Photo Courtesy of SFHS Archives
Football players watch as the tiger rests on the gym floor.
There’s nothing like a back-to-school rally, is there? Everyone’s excited to be back on campus with their friends and enjoying the peace before homework piles up and the first test scores are released. While we might have had a student versus Mr. Baron Cannon food eating contest and a video of administrators shouting out TikTok slang, there is one rally that will forever go down as legendary in Saint Francis history.
It was the summer of 1985 when the activity directors and ASB first began brainstorming their back-to-school rally. The song “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor had recently come out, and the idea of a Rocky-themed skit was being passed around. Mr. Mike Speckman, who currently works with the Saint Francis advancement team, worked in the activities office in ’85. He recalls, “We’re going through the rally plan, and this kid says, ‘I work at Marine World, I can get a tiger.’ So I say, ‘Okay, Tim. You’re in charge of the tiger.’” However, Tim never checked in with anyone in the months between the planning session and the rally, so his comment was chalked up to a joking remark. The planning committee moved along with a skit that included “Eye of the Tiger” and a student in a tiger suit.
Fast forward a couple of months to the day of the rally. The morning was going about as smoothly as the morning of a rally can go, until Tim came up to Mr. Speckman. He let him know that not only would the tiger be at the rally, but that the tiger was currently on campus. Mr. Speckman describes his response: “I’ll never forget walking through the gym and out the doors, and I see a white van just rocking. I’m like, ‘What the heck?’ We open the door and there’s a tiger playing with a tire.” Even in the 80s, there were concerns around a teenager showing up to school with a large zoo animal. However, after a quick check with the Principal, Brother Bill, the tiger was given the go-ahead.
As the students came into the gym, Mr. Speckman and the tiger trainer were off to the side, waiting for their moment. “So this tiger is on a chain leash, I remember standing next to it, and its back came up between my ribs and my hips, I was like, ‘This thing is massive,’” reminisces Mr. Speckman. Current religion teacher Ms. Natalie Bostrom was a freshman in 1985. She says, “All our rallies used to be in Alumni Gym. Everyone was squeezed in as tight as possible. People would be sitting on the ground, and their legs would be hanging over the railings.” The rally kicked off with a short skit involving a kitten, which referred to the opposing team that the football players would face that Friday. Then, the lights turned off and “Eye of the Tiger” started blasting. Ms. Bostrom recalls, “Everyone was confused and kept asking, ‘What’s going on? What’s going on?’” Finally, a spotlight hit the center of the stage, where the massive 500-pound tiger was positioned.
“I’ve been here a long time. I don’t ever remember the gym being that loud. It just erupts,” exclaims Mr. Speckman. The tiger was never brought back to Saint Francis because of an incident that occurred at Hillsdale High School, where a student was struck by the animal. Mr. Speckman speculates that this didn’t happen at Saint Francis because the tiger was, in fact, a Lancer at heart. Saint Francis superfan or not, the tiger’s legacy lives on in all the people who were there to witness it. “The feeling of everyone just going nuts was something I’ve never experienced since then. I bet the neighbors could hear us. It was awesome,” recalls Ms. Bostrom.