Holy Cross High School

Honoring History in Legends Hall
by Coach & AD Magazine. April/May 2018

Walking through the hallway near the basement basketball court at Holy Cross High School in Flushing, New York, you’d never know there were long-unused lockers behind the branded art stretching 120 feet long on both sides of the hall. Over the last 15 years, the lockers were bolted up because of lack of enrollment, and when more were needed as enrollment picked up again, new lockers were installed that were smaller, rendering these totally useless. Prior to being covered in art, the hallway was like a dead zone in the middle of an otherwise beautiful campus. 

When Keith Goggin first became Holy Cross High School’s athletic director in 2016, he quickly realized that the old and unneeded lockers were a negative representation of the school. In one area, framed photos and jerseys of Division 1 collegiate graduates and professional former players from HCHS were the only unique additions to an otherwise bland hallway. These photos and jerseys became the inspiration for the Legends Hall project.

Since Goggin handles much of the recruitment of new student athletes, he proposed to the Board of Directors that something be done to make this long hallway more aesthetically pleasing. He also noticed that the logos used across the campus were not all identical, so he suggested a soft redesign to a newer, cleaner-looking logo. They agreed. After an extensive search, Goggin chose BigSigns.com to complete this visual project for the school.

The halls now display floor-to-ceiling photos from newspapers and action shots of heroic moments during historical games at Holy Cross. The school’s logos are featured prominently on each panel. In one segment, jerseys from former students who went on to play Division 1 or professional-level sports are featured along with their graduation year, sport and number they had while at HCHS.

Additionally, Goggin even had a “press conference” backdrop put on a wall around the corner form Legends Hall. Students often sign letters of intent in front of this backdrop and the photos of events such as these are great branding opportunities when use on social media to celebrate the achievements of these special athletes.

Goggin gives tours of the facilities to prospective students. The tours start in Legends Hall. He stands them in front of a long mirror and asks them, “How many of you want to be up on these walls?” They all raise their hands. The magic exhibited in Legends Hall does the trick.

Next academic year, HCHS will accept female students for the first time. Goggin is confident they’re ready. The branding goes a great way to establishing HCHS as the place students want to be. The fact that all athletes will have the same logo on their jerseys is another excellent addition to the branding picture.

BigSigns.com was one of several vendors Goggin explored when he began researching for this project. The choice was simple. In order to get the look and feel of a major college in his high school, he chose the vendor that had worked with many major colleges & universities. The extensive body of work combined with how friendly the BigSigns.com team is won Goggin over. A member of the HCHS Board of Directors was previously a chancellor at a university and a president at a small college. This BOD member came down to look at the installation. He told Goggin the installation is first-class — and better than what many colleges have.

Goggin hopes that Legends Hall will continue to inspire students and anyone who sees it. This installation is a reminder of the excellence in athletics that Holy Cross High School offers to its students. This new branding tells the story of athletic and academic triumph. It will launch the school to new heights and be the transition it needs as the first female students to ever be a part of the student body are accepted as freshmen in the class of 2022.