OUR STORY – Who We Are

CTS 100th Anniversary

Documentary

The Central Tech 100th Anniversary has passed, but the celebrations continue. It was a wonderful and memorable weekend thanks, in great part, to all who attended.
To commemorate this, we produced a 100th Anniversary documentary video, which contains some great archival footage and many vintage photos.

What was to become one of the largest high school campuses in the British Commonwealth had its cornerstone laid by the Right Honourable Robert Laird Borden on September 3, 1913.

He later became Sir Robert Laird Borden. Prime Minister Borden lead Canada through the First World War which began in 1914. The Central Tech buildings are a mixture of old and newish architecture, the
main building built in collegiate gothic style, and the Bathurst and Art buildings being more contemporary styles that were popular in the 1960’s. The Central Tech campus has been deemed a historical building complex by the Toronto Historical Board.

The Stewart Building at University Avenue and College Street in Toronto, was for a short time a technical high school, among the first in the city, which is why some consider the Stewart Building as one of the original Central Tech buildings.

Did you ever wonder why our school magazine is called “Vulcan”? Well, there is great significance in that name, for Vulcan was a Roman god, the son of Jupiter and Juno, king and queen of the Roman gods. Vulcan was the divine blacksmith and metal worker. It was he who built the chariot of the sun-god Apollo; it was he who made the armour worn by Achilles.

He made the mighty thunderbolts hurled by his father Jupiter. Chairs and tables capable of moving about automatically were his inventions. Among the masterpieces of this fiery architect were two maidens, made of gold, who served and helped him. His flaming workshop was made under Mount Etna, (in Sicily), the crater of which was the chimney of his roaring forge. Volcano derived from his name.

What more appropriate name could have been chosen for our school magazine?

Vulcan – inventor, designer, architect, metal worker and maker of thunderbolts. This text was taken from one of our older Vulcan yearbooks. If you would like to see how the Vulcan yearbook has evolved at Central Tech follow this link, http://schools.tdsb.on.ca/centraltech/yearbookGallery2011.htm. You can view the most current cover competition candidates as well as the winner of the Vulcan cover competition for the 2010/2011 edition.

Sam Richardson was born in 1919. His father served in World War I, and his great-grandparents came to Canada through the Underground Railroad.

Prior to attending CTS, Sam attended King Edward Public School with civil rights activist and citizenship judge Stanley Grizzle. They had a friendly competition, regularly racing against each other. Showing great athletic promise from an early age, Sam travelled across Canada and the US, winning numerous medals in his teens.

Sam competed against Jesse Owens in the first leg of the 4x100m relay race, where, in Sam’s words, the race “was so close the stadium audience was brought to its feet.” Sam strongly believed that Canada would have won the race if team member Howard McPhee had not dropped the baton. Both black and white communities came out in force to celebrate Sam’s return from Berlin.

Due to family responsibilities, Sam decided not to accept an athletic scholarship from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and pursued a career as a set builder at the CBC until his retirement.

Inducted into the Canadian Amateur Hall of Fame in 1978, Sam laid the foundation for athletic excellence at CTS, a legacy that continues to this day.

Interested in hearing more about this alumnus’s story or have questions/comments? Please contact the Alumni through our website (ctsalumni.100@gmail.com ), and we will send you the full story.