Sunday, the 11th of June 1961 was damp from the monsoon showers. In front of an unfinished building, amongst bricks, heaps of sand and bulldozers stood a motley group of boys, girls and teachers listening to Fr. Schoch as he announced that Loyola High School had been officially inaugurated. This first assembly lasted 2 hours, at the end of which Fr. Schoch declared a holiday. This, according to one of those first students, received enthusiastic applause from Fr. Rehm, the first Principal!
At the time, the area had no English medium schools for boys. So with little more than a dream, a lease of land from the National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR) and a pocketful of generous donations, Fr. Schoch and his team set about building the school on hostile, hilly terrain. It was infested with snakes and scorpions, and used an approach road that had been carved out for purposes of transporting stone from a nearby quarry. This road was later re-routed and what we see today is a magnificent tree lined driveway leading up to the school.
Initially the school was populated with students from other Jesuit schools who filled vacancies in the junior classes. Std VI had 15 students in each division and this was the case of the higher classes as well. The first batch of Std X students passed out in 1962. The school had eleven standards and Std X and XI were ‘co-ed’ till 1965 – to accommodate girls from the adjacent St. Joseph School, still under construction. The school even had a degree college up to Second Year B.Sc. till 1975. The Junior College was added when the Maharashtra State Board switched to the 10+2 system.