MHS alum Kathy Coyle, one of first class to graduate in the now-old high school gym, greets Spuddy at the decommissioning event. (Photo/Brian Cole).

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Kathy Coyle almost sat out the decommissioning of the old Moorhead High School gymnasium. Recovering from heart surgery just two months ago, she says she worried about being up to the high-energy event. “But Brian (Cole, an organizer) just wouldn’t take no for an answer,” she admits.
“And it was awesome.”
As Moorhead students move into the handsome new structure that hosts its first classes this week, Kathy looks back on the old “new school” – the 1967 structure slated to be torn down in coming months to clear the way for culmination of the two-phase construction project. “We still call this the ‘new high school,’” she says of the soon-to-be-demolished structure. Her class of 1968 would be the first to receive their diplomas in that gym, after starting their senior year in what’s now the Townsite Center.
She recalls her less-than-stellar first impression of the big new school on the east edge of town: “It seemed so impersonal, compared to our old school, and so dark. I was used to daydreaming in class, watching the traffic on Eighth Street. This new building lacked windows, and it didn’t help that most of our classes were in the basement.”
But that was far, far from her mind Wednesday as she and her classmates reconnected to reminisce. “I’ve got to admit that we didn’t see much of the games … we were too busy visiting,” she says. “It was so loud that you had to shout and then pretend to hear the answer.”
When a current student asked about her favorite classes back in the day, Kathy was momentarily stumped: “I was there to enjoy it. It was a great opportunity to develop leadership skills.” As a student, she was involved in all kinds of activities – declamation (speech), pep band, and especially athletics. The future TV newscaster went to the state speech tournament in humorous interpretation. She occupied the first chair in the band’s French horn section.
“I was the first female student band director,” she remembers, rolling her eyes. “We scored over 70 points one night against Wheaton … and we had to play ‘Onward Moorhead’ every single time they scored.”
But she was best known as a competitor in track … years before Moorhead High had official women’s sports teams.
“We were unique,” she says of her teammates. “Moorhead regularly dominated intermural track tournaments, but it didn’t officially count because women’s events weren’t sanctioned at the time.” That’s why most of her achievements were logged through the Amateur Athletic Union rather than the school, including the year the 17-year-old ranked fifth in the nation in the 220-yard dash.
“When the new school opened, women were assigned only 20% of the time in the new gym. Our track coach, Paula Bauck, was the first feminist I really knew. She was tenacious,” Kathy remembers, “and went on to bring women’s sports not only to Moorhead, but to the state.” While Kathy and her teammates did compete in intermural state contests, regularly ranking first and second, their names are missing from the Minnesota High School League’s roster of champions; that would finally come about after the passage of Title IX regulations in 1972.
After 23 years in television in Fargo-Moorhead – a tenure that includes being the first full-time woman weekday news anchor during her time at KXJB – the MHS grad went on to earn her master’s and doctoral degrees and work in agricultural economics, first at NDSU and then with the U.S. Department of Agriculture office in Detroit Lakes. She lives on Lake Melissa, “near our arch-enemy’s home town,” she mentions. She recalls the time Detroit Lakes High School boosters “kidnapped” Moorhead High’s original papier mache Spuddy mascot – developed by her older brother Brian – and dragged it back down Highway 10 behind a school bus, finally burning it in the parking lot off their hometown Red Owl store – an infamous memory from her senior year.
“I’ve always sort of thought of myself as Spuddy’s aunt,” she jokes.
While she has kept in touch with many of her fellow Spuds, young and old, Kathy lauds the decommissioning event that brought them together again. “Brian Cole did a marvelous job of including so many aspects of our high school experience, from athletes and coaches to band members, school staff and, of course, Moorhead families. I can’t even count how many hugs we all got and gave that night.
“Moorhead High School was a truly important part of all of our lives. You could tell by how many showed up that night and come to our class reunions, even after 55 years. It’s true school spirit – a warm, fuzzy feeling of being a real community.”