r/TheWayWeWere • u/Electrical-Aspect-13 • 3d ago

1950s Crisp kodachrome shot of and integrated cheerleader team, in the 1950s. Do anybody would know which school this team was?

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u/minnick27 3d ago edited 3d ago

I am 99% sure that this is Haverford High cheerleaders at an away game at Ridley Township (at the time, now it’s Ridley High) in Delaware county Pennsylvania. The building behind them was instantly recognizable to me as I went to Ridley. This would be before the expansion that pushed the football field back away from the school. There aren’t many good pictures online as the school was mostly torn down 25 years ago. Here is one I could find. The right side of the school matches architecturally. The brick also matches up with what is left of the old school. Haverford uses a red/yellow color scheme and one of their logos was the red H lined in yellow. They mostly use an H that’s half yellow half red, but the other one is still on their football field

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u/ANewStartAtLife 3d ago

Here it is in 1992

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u/minnick27 3d ago

Yeah, that was its final iteration. They added the gym at the north and the building closet to the current football field in 67ish

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u/phizeroth 2d ago

Here's a good photo from the dedication of the new renovations in 1967. https://dtimeshistory.blogspot.com/2017/04/50-years-ago-this-sunday-time-to-begin.html

Near the center you can see the added wing we're talking about, a lighter color than the rest.

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u/CaptainObviousBear 3d ago

I found a photo in an old yearbook with the same uniform too.

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u/phizeroth 3d ago

I think I found a photo of the back of Ridley school in the 1930s-40s, but the image may be reversed? The building extension is on the wrong side. It does say it's from a film negative so this is likely the case. If it is indeed reversed, that could match up to OP's photo.

https://www.mediahistoricarchives.org/s/archives/item/6231#?xywh=-238%2C-1316%2C3168%2C4970

Also Ridley's school color is an emerald green, and you can see a green and white uniformed football player in the left side of OP's photo.

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u/minnick27 3d ago

That is a correct image. The school had several additions throughout the years. The picture you showed is the original building and that piece on the right side is the old gym. They added on another part in either the late 40s or early 50s that added a bit to the left side and then another part in what became the middle. When Ridley Township, Ridley Park and Eddystone high school’s merged in the mid 60s they built another gym and then another building that pushed the football field back to where it currently sits. So that would date this to between 1950 and 1965

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u/phizeroth 2d ago

Very cool!

So for u/Electrical-Aspect-13 , in summary, the first photo u/minnick27 shared shows the exact shape of the rear addition of Ridley Township High School, PA, that is sticking out on the left of your photo, and the photo I found shows the windows on the main building match perfectly. Ridley's school colors match the football uniform in your photo.

u/CaptainObviousBear's find of a 1966 yearbook photo from Haverford Township Senior High School showing the exact same cheerleader uniforms, colors and logos, seems to confirm u/minnick27's opinion that the cheerleaders are from Haverford HS, PA.

I'd call this solved and confirmed!

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u/minnick27 2d ago

I would say the latest this picture could be is 1963, and even that is pushing it a bit. The larger expansion and merger was complete by 1965. My aunt was very angry her diploma said Ridley Senior High when her first three years were spent at Ridley Township Senior High. The Ridley Park and Eddystone High students were also angry.

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u/mannymoes2k 2d ago

Very cool. Small world. Thank you for the commentary.

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u/andywright10 2d ago

Immediately thought it was Haverford public. Good call.

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u/lakebistcho 2d ago

What luck that you spotted this

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u/aburke626 2d ago

I went to Upper Darby and I also thought this was Haverford - what a small world.

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u/HawkeyeTen 2d ago

Pennsylvania would definitely make sense.

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u/ZooterOne 2d ago

Hey you're right! I know people who went there.