Over 75 boxes of various sizes containing between 400 and 500 trophies and plaques fill the tables of the junior high science lab after members of the Wethersfield Alumni Association’s Executive Committee spent two mornings cleaning them off and seeing just what was there. [Photo by Dave Clarke]

Every high school has an ongoing problem most people are unaware of and most likely have never given a thought. It’s not a big problem, like balancing the budget or a small problem like unclogging the toilet in the boy’s restroom.

It’s trophies. Every year students win more and there’s only room for so many.

We see them displayed in glass cases in the hallway and seldom, if ever, wonder what happens when the cases are full. Schools only have so much room and eventually older trophies have to go somewhere to make room for more recent accomplishments.

This was the large pile of trophies that had accumulated in the attic of the Blish Building over the last 30 years and was moved down to a classroom on the second floor earlier this summer. The pile extends about 10 feet beyond the brick paler on the left. [Photo by Dave Clarke]

The Frank H. Craig Wethersfield Alumni Association recently announced a trophy show and sale to be held Sunday, Aug. 17 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the high school gym. Approximately 500 trophies, plaques and awards, dating from 1960 to 2007, will be on display for public viewing.

Each item, however, will be available to anyone who would like to have it, hopefully in exchange for a donation in any amount to the alumni association. The money would help pay the expense of the annual reunion (also being held at the school on Aug. 17) and provide additional funds for two renewable $1,000 scholarships presented each year to a senior planning to pursue a career in the educational field.

Pam Sellers, treasurer of the Wethersfield Alumni Association, polishes one of the large trophies retrieved from the attic of the Blish Building that will be on display at the show and sale Aug. 17. [Photo by Dave Clarke]

The trophies and plaques cover not only sports, but band, cheerleading and Scholastic Bowl, in addition to organizational awards such as A.F.S., Key Club, Kiwanis, Elks Club and many others.

Anyone who was in high school during those years, in particular, is welcome to come and look over the collection and take away as many as they want. The public may also come and look over the array and take one or more home. Many of the trophies have toppers depicting athletes, cheerleaders, power lifters, drum majors and other symbols.

Donna Ericson, secretary of the Alumni Association, wipes off plaques in one of the boxes which filled the tables in the junior high science lab from wall to wall. [Photo by Dave Clarke]

The Wethersfield Athletic Booster Club will assist in setting up and conducting the show and sale.

The idea for the project came last year when the representatives of the alumni went to the attic of the Blish building last summer to take a closer look at the pile of old trophies which had been there for years. Most of them had been placed haphazardly in cardboard boxes and were collecting dust, dirt and soot. Some of the boxes were coming apart.

Ray Cruse, Vice President of the association, dusts off one of the hundreds of trophies found in the attic. [Photo by Dave Clarke]

The alumni thought there should be a way to save and share them with the former students who earned them, and others rather than leave them hidden and quite likely “disappear” some day when the need arose to store more old trophies.

An auction was considered, but quickly dismissed when it was thought that the large collection had more emotional than monetary value. They then saw a news story on Quad Cities TV about the Tiskilwa Historical Society which took more than 100 old trophies from the former Tiskilwa High School that had been donated to them and put them on the sidewalk in front of their museum during the village’s annual festival. They then invited anyone who wanted them to come and pick them up. Some were saved for their museum.
By making the Wethersfield event a show and sale, it is hoped that as many of the trophies and plaques as possible will wind up in the hands of someone who has a connection to them, or would just like a trophy for their mantle or man cave.

Jon Looney, a member of the Wethersfield Academic Foundation Board, unfurls one of the four conference banners that once hung in the gym and were found in a plastic bag in the attic with the trophies. The banners represented Cambridge and AlWood, now the Ridgewood Co-op, and Aledo and Westmer, now Mercer County. They were the only banners found. [Photo by Dave Clarke]

Last month maintenance staff carefully carried over 75 boxes down from the attic and stored them temporarily in the classroom below. The executive committee of the alumni association then spent many hours cleaning, examining and repairing the enormous cache. No state trophies or individual awards were found but there are numerous tournament trophies and plaques, and first, second, third, etc., place trophies and plaques from a wide range of events spanning the four-and-a-half decades covered by the treasure trove of school history.

An announcement of the show and sale on the school district’s Facebook page generated blowback from several people. One insisted that the trophies should be kept on display to inspire future generations of students. Another asked if the historical society would take them and someone pleaded with everyone to “please take the trophies because they are not appreciated where they are.”

A school official responded that a new building would be needed to hold them all, adding that some of these trophies have been in the attic for more than 30 years.

A spokesman for the association said many alumni also still bear hard feelings over how old trophies were discarded years ago. In what was possibly a housecleaning effort, some remember that several hay racks loaded with old trophies were parked temporarily outside the ag shop. Anyone who wanted them could come and pick them up before they were destroyed but apparently the news didn’t reach many alumni who were angered that they had not heard about what was being done, a grudge held by many who said if they had known they would have taken the trophies rather than see them thrown away.

The current alumni association says they want to make sure that doesn’t happen again and hope people will come and “rehome” items from their high school days rather than see them continue to collect dust hidden away in the attic and may inevitably be hauled away. The association believes it’s a way to serve past alumni by saving as many trophies and plaques as possible, while helping the school manage storage space and raise money to help future alumni with scholarships.

The school district has saved some of the trophies and is making cases in which to display them in the hallway outside the cafeteria.

Mike Pillen, of Breedlove’s Awards & Gifts, who deals with high schools across the state and beyond, said what to do with the accumulation of old trophies over the years plagues every high school from time to time. And, yes, after they’re gone, Pillen said, there’s always people who claim they weren’t informed and would have done something if they had known.

There’s no question that those trophies, plaques and awards you and your teammates won in high school are important because they represent hard work and success and that should not be forgotten. But when the number of physical representations of that success butts up against the available space, something has to give.

In the case of 47-years worth of Wethersfield High School memorabilia the alumni association hopes those in the school community and beyond will step up and reacquaint themselves with remembrances from their school days so room can be made for more.

Editor’s Note: Dave Clarke is the current president of Frank H. Craig Wethersfield Alumni Association.