J-Club | J-Club Hall of Honor
By Frank Rajkowski, Writer/Video Producer from SJU
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn.- If Cyril Paul ’59 had been devoted to his job as a police officer, he could not have left the Bahamas in 1955 to enroll at Saint John’s University.
In that case, the Johnnies program would have lost one of the best running backs in school history, and many others would have lost a musician and teacher who has spent much of the past 60 years as an advocate for tireless for education and art.
“The first person I arrested was a drunk man,” recalls Paul, who grew up and taught in Trinidad and Tobago before being recruited to join the Nassau police force in the Bahamas at 19.
He stayed there for several years before leaving in his mid-20s to attend SJU.
“I was doing traffic duty on Bay Street in Nassau during rush hour,” Paul continued. “The attacker was about 150 to 200 meters away riding in my direction and I raised my hand to stop. All the vehicles stopped him but he continued. I followed him and told him he was under arrest. He pushed me and I went down. The call went to the police station. People saw this and called out that an officer was being attacked. Five or six other officers appeared and killed him with a police car. They took him to the police station and I felt very sorry for it. That’s when I first realized that maybe this wasn’t the right job for me.”
Instead, he eventually headed north to an unknown state that would become his home for the next six decades. He had heard about SJU from Fr. Malachy Murphy, a priest from St. John’s Abbey then serving in the Bahamas. Paul – who attended a Catholic church where he performed in the choir – often accompanied Murphy when he celebrated Mass on Saturdays at a leper asylum in an isolated part of the island.
“I came from a poor country,” said Paul, who is now 92. “My parents were poor, my friends were poor, the government was poor. I thought going to Saint John’s could help give me the opportunity to make a difference in other people’s lives and give them sent money home to my mum and dad and the rest of my family in Trinidad.
“The weather was very different,” he added with a laugh. “It’s cold in Minnesota! It was so cold my first winter in Saint John’s that my lips cracked. Thankfully, a priest there told me about lip balm. It helped me hang in there and get out that winter. Lip Balm and a lot of it.”
The winter’s riding brought him into the spring where Paul – who had excelled in both track and cricket at Nassau – immediately established himself as one of the best runners in a Johnnie team trained by John Gagliardi.
“John was cool,” said Paul of Gagliardi, who would stay at SJU until 2012 and become the winningest coach in college football history. “He came from a town in Colorado called Trinidad, and I came from (Trinidad and Tobago). So we had a lot of fun conversations about that.”
As a freshman in 1956, Paul teamed with twin brothers Kevin ’58 and Keith ’58 Hughes to form the nucleus of a mile relay team that went on to win three straight MIAC titles. Paul ran the anchor leg. The team went through the 1956 season undefeated, breaking the school record three times, including the conference meet.
“Cyril was a great runner, but before he got to Saint John, he had never competed using the starting blocks before,” said Kevin Hughes, who himself won the conference title in the 440-yard dash as a senior in 1958. “John was still very young on campus and still learning track. I remember the first time I saw Cyril; he was in the starting blocks and John was standing behind him reading from a book on how to start a race .
“We didn’t have mobile phones back then, but it would have made for a great photo.
“But Cyril was a big item,” Hughes continued. “He was a great guy and just a tremendous runner. He and Curt Gabrielson from Concordia competed in the 100, 220 and 440. They always had very close races. Watching those two races was worth the price of admission.”
Paul won both the 100- and 220-yard dashes as a sophomore in 1957 – helping SJU capture its first conference team title in 18 years.
His time in the 100 that season (9.9 seconds) was an MIAC record, and his school records in both events would stand until broken by Dave Lamm ’68 in the late 1960s.
“None of my family was able to jump on a plane and come see me in person,” Paul recalls. “But I used to mail the trophies I won back home to my dad in Trinidad. And you know what he did with them? He used them as doorways! I guess they were practical to use like that. I’d go back to home for a visit and finding broken arms and heads. All that was left was the bottom where the weight was.
“But I know they were proud of me.”
As Paul’s time on campus continued, his circle of interests expanded across the street. He formed a Calypso band (Junkaroos) that played around Central Minnesota and won the 1957 MIAC Talent Contest held in St. Louis. Paul as part of Hamline University’s Snow Days festivities.
The group’s beginnings actually came at a show at the University of Minnesota as part of the state’s Centennial Festival in 1958.
“The abbot (at Saint John’s) came into my study hall one day and asked me to walk with him out of the building,” Paul recalls. “He was also an English major. On the way to and from campus, he told me about the Centennial Celebration that was going to be held at the University of Minnesota.
“The U of M was asking all the colleges in the state to prepare a musical (performance) or a skit — any kind of musical act they could provide for the occasion … Abbot told me I should get a team together. I I hesitated, but he insisted.”
It’s a good thing he did as Paul’s ensemble took first prize. This marked the beginning of a musical career spanning more than 60 years, as Cyril Paul and the Calypso Monarchs became part of the entertainment scene in the Twin Cities and beyond, with Paul singing and playing his signature Conga drum.
The band has played Reunion Weekend at SJU several times over the years.
“There was a band on campus called the Moonmisters, but they played trombones, clarinets and saxophones,” Paul said. “I just had my conga drum. So I couldn’t play with them. I had to start my own band and people really liked it. I started getting invited to local high schools and other colleges and places like that to play. I didn’t I would never have expected something like that to happen. But the kids seemed to really like the music I played. It was Calypso mixed with some sort of Spanish rhumba. And I’ve stuck to that mix over the years since then. .”
Paul was also a teacher in the Twin Cities for many years. Later he worked as a music resource in schools and churches. 
“Education has always been important to me.
That is why he has also worked hard to promote and raise money for the Cyril Paul Scholarship Program for Caribbean students at CSB and SJU. That included cycling almost 2,200 miles — from his home in the Twin Cities to California — in his late 70s as a fundraiser in 2008.
“Cyril Paul is an amazing Johnnie,” said Adam Herbst ’99, executive director of alumni relations at SJU. “Not only was he an accomplished student-athlete here at Saint John’s, but he has stayed active throughout his life—including completing several legendary bike rides. He has also shared his great musical talent by singing in funerals of fellow Johnnies, and also performing with his band at the Reunion Beach Bash on the shores of Lake Sagatagan over the years.”
“Cyril has always been a loyal Johnnie, eager to mentor black students and new alumni and to perform with his band, the Calypso Monarchs,” added Thom Woodward ’70, SJU’s former director of alumni relations. . “He was not only a standout singer for the Johnnies, but introduced Calypso music to Central Minnesota in the late 1950s.
“Cyril’s personality and musical talent were perfect over the years for CSB/SJU alum events, whether on stage, on the sand at Sagatagan Lake for a reunion or even aboard a cruise overlooking the Mississippi River for an event of the Twin Cities Chapter in Minneapolis. .”
Paul moved to California to live with his daughter a few years ago. But his ties to SJU remain strong, and he said he remembers his days in Collegeville fondly.
“I had a great time at Saint John’s,” he said. “I was so filled with joy to be there getting a better education and meeting so many new people. I really had a lot of fun in those years.”
Hall of Honor Class of 2022
The 2022 class of student-athletes, coaches and volunteers will be inducted into the Saint John’s University J-Club Hall of Honor in a ceremony scheduled for Homecoming Saturday – October 1 – at Guild Hall (Old Gym) .
The dinner and consecration ceremony begins at 5:15 p.m. Registration is $75 per person until September 25 ($100 per person after) and includes dinner and drinks. All proceeds go to the J-Club to support SJU athletics.
To register to attend, click here.
-2022 Class of J-Club Hall of Honor: Tim Schmitz ’78
-2022 J-Club Hall of Honor Class: Br. Mark Kelly, OSB
-2022 Class of J-Club Hall of Honor: Troy Bigalke ’01
-SJU to induct 11 into the J-Club Hall of Honor on October 1st
