Circa 1964, during the time period of The Basketball Diaries, Jim Carroll received a scholarship to attend the ultra elite Trinity School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, NYC:
It’s my first day at the ultra-rich private school that I got a scholarship to come to. I had a hard time trying to figure out what I was doing there, and I got funny looks from everyone and thought how funny it was all those Jewish kids singing away those old Christian tunes like that at the chapel service in the morning. Some teacher in back of me kept poking on my shoulder to get me to sing but I just sat there with a bored look on my face. . . . I feel like farting and blowing up the 257 years of fine tradition of this place.
The Basketball Diaries (Penguin Editions p. 65)
In 1967-68 Carroll was a senior at Trinity School, and thanks to Wilson Smith, a Trinity School alum who generously lent me his 1968 Trinity School yearbook, we get a unique peek into what Carroll’s world looked like at Trinity School. The Basketball Diaries includes a cast of characters from Trinity School, and while Carroll is careful to use aliases, the yearbook allows us to speculate who the real people may have been as well as to visualize what the narrator and protagonist of The Basketball Diaries looked like at the time (probably not what you thought, right?).
If you get down to the bottom of the page, you will find yearbook images from all four years at Trinity (thanks to classmates.com).
James Dennis Carroll
1968 Trinity Yearbook:
In the memories of most Jim will loom as the lithe basketball player who gave Trinity four consecutive winning seasons and remained an annual ‘All-Ivy’ choice. But Jim has other talents besides agility which he values just as highly. A surprise friendship with ‘Beat’ poet Allen Ginsberg is the key to Jim’s other life as a creative writer. The first of the class of ’68 to be published, he will gladly sell you a copy of his slim volume of verse , together with a set of notes for the esoteric subject matter. Service to the Muse has not prevented him from laboring for the S.V.S.O. or from slavery to an attractive young actress. A most unusual canvass preserves Jim’s likeness for posterity, but as yet it is private showings only.
Robert Antin / Anton Neutron
In September ’66 Bob lumbered through those swinging doors wearing long blond hair and speaking a foreign tongue, later identified as Old High Canarsie. There is an old folk tale that he lumbered straight out again after his first English class with Mr. Mayer, but the truth is that he held his ground and gradually came to terms with the enemy. Bob may not shine as a scholar, but in his true element of sports there have been few to match him in recent years at Trinity. On the grid-iron he was the focus of attention as the leading ground gainer and fearless buster of every line in the league. In basketball his speed and cunning compensated for his stature and rendered him a top scorer. A third crown as a pitcher for the Varsity Baseball Team completed an almost unique record. Somewhat of a mystery outside of school, Bob is reputed to be the heartthrob of certain Bentley juniors and the only Trinity senior who will effortlessly overturn a car for a dare
Antin’s activities included S.V.S.O. ’67; Glee Club ’68; Varsity Football ’67, ’68; Varsity Basketball ’67, ’68; and Varsity Baseball ’67,’68.
Antin planned to attend Cortlandt State University.
I had a tab of L.S.D. with Marc Clutcher and Anton Neutron last night, it seems it’s getting to be a regular weekend thing: just like everyone else goes and gets drunk on Friday night, we gobble a tab. It was smooth and fine, just walking around St. Mark’s Place playing on kazoos and digging the streets filled with goofy beautiful faces.
Marc Blane / Marc Clutcher
A gale of fresh air accompanied Marc when he breezed in as a junior in 1966. Drooping teams suddenly revived and an old mood of pessimism was blasted away from Trinity’s athletics. Two winning football seasons and an upsurge in basketball owe as much to his infectious drive as to any individual. With his watch-cry, ‘Hit hard and low!’, he has taught his team-mates to discard their easy amateurism and play to win. Equally devastating in impact has been Marc’s presence in English classes. His talent for fundamental analysis and comment remains unrivalled, and only Mr. Mayer [Head of the English Department] bears the scars. The combined pressure of Faculty, and of his devoted admirer, Sally, finally persuaded Marc to button his shirt and conform to the Ivy image. Why not, when the League keeps asking you to join?
Blane’s activities included Glee Club ’68; Trinity XI ’68; S.V.S.O. ’67; Varsity football ’67, ’68; Varsity basketball ’67, ’68; Varsity tennis ’67
Blane planned to attend Cortlandt State University.
I had a tab of L.S.D. with Marc Clutcher and Anton Neutron last night, it seems it’s getting to be a regular weekend thing: just like everyone else goes and gets drunk on Friday night, we gobble a tab. It was smooth and fine, just walking around St. Mark’s Place playing on kazoos and digging the streets filled with goofy beautiful faces.
Brent Garren / Bunty Gargen
Brent’s arrival in 1964 as the first card-carrying Trotskyite in Trinity’s history, caused tremors of panic in certain conservative circles. Their fears did not subside when, as a freshman, he organized the only active branch of S.N.C.C. in the private school world of America. Somewhere disenchantment with the party line seems to have set in, for recently Brent has become as decadent in thought as the current Kremlin circle. We suspect it is all due to Mao’s little red book. But whatever his sentiments, he has never allowed politics to make him a bore or a bigot. His piercing wit has sustained the class through its darkest days and his naturally generous character has won him friends at all levels. Trinity’s loss in colorful leadership will be Chicago’s gain.
“My friend from school, that die-hard Marxist Bunty Gargen, fixed me up on an afternoon blind date with a friend of his big titted girlfriend to see some old Bogart movies down on Bleeker St. Bogart, by the way, went to our school for three years but got the boot for bad grades.. . .”
Dudley m. Maxim / Coach Dudley Doolittle
Director of Athletics
From The Basketball Diaries:
FALL 64
lately I’ve been wearing blue jeans instead of that other shit [gym shorts and white tee-shirts] and lagging behind all the other kids, so everything is cool, as long as the headmaster don’t catch an eye of me and give me another lecture on the ‘rules’ of the school. Fuck dumb rules, let me wear what I want . . . No trouble from Mr. Doolittle, the cat that runs the phys. ed. here because he’s the basketball coach too and he never gives me any hassles" (68-69).
WINTER 65
When Jim rips his shorts during a game:
"The coach, serious Dudley Doolittle, was even laughing, a first in his career I think. So he sends me downstairs with the manager to get another pair and I trot to the exit blushing face and blushing ass(80).
When Carroll, Clutcher, Neutron, and Lang accidentally take downers before a game:
"Down in the lockers for the half time talk Coach Doolittle, who wouldn’t lose his
cool if a tank drove into his reading room, blew his cool. He turned nine shades of purple
rage and told the four of us to get dressed, leave the building and report with him to the
headmaster Monday morning" (88-89).
WINTER 66
"Carroll, Clutcher, and Neutron, Inc." smoke a joint before a game in New
Jersey: "I was so zonked that I drove clean around my man once and had an easy layup
and looked up and tossed the ball right over the fucking backboard. . . . The coach
whipped me out of the game but it was near the end at least and we won anyway. I was so
out of it today that even our mild mannered coach Mr. Doolittle gave me shit about being
high and I hope it don’t get back to that headmaster creep again." (164-65)
C. Bruner Smith / Mr. Bluster
Principal of Upper School
From The Basketball Diaries:
FALL 1964
On his first day at Trinity, Jim gets in a fight with “Larry Labratory”:
“His nose bleeding, he gets up and whimpers off, probably to squeak to some teacher.
Sure enough, he’s back in two minutes, with some old man from the History Dept., pointing dead at me, a handkerchief held up to his bleeding mug. It was only the testimony of Eggie Blaumgarden that saved me from getting into a big hassle and being sent down to Mr. Bluster, our principal.”
WINTER 1965
Jim decides to get even with the rich private school kids who are ripping him off by ripping them off in return. He is in the process of cleaning out their gym lockers when David Lang warns:
“‘Get cool, it’s Mr. Bluster.’ Shit, someone must have sent the word to Mr. Bluster, the principal, that I cut the study because he never comes to this part of the building unless he’s checking for class cutters. I hear him outside reading a list to Lang with my name on it, asking if he’s seen anyone. . . . I can hear Bluster checking through the door but he seems satisfied and moves on. . . . I can hardly move and I’m hoping Lang comes back but can’t yell because Bluster might still be about.”
Richard M. Garten / Mr. Belt
Headmaster
From The Basketball Diaries
FALL 1964
On his first day at Trinity, Jim gets a lesson in etiquette from “Mr. Belt”:
“at lunch the headmaster, Mr. Belt, comes over and sits at my table and tells me that my hand should be removed from sight while dining. I thought he meant the hand that I held the fork with, so I sat there for half a minute puzzled until I realized it was the other hand he was talking about. He’s an overly sincere type guy, you know the kind, like a politician, they always wind up screwing you sooner or later. Frankly, I don’t dig the guy. I feel like farting and blowing up the 257 years of fine tradition of this place” (65).
SPRING 1966
“Though I’ve only done a month’s time, thanks to the plea of my school’s headmaster I walked out the gates of Riker’s Island yesterday, a ‘free man,’ feeling like a cartoon about to run off its reel” (183).
Clubs & Activities
Varsity Basketball
1968 Trinity Yearbook:
The Varsity Basketball team had a successful winning season, but at times it was an erratic and disappointing one. With spirited optimism and justified hopes for the first Ivy League title since 1959, Mr. Maxim’s [T]igers won their first four games. Following initial setbacks to Hackley, Riverdale, and Horace Mann, the Varsity bounced back to defeat every team in the Ivy League, except the championship Riverdale squad. In compiling a 7-5 Ivy League record the Tigers relied heavily on three seniors, Bob Antin, Marc Blane, and Jim Carroll. “All Ivy” Bob Antin and Marc Blane were consistent shooters and performers and both averaged over 27 points per game. “All Ivy” Carroll added occasional spectacular performances and averaged 17 points, while Craig Walker, a Junior, gained experience and scored frequently, and Robert Catennacio added defensive rebounding strength.
Varsity Club
1968 Trinity Yearbook:
One of the brightest of the year’s innovations, the Varsity Club got off to a strong start in its rookie year. Largely the brainchild of Byron Hero and David Lifson the club is designed as a service organization composed of boys who have earned two or more letters in Varsity Sports. In the fall club members took care of refreshments after home football games, sponsored rooters’ buses, and planned the best pep rally in years before the Collegiate game. At the end of the season a successful dinner to honor the various teams marked the high point of the program. Club committees have been studying such topics as new uniforms, social events, and an improved intra-mural program and hopes are high that the new source of student enthusiasm will energize next year’s athletics. Both founding seniors and younger members are encouraged by the Varsity Club’s vigorous beginning. It could be symbolic of the positive change that has marked Trinity athletics in the past two years.
Student Volunteer Service Organization (S.V.S.O.)
Back: Mr. Sox, Taylor, R. Curran, Galvin, Reder, Joyner, Barnet, Sassoon, Harris
1968 Trinity Yearbook:
The Student Volunteer Service Organization flourished this year, undertaking the greatest diversity of programs in its history. Though not especially large, the volunteer group performed many tasks beneficial to the community while working with the Urban Opportunities Program and the Community Health Center.
Under the supervision of Ace Baumgold [who is probably “Eggie Blaumgarden”] and Mr. Sox, the S.V.S.O. spent much time assisting the elderly with laundry chores and the burdens of moving, and sought out many who required medical care. Many members took time to help the elderly at the Sixty-Plus Club at the Goddard Riverside Community Center.
Volunteers Baumgold, Catenaccio, Christie, Curran, Galvin, Meeker, and Minifie, conducted tutoring sessions twice weekly for underprivileged children of the neighborhood. Sassoon, Taylor, and Barnett undertook such odd jobs as washing windows, passing out pamphlets, and conducting surveys. Still others served as babysitters for the younger children while parents were at work.
1968 was a year of increased productivity for Trinity’s S.V.S.O., which proved valuable both for the community and for the students involved.
Trinity School Yearbooks 1965-1968
The website classmates.com offers copies of Carroll’s high school yearbooks. Here are the most relevant snippets from each year:
