When Jimmy Buffett was in high school at McGill Institute for Boys, he was a cheerleader. This cheerleading squad photo was taken in 1963 before Buffett graduated. This was just 10 years before the all-boys McGill Institute and all-girls Bishop Toolen High School officially combined in 1973, becoming a co-ed high school, McGill-Toolen Catholic High School.
Although some sources say that Buffett first learned to play guitar during his short stint as a student at Auburn University, according to former high school classmates, he was never too far away from a guitar during his days at McGill. He frequently strummed one when he was on the cheerleaders’ bus heading to or from football games. Later this year, he played for a small gathering of his cheerleading teammates at the end-of-the-year bonfire party for the cheerleading team on Dauphin Island.
“Jimmy started playing guitar in late high school. He’d be at my house playing my dad would come out, saying, ‘Jimmy, it’s 10 o’clock! It’s time to take that guitar and get out of here.’ Even when he had success, he was still the same guy that we knew in high school. Fame didn’t change him.” – Ted Nelson, High school classmate
Three Cheers for Three Schools
The McGill cheerleading team was made up of students from McGill Institute, Bishop Toolen and Convent of Mercy, a Catholic all-girls school. It wasn’t until the 1973 merger that all the cheerleaders were officially McGill students.
By the Numbers
2 – 8: McGill’s football record in 1963. Their wins were against Baldwin County High School and Vigor High School. They scored a total of 65 points that season.
1964: The year that Jimmy Buffett graduated from McGill Institute for Boys. The same year in Mobile, the Mobile Municipal Auditorium opened. Buffett would later play the auditorium several times. 1964 was also the year that the USS Alabama came to Mobile. Buffett would donate a few planes to the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park in 2022.
1 Year: The number of years Jimmy Buffett was a cheerleader at McGill. According to high school classmate and friend Ted Nelson, Buffett volunteered as a last-minute stand-in on the team.
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