Our History

Our story began in September 1982 as we nervously filed into the Shawnee auditorium for Freshman Orientation, terrified of the legendary “Freshman Crawl Day.” Spirit Week quickly taught us what Shawnee pride looked like — and with that same enthusiasm, we built our first hall, skit, and float: “The Cave.” That year, MTV burst into our living rooms (along with Prism, cable boxes, and USA Network), transforming our music tastes forever.

Sophomore year rolled in with the theme “Just When You Thought It Was Safe,” complete with a giant shark we were wildly proud of. We raised money selling candy for our Senior Trip and obsessively listened to Duran Duran, Pat Benatar, Aldo Nova, Billy Squier, Haircut 100, and Motley Crüe — artists many of us discovered thanks to MTV.

As Juniors, we doubled down on school spirit — Hawaiian shirts everywhere — and went all out filling piles of 3×5 cards to win a FREE concert from an “up-and-coming” band: The Hooters! Our halls were full of Members Only jackets, Chess King threads, concert tees, and preppy looks. We found out about parties through gas-station intel, not group texts, and spent weekends at the Powerlines or racing from party to party. Our movie soundtracks included Vision Quest, St. Elmo’s Fire, and The Goonies.

Senior year was one for the books. In classic ’86 style, we became the first class in Shawnee history to lose Spirit Week — disqualified for covering our faces with newspapers during other skits (still worth it). We turned the cafeteria into a castle, crowned King Kiki Konstantinos, and somehow still managed to beat Lenape on Thanksgiving… even after half the football team got benched for partying. Movies like Top Gun, Stand By Me, and Platoon defined our conversations. On January 28, 1986, we watched in horror as the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded live on TV.

Our Senior memories were endless: tagging candy canes with messages, crushing on our computer match results, Pee-wee Herman dance contests, and the legendary Disney trip — where we fried ourselves in baby oil, got pizza at 1AM, snuck around hotel halls, and learned that if you were late, you were eating breakfast with Mr. Galtere. Amid it all, Reagan bombed Qaddafi’s palace, and we barely blinked.

We nearly got banned from walking at graduation thanks to the previous class’s beach balls and water guns — but after petitions and local news coverage, we won our right to walk… not without a frisk for water pistols first.

We weren’t perfect — far from it — but we were unforgettable.
This is our story. We are the Shawnee Class of 1986.