Sam Barthe

Sam Barthe School for Boys (or Barthe as it was locally known) was an all-boys private school that existed for over 40 years in the Greater New Orleans, LA area, catering to upper income familes who could afford to send their sons to a local school that relished in delivering a spartan lifefstyle and a broad education in both college prepatory academics and sports.
The school was started in 1941 by it's namesake, Sam Barthe, a local family man who had been a track star in his youth. Sam wanted to create a non-nonsense competitive enviroment to train young boys and teens in all aspects of their growth in to young adulthood.
First located in the old Christian Brothers School location near City Park, Sam started the school at the outbreak of WW2. Sam was a strong believer in athletics and physical well-being, and the most grueling "phyical education" classes awaited any boy who didn't try out for organized team sports. The school had teams for all ages of boys, including swim teams, tennis, football, baseball, and basketball. It became known over the years as a powerhouse in many sports across the city, winning many district, regional, and state championships.
As the racial tensions of the civil rights movement became mainstream in the early 60's, and the suburban area on the East Bank of the city began to sprawl outward, Sam decided to relocate from City Park to build a new Barthe school. Since the affluent middle class of the city was moving away from the Lakefront area and Uptown neighborhoods, following along the commercial growth of Veterans Highway out towards the current New Orleans Louis Armstrong Airport, Sam relocated the new facility to a suburb known as Metairie, LA. There, near the Transcontinental / Cleary Avenue area, Sam built the most unusual school facility in the south... three buildings of classrooms, divided by the age group of the students, with all the un-airconditioned classrooms surrounding it's own custom basketball court or gymnasium. As the school had intramural sports leagues for all sports, Barthe was one of the only schools in the state to have an official "biddy" basketball regulation cour, though it was seldom used for that purpose.
The school flourished in the new location for the next twenty years, attracting students not only from the local area suburbs, but even from the traditional "blue blood" families still living miles away in the Uptown and Garden District sectors of New Orleans. Their families had always sent their sons to Barthe, and the relocation of the school some 20 miles away was not about to change that tradition!
In the early years, the Barthe school was associated with both local public and parochial schools in the area, competeing both physically and academically with any school of it's similar student enrollment of 600-1,000 students. In the late 60's, when racial desegreation became federal law, minority students began to migrate into the previsouly all-white New Orleans public school system. Sam himself was against desegregation of the races, and so Barthe began to affiliate and compete with the remaining other private "all-white" schools, such as St. Martins, Newman, Country Day, Kehoe Academy, and Prytania Private School. When those schools began to take a more liberal stance towards racial policy in the 70's, Sam moved the school affiliation again, into the far more conservative but geographically diverse "Louisianna High School Athletic Association" for the remainder of the years of operation. No longer did Barthe have the local rivalries that had kept the school so predominantly in the public eye. Some students left the school joining other more progressive private and parochial schools, such as De La Salle, Brother Martin, and Jesuits. Overall, enrollment kept growing and new rivalries from more distant schools, such as Central Private, Riverside, and Reserve began to form. Additionally, new out of state rivals appeared, such as Indianola Academy and Jackson Prep, both located in Mississippi.
While much is still remembered about the athletic prowress of the school's legacy, it should not be overlooked as a place for a first rate education as well. The school was well known for being an elite educational facility, consistantly producing far more National Merit Scholarship finalist than any other school in the city, and certainly more than any other school of it's approximate size in the state.
The school was also a perennial favorite in the local scholastic "Prep Quiz Bowl", a popular televised game show hosted by Mel Levitt. Much like the popular quiz shows "Jeopardy", the Prep Quiz Bowl featured teams of highly gifted academic students from schools of all sizes from around the region, testing students knowedge and game strategy in a head-to-head elimination tournament lasting several weeks. Barthe won at least two PQB championships in the mid-70's alone.
As a final realization of Sam's dream to use his school as a tool to build young men, Sam Barthe School For Boys has given New Orleans (and the South) many local civic leaders, educators, doctors, lawyers, and business executives that helped build and shape the city over the latter half of the 20th century.
In the late 80's Sam finally retired as a school administrator, and with the extreme escalation of property prices in Metarie at that time, the school was sold at a handsome price to another private school (Le Ecole Classic). That schools' population merged with existing Barthe students on the traditional Barthe campus, and operated under that new name for many more years to come. Sam Barthe ceased to exist as a school in the mid 80's.
Sam retired to his "farm" in a rural area outside of New Orleans, and lived with his wife of many years "Mama Barthe". Rumor has it from past students who visited Sam over the years that his "farm house" was packed to the walls with the many awards, trophies, and photos of students he accumulated during his 40 years as Head Master of the Sam Barthe School For Boys.
Sam passed away in 1989.

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