Spirit Night is a UHS tradition with a long and colorful history; for many years, the event has defined the school’s values of culture, community and student expression.
Yearbook advisor Hali Kessler believes that Spirit Night has always been a display of students’ dedication and adherence to UHS history.
“Tradition is really important [at UHS],” Kessler said. “The fact that we do this every year is a commitment to what it means to be a Trojan and what it is to be part of University High School, and I love how they honor that.”
One of the Assistant Principals at UHS, Matthew Pate, spoke about how it’s difficult to trace the entirety of Spirit Night’s origins due to its long-standing establishment at the school.
“It is such a long-standing tradition that many of [the current staff] weren’t around when it started,” Pate said. “It’s such an ingrained part of the University High School experience.”
Though tradition and history are a large part of Spirit Night culture, there have been many shifts in how the night runs. David Knight, a teacher in the Science Department, spoke about how the night’s festivities became a little more subdued after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“9th and 10th graders post-COVID wouldn’t really have experienced the spectacle of Spirit Night like you did before COVID,” Knight said. “You lose some of the ‘institutional history’ that is carried on from year to year.”
Pate pointed out the evolution of the murals across the lockers in the sophomore, junior and senior spaces.
“There was a time when they would just cover the lockers with papers, and then somebody came in with the idea of doing the panels so that people could still use their lockers,” Pate said.
A member of the Math Department, Nicole Bradshaw, mentioned that some years ago, students would work overtime on the class displays for the big night.
“[Now] there’s a lot more balance as far as the time put in,” Bradshaw said. “[Students would] be here all night building stuff. We finally put time curfews.”
Pate spoke about the biggest change in the festivities that he had noticed in his years at UHS. He explained that there was a higher student awareness of the waste creation in the process of constructing the class displays. In previous Spirit Nights, the extravaganza of the structures and creations were often just tossed away after one night.
“Students are a little bit more cognizant [now] about the amount of material that gets used,” Pate said. “There’s so much material that goes into this, and then it kind of gets thrown into a dumpster.”
Although the preparation process has changed, excitement for the event among students has grown. Bradshaw also described the shift in who attended the Spirit Night festivities.
“In the beginning, it was just ASB students,” Bradshaw said. “I think a lot of other students got a little bit more involved in the last few years and certainly came to Spirit Night.”
Throughout its many years, Spirit Night has become a well-loved part of the UHS culture. It has grown and evolved, with new generations of students leaving their mark on the beloved tradition every year.
