1968 Jesuit Championship Team To Be Honored 50 Years Later

TAMPA, FL -- This Friday, Sept. 14, at halftime of the football game against Jefferson High School at Jesuit High School, the 1968 Jesuit State Championship team will be recognized on the 50th anniversary of its big win.

The team was the first from the Tampa Bay area to capture a football State Championship (with a 38-25 win over Kathleen High School in Lakeland at Tampa Stadium).

More than a decade ago, the players on the 1968 team founded an endowed scholarship that annually underwrites the tuition for a financially needy Jesuit student.

The event begins at 5 p.m. with a pregame gathering and meal on campus in the multipurpose room, with spouses, children and grandchildren.

The game at Jesuit’s Corral Memorial Stadium begins at 7:30 p.m. At halftime –approximately 8:30 p.m. – the 1968 team will be honored on the field.

The team also is having a dinner on Saturday night at the Columbia Restaurant and will celebrate Mass at Jesuit on Sunday morning.

The new school year at Jesuit has yielded a series of alumni reunions.

On Aug. 25, before more than 500 of Jesuit High School’s most loyal supporters at the annual President’s Circle Dinner, school president Fr. Richard C. Hermes announced the closing of the school’s successful $50 million “For Greater Glory” capital campaign.

Launched with an ambitious goal of $35 million three years ago at the President’s Circle Dinner and raised to $40 million a year later, the campaign exceeded aspirations by $10 million.

“This campaign simply could not have been possible without the support and generosity from everyone in this room,” Hermes. “It is hard to express just how much your participation has meant to the school and to the young men whose lives have already been changed, and will be forever changed, by the positive impact and unique opportunities you have created for them.”

Hermes said the campaign covers the cost of both Phase I and Phase II of the Campus Master Plan.

Phase I is finishing this year and includes:

· Gonzmart Hall, the 32,000-square foot administration and student services center that was dedicated in March and serves as the face of the school on Himes Avenue;

· Chapel of the Holy Cross, the literal and figurative heart of Jesuit at the center of campus that was dedicated in August (see related story);

· And the stately Oliva Courtyard (named in honor of $1 million donor John Oliva, class of 1960), which connects Gonzmart Hall and the new chapel and will be completed this year.

Phase II’s centerpiece will be a new Performing Arts Center, which is expected to break ground in late 2019.

After Phase II is complete, subsequent phases will include the Jenkins Science and Math Building, and a Student Activities Center and Dining Hall.

“But as you know, we are not here for bricks and mortar – the walls that house and help shape our students are not our end goal but merely a means to help us complete our objectives,” Hermes said. “Our goal is to remain true to the mission that has guided us since 1899, the total formation of young men in the spirit of St. Ignatius.

“Because of your generosity and increased support, we have been able to ensure an affordable, Jesuit education to more boys in the Tampa Bay area than ever before,” Hermes continued. “In fact, 30 percent of the current student body receives financial assistance. And because of you, we have been able to offer more assistance than ever before – more than $2 million distributed in financial aid this school year alone.”

He said Jesuit is grateful to its many benefactors, including Ted Couch ’54, who donated $3.15 million to the “For Greater Glory” campaign; the Capitano family – Joe Capitano Sr. ’56, Joe Capitano Jr. ’84 and Frank Capitano ’87 – who donated $3 million; Carole and Richard "Steve" Jenkins ’75, who donated $2.5 million; Richard Gonzmart ’71, who launched the silent phase of the campaign in 2014 with the school’s first $1 million alumni gift and later increased his campaign donation to $2.5 million; and Stacey and Ron Leal, ’09, John Oliva ’60, John Hamilton ’77, Kathy and Ray Hyer, ’01, Dan Doyle Jr. ’89, the Jesuit High School Foundation Inc. and several anonymous donors, who have given $1 million or more.

Jesuit High School in Tampa is a private, all-male, Catholic high school rooted in the Jesuit tradition of education. Jesuit has been educating young men in the Tampa Bay area since 1899, and the school began its 120th school year earlier this month with the largest enrollment in school history.

The increased seating capacity of the new chapel has allowed Jesuit’s enrollment to now exceed 800 for the first time.

Video via Robert Barrow

Clip from the 1968 game against Kathleen High School

Image via Jesuit

Gonzmart Hall was dedicated in March.

Rendering of the proposed Performing Arts Center

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