a degree. It was interesting, just you know, a bunch of different people and their experiences. We were all there for common goals. As far as football, I mean, we played real schools that were bigger than our schools, always. And but we held our own. You know, we didn’t win a lot of championships or whatever in those days. But we held their own and we never got stopped, so to speak.
David Mcnamara
We were no doubt the underdog in every one of the games we play. But as coach Les, he said at Notre Dame, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight. It’s the size of the fight in the dog.
Narrator
As football became more and more a part of the student bodies collective identity. The role of the clergy members evolved from strictly prohibited to actually teaching blocking and tackling.
Sister Paulinus Oakes, RSM
But in the early days, we were very strict and couldn’t go to the games. And oh, I love the games. And I wanted to know about what was happening at the games. And Nick Harkins and Keith are worth (2:47) it when they come home on the bus. We lived in the convent, they’re right by St. Peter’s, they would yell the score out, but I could always tell whether they won or not from how exuberant they were
Narrator
recognizing her enthusiasm for the sport and her ability to instruct the church soon moves Sister Paulinus out of the convent and out to the practice field for St. Peter’s fifth and sixth grade team.
Con Maloney
It was it was always comical to watch this nun scooting around and helping teach youngsters to play football. Yes, she wore her habit. I mean, you know, we didn’t have any idea what anybody look like because all we ever saw was the black and white habits and we were right next door to Central High School and the Central High School people thought we had Ku Klux Klan or somebody over there. It’s like Joe.