Madison's Heritage Rediscovered by Dr. Fred A. Engle Jr

Author:Dr. Fred A. Engle Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2012-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Richmond High School Ramblers won the 1940, 1942 and 1943 Kentucky High School Athletic League state basketball championships. The 1943 team is pictured here with Principal J.G. Fletcher in front of the Richmond High gym on East Main Street, which now houses the Telford YMCA.

There is an active Richmond High School Alumni Association, which has annual meetings and is interested in collecting records and information concerning that school, forever a part of our history.

“FRUIT JAR HIGH”

Fred Engle

During all the years I attended Madison-Model High School (1943–47), whenever we played Berea High, our chant was “Break that fruit jar wide open.” I often wondered what that battle cry against the Pirates really meant.

Various people have various explanations, but the consensus seems to run something like this: back around 1924, Berea College put into effect a rule that no one under sixteen could go to the Foundation School, which led into Berea Academy. The Foundation and Academy were a grade and high school connected with the college, much as Model is with Eastern. This was to force the establishment of a public high school in Berea.

There were two county members and three persons from the city on the Berea School Board, but no Berea High School system. Public grade school students were used to going on to the academy. The city had a small tax base because of the college land ownership, and the city board felt they could not afford a city high school. The college rule was supposed to force the city board into action.

At a Berea School Board meeting one night, out of the five-member board, only two of the three members from the city of Berea were there. They favored building a city high school, whereas the two members of the board from the county favored taking the city system into the county system. At previous meetings, they had been talking about whether the new high school should be the responsibility of the city or the county.

There was an attempt made at the meeting for the city system to join the county school system, with the two members from the county agreeing. In the middle of the argument, the secretary of the board rose, gathered the records and proceeded to leave, thus closing the meeting and stopping the move to consolidate with the county system. An irate board member grabbed a nearby fruit jar filled with flowers and threw it at the secretary, giving him a cut on the forehead.

In 1924, when Berea High was finally established under the city school system rather than the county, the citizens of the city called it “Fruit Jar High.” Berea High got a new building in 1930. So when the Purples played the Pirates, we yelled, “Break that fruit jar wide open,” without knowing the story of the fruit jar.

Later, the Berea Academy (the high school) changed its name, and the entire system including the high school was called Berea Foundation. Naturally, a crosstown rivalry between the city school and the college-affiliated high school grew.

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