SAGINAW, MI – Yes, Saginaw United High School is brand spanking new.
So was Central Union High School in 1863 when it opened at the intersection of Lapeer and Park streets.
This is more than a coincidence, says Ruth Ann Knapp, Board of Education trustee and retired elementary music teacher. In looking ahead, the common names of the schools reflect a connection that will carry on.
She received the insightful info from a longtime local teachers union cohort, Bob Hanley, who was president of the Bridgeport Education Association. Hanley cited key passages from 1954’s “Growth of Secondary Education in the World’s First Lumber Capital,” co-authored by Mary Elizabeth Hetherington, Saginaw High teacher of journalism and history, with Stephen H. Lytle, SHS principal at the time.
If you don’t recall Central Union High, that merely means you are not a centenarian, because the stately structure was demolished in 1924, East Siders next attended “Old Main” at Warren and Millard until a Saginaw High opened in 1954, the same year that Hetherington and Lytle published their history
One fun fact is that during the old 19th century Central Union era, educators combatted truancy by patrolling the fishing along the river banks. More serious is that Arthur Hill was built before World War II while Saginaw High waited until a decade after, among sources of debate and division between the town’s two sides.
The Michigan Legislature required the cities of East Saginaw and Saginaw City (west side) to combine in 1890, but the schools were not mandated to merge until the 1920s. Chester Miller was hired from among 64 superintendent candidates to oversee the process, which of course included some geographic flare ups.
Singular, Not Plural
When Saginaw United student-athletes suit up, they properly will be known as the Phoenix, not the Phoenixes.
That’s because in legend, there was one lone bird — not a flock — that lived 500 years before burning to death and then rising from the ashes.
And the girls’ teams are not to be known as the Lady Phoenix, no more than the guys would be the Gentlemen Phoenix, because the bird’s gender is not mentioned in the lore.
Students from Saginaw High, Arthur Hill and SASA took the lead in choosing the nickname, along with the ever-popular black and silver in the mode of Oakland Raiders gear.
At any rate, football games will continue to alternate between the old high schools because the new stadium on the Bean Bunny site will not be ready this fall.
