An arch made of white-and-purple balloons alongside the football field, with giant gold “200” balloons at the peak, announced to the city of Washington the launch of Gonzaga College High School’s bicentennial celebration Sept. 8.
Events for the 200th anniversary kicked off with a school-wide Mass and an assembly on the football field, highlighted by the students from the classes of 2022 and 2023 lining up to form the giant numerals 200 mid-field. As the school’s president, Jesuit Father Joseph Lingan, cut an enormous cake, the students enthusiastically serenaded the action with a chorus of “Happy Birthday.”
Also social studies teacher Nick Pugliese, a 2008 Gonzaga graduate, led a group of two dozen students and faculty members on a walk from 917 F St., N.W., the original site of Gonzaga, to the current location at 19 Eye Street at North Capitol.
There, in the basement of what now is a nondescript office building, they put their hands on the one wall that forms the only remaining part of the original Gonzaga school building. In a video describing the experience, Pugliese said he wanted to connect in a symbolic way to the Irish immigrant laborers who would have built that wall.
"We wanted to celebrate Gonzaga, bridge the gap between the old and the new, and honor the beginning of the experiment that became our beloved institution," he said. “I think it would blow their minds to think all of us would be standing there.” Despite the changes to the city over the last 200 years, Pugliese said, he likes to think that some aspects remain of the school envisioned by those laborers and the Jesuit founders of Gonzaga.
At the Mass of Thanksgiving, Father Lingan said the goals of the founders live on.
“In 1821, it was believed that this school was needed to help serve and educate the young men of Washington, and in turn serve this city,” Father Lingan said. “Today, in 2021, I humbly and firmly acknowledge that Gonzaga is needed more today than ever. And a Gonzaga Man for Others is needed more than ever as well.”
Future events for the bicentennial and a related capital campaign are scheduled to include a golf tournament, a Mass and block party open to the community, various reunions and, on Nov. 5, the 100th football game between Gonzaga and St. John’s College High School.
