"It was the event of the year," said Frank Praznik, a 1955 South Park graduate.

Praznic and dozens of other Greenies reminisced about their high school days at a South Park alumni gathering Saturday evening.

After the big game students would head for the Pig Stand for french fries and sodas, but the rivalry was not confined to the gridiron.

The Pig Stand on Washington and Highland was the Greenie hangout, while the one on Calder was Beaumont High turf, Praznik said.

That the two football squads were evenly matched added to the rivalry, he added.

While South Park was usually on the losing end of its rivalry with Port Arthur's Thomas Jefferson High, the Greenies and Beaumont fought for bragging rights each year, Praznik said.

Saturday's gathering at the MCM Eleganté Hotel was organized by the South Park High School Alumni Association.

The group, founded in 2004, is hoping to build and strengthen ties among alumni of the now-defunct school, said Carol Broussard, a 1959 South Park graduate.

Holding the Greenie gathering on St. Patrick's day was a no-brainer, Praznik said.

On the group's to-do list, Broussard said, is re-creating the life-size paper mache green gremlin that was the school's mascot.

The South Park school, like the neighborhood, was a close-knit community, said Bob Kittell, a 1961 Greenie graduate.

"It was a blue-collar neighborhood - your parents either worked for Magnolia or Gulf States," Kittell said.

The high school was closed in 1986 after the South Park and Beaumont school districts merged.

The building is now home to South Park Middle School.

Former Greenies can learn more about the alumni group at its Web site, www.sphsaabeaumont.org.

rgarcia@beaumontenterprise.com
(409) 880-0732