Peter Creedon is a Sachem original. He was a teacher in the district when it was first formed in 1955 and spent the next 33 years educating its students and creating a culture that we still hold close to our hearts today in the community.
Among his many accomplishments and historic additions to Sachem was coming up with traditionally unique Flaming Arrows moniker that Sachem has used since the early 1960s. He was also the first basketball coach in district history.
Now 87 and living in St. James, Creedon spoke with Sachem Report to relive some of his fond memories about the school district and its initial days some 60-plus years ago.
The Sachem Report: How did you first get hired by Sachem and walk me through your roles, and the buildings you taught at?
Pete Creedon: “My first year was in 1955 and I worked there until 1987. I was hired by [former longtime Sachem athletic director] Dave Rothenberg. He refed a game when I was coaching LaSalle Military Academy. Sachem was starting to build its district, and was looking for a basketball coach and I was became the first basketball coach.
I worked at Gatelot Elementary, was a guidance counselor at Waverly when it was a junior high, taught in the high school, then in Chippewa for seventh grade, then Waverly for seventh grade, then Seneca, then Sachem South and finally the high school again.”
SR: You had the pleasure of working and learning from the great Walter C. Dunham. What was that like?
PC: “He was an all around influential man and a real tremendous leader. He bought every piece of property that every school in Sachem is built on. He examined the property, made the offer to the farmer and he didn’t have to research or anything. What Mr. Dunham said, Mr. Dunham got. Everybody had tremendous respect for Mr. Dunham.”
SR: You also had the fortune of working with Dick Berger, another historic figure in Sachem history. Talk about your relationship with him.
PC: “He was a tremendously talented guy. I think he was in the paratroopers in World War II and jumped in Belgium. Dick Berger was a great leader. He wasn’t mouthy. He didn’t have an awful lot to say, preferred that we would do the talking for him. He helped make Sachem into the powerhouse that it became.”
SR: What do you know about the name Sachem and how the school district originally received its name?
PC: “[People from the community interested in forming a centralized school district] would meet every fall and they would go over business they had. [Sachem] seemed to be the solution instead of the town names, Farmingville, Holbrook, Holtsville, Lake Ronkonkoma. John Pedisich, who was on the Lake Ronkonkoma School Board at the time, did not run for the school board position when the district came together. He was a powerful person in the community. He had a big wall paper plant in Ronkonkoma, real good thinker who wanted the district to get off to the good start. He proposed Sachem as a neutral title that would offend nobody and honor the Indian heritage.”
SR: Rumor has it that you actually created Sachem’s “Flaming Arrows” moniker. Explain the history behind that.
PC: “We had to be something besides Indians. There was a television series, “Gun Smoke,” and they started off the program every Tuesday night with a flaming arrow being shot into a wagon that was traveling west. I suggested the flaming arrows was a neutral name and recognized the fighting spirit that was Sachem. They kicked around every Indian name you could think of. Mr. Berger, who was our principal, had me writing up the read-ups for all the teams each morning, and I would write up the blurb about who they were paying and I was using every Indian name under the sun and Mr. Berger said we should get an Indian related name and stick with it. Dick Berger made the decision to use Flaming Arrows about three or four years after we were centralized.”
SR: What do you know about the school fight song?
PC: “Dr. Tom Ramsey and his wife Joan were first music people in the Sachem Central School District. Tom was responsible for Sachem’s red, black and gold colors because of the fight song. Ramsey was a doctor of music and Mr. Berger felt if it was good enough for him, then it was good enough for us all.”
SR: Can you describe how much expansion you witnesses in Sachem from 1955 to present day?
PC: “Dunham and Berger were responsible for the way Sachem developed. They had great gifts for leadership and we were happy to work for them. We came from nothing and went to the biggest school district on Long Island. There is no school on Long Island that has the type of wherewithal with kids, teachers and parents like Sachem. If you’re a Sachem kid, you’re a Sachem kid. I don’t know of any kid who went to Sachem who wasn’t proud to be there.”
–As told to Chris R. Vaccaro