Florida Brickies Attend All-Class
Reunion in Lakeland, Florida

Brickies of all ages, but mostly retired, attended the All-Class Hobart High School Reunion at the Huntington Hills Country Club in Lakeland Florida on Saturday, February 9. John Mattix was the emcee and gave out special prizes. Paul Addison talked about the Hobart High School Alumni Association, and Tom Kerr gave a moving tribute to Bob Kuechenberg, who passed away last month. Ric Mitchell and his wife led the group in DJ Bingo, where the cards had the names of songs that were played.

The dates of the HHSAA Annual Dinner Meeting (Friday, May 3), and the BrickieFest Homecoming Picnic (Saturday, October 12) were announced. Whether you are in Florida or near Hobart, there are events for Brickie Alumni!

Bob Kuechenberg, Hobart Brickie and Miami
Dolphin Standout, Passes Away at Age 71

Bob Kuechenberg, Hobart High School Class of 1965 alumnus and former Miami Dolphins offensive lineman (during their undefeated 1972 season) passed away on Saturday, January 12, 2019. When an obituary becomes available, we will post it here. In the meantime, here are some articles about Bob Kuechenberg:

USA Today

Northwest Indiana Times

New York Times

Sign Up for the Hobart High School All-Class
Reunion at Huntington Hills Country Club,
Lakeland, FL, on Saturday, February 9th!

Here is the info and registration form for the Hobart High School All-Class Reunion at Huntington Hills Country Club, 2626 Duff Road, Lakeland, FL, on Saturday, February 9th, 2019.

All the info is in the letter, but briefly, cash bar 11:30, buffet luncheon 12:30, entertainment and program after that. Cost is $32 per person, and the check is due to John Mattix by February 1.

Hope to see you there!

Note: This is an annual event for "snowbirds" that has been going on for many years. It does not replace the fall all-class BrickieFest in Hobart.

BrickieFest Homecoming Picnic Held in Great Weather

On September 15, the Hobart High School Alumni Association sponsored its eighth Alumni Picnic, this time at the Brickyard. The weather was great!

People from many classes attended, but the winners of the large group award were the Class of 1958, in town for their 60th year reunion, and the combined Classes of 1972 and 1973, here for their 45th. The all-class event was held from 12 noon to 3:00 pm, and hot dogs, brats, chips and bottled water were served free of charge by the HHS Alumni Association.

This year's BrickieFest Picnic was sponsored by the Hobart High School Guidance Department, which has been instrumental in encouraging seniors to apply for scholarships, which we have been awarding since 2012.

Thanks to all those who attended!

NEW CLASS REUNION PICTURES:

We now have a dozen pictures from the Class of 1963's 55th year reunion. Click "Reunion Photos" at the left.

We will publish up to 12 pictures from any class of their reunions, past or present. Em ailthem to us at: info@hobartalumni.org. You can put your captions in the email if you like (please match them with the picture file names). Thanks!

John Mattix Speaks on "The Mattix/Hobart Legacy"

John Mattix, Class of 1963 and Hobart High School football standout, was the guest speaker at the Hobart High School Annual Dinner Meeting on Friday, May 4, in the Great Hall at Hobart High School. Over 50 people attended the meeting.

[For more pictures, click on "Annual Meeting 2018 Photos" at the left. Then click on the first picture to start the slideshow.]

John's talk was titled "The Mattix/Hobart Legacy". He talked about his football experience at Hobart High School, and his place in the well-known Mattix family. He talked about how he always felt "competent, not extraordinary", and yet, as Billy Joel once said, in a world of incompetence, that makes you extraordinary. He related experiences in which he and others could hear the voices of teachers and coaches telling him to be prepared, try again and try harder, and that sometimes you have to call another play.

The HHS Alumni Association announced the recipients of the 2018 scholarships, seniors Calynn Drobac and Cade Brumley. Board members for the next two years were elected: Paul Addison (President), Lynn Kostbade (Vice President), Tracy McCullough (Secretary) and Debra Opolski (Treasurer). Entertainment was provided by Dean Wolff's talented singing group Wolffgang, joined by an Elvis impersonator for the last three songs (see above left picture).

Thanks to all who attended, and to all who support Hobart High School and the Alumni Association!

The Mattix family today: Josie, Bob, John and Dave in the
back row, and Lori Lencheck and Connie Mattix in front.

Thanks to Jennifer Eastwood Davis, Class of 1962, for compiling this extraordinary list! Because they are links to YouTube, Vimeo and the like, they often go out of date. We are doing our best to keep the list up to date with working links. If you find a link that doesn't work, please email us at info@hobartalumni.org, tell us what year and what song link isn't working, and we will try to fix it right away.

Music can bring back lots of memories. What was playing when you were in high school?

Yearbooks Available Online from the
Lake County Public Library

The Lake County Public Library has been digitizing Hobart High School yearbooks. Most of them from 1908 to the present are online. Click "HHS Yearbooks Online" at the left to access the collection. You don't need to register or log in, and you can save the yearbooks as PDF files.

Survey Results for Redesigning the HHSAA
Website to Include Smartphones

Thanks to all of you who responded to our survey about redesigning this website so that it will look good on smartphones and other mobile devices, and still look good on traditional desktops and laptops. The results show strong support for such a redesign. However, as webmaster, I have been reading comments from other sites who use Class Creator (who provides the programming services for this site), and there are still a few bugs to be worked out. Not all features of the site work correctly yet on all phones.

So, we will wait a little while, as Class Creator fixes the few remaining problems, and then we will go ahead with the redesign. For those of you using desktops and laptops, there will be a minimum of changes to the way it looks for you.

Here are the summary results to our survey questions:

1) Do you have a smartphone that you use to access the Internet?
Yes (83.3%), No (16.7%)

2) If "Yes" to #1, have you ever tried to access the HHSAA website on a smartphone?
Yes (30.0%), No (57.5%), N/A (12.5%)

3) If "Yes" to #1, would you be likely to use a smartphone to access the HHSAA website if it were redesigned to look good on a smartphone?
Yes (65.0%), No (17.5%), N/A (17.5%)

4) Would you mind a few changes to the HHSAA website to make it look for everybody, if it meant that it would look good on a smartphone as well as a desktop, laptop or tablet?
Yes, I would mind (9.5%), No, I wouldn't mind (90.5%)

Yes, We Have a Facebook Page!

If you use Facebook, please visit our Facebook page. Just login to Facebook, and search for Hobart High School Alumni Association, or paste this into your browser address bar: https://www.facebook.com/hohighalumni/

Facebook is frankly much better suited for classmates talking to each other than this website is. There is a Message Center on this website, but it requires notifying the other person by email, and they have to come back and login here to get the message. Facebook is just quicker.

Plus, you'll get news about special events on the Facebook page, as well as here.

Follow Us On Twitter!

If you have a Twitter account, we invite you to follow us @hobartalumni. We will not bombard you with announcements, but we will keep you up to date on upcoming class reunions and other events.

Once Again: Don't Confuse Us
with www.AlumniClass.com!

Several people have joined the website at www.alumniclass.com, and some have even paid $10 for it! That website is for selling merchandise (not that there's anything wrong with that), but that is not the Hobart High School Alumni Association site. This one is!

Our site costs nothing to register. In fact, you can see everything except classmate profile information (email addresses and regular addresses) without signing in at all.

You won't get news of HHS alumni activities on the other site. They have no affiliation with Hobart High School or the HHS Alumni Association. Be sure to stay tuned at www.hobartalumni.org!

Welcome to the HHSAA Website!

The HHS Alumni Association raises funds for scholarships! We awarded one scholarship at our first HHSAA annual meeting in April 2012, and have awarded two or more at every annual meeting since. Donations for scholarships are tax-deductible and can be mailed to: HHS Alumni Association, PO Box 68, Hobart, IN 46342-0068. Write "Scholarship Fund" in the memo line. Thanks!

Do You Share An Email Address? If you share an email address with another HHS alum, you can use the same email address as your login, as long as you have a separate password! Remember, your Primary Email Address is your username to login.

Do You Have a Profile on the AlumniClass.com Website? That's Not Our Site!
Many of you have a profile on a website called AlumniClass.com (www.alumniclass.com). If you look at the bottom of their page, you will see this disclaimer: "This Site is independent of and has no association with any school, school district, or web site."

Linking from the HHS site: Recently, the Hobart High School website (www.hobart.k12.in.us) changed its Alumni link from the AlumniClass.com website to this one. If you created a profile on that website, it is still there, but please be reminded that AlumniClass.com is not the real Hobart High School Alumni Association. Our apologies for any confusion.

Are You Getting Annoying Emails?
If you are receiving email notifications from this site about people who have registered or changed their name, you may be subscribed to their profiles without meaning to. Just click on Notify Me at the left, then under Profile Subscriptions, check Unsubscribe From All Profiles In All Years. That should take care of it.