“1972 turns 72” was the motto for Santa Barbara High School’s class of 1972 during its 54-year reunion.
The Dons held their reunion on Thursday at Leadbetter Beach, where many gathered, reconnected and reminisced about their experience being Dons.
A sense of belonging was in the air as members of the class recounted what Santa Barbara High School had meant to them.
“Being a Don, it’s something very concrete, but yet like mist,” 1972 Dons football captain Luther Richmond said. “And a tie that despite your background, there’s common ground.”
The 1972 cohort is one of the largest classes ever to graduate from Santa Barbara High School, with 720 students. But beyond being one the biggest graduating class, they’ve also left their mark on the school.
They have their own class of 1972 seat in both the school auditorium and Peabody Stadium and have established two perpetual class scholarships for graduating Dons. Additionally, member of the class, Marsha Wright (née Smith), helped form the “Always a Don” scholarship, also for alumni students in college.
Wright, alongside class treasurer Tammy Schlagel (née Mount) and Olga Pinal (née Herrera), has put on the reunions for 50 years.
“We get to see [these people] every five years,” Wright said. “It’s amazing because it’s almost like yesterday we all graduated.”
During their high school years, the class came of age amid many major national and world events, including the moon landing, the Vietnam War, the first Earth Day, the passage of Title IX and the Watergate scandal.
The group also remembered fellow classmate, David Ortiz, who died earlier this year. A longtime principal at La Colina Junior High, Ortiz attended McKinley Elementary School, La Cumbre Junior High, and graduated from Santa Barbara High.
The attendees talked about the many ups and downs they had experienced over the years.
Despite it all, members of the class say they have stayed there for one another thanks to the tight bonds they formed while at Santa Barbara High.
“It’s the foundation of friendships that go on beyond where you go in your life,” Schlagel said.
One thing that comes with being a Don is a sense of community.
No matter when one graduated, all are welcome into the alumni network. Many at the reunion explained how, when walking around town in Dons gear, they will inevitably hear a fellow alumn repeat the slogan “Once a Don, Always a Don.”
Wright and Pinal said they had felt that connection firsthand earlier in the day at Leadbetter Beach, when a city parking employee shared that he was a Don too — and that his grandchild had just graduated from the high school as well.
“It’s automatic acceptance,” Wright said.
Many traveled from out of state to say their hellos, and as the reunion came to an end, the longtime classmates embraced to give their goodbyes, at least for now.
The class of 1972 is already looking forward to next year’s 55-year reunion.
