Two songs. One written on a Broadway tune, one written here.
The Fight Song is sung standing and the Alma Mater is sung last. Both go back to the first year, when a school of nothing but freshmen had to invent everything.
The Fight Song
Roar, Rummel Raiders,
Red, white, and blue;
Roll, Rummel Raiders,
Ramble right on through.
Onward and upward
We’re flying high;
The Raiders are out for a victory;
It’s written in the sky.
We are the pride of the Southland,
We’re here to stay,
Raiders, the champions,
Boldly show the way.
Oh, we never give in ’til we get a win,
And we will win today.
Rummel Raiders shout Hooray!
Fight!
The Alma Mater
Rummel High, we raise our voices loud,
Your virtues to proclaim.
Through the years we never shall forget you;
We’ll be faithful to your name.
Hail to you, our Alma Mater,
We’ll pledge undying loyalty.
Our thoughts, our love, and gratitude
Will evermore belong to you.
Though far we wander
Through the years, may all our actions prove to you
That every good you strove to teach
Has made us loyal, brave, and true.
The crest. Four quarters and a cross.
Move over any quarter of the shield, or tap it, and it explains itself. The cross that joins the four is the point of the whole design.
Faith, the Archbishop, knowledge, and Louisiana.
A gold quarter for the Christian Brothers, a white one for the man the school is named for, a red one for what is taught here, and a blue one for where. Every Rummel man has worn it on a blazer.
The R. It went on the helmet first.
The most recognized mark the school owns started as a football decal. It took thirty three years to become official.
In 1972, head football coach Don Perret put a block letter R on the Raiders’ helmets. It stayed there through the 1979 season, and by then it had gotten loose: on jackets, on the yearbook cover in 1977, on the front of the gym. When the school ran a marketing survey in 2005, the answer came back the same from everyone asked, and the R was adopted as the official mark of Archbishop Rummel High School.
The school reads it as bold, strong, and unafraid, the qualities Archbishop Rummel showed when it counted. It is red with a Columbia blue outline, and it is the one thing on this campus that has never needed a caption.
Fifty five yearbooks. Watch the R arrive.
1964 to 2019 · scroll, or jump to an eraRufus and Rumpus. Named for a senior and a pep rally.
The Raiders beat the Gladiators, the Dragons, the Lancers, and the Griffins in the vote of 1962. The Raider got a face, a name, and a horse in the years after.
Four years after the vote, the mascot was named Rufus for senior Rufus Cressend ’66, a member of the charter class and, later, of the Athletic Hall of Fame. Brother Ephrem, FSC, the principal, commissioned John Chase, the editorial cartoonist of the New Orleans newspaper, to draw him: a raider on horseback with a plume in his hat, and he has been riding across yearbook covers ever since.
The horse went nameless until 1979, when the yearbook staff ran a “Name Rufus’s Horse” contest and the student body voted. Junior Paul Joseph ’80 won with Rumpus.
The landmarks. Where the story is kept.
Eight places on campus that mean something, and three of them continue online.
The Good Shepherd
The Archbishop’s motto, animam pro ovibus ponere, to give one’s life for the sheep, cast in marble in front of the Rummel sign on the gym. Dedicated by Archbishop Aymond and Head of School Marc Milano, with a raised garden and a new walkway that made it the school’s front door.
The Rosary and Prayer Garden
Built by alumni as a permanent memorial to Brother John Fairfax, FSC, one of the founding faculty and principal through much of the 1970s, who knew every name and never forgot one. Dedicated by Archbishop Emeritus Aymond and Head of School Matthew Caire.
The Chapel Doors
Given by Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Wilson in memory of their son Darryl Joseph Wilson ’82, honor student, drum major, and a young man strong in his faith. Designed and made by Edward Goldman, Jr. and Claude Lipps, dedicated May 2003.
The Statue of St. La Salle
Brother Louis Welker borrowed it from the Brothers’ retirement community in Lafayette in 1982, and it never went back. It stands at the main entrance, across from the receptionist’s desk, and it is the first thing a visitor sees.
The Display Cases
The cases in the main building hold the Archbishop’s own things and the paper the first years left behind: the 1963 handbook, the first varsity, the first prom, the first commencement. Every object is on the History page, and the man is on his own.
Open the case onlineRaider Legends and Alumnus of the Year
The hallway of honor: every Alumnus of the Year and every Raider Legend, faces and years, on the wall of the Raider Room. The wall is built out online, tile for tile.
Walk the wallThe Award Wall
Every valedictorian and salutatorian since the first class, the Rummel Award, the St. La Salle Award, the American Legion Award, and the honorary diplomas, by year, with a face for nearly every name.
Find a nameThe Athletic Hall of Fame
Raider Pride on the doors and the inductees inside, from Rufus Cressend ’66 forward. Every class of the Hall, with the story of each.
Coming SoonThree landmarks that were, and are remembered
The Raider Room Cross
A large bronze crucifix of the Risen Christ by artist Marge Ward, cast bronze with a dark patina on a wooden cross, the four ends carrying the symbols of the crest. Paid for by the Student Council out of Spirit Week and Rummel Day collections. It no longer hangs in the Raider Room.
The Senior Candle
Begun by chaplain Father Wayne Roca with the Class of 1995: the class president kept the candle lit through the year, the seniors as the guiding light for the rest of the school. The tradition was retired some years ago.
The Brother Raphael Room
The main conference room was named for Brother Raphael Bodin, FSC, the school’s first principal, who served two years from 1962, rose to provincial, came back to teach mathematics in 1977, served as provincial again from 1981, and volunteered for the missions in Nigeria, where he was murdered on June 13, 1997. The room has since changed; his name has not.
The whole story, from the pasture up.
The History page has the sheriff, the transatlantic call, and the first year, with the objects that were there.
