Prep Crushes Roman! ... 92 years later

     This hand-drawn poster promotes a basketball game played on 25 January 1919 between St. Joe’s Prep and Catholic High, now known as Roman Catholic.  The artist was senior Clem McGovern of the Class of 1919.  As the story goes, after the Prep defeated the Cahillites by a score of 26 to 20, Clem gave the poster to Charles Laughlin, captain of the basketball team and a classmate of McGovern.

     Charlie eventually gave the poster to his daughter Betty, who married Joe Flynn of the Class of 1950.  The Flynns enjoyed the poster for many years, then donated it to the Villiger Archives at Joe’s 60^th reunion in the Fall of 2010.  The poster now hangs proudly in the second floor hallway of Jesuit Hall in a period frame.

     Beside the poster hangs a framed photo of the 1918-1919 squad.  Under the direction of Coach John Donoghue, the team was crowned the Catholic City Champions (the Philadelphia Catholic League did not yet exist) with a record of 21 and 2, and Charlie Laughlin was Philadelphia’s 1919 Free Throw Champ.

Home again: You can see these two great artifacts on display on the second floor of Jesuit Hall.