When technology and sport history collide, it can be a wonderful thing.

Like that very small handful of local institutions who can recall the earliest days of high-school athletics in the nickel basin, the folks at St Charles College have always worn their sporting legacy in Sudbury as a badge of honour.

And while the school itself has always captured that sentiment, to some extent, the work that has recently been completed on the Falconbridge facility clearly takes it to a whole other level.

Thanks in large part to the efforts of the Printing and Design department at SCC, the lower floor hallway constitutes quite literally a walk down memory lane, the walls transformed with murals of over-lapping pictures and stories and moments that bridges the opening of the school in 1951 to the present day.

"It started with the renovations at the school," noted Athletic Director Darren Michelutti. "We had a bunch of pictures that were hung up on the walls and when we redid this wing of our school, we were left with a blank slate."

"At the same time, we were doing some other things with a design company, digitizing some handbooks and such."

The concept is not unique, though it is most certainly the first of its kind, at this level, to be seen in Sudbury.

"They kind of approached us about doing a museum-type history timeline that you see at some of the universities," Michelutti continued.

As a concept, the possibilities were endless.

Whittling down to the details would be key.

"Once we saw what we were dealing with, starting from 1951, we had to figure out how to begin to pull this together," said Michelutti.

Memories of St Charles, a book authored by J.J. Kelly, covering the period from 1951 (opening of the school on Pine Street) into the eighties proved to be a great starting point. From there, it was a matter of assembling those wonderful annual recollections of school happenings for folks of my generation or so.

"It was just a matter of collecting as many yearbooks as we could," explained Michelutti. "We found out what we were missing in-house and we reached out to a lot of alumni." The late Chris Bartolucci and recent retiree Mike Fabiilli filled in many a gap, with the vast Cardinal network assisting with the others.

An undertaking of this nature is prone to endless debate, a fact to which Michelutti and his group of SCC faithful (Aaron Barry, Rob Zanatta, Mary Lynn Poirier, Greg Kolodinski and the St Charles phys ed department, in particular) were not the least bit oblivious to.

"We originally thought that we were going to do ten accomplishments in each decade," he said. "But then we realized the capability in house that we could go floor to ceiling. This allowed us to pull out a little more from each decade, so it became a little easier for us to determine what to include."

"I am sure we still missed some major accomplishments - but there is only so much space at the end of the day."

The group were committed to a Mission Statement that included the following:

1. pay tribute / honour our 70 years of athletic history

2. reconnect with our community and alumni

3. build pride and spirit within our school

Based on the feedback received to date, it's Mission (Statement) accomplished.

"People are amazed that we were able to do this in house," said Michelutti. "Some people are walking in and seeing their faces on the wall, reliving their accomplishments."

So where does it go from here?

"We're going to take a little break now," noted the chief architect of the process. "At the end of the decade, we will update from here on in. We have space to get easily to 2040 - right around my retirement," Michelutti summarized with a smile.