Provo High School Memories

How its past, present and future influences Utah County www.heraldextra.com

proudly presents

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PROVO HIGH

TABLE OF CONTENTS TIME TO SAY GOODBYE The process of moving the school to the west — 4-8

BACK TO THE 1950s

Remember a time when the building was new — 9-11

FIRST CLASS

These students’ claim to fame — 12

REMEMBERING PROVO HIGH

Former athletes reflect on time inside those walls — 14-17

GIRL POWER

The influence of two longtime coaches — 18-21

TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVE Brian Preece still witnessing athletics — 24-25

A SHARED STORY

Families represent Bulldogs across generations — 26-27

FROM THE DISTRICT

STAFF www.heraldextra.com

PUBLISHER RHETT LONG Publisher + Advertising Director

EDITORIAL

JORDAN CARROLL Executive Editor

ART

Superintendent Rittel shares a word — 28

DAVID REVILLA Graphic Designer

MORE PHOTOS

WRITERS

See more snapshots from archives and online — 29-30

SHARING MEMORIES Readers submit letters about their experiences — 31

THE RIVALRIES

In Provo, boys basketball was the game — 22-23

SEE OUR 360 PHOTO GALLERY OF THE SCHOOL AT HERALDEXTRA.COM

GENELLE PUGMIRE BRALEY DODSON JARED LLOYD DARNELL DICKSON

PHOTOGRAPHY EVAN COBB ISAAC HALE

DAILY HERALD

86 N. University Ave. #300 Provo, UT 84601 801-373-5050 • 800-880-8075 http://heraldextra.com

Daily Herald

March 18, 2018

From the editor:

MORE THAN MEMORIES

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s Provo High School approaches its final graduating class in the University Avenue building, the Daily Herald wanted to take the time to collect and recall memories made during the more than half century students walked the halls of that edifice.

Positioned on University Avenue and Bulldog Boulevard, the school’s location isn’t the only thing that makes it the heart of Provo and Utah County.

In the 60-plus years since the building was erected and then sold to BYU in 2016, the school has functioned as a central hub for many of us.

But as many will tell you, it is the people inside the building who have made education

and life in Utah County a priceless experience for those who have attended, worked and volunteered there.

Thousands of youth and parents have gathered in the gyms and on the fields, cheering on teams and student athletes on their way to championships and collegiate scholarships.

Families have started and grown within Provo High’s walls — meeting and dating, eventually getting married and starting multi-generation Provo Bulldog grads. Families like the Revueltas and Williams, that shared their story with us, have raised multiple generations of Bulldogs.

It is people like Principal Tregaegle that ushered in a new generation of Bulldogs, teachers like Mr. Ray Jones that provided valuable life skills during crucial times, and coaches like Betty Clark and Wendy Bills that taught and

influenced so many young girls who would grow up to be strong women.

Young minds have exited those halls to go on and be community leaders all over Utah, educators, politicians — we were quite entertained looking up old yearbook photos of Utah Valley University President Matthew Holland and Provo Mayor Michelle Kaufusi — businessmen and women, stars, scientists, as well as mothers and fathers, and grandparents.

We are a web, forever connected.

As the community looks to the future of continued growth and new opportunities on the west side of Provo, we also look to the past and present. The Class of ’57 shared the excitement they, too, felt moving into a new school from Center Street during a time when the county had just a population of 81,912.

Jordan Carroll

Executive Editor

COURTESY OF PROVO SCHOOL DISTRICT

A photo from the 1957 Provo High yearbook. Kenneth Weight (middle) explaining American History to Jerry O’Neil (left) and Jo Ann Farrer (right) at Provo High.

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THANKS FOR THE MEMOR I E S!

Provo High community preparing to say goodbye to our school

M BRALEY DODSON

Daily Herald

ichelle Kaufusi says the vote to move Provo High School was a dagger to her heart.

As the current mayor of Provo, the former president of the Provo City School District Board of Education and an alumni of the district’s oldest high school, her ties to the school run deep.

“A lot of people look back on high school and say, ‘I won’t go back, it was the worst days of my life,’ but not here,” Kaufusi said. “We love each other and loved our experience and people literally want a piece of it before it goes down.”

The school’s not going down, at least not immediately. After voters agreed to fund the rebuild of the school with a bond in 2014, the school board unanimously voted to move the school from University Avenue to Provo’s west side and put the current school up for sale in 2015.

Brigham Young University bought the school and the 25 acres it sits on for $25 million in 2016 and agreed to rent back the facilities and grounds to the district for 30 months at no cost while the new school is being constructed.

Two years later, BYU, which is across the street from the University Avenue high school site, has not publicly disclosed what it plans to do with the property.

Students will begin attending the new school in the fall.

But even though the school is physically moving, the community’s passion isn’t going anywhere.

“There is just a feel that is special here,” said Boyd McAffee, the principal of Provo High School.

The move

the new school was being constructed.

Scrapping that plan was painful for Kaufusi, who was president of the Provo City School District Board of Education at the time. Every word about how the current location wasn’t the best place to rebuild the school made her angrier.

“I had a love for it and it skewed my perception of the realities because for me it was so emotional and so sentimental,” Kaufusi said.

Provo High School has had more than 10 additions done since the 1950s and needed pricey seismic upgrades. A 2012 evaluation showed the school would need $18.3 million in maintenance over 10 years.

The eventual vote to move the school was unanimous.

About half of the money from the $108 million bond passed in 2014 to rebuild five schools is going toward the Provo High School project, which was budgeted at $79.7 million.

The vote wasn’t just rough on Kaufusi, but also on community members who had walked the halls of Provo High School and who saw it as the center and

gateway to the city. Following the vote, Kaufusi said she was approached by alumni who wanted a brick from the building, wanted the district to auction off lockers or requested to see a favorite spot in the school one final time before the school closed.

But knowing the school had moved once before, Kaufusi said, helped her.

The school is shifting to the west similarly to how Provo’s population is projected to. While the school may not longer be adjacent to Bulldog Blvd., it’s still expected to be deeply connected to the community.

“Schools inevitably become the center of a community regardless of a physical location,” said Todd McKee, the executive director of secondary education for Provo City School District.

He also expects the new building to boost school morale.

“There is a little bit more of a spring in your step and a smile on your face,” McKee said.

Faculty gave input throughout the design process.

Please see MEMORIES, Page 6

The target day to have the building vacated is May 25.

And when classes begin again on Aug. 15, the term “Provo High School” will belong to a new building.

The district originally planned to rebuild Provo DAILY HERALD FILE PHOTO High School at its current address on University Av- Elementary school students carry kindness chains during the Kindness Rally at Provo High School on April enue. Students would have been moved to different 27, 2015. Every elementary school in Provo created kindness chains made of pieces of paper with acts of parts of the school and to portable classrooms while kindness performed by students written on them.

Daily Herald

March 18, 2018

ISAAC HALE, DAILY HERALD

The football field of the new Provo High School stands partially complete on Jan. 18, 2018, in Provo. The high school is located at 1300 N. Lakeshore Drive.

DAILY HERALD FILE PHOTO

Members of the Provo High School Marching Band perform during the 4th of July Parade in Provo in 2006.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF PROVO SCHOOL DISTRICT

A photograph of Betty Ivers, left, and Karen Coles, poring over a news magazine to study current affairs in Provo High. From the 1957 yearbook.

ISAAC HALE, DAILY HERALD

Provo players make their entrance onto the field before a game against the Orem Tigers on Sept. 15, 2017, at Provo High School.

A photograph of a classroom at Provo High in 1967.

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EVAN COBB, DAILY HERALD

A painting of the Provo High mascot, the bulldog on Jan. 15.

Memories From 4

McAffee said some parts of the University Avenue building, like the D Wing, have had problems since they were built.

“We have shifting foundations and we have cracks in the walls where kids can pass notes back and forth between classes,” McAffee said.

There are issues with the school’s heating, air and plumbing. Kids wear coats to class. There are doors that don’t close. The issues have piled up in the maze-like building over the years.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t deep nostalgia linked to the structure.

“People are mourning the loss of this building,” McAffee said.

This school year will require emotionally preparing the school community to move into a new building. It will also require the monumental physical move.

Typically, when an old school is being rebuilt, the

current school is demolished and things that won’t be moved stay inside it when the building goes down.

Since the building is being handed over to BYU, the district will have to have to empty and clean out 70 years worth of stuff.

“It will be a colossal undertaking to vacate this building,” McAffee said.

Teachers will need to be packed and ready to move out on the last day of school. A moving company will then come to deliver their items to their new classrooms.

Summer school and camps will be in the building through July and the offices will remain in the current building during the summer.

Deep roots

McAffee has spent time in various positions at schools across Provo City School District, but he’s always ended back at Provo High School. He was an assistant principal there for five years before being named the interim principal last year and was recently appointed as the principal.

His family has a long history with the school. His grandfather attended Provo High School, as did his aunt.

His oldest child is a fourth-generation Provo High School student.

Kaufusi was a cheerleader at Provo High School and served in other roles, as well, which included being Miss Hi for a welcome week. Her mother attended Provo High School, and Kaufusi’s siblings did, too.

“I had a great high school experience, I really did,” Kaufusi said. “I had a lot of fun.”

She considers herself lucky to have grown up in the area when students lived near their teachers and ran into them in the grocery store. She even remembers her favorite teacher, who taught English and taught her to love reading and journaling, and a bulldog in a little green sweater running out onto the field during games.

She still has her Provo High School shirts, and said her children, who’ve attended Timpview High School, Please see MEMORIES, Page 8

Daily Herald

March 18, 2018

PHOTOS COURTESY OF PROVO SCHOOL DISTRICT

A photograph of the Provo Marching Band in 1967.

DAILY HERALD FILE PHOTO

Head Custodian Gary Coates shows off the school’s ancient boiler, installed in the 1940s and since converted from coal to gas, at Edgemont Elementary School in Provo on Oct. 22, 2014. Provo voters will be considering a $108 million school bond in this November’s election that would pay for reconstruction of Provo High and four elementary schools, including Edgemont.

A photo of a classroom in the yearbook of 1959.

DAILY HERALD PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

A panoramic view of the space outside the Provo High School gymnasium captured on a 360-degree camera.

A photograph of a dance at Provo High School in 1958.

A photograph of students outside Provo High School in 1970.

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Memories

sus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But Kaufusi, Provo’s first female mayor From 6 and Utah Valley University President refuse to eat with her when she’s wearing Matthew Holland, did. So have Paul them.

Boyer, a chemist and 1997 Nobel LauProvo High School was originally reate an authors Mark Z. Danielewski established in 1912 and began gradu- and Tracy Hickman, among others. ating students about a decade later. It started on Center Street in Provo be- Planning a legacy fore moving to its current location on McAffee plans to mount his grandUniversity Avenue in the 1950s. father’s Provo High School letterman It’s seen its fair share of notable jacket in a shadow box to be displayed alumni, and there are also plenty of in his office.

It won’t be the only piece of Provo rumors about who has gone there.

High School memorabilia that will be “We have a handful of important folks who did, but yeah, the entire on display at the new building.

Quorum of the Twelve did not go The P in the middle of the gym floor here,” McAffee said. will be cut out and placed in the new Neither did Donny Osmond or Dal- building. Some senior class gifts, like lin H. Oaks, the first counselor in the the bronze bulldog, will also be moved First Presidency in The Church of Je- to the new school.

Jerseys in shadow boxes and old yearbook photos are being touched up, printed and displayed. A commemorative flag will be designed by a student and flown this year and the next school year before being put on permanent display at the new school.

There are community, student and faculty committees organizing various activities surrounding the transition, which will include an all class reunion in May, digitizing yearbooks and organizing an alumni choir that will perform a commemorative event.

Lori Otterstrom, a member of the community legacy committee, has attended a tour of the new high school with the committee. She said the committee went through the school and helped come up with idea of where different displays could be placed.

“The value of this committee is trying to help make some continuity, make some connections and some excitement for a new space,” Otterstrom said.

McAffee said this year’s seniors have been passionate about their final year at the school. The school has brought back the senior all-night party based on popular demand, had a dance on the football field and had a homecoming event that included about 300 alumni.

He said the school is excited to have a new building and thankful to the community for voting on a bond to fund it.

“The community deserves something great,” McAffee said. “Kids deserve something great, something that shows the community believes in them, and this has been a symbol of that.”

EVAN COBB, DAILY HERALD

An image of the hallways at Provo High.

Daily Herald

March 18, 2018

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PROVO HIGH OF THE 1950s:

A look back at a new school and a changing world

T GENELLE PUGMIRE

Daily Herald

aking a note from the 1956 Provo High School yearbook the school’s “structure is old but its heart is young.”

The summer of 1956 was the last year for the old Provo High School located on Center Street where Provo City Hall now resides. It had been a gathering place for students and the public since 1920.

As if brick and mortar could speak to the students, the yearbook noted “progress decrees a new building for their children and children’s children; but to them I am still the mother of their memories.”

After a three-year push by beloved principal Delbert Tregeagle — he served from 1947 to 1969 — and a bond approval, a new school was finally built.

In the fall of 1956, where once was just an open field, a new school opened its doors on North University Avenue.

Local architect Fred L. Markham was the architect for the school that was described in the ’57 yearbook as majestic architecture with floating stairways that graced the south end of the main hall.

“Sunlight, bursting through the east windows bathed wall and staircases in shining glory,” the 1957 yearbook staff stated.

The school opened, “to the youth of the fifties who stood clear eyed and unafraid on the threshold of the atomic age,” according to the yearbook.

Now, in the evolution of time and things, the old Provo High School on University Avenue is preparing to shut its doors to high school classes for the final time this summer.

A new state-of-the-art school will open its doors this fall in west Provo. It is the age of technology and a new mil-

COURTESY OF PROVO SCHOOL DISTRICT

Flight Presentation documented in the 1958 Provo High yearbook. lennium, where students have a myriad of gadgets and gizmos and inventions around them to keep them informed, entertained and up-to-date on what’s happening around them.

Before this shift, the Daily Herald is taking a few moments to step back in time and follow the trends and experiences of generations called the baby boomers, Generation X and the millennials.

Provo High students, like other teenagers around the country, were taking charge in post-World War II United States. They had jobs and that meant spending money, and they used that

money to build a new pop culture.

From saddle shoes and penny loafers, and crinoline petticoats and poodle skirts, to button down collars and blue jeans, the class of ’57 were trendsetters.

The Provo High mascot was a real, live bulldog named Vic. One of the first theatrical presentations at the new school was “Our Town.”

The staff of the Provost Yearbook described the gym as, “The spacious gymnasium provided ample room for growth of school spirit at the basketball games.”

At lunch they would gather to visit, or listen to Elvis Presley, Little Richard,

and the Everly Brothers.

That same year the USSR launched Sputnik 1 into space, the first nuclear reactor plant was opened in Pennsylvania, and U.S. troops were sent to Arkansas to enforce segregation laws.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was president of the United States with Richard M. Nixon his vice president. Senator Joseph McCarthy was outing alleged communists on the Un-American Activities Committee. Martin Luther King Jr. began his national resistance to segregation campaign.

Please see 1950s, Page 11

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DAILY HERALD FILE PHOTO

A Daily Herald photo of a 1958 basketball game.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF PROVO SCHOOL DISTRICT

Principal Tregaeagle in the 1958 yearbook.

A 1958 school dance.

Daily Herald

1950s From 9

It was an era of change.

“I can remember they were having a lot of failures with the rockets,” said Gary Graham, class of ’57 of the space race.

When they weren’t involved with school activities the class of ’57 hit the Uinta or Princess theaters in downtown Provo and watched movies like the “Bridge Over the River Kwai,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Old Yeller,” “Peyton Place” and “Funny Face.”

When their homework was over they adjusted the rabbit ears antenna and tuned in on the black and white TV to “Perry Mason,” “I love Lucy,” or “Maverick.”

On Saturday morning’s the TVs were tuned to the new hit show “American Bandstand.” The show was led by young up-and-coming disc jockey Dick Clark out of Philadelphia.

Out on the school grounds kids were trying out a new sport with the first Frisbees. The Slinky and hula hoops were also the new rage.

And if they wanted to cruise Center Street it was most likely they would use the older model Hudson Hornet or flashy new Nash Cosmopolitan. But if you had a convertible the cruise of the day would be in a Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible.

Over the decades the students and even Provo High itself has changed.

New classroom wings and other additions to the school have made the campus almost unrecognizable to some former students.

While teenage and Provo High students’ lives continued to change, Provo was changing.

The senior class of ’57 shopped at Taylor’s department store, Woolworths, Shipp’s Jewelry, ate at the Walgreens lunch counter, and listened to KOVO radio.

Just around the corner was the decade of the ’60s, the English invasion of the Beatles, the Bay of Pigs incident that nearly pulled the U.S. into war and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that changed the world and student lives forever.

“A friend and I were at lunch and heard over the radio that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas,” said Willy Shaw, class of ’65.

“We went back to school (PHS) and were to go to assembly. Everyone was

talking about the shooting so it was noisy,” Shaw said. “Then a person with a transistor radio had it on. Everyone quieted down and we were all (about 200 plus people) listening to that transistor radio. We were all sent home after everyone learned about the president’s death.”

Shaw said she along with some of her friends went to the popular Hi-Spot Drive-in when they left school. HiSpot was later featured in the popular movie “Footloose.”

Less than a decade later, current and former students in 1967 were fighting a new war in Vietnam. An honor wall at Provo High acknowledged alumni who had been killed or missing in action.

In the Provost yearbook of ’67 the staff described a trip to downtown Provo as, “Crowds, parking tickets, needing more money than you have, red lights, finally getting a parking place; buying a new dress, shoes for the dance, $48?!, tired feet.”

Looking for recreational activities, Provo High students gathered for bowling at the Regal Lanes, they dined at the Royal Inn and shopped at Clarks clothing store.

By 1977 students’ hair had gotten longer, pant legs belled at the bottom and the Provost yearbook of ’77 proclaimed “Provo High is bullish on the Big Green.”

In 1987 the Provo High Halloween dance was themed around the land of fantasy. The yearbook that year reported that typically the decorations and special effects would be the most frightening. Instead the most frightening thing was their fellow students.

The students proclaimed in the yearbook, “We are caught up in tradition, we are finding the right and blending the extreme.”

Students in 1997 were mourning the death of Lady Diana Spencer, formerly Great Britain’s princess. Students were already starting to worry about the Y2K frenzy and the end of the millennium, most of their attention was turned to school work and achievement.

In 2007 the yearbook staff reflected on student life this way: “Each step on the campus of Provo High School brings the world into focus. Suddenly the air is crisp, the sun is sharpened and our goals are now in sight.”

Daily Herald reporter Genelle Pugmire can be contacted at gpugmire@heraldextra.com, (801) 344-2910, Twitter @ gpugmire

March 18, 2018

FROM THE DAILY HERALD ARCHIVE:

Provo High School by the numbers The student council at Provo High School began a fundraiser for the victims of 9/11 by selling ribbons in patriotic colors. Over $750 was raised three days later, with plans to continue the efforts into the following week.

In 2003, Provo High students were among the first in the state to participate in a new financial literacy course under development by the Utah State Office of Education. The half-year course focused on instruction that stressed general financial literacy.

At least SIX GRADUATES from the 1970s became writers, including a novelist, a fantasy writer, a playwright, a newspaper columnist and several children’s authors, according to an article in 2004, including Tracy Hickman, Rick Walton, Ann Cannon and others.

In 2004, an article reported that students from Provo High School estimated 50 TO 70 PERCENT or more of their classmates had cellphones. Originally the district didn’t allow phones in school at all, but after calls from parents and worries stemming from the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, school officials softened.

Provo City School District felt prompted to fashion a new policy regulating school clubs in OCTOBER 2005 after the first Provo High School Gay-Straight Alliance Club requested permission to be formed, which operated for just a few months during the 2005-06 school year. The board later sought input from the state level in regards to the state law that governed school clubs. In the following legislative sessions, bills that would have given schools the authority to regulate clubs were proposed in the House and Senate.

With the theme “50 YEARS ON THE AVENUE,” 2006 homecoming events featured a fast food fundraiser at McDonald’s and ended with a dance. After several rounds of renovations and additions, Provo High was to once again working to mitigate the effects of aging by raising $500,000 for improvements.

The Utah Peace Officers Association K9 held trials at the Provo High School football field in 2012. The competition put police dogs from around the state through the ringer. According to Provo Officer Rory Rasmussen, roughly 36 DOGS and handlers competed in events testing agility, bite work and obedience.

Provo High — which built on its present location in 1956 and refurbished its football stadium in the mid-1980s — was the proud possessor of a $3.2 MILLION brand spanking new, state-ofthe-art football/soccer facility in 2013 after playing football on a field and stadium that was created more than half a century ago.

Voters cast their ballots in November 2014 to decide if Provo School District would have $108 million in bonds to rebuild some of its schools, including Provo High. The final results had 70.65 PERCENT in favor of the issue. There were 8,332 votes in favor and 3,461 opposed.

One day after it announced it will sell the current Provo High School location to Brigham Young University, the Provo City School District broke ground on the high school’s future location in APRIL 2016.

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Provo High School’s Class of ‘57 alumni reminisce when it was a ‘new’ school

D

GENELLE PUGMIRE

Daily Herald

escribed as the “dream of the decades’ and “an envisioned reality” Provo High School circa 1956-57 was the newest and best educational hub in the valley.

In a tribute in the ’57 Provost yearbook it says: “Here 1,000 young men and women have pursued their education and formed lasting friendships in the inspiring surroundings of an architectural masterpiece.”

“It was wonderful,” said Jesse Ripple Nuttall, class of ’57. “We had grown tired of the old school. The new school seemed huge to us. I think we adjusted.”

Like many of her schoolmates, Nuttall, now 78, said walking through the new school doors for the first time was thrilling.

“We had a good group of friends,” Nuttall said. “We had good teams. I remember my favorite teacher was Mrs. Nicholson who taught Home Economics.”

Nuttall has lived in Provo all her life.

One of her classmates is Robert Carter.

Carter has moved on to be one of the and jump in unison. The results were major historians and experts on Provo not only dangerous but stupid. and Utah County history.

“We got a scotch blessing for that Ask Carter what he remembers one,” Carter said. “We knew never to about the high school and the first do that again.” thing out of his mouth Carter added and said, was “the green beetle.”

“I missed the old school because I could walk.

It seems they didn’t I’d even walk home for have a track or physical education field at the old lunch,” Carter said. “Now high school, so during the new school is the old the buildout of the new school.” school, several boys Graham said he was excited about the new would hop into the green beetle, an old Army truck, school and gives a nod to and head up 500 West to Principal Delbert “Deb” Tregaegle for the new what is now Bulldog Avenue and 200 West near “plant.” the tracks of the Heber “It was state-of-theRobert Carter Creeper railroad. art,” Graham said. “All of Gary Graham, from the the kids were really proud class of ’57, called the famous truck the of our new school.”

Green Monster.

“Twenty years later in 1977 my “The field on the west side was an daughter, Lisa Graham was head athletic field and that is where we cheerleader,” Graham said. would go for gym class,” Graham said.

Carter said his favorite classes at the “Coach Warner (Greasy) would drive new school were English and history. us up.”

“English was the first class of According to Carter, one day the the day. One day my teacher asked boys got a bit crazy and got the bright me to take his 1949 Olds and drive idea to all pile at the back of the truck it to Mitchell’s Garage to get it in-

spected,” Carter said.

He noted that it was a great way to get out of class.

Carter also liked his social studies teacher Burt Asay. Prior to becoming a teacher himself, Carter went back to Provo High as a student teacher and was assigned to be with Milt Nelson, one of his favorites, as his student teacher.

Carter taught English and history in junior highs in Alpine and Provo school districts. That love began at Provo High.

Graham said he was involved in organizing the class’s 60th reunion last year.

“It was held at the school,” Graham said. He added he hardly recognized the place with all the additions and changes.

Graham said he loved Provo High and was active in the ski club and DECA, Distributive Education Clubs of America.

“Our claim to fame is being from the first graduating class of the new Provo High School,” Nuttall said.

Daily Herald reporter Genelle Pugmire can be contacted at gpugmire@heraldextra.com, (801) 344-2910, Twitter @ gpugmire

PHOTOS COURTESY OF PROVO SCHOOL DISTRICT

A photograph of Provo High school in 1957.

A photograph of a hallway inside Provo High school in 1957.

Daily Herald

March 18, 2018

A TIMELINE OF WORLD AND SCHOOL EVENTS

1956-57 New Provo High School building opens in the fall to nearly 1,000 students.

Two months later President Dwight D. Eisenhower gets second term in office.

1967

PHS holds first Hi Day dance.

Theater students present “Our Town.”

By the end of the 1960s PHS students had a new halls added to the school. A number of them had joined the military and were now serving in the Vietnam War.

Around the world and in pop culture: Soviets launch Sputnik 1 beginning the space race.

Around the world and in pop culture:

The first nuclear power plant opens in Pennsylvania.

Students survived the Bay of Pigs crisis with Cuba, the English invasion of the Beatles and other boy bands, and mourned the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Military troops are sent to Arkansas Elvis Presley to enforce segregation laws.

Average costs: home, $12,200; gasoline 24 cents a gallon; wages, $4,550 a year; a dozen eggs are 38 cents; one pound of bacon is 68 cents; children’s shoes $5.95.

1997

While PHS students were starting to prepare for the end of the millennium and were concerned about Y2K, they entered school that year as the world mourned the death of Lady Diana, Princess of Wales.

Around the world and in pop culture: NASA’s Mars Pathfinder lands on the red planet.

Hong Kong is returned to Chinese rule and the Heaven’s Gate cult commits multiple suicides in California.

The popular Woolworth’s national store chain, including Provo’s store and lunch counter, closes after 100 years.

“The Lion King” musical debuted on Broadway and the first “Harry Potter” book is published.

At the theater, PHS students are lining up to see “Titanic”, “Men in Black”, and “Air Force One.” On the pop record charts are Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and the Spice Girls. Country music found a champion in Garth Brooks.

The average cost of a home is $121,100; yearly income is $37,000; and a pound of hamburger is $1.38.

The world had also witnessed the first heart transplant, the first Super Bowl football championship was held, and the Six Day War or Yom Kippur War between the Arabs and the Israelis.

John F. Kennedy The average home cost,$14,250; yearly income was $7,300, gasoline was 33 cents a gallon; and the minimum wage was $1.41 an hour.

Television introduced “Bewitched,” “Dr. Who,” “The Monkees” and “The Fugitive”; while popular movies included “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”.

2007 - present The lives of PHS students changed in the new millennium with new math, more standardized testing and world events including the use of hijacked planes on 9/11 that took down the Twin Towers in New York City, damaged the Pentagon, and fields in Pennsylvania. Thousands of lives were lost.

Provo High School buildings were now showing the effects of aging.

Some discussion had already begun as to the need for another school or remodel, but it is just talk for now.

In pop culture, PHS students were nearly all connected to social media platforms including Facebook, emails and a new thing called Twitter.

Apple announced its new iPhone.

Provo High and its students have seen tremendous changes to their school and their world over the past six decades. In 2014 the Provo School District was looking at remodeling the

high school, but by December of 2015 the decision had been made, a new PHS would be built on the west side of Provo and the old school was sold to Brigham Young University.

In August 2018, Provo High students will enter a new building and a new beginning.

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PROVO HIGH

COURTESY OF MARK PHILBRICK

BYU quarterback Gifford Nielsen throws a pass against Utah in this 1976 file photo. Nielsen came off the bench to make his college debut during the 1975 Arizona State game, the only shutout of a BYU team in the LaVell Edwards Era.

Remembering Provo High:

S. Gifford Nielsen JARED LLOYD

Daily Herald

As one of the famous BYU “Quarterback Factory” quarterbacks, an NFL quarterback and now a member of the LDS Church’s First Quorum of the Seventy, S. Gifford Nielsen has visited a lot of places.

He said, however, that he has great memories of his time at Provo High School in the early 1970s.

“We spent a lot of time in those halls and in the gym but the most important thing that happened to me wasn’t athletics,” Nielsen said. “It was walking to seminary with a young woman who was eventually going to become my wife. All the contests were great but I became a really close friend to Wendy, who became my eternal companion. When you go all the way back

to your time in high school, the athletic part was amazing. But when you think about the significance of the relationships you had with your classmates and teachers and leaders, it’s pretty special.”

He recalled, with pride, the amount of talent the Bulldogs had, particularly in football and basketball.

“We were blessed with an exceptional class in 1973,” Nielsen said. “We had high goals, so in athletics our goal was to win state championships. We had very talented kids and so it seemed like the school excelled in everything. We had tremendous teams, tremendous talent and tremendous coaches.”

He recalled the disappointment of a tough state title football game at Cougar Stadium at BYU (now LaVell Edwards

Stadium) where Provo lost to Kearns, but the Bulldogs bounced back to win the championship in basketball.

The most important thing to Nielsen was the depth of the friendships that developed during that time.

“When I think back, we just had an exceptionally close class,” he said. “When we get together, it’s like we never left. We had a lot of deep friendships. We all went separate ways but when we come back for a reunion, it is just deeply special for all of us. We felt total support with wherever their talent took them. That was one of the beauties of Provo High, so when you talk about moving it to a new location, there are tender feelings about that. I feel richly blessed to have been able to have what we had.”

Daily Herald

March 18, 2018

Remembering Provo High:

Kyle Whittingham JARED LLOYD

Daily Herald

The highest-paid state employee in Utah attended Provo High School in the mid-1970s.

“I have very fond memories of being at Provo High,” said Kyle Whittingham, head football coach at the University of Utah. “I had a great time in high school and really enjoyed that period of time in my life. I married my high school sweetheart, so that was a big plus obviously. I made a lot of friends there who I am still friends with to this day.”

He remembers a lot of talented athletic teams dominating the competition during those days.

“I remember we had a terrific basketball team at Provo High and we were one of the best teams in the state for years,” Whittingham said. “My junior year was particularly memorable when we went to the state championship game and got beat by Skyline. They had a team that was very good, and we had great year. We had a brand-

new coach, Coach Gillespie, and we had a really memorable year. I played baseball there as well, and I have fond memories of my teammates and Coach Gary Ashton.”

There were some tough times for Whittingham, however.

“The one big negative was that my senior year (in 1977) they split the school,” he said. “That was a downer. It was really not a good thing when you lose half your class and it just wasn’t quite the same my senior year. Nonetheless, it was a great experience and I look back on it with a lot of good memories.”

He has had the opportunity to return to Provo High and talk to football players or other students.

He said it was “disheartening” to hear it was being torn down.

“I’ve had the chance to go back and it’s always great to go back inside those walls and reminisce, think about the good times,” Whittingham said. “It’s been fun. Now that they are tearing it down, it’s a sad thing for me. It’s too bad, but life goes on.”

COURTESY OF PROVO SCHOOL DISTRICT

Team photo of the varsity football team in 1977 for Provo High. Kyle Whittingham is in the second row and fifth from the left.

DAVID ZALUBOWSKI, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham waits for a call while facing Wyoming in the first quarter of an NCAA college football game in Laramie, Wyoming, on Oct. 11, 2008.

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PROVO HIGH

ISAAC HALE, DAILY HERALD

Kirk Chambers, co-athletic director, coach, and teacher at Provo High School, raises his award before speaking during Provo High School’s commencement ceremony on May 23, 2017, at the UCCU Center in Orem.

Remembering Provo High:

Kirk Chambers

JARED LLOYD

Daily Herald

DAILY HERALD FILE PHOTO

Provo’s #21 Cory Henderson grabs an offensive rebound while #30 Kirk Chambers reaches up too during the game against Timpview in 1997.

Few people have the same depth and breadth of experiences at Provo High as former Stanford and NFL football player Kirk Chambers.

Not only has Chambers been a Bulldog student and athlete, but he was also around the school a lot as a kid and is now back as an athletic director and coach.

“My dad (Brent Chambers) taught there for 35 years, so I grew up being that little ragamuffin running around at games because my dad would work them,” Chambers said. “I would be the one they would shoo off the court or the one running down the ball after field goals. It’s funny that I’m back there when I pretty much grew up in those halls.”

He remembered growing up enjoying all of the big Provo basketball games in the old gym.

“I probably suffer from loss-of-hearing from going to those games as a kid, which is awesome,” Chambers said. “Those were epic with great teams and great kids. The battles we watched there were amazing.”

As a player, he was a part of two state basketball championships in his three years, a stretch

where the Bulldogs won three-of-four titles. He also recalled a big comeback against Springville to win a homecoming game in football.

But Chambers said he felt like his high school experience up until he graduated in 1997 was about more than just sports.

“A lot of my memories aren’t athletics,” Chambers said. “I was in choir, performing on the old stage. Those rival some of my memories of my athletics. I feel like I was well rounded with the opportunities and that’s what high school should be.”

Being as close as he is to the students now, he sees the transition to a new school with different lenses.

“It’s a bittersweet thing because the old building carried so many memories for so many great people who contributed so much to the community,” Chambers said. “The fact that we are leaving that behind is sad, but what is exciting is that these kids that we currently have will get to create their own memories in a brand-new building, one that shows them that this community cares about them. That’s really fun for them. There are things we are going to miss, but I feel it is a net-positive for sure.”

Daily Herald

March 18, 2018

ISAAC HALE, DAILY HERALD

Devin G. Durrant, First Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency, prepares to close the morning session of the 186th semi-annual General Conference of The Church of Latter-day Saints on Oct. 2, 2016, in Salt Lake City.

Remembering Provo High:

Devin Durrant JARED LLOYD

Daily Herald

Devin G. Durrant enjoyed a solid basketball career at BYU and played professionally in the NBA and in Europe, but said he learned about high expectations in basketball when he got to Provo High School.

“Those were wonderful days,” Durrant said. “I moved back to Provo just before the beginning of my sophomore year. The summer prior to my sophomore year, I walked into the gym, and I was the new kid in town. Coach Jim Spencer gathered all the new players during his summer camp and he introduced me to the other guys. His comment was that here at Provo High, we are the UCLA of Utah high school basketball. This was at a time when UCLA was winning every NCAA championship. The message was clear for me that at

Provo High, the sports program and the basketball program had very high expectations. It was a wonderful introduction to my experience as a Provo High athlete and it lived up to all of my hopes and dreams.”

Durrant, who is now a member of the Sunday School General Presidency of the LDS Church, remembers how he had some of his best experiences at both ends of the Provo High building.

“It was interesting because at the north end was where the basketball gym was and I spent a lot of time there, but at the other end of the building was the seminary building,” he said.

“I had marvelous experiences in the seminary building as well.

There were different feelings at each end but it was a nice contrast and both helped me learn and grow.”

Durrant feels like Provo High

was an excellent place for him at that time in his life.

“I look back and it’s hard for me to imagine a more perfect setting for the high school experience,” he said. “My classmates couldn’t have been any better and the teachers and administrators were excellent.”

He said that the legacy of Provo High has been a big part of his family members’ lives as well.

“Some of my children went to Provo High, playing basketball, volleyball, track, cross country and tennis,” he said. “It is very much a part of the Durrant family history. For years, as we would drive by Provo High, I would tell everyone to put their hands on their hearts and occasionally I would sing the fight song to them. When that building is gone, I don’t quite know what I will do when I drive past.’’

DAILY HERALD FILE PHOTO

Provo’s Devin Durrant heads to the glass as American Fork’s Bart Hawkins falls backwards during the Region Six championship game in 1978.

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PROVO HIGH

DAILY HERALD FILE PHOTO

Provo’s Wendy Bills talks to players during the volleyball game between Mountain View and Provo on Sept. 15, 2015, at Mountain View High School in Orem.

LADIES FIRST Girls sports thrived at Provo High School under Clark and Bills

B

DARNELL DICKSON

Daily Herald

etty Clark and Wendy Bills dedicated nearly 60 years between them coaching girls sports at Provo High School.

Their lives called for change at some point. Both women have moved on from the long nights of practices and bus rides. Clark retired from coaching and teaching in 2002 after 27 years but still attends games at Provo High with her nieces and nephews. Bills retired from coaching in 2015 after 31 years at Provo but still teaches at the school.

Clark won three state championships in girls bas-

ketball (1978, 1986, 1987) and Bills won three in volleyball (1992, 1999, 2001). Beyond the wins, losses and trophies are wonderful, lasting memories of hard work and building relationships with thousands of young girls.

Clark started her career in the 1975-76 school year, just when Title IX began to open more opportunities for girls sports.

“We started off with one set of uniforms,” Clark said. “We did clinics and different things to earn money for more uniforms, bags, warmups and basketballs. I had to go to the shop at the school to get them to build backboards for the girls gym.”

Clark was extremely competitive and that determination rubbed off on her teams.

“When I started there were a lot of men coaching girls sports,” she said. “I loved beating them. I figured I needed to watch, ask and listen if I wanted to be a good coach. I did that with people who knew the game, from people like Jim Spencer and Craig Drury.

“My philosophy for coaching basketball was ladies first, students second and ball players third. But they all go hand in hand. I believed every time we stepped out on the court for practice or a game, we were a state championship team. I never coached in a game I thought I was going to lose. The games I lost, we just ran out of time. We would have beaten them if we had a little more time.”

Please see SPORTS, Page 20

Daily Herald

March 18, 2018

ISAAC HALE, DAILY HERALD

Former Provo High School coaches Betty Clark, left, and Wendy Bills pose for a portrait before a basketball game on Feb. 13, 2018, in the old gym at Provo High School. Bills coached girls volleyball at the school for 31 years, and Clark coached basketball in addition to several other sports at the school for 22 years, as well as serving as the school’s first female athletic director. The duo also played sports in high school themselves, earning three state titles each.

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PROVO HIGH

PHOTOS COURTESY OF PROVO SCHOOL DISTRICT

A photo of the girl’s basketball team in the 1987 yearbook.

Sports From 18

Former players came back to Provo a few months ago to shoot around in the old gym and reminisce. Lori Red Castagnetto, an all-state player for Clark in the 1990s and later a University of Utah standout, brought along her four boys, the oldest of which is a freshman basketball player at Provo.

Kim Blackburn Santiago played at Provo High and is married to BYU

Associate Director of Athletics Brian Santiago (another Provo alum). Santiago approached Clark, who had taken her 9-year-old grand-niece to her first Provo High girls basketball game.

“Do you know what a special aunt you have, what a special coach she was?” Santiago told the girl.

“That did my heart good to hear that,” Clark said.

Back in the early 1980s, Provo High had gone through five girls volleyball

coaches in five years. So the administration approached Bills, who had never played volleyball and had zero experience coaching the sport.

“I was the faculty advisor for swimming,” Bills said.

But she was determined and observed how other strong programs had been built, so she went to work.

She took a volleyball class at BYU and learned the game. She was mentored

by BYU’s Elaine Michaelis and Salt Lake Community College’s Norma

Carr, as well as Clark. The Provo girls volleyball program was a perennial power in the ‘90s and 2000s. In addition to the three state championships, Bills’ teams won 12 region championships and made 27 state tournament appearances.

“We had a really strong program in the 1990s,” Bills said. “Things got a little bit different when they started building so many other high schools around the valley. Provo’s enrollment started changing in the 2000s. Kids

DAILY HERALD FILE PHOTO

A photo of the girl’s volleyball team at a game in 1987.

Pleasant Grove’s Erin Measom gets off a shot while Provo’s Kim Blackburn (10) and Kristie Cloward watch at a basketball game in 1988.

Daily Herald

have more things to do now. Before, we could play all year long with the club teams. Everything just moves on.”

Several Provo High volleyball stars performed well at the college level, including Kim Wilson (BYU) and Angela Lobendahn Peterson (New Mexico State). Bills said she was fortunate to be able to coach her daughter, Natalie, on one of her state championship teams.

Natalie is now a volleyball coach in Montana. Wendy’s son Nathan was a state champion in track and another son, Kyle, participated in wrestling, football and soccer.

Winning was fun, but where Bills found the most joy was in the clinics and clubs she coached. That’s where thousands of young girls discovered their love for the sport of volleyball.

“We ran tournaments when we built the new gym and that was the

most fun,” Bills said. “It was close and their parents could come watch them play. It was fun to see the students as freshman where they didn’t know much to seniors and see them be so successful.”

At a recent Provo High girls game, the two former coaches posed for a photo in the girls gym. They will both be regulars at Provo High events when the new school opens.

Once a Bulldog, always a Bulldog.

“The biggest difference now is the opportunities for girls at all levels,” Clark said. “They can be on accelerated teams. There are more scholarships and professional opportunities, too. When I first started coaching not all girls thought they could feminine and still be in sports. I didn’t believe that. I believed you could be very much a girl and still be a great athlete.”

March 18, 2018

State sports titles since 1957

Here is a look at the state titles and other notable athletic accomplishments that occurred at the current Provo High School:

Baseball

Boys track

Boys basketball

Girls track

Titles: 1959, 1967, 1971, 1997

Titles: 1976, 1997, 2000

Titles: 1973, 1974, 1978, 1981, 1983, Titles: 1978, 1983 1985, 1987, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2004, 2007, 2008 Volleyball Titles: 1984, 1992, 1999, 2000

Girls basketball

Titles: 1978, 1986, 1987,

Boys cross country

Titles: 1973, 1976, 1999, 2005 Titles: 1979, 1982, 1985

OTHER NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Football

Baseball

Title: 1982

230 wins: Lance Moore (2000-15)

Girls golf

Boys basketball

Title: 1988

State record 54 consecutive wins (3-8-1972 to 12-4-1974) 502 wins: Craig Drury (sixth most in state history)

Boys swimming

Boys cross country

Boys soccer

Title: 1986

Girls swimming Title: 1984 Provo High School’s Jan Jensen (25) drives in for a layup as the Utah County team defeated Box Elder, 70-55, in the Class 3A State basketball tournament in 1978.

Title: 1970

Girls cross country

Titles: 2014, 2015

DAILY HERALD FILE PHOTO

Wrestling

Boys tennis

Titles: 1965, 1986

Josh Rohatinsky, Provo, 1996-1999 (four-time state champ)

Girls soccer

Chandra Salmon, 8 goals in a game, 2005 (tied for state record)

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PROVO HIGH

ISAAC HALE, DAILY HERALD

Provo forward Mark Mckell (20) high-fives forward Gabriel Gutierrez (40) after Mckell made a foul shot during a game against the American Fork Cavemen on Jan. 5 at Provo High School.

Basketball rivalries created unforgettable memories JARED LLOYD

O Daily Herald

ver the past 60 years, the Provo High School sports programs have competed in thousands of events.

There have been big wins, tough losses, personal successes and team growth for uncounted athletes.

The flagship program for the Bulldogs, however, has always been boys basketball.

The school holds the state record for total number of championships in boys basketball —17— with 13 of those being earned by students who attended the school on University Avenue.

With all that success, it’s not surprising that the most memorable games for many of Provo’s players, coaches and fans took place on the basketball court.

“Basketball is a unique environment in the state of Utah,” said Kirk Chambers, former Bulldog athlete and current Provo athletic director.

“When they get packed in those gyms, there is nothing like it.”

The Bulldogs were one of the teams to beat for decades as head coaches like Jim Spencer and Craig Drury molded teams into dominant forces.

But for most of that time, Provo had big-time competition from the two nearest high schools: Orem (4.5 miles away) and then Timpview (less than 3 miles away).

In some ways the first rivalry was with the old Brigham Young High School, which was around until 1968.

“It turned into a recruited athletic-type thing,” Drury said. “I think they got rid of it because they didn’t want the elitist mentality. Since it was a private school, kids could go there.

The athletes at Provo didn’t like them very much since most were athletes who should’ve been at Provo. They

had some pretty good teams.”

From that point on, when the Bulldogs were set to play the Tigers or in later years the Thunderbirds, it was an event of titanic proportions.

“A lot of times, the Provo-Orem games were just amazing,” said Drury, who not only coached at Provo but also played for the Bulldogs in the late 1960s. “The Timpview games were fun games as well.”

In those early days, Provo played in its small gym, which had an 84-foot court with limited seating capacity.

“Before they had fire codes, they had people standing on the sidelines three deep,” Drury said. “As a player, I remember shooting a layup and running into the crowd. The crowd was my crowd so they were patting me on the back. I can only imagine what the Orem players did when they shot a layup and went into the crowd.”

That old Bulldog facility was a place where Provo usually came out on top.

“That gym has so many gremlins in

it,” Drury said. “I was getting beat one night by Orem and I swear the gremlins came out in that gym and knocked the ball out of their hands. We went down and tied the game, then won in overtime. We used to put the band up in the balcony by the opposing team’s bench. I had a hard enough time on the other side of the gym and I can’t imagine the other team’s experience.

That gym was almost impossible to come in and beat us in.”

Former Bulldog athlete Gifford Nielsen, who played football at BYU and in the NFL and is now an LDS general authority, vividly remembered a basketball game against the Tigers with enormous stakes in the early 1970s.

“I think we were ranked No. 1 from the beginning in 1973 and Orem High was ranked No. 2,” Nielsen said.

“There was absolutely incredible competition. We were big and we were talented and Orem was big and talented. I have never seen anything

Daily Herald

DAILY HERALD FILE PHOTOS

Veryl Law, Provo guard who was unable to play in the last two games because of a broken collar bone, walks off the floor with the net of one of the baskets draped over him. His younger brother, Vance, cut the net down and put it over Veryl after Provo defeated Orem for the championship in 1973.

Defense was a major factor in Provo’s 70-41 victory over Orem in 1977. The Tigers seldom had a shot without a hand in front of their faces. Here Shawn Anderson shoots over Kevin Nielson as teammate Paul Stout and Provo’s Matt Midgley and Greg Ballif look on.

quite like it. We were playing excellent basketball. I remember we played the first game at Provo High School and they had so many fans there that they were wondering how they were going to have all the fans watch Game 2, which was scheduled for Orem High School.

They ended up playing our second game in the Marriott Center.”

It didn’t matter where the games were played that year, however, since the Bulldogs were just a little bit better.

“We won the first game by a couple of points, then we played again in front of 10,000 or 15,000 fans and we won again by just a few points,” Nielsen said. “We then ended up playing Orem High for the state championship. We were undefeated and they had lost twice. The place was packed up at the University of Utah. We beat them by just a couple of points and we were state champions.”

He explained that those rivalry games with the Tigers were some of the most incredible contests he remembers.

“That was a very special time for all of us,” Nielsen said. “It was highlevel competition and we weren’t normal teams. It was so exciting. If you watched one of those games, by the time you were done you were ready to take a long vacation. It was so intense, just the back and forth. By the time we were done, all the fans had just about had it and all the players had had it. We left everything out there on the court when we played in those games.”

Another former Provo basketball star who went to BYU and played professionally, Devin Durrant, felt the same way about the intensity of the OremProvo rivalry in the 1970s.

“It was an exciting environment,”

March 18, 2018

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Durrant said. “Provo was the only high school in Provo and Orem was the same in Orem. It just created so much excitement. The first time I played on the Marriott Center floor was when Provo and Orem played against each other. It was intimidating but the excitement and the electricity in the air was palpable.”

That rivalry altered in the late 1970s when Timpview High School was built, giving the Bulldogs an inter-city challenger.

“I don’t think they won a basketball game for five or six years,” Drury said.

“We played them in a state championship where we beat them until the last few minutes, then we made some mistakes and they capitalized. I’ll never forget that.”

With the interest in the high school basketball games in those days, the rivalry contests were frequently held at other venues like the Marriott Center. Chambers, however, remembered in the 1990s when the Bulldogs and Thunderbirds went back to playing at the schools and even though Provo had a newer, larger gym it was still a hot ticket.

“We had some epic battles with Timpview,” he said. “I remember that if you didn’t get in the main gym 40 minutes early you weren’t going to get in at all. There was no room to breathe, no room to hide in that game. It was intense.”

Drury said that the Provo and Timpview rivalry meant a lot to the community through the years.

“We beat them on a last-second shot at our place the last year I was there,” Drury said. “I’d like to think we won more than they did.”

Provo’s Kyle Collinsworth, right, and Keith Moore, left, celebrate a come-from-behind drive that ended in the Bulldogs’ last minute victory over Timpview during their game in Provo on Feb. 19, 2010. Collinsworth is currently a member of the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA.

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PROVO HIGH

EVAN COBB, DAILY HERALD

Brian Preece, a coach and teacher at Provo High School, poses for a portrait in the wrestling room at the school on Feb. 13, 2018.

What it has been like to be a longtime teacher and coach at Provo High or the “old gym,” right above the locker room. It was very small and heated up Brian Preece has been a fixture really well, which was great for wrestlers at Provo High School since 1995 that needed to lose a few pounds. teaching social studies and It couldn’t even fit a whole mat but government as well as coaching had a long peg board on the west wall. wrestling, football, baseball and The room also had an irregular shape and golf. Here are his thoughts on what it has been like to be at the has since been converted to two smaller school for more than 20 years and classrooms. what the future will bring for the I vividly remember that getting wresBulldogs. tling mats in and out of that place was a huge hassle, and we usually just threw BRIAN PREECE the mat from the balcony of Gym 2 y first contact with bleachers, a distance close to 15 feet, Provo High School where then the mats made a thundercame in 1986 as ous noise when they hit the gym floor. a BYU coaching Getting the mats back up after the intern, and it was meet was the real chore as we had to with the infamous carry them up the bleachers, over a small “Sweat Box” that was the wrestling retaining fence, and then through a narroom for much of the time the school row entryway. was on University Avenue.

I was the last head coach in the “Sweat It was a room located on the upper Box” because the year I was hired as a level just west of what is now Gym 2, full-time teacher/coach, the new gym

EDITOR’S NOTE

M

and accompanying locker room, weight room and wrestling room were completed in January of 1995. Thus began a new era in Provo athletics.

I had no complaints, generally, about the new wrestling room as its size was nice, enough space for two mats — well, almost. There was an overlap area or ripple at the midway point that presented some issues.

The other issue was that the walls were barren. The wall mats came in two stages and the greens used for them didn’t match (and still don’t). Then I went to work on the banners that record our program’s history while Dyke Roskelley, a graduate of Provo in late 1980s, drew the Bulldog on the north wall that I simply adore.

It began a new era of Provo wrestling for sure, and I think the new facilities helped us build up the program in both quality and quantity of wrestlers. The successes started to come.

The 1996-97 season was significant as we set some school records for state qualifiers and placers, but the most memorable highlight was the national record we set when we shut out Timpview, 84-0. It came after another frustrating lost to the Thunderbirds on the gridiron and the wrestling team was full of football players.

I gathered them up in Coach David Mills’ football office as it was just big enough but also a bit confining, which is what I exactly wanted.

I went into a lather that might have scared even Knute Rockne. I don’t really want to go into what was said because I can’t remember the words, but the emotions were high. We won all 14 matches, 13 by pin and one by injury default.

The next year in 1998 we had three state individual state champions (Trent Beesley, Coby Jones and Scott Hofheins), which I call the highlight of my professional career. My father passed away in

Daily Herald

March 18, 2018

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Brian Preece (L) and Darren Hirsche (R) jello wrestle in an assembly at Provo HS. Preece and Hirsche coached wrestling and football together for a number of years

CAREER AT PROVO HIGH Social Studies teacher: 1994-present Head Wrestling Coach: 1994-2006 Assistant Wrestling Coach: 2013-2015 Assistant Baseball Coach: 1995-1998, 2001-2009, 2013-2015

Assistant Golf Coach: 1994, 2005-2007, 2014 (Interim Head Coach to finish season) Assistant Football Coach: 1995-2003, 2008, 2013 Assistant Athletic Director: 1998-2003 PHOTOS COURTESY OF PROVO SCHOOL DISTRICT

Former head wrestling coach Brian Preece argues a call with an official during a dual meet. the spring of 1997, but I felt his presence that night guiding me as a coach.

The next year we had three finalists but all lost — that was a bit of a bummer. But over 12 years as head coach, I enjoyed my time in the wrestling program. My last season as head coach in 2006 we had a wrestler finish second in the nation, Nathaniel Holt, and had 14 state qualifiers.

I had so many dedicated wrestlers, parents and coaches, but I would be remiss not to mention my right-hand man and best friend, Darren Hirsche, who did so much for the school as a teacher and coach.

One would expect with the move to the new school that the new wrestling facility will be bigger and better. It will actually be smaller.

I have also coached baseball, football and golf over the years.

Facilities in baseball were always an issue. We have never had a baseball field on the campus of Provo High School. Timp Park wasn’t so far away to be entirely problematic, but it was demolished to make way for the new recreation center causing the program to relocate to the southwest part of Provo, nearly 3 miles

away from campus.

While head coach Lance Moore and his players and parents have built a quality facility on a shoestring budget and salvaging what they could from Timp Park, I believe having a field so far away from campus has hurt the program. To me, it’s the out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing.

I think having a facility on campus will be a good thing, though the new site will need some TLC, but Coach Moore will make it happen.

Over the years being part of the football program has been a roller coaster.

In 1999, after coaching the sophomore team, I was asked to coordinate the special teams as we headed into the playoffs.

I put in a trick play on the kickoff return called “Return Right, Wall Right.”

We were in a dogfight of a game versus Logan on our home field. They had just taken a 19-17 lead midway through the third quarter.

This is when I decided to call the play, and the players ran it to perfection. Scott Whitaker got the kickoff, handed it off to Dave Ashworth, who went to the house untouched behind the wall.

We won the game 24-19 and then the

Academic Advisor/Coach for football: 2004

next one against Cyprus to go to Weber State for the semifinals. It has been the furthest Provo High has ever gone in the playoffs in nearly 30 years, and it was satisfying to make a contribution to that as a coach.

There were a lot of excruciating losses.

The troubled times in Provo football are well known. But the worst thing ever was the debilitating brain injury suffered by Brad Bohrer during a JV game. It is a day as coach I will never forget, a day I never want to repeat.

The most fascinating aspect of the football program to me is the constant changing of locker areas. Each new head coach seems to switch back from the old locker room to the newer one built in 1994 or vice versa. And now the players use the old locker room but stage for games below the new stadium, which was built five years ago.

Of course, a big part of my day is spent in the classroom in D-Wing, which is notorious for its gradual sinking into the ground — causing cracks in its wall, some so large that notes could be passed between classrooms.

It has seen interesting animal infestations including bats, rats and

even hornets. And the students will ever remember the pea-green carpet in most of the rooms that didn’t get replaced for decades.

Indeed, I have had a lot of great memories on the Avenue. It has been my home away from home for a quarter century.

However, I’m all for the change and grateful that the superintendent and the school board had the vision to make this happen. While facilities don’t necessarily make a school, I think there becomes a tipping point when facilities can really hinder extracurricular excellence and educational outcomes.

It’s no secret that in regards to athletics, our school has generally struggled this past decade. I can’t help think that new facilities can help our athletic programs return to a higher level of success.

A new building or field isn’t a cureall, but it should propel things in a forward direction. It also allows the newer teachers and coaches, and this generation of students, along with their parents, a chance to create their own new legacy while still being a part of the one that came before.

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PROVO HIGH

EVAN COBB, DAILY HERALD

From left, Rebekah Quintana, Rachel Quintana, and Virginia Revuelta pose for a portrait outside the front of Provo High School on Jan. 31. All three women have attended Provo High.

Provo High roots run deep in Provo families

N

He persisted. Farr graduated in 1941, and the two were married in adine Farr was 1943. cheering on the Their children attended Provo High sidelines of a School, as did their children’s chilbasketball game dren, and now even their children’s between Provo children’s children, making Farr the High School and first of a four-generation line who Brigham Young have attended Provo High School.

High School when They’re not alone. In Provo, several she stumbled — literally — into a families have made attending Provo player from the other team.

High School a multigenerational afLloyd Rasmussen, a basketball fair. player for Brigham Young High School, thought Farr was cute and tried asking her out on a date after the Virginia Rubio saw Provo’s many game. The Provo cheerleader not so fruit trees in 1962 and thought her parents had moved her family from subtly told him to take a hike.

BRALEY DODSON

Daily Herald

The Revueltas

urban Mexico to a farm village.

They had six months to learn English and hired a tutor to learn 50 words a day. Six years later, Virginia Rubio graduated from Provo High School.

She says they were the second Mexican family at the school.

While she was there, Virginia Rubio — now Virginia Revuelta — remembers the school adding a wing.

“I needed a map to get around,” Revuelta said.

Her family has stayed around since then, opening the restaurant El Azteca and continuing a tradition of members in the family attending Provo High School. Her children,

along with her grandchildren, have attended the school, as have many other family members.

Memories of Provo High School playing volleyball games against Orem High School came back to her once her daughters started attending the school.

Rachel Quintana was more focused on being in high school at the same time as her sister than she was about attending the same school her mother had.

Quintana remembers not being the best driver’s education student, navigating a new wing to the school and people knowing her because of her family’s restaurant.

Daily Herald

She graduated in 1996, when students still congregated in distinct groups, like the Polynesian students who sat on the benches, the Mexican students, the white students and the cowboys.

“Even though they were all in their groups, we all intermingled between each other,” Quintana said. “If there were any problems, we would be the mediators to mellow things out.”

Now Rebekah Quintana, her 14-year-old daughter, is a freshman and third generation Provo High School student. Rebekah said the school doesn’t have distinct cliques like it did when her mother was a student. Instead, the newest generation of students is anxious about being in a new building next school year.

“I’m excited to see it, but I’m also scared,” Rebekah said. “I know everyone is going to get lost because it is a big school.”

She’s concerned about having enough time to get from class to class, but is looking forward to mornings at the new location.

“I’m really excited because it is by the lake and every morning you can see the sunrise,” Rebekah said. “It’s always really pretty.”

Revuelta isn’t happy about the school’s move to the west side of the city, but she isn’t as upset as she was when she thought the district was going to tear the school down.

She said her parents moved to the United States mostly for education.

Now, she’s a teacher herself at Cherry Hill Elementary School in Orem, and it’s all because of Provo High.

Revuelta had a Spanish teacher who sounded funny to her and who asked her to raise her hand to correct him.

“My hand was up a lot,” Revuelta said.

He gave her an A- in his class — and she promised to take his place one day.

The Williams family

Nadine and Lloyd Rasmussen’s unlikely romance started a chain of Provo High School alumni that still continues to this day.

“It’s a part of our family culture to be Bulldogs, so we are happy that our boys are continuing that tradition,” said Beth Williams, who at-

tended Provo High School.

Joel Williams, Beth’s husband, was a third generation Bulldog. Two of their children, 14-year-old Asher and 16-year-old Lincoln, both attend Provo High School.

Both of Joel’s parents and his grandmother, Nadine Farr Rasmussen, went to Provo High School.

He graduated in 1997 and remembers being proud of being a third-generation student. He was shy, but since his father, Lind Williams, was an English teacher, he was recognized by the faculty and felt accepted.

“The social scene wasn’t for me,” Joel said. “I loved my teachers and my classes and the learning.”

Joel and Beth met during their senior year at Provo High School and attended Brigham Young University together.

Even then, Beth said some aspects of the school were in a sad state and hadn’t been upgraded.

“I appreciate the idea that my kids will get to have a better facility,” Beth said. “I feel like better facilities can promote better education.”

Beth and Joel both assumed they’d live outside the state and were excited when they realized their children would also attend Provo High School.

“It was always a community,” Joel said.

Lincoln eats lunch in the upper C Wing, which is where Beth also ate during her freshman year.

“It is pretty nostalgic to see that so much of it is exactly the same as when I was there,” Beth said. “Even the same benches and everything is still similar.”

Asher and Lincoln are ready to attend school in a new building on Provo’s west side. Lincoln is anticipating having all the sports facilities in one place, but there will be one downside they see.

“I’m excited for the new building, but I’m also sad there’s not going to be restaurants nearby,” Asher said.

And as for a fifth generation? Asher thinks Provo is a good place, especially for families. But he’s not the only Williams child considering staying in Provo.

“It would be cool if we had a fifth generation of Bulldogs to stay in Provo,” Lincoln said.

March 18, 2018

Notable Provo High School graduates Matthew Holland

Matthew Holland has served as the sixth president of Utah Valley University from 2009 until summer 2018. Holland graduated with high honors from Provo High School in 1984. He has since studied at Brigham Young University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Duke University. He has worked as the chief of staff for the top executive of Monitor Group, an international consulting firm, and was a special assistant to former Matthew Holland Gov. Michael Leavitt. in the 1984 yearbook.

Michelle Kaufusi

Michelle Kaufusi is the first female mayor of Provo. She graduated with the class of 1985. She has since served as the president of the Provo City School District Board of Education.

Mark Z. Danielewski

Mark Z. Danielewski is the author of the bestselling book “House of Leaves.” He graduated with high honors from Provo High School in 1984. His work also includes “Only Revolutions,” “The Fifty Year Sword,” and “The Familiar.”

Tracy Hickman

Tracy Hickman is a fantasy author. He has also authored roleplaying games. Hickman graduated from Provo High School in 1974. He has co-authored the Dragonlance novels, the Darksword Trilogy and the Rose of the Prophet Series, along with authoring “The Immortals.”

Paul Boyer

Paul Boyer is a biochemist and analytical chemist who received the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with John Walker.

He graduated from Provo High School in 1935.

At 99 years old, he is the oldest living Nobel laureate.

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PROVO HIGH

Thoughts on Provo High School’s move to west Provo

I

KEITH C. RITTEL

Provo City School District Superintendent

have learned that there are many people in Provo who have generations of connections to Provo High School. In my nearly six years here I have met many (some in the school district) who attended/ graduated from Provo High School; along with parents, grandparents, other family members, friends, neighbors, acquaintances, and on and on and on.

Despite my own lack of personal or generational connection with Provo High School, it seems that I do hold at least somewhat of a unique perspective on the recent past and the near future of the school.

First, and I can say this from having been a high school principal for 11 years, the job of high school principal is tough.

At times it seems nearly impossible to do anything right, let alone everything.

I believe the high school principalship is the most difficult position in all of public education. Since I arrived in Provo in June 2012, I have needed to hire a principal for PHS two times. Recently Boyd McAffee has been selected as principal for Provo High School. Boyd’s family is a longtime fixture in education in Provo. It seems fitting that a school with a long tradition in the city is being led by someone with almost as long of a relationship to the school. I pay tribute to the leaders and staff at the school from prior decades, along with those there now and those who will work at the school in the future.

In the November 2014 election, the school reconstruction bond measure passed at a record amount for Provo ($108 million) and at a very high pass rate (71 percent). The board received the thorough and thoughtful recommendations of the Facility Advisory Committee preliminary to making the decision for the bond scope and amount. It was a difficult and uncertain process, as the new board and administration were still largely unknown to the community. We were most gratified at the massive groundswell of support for the bond initiative, which included the new Provo High School and four elementary schools. The day will come when we will need a new level of

DAILY HERALD FILE PHOTO

Keith Rittel, the new Provo School District superintendent, poses for a portrait in his office in Provo on July 31, 2012. involvement and input from a Facilities Advisory Committee, as our buildings are getting older, although we are doing our best to maintain and care for these important facilities.

The Provo City School District Board of Education first began to consider rebuilding PHS on vacant district property West of Geneva Road mainly because of the complexities and costs surfacing with the current site at the corner of Bulldog and University. The existing 25 acres came with all kinds of restrictions and excess costs that were not known in the initial studies. It was a difficult decision for the board and it took great leadership to press forward. High schools are expensive to build but moving the school to the new site actually was a prudent move given the perspectives of costs, how long it would take to complete the project, program needs, and the ability to accommodate enrollment growth.

I kept thinking throughout the discussions of PHS relocating to the west side that moving locations is actually (figuratively) in Provo High School’s DNA. The school has relocated several times over its very long history. Now, the beautiful new building, designed by FFKR Architects and being built by Westland Construction, is set to accommodate growth through the potential addition of a fourth academic wing, should such a need arise in the future.

High schools usually take around 2.5 years to build, from start to finish, but with the outstanding and meticulous efforts of our architect and contractor, this school will allow for the move to occur precisely two years after the work began. And while the 43 acres on which the new high school sits is still a little less than the norm for large high schools, the site has been well-designed to accommodate all of the varied programs and activities of a comprehensive high school. And, nearly 5,000 “geo-piers” are securing the school in place, despite soil conditions that come with being near Utah Lake. In the words of one of the senior construction workers, “The floods may come but the school will still be here.”

With such a long history of being a fixture in the Provo community, we are working on ways to truly honor Provo High School’s past as we take occupancy of the new building beginning in August 2018. A school/community committee has been formed, called the “Legacy Committee” whose purpose is, as noted earlier, to honor and connect with the school’s rich history.

We also plan to provide tours of the new building in August, both just before and after the new building officially opens for school.

I am grateful to have played a role in supporting Provo High School in this

new building, and also in an assortment of program-related issues. Even though I wholly endorse the notion of activities and athletics for students, my main hope is that the academic program at Provo High School is everything it can and should be. I recall as a teacher many years ago at Woods Cross High School, and later as an administrator at East High School, knowing about and competing with Provo High School (and Timpview) in countless inter-school events. I admit at the time that the excellence emanating from Provo was intimidating. Academically, both schools were juggernauts, but also had dominant athletic teams and activity programs.

I am pushing both Provo and Timpview to be the top two high schools in the state. The good news is that significant improvements are already in evidence at Provo High School. In recent years, ACT scores, graduation rates, and AP participation/pass rates are all increasing. PSAT participation will include all Juniors and Sophomores starting in 2018-2019. We expect a continuing positive trend in these and other academic indicators. Everything else aside, the academic success of our students must be our top priority.

Yet of course, Provo High School is much more than a building. Many years ago in a different state I knew a custodian who joked, “I could keep this school clean if it weren’t for all those darned kids.” We all realize a school is not a school without the students and teachers and all of the people who occupy it. Yes, the facility creates the environment to facilitate teaching and learning. But the people who connect with one another over the years within the school structure is what truly builds the school, and by extension, the community.

With the combination of the new school and dedicated, passionate people, the future of Provo High School is bright. Provo High School is on the path to academic excellence, and due to the support of the community, the new building can now be a true partner with teachers and students in creating optimal learning for our students. It is exciting to watch the continued progress of Provo High School.

Daily Herald

March 18, 2018

From the archives

PHOTOS COURTESY OF PROVO SCHOOL DISTRICT

A scene from “The Gondoliers” at Provo High School in 1957.

Art class at Provo High in 1967.

EVAN COBB PHOTOS, DAILY HERALD

A photograph of a basketball trophy at Provo High.

A shot of the school’s newspaper, “The Provonian.”

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PROVO HIGH

PHOTO COURTESY OF PROVO SCHOOL DISTRICT

Provo High School in 1957.

ISAAC HALE, DAILY HERALD

The exterior of the new Provo High School stands partially complete on Jan. 18, in Provo. The high school will be located at 1300 N. Lakeshore Dr.

Daily Herald

March 18, 2018

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Letters of memories from Provo High Alumni

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y name is Lloyd Thurston. My freshman year at Provo High I met two great guys. They were Kyle Whittingham and Craig Garrick. They invited me to be on an intramural basketball team. I was and it was great. My junior year I was manager of the football and swim team and soccer team, and also got the manager of the year award. My senior year, I was manager of football and swim team and baseball team. I was in the acappella choir. I made lots of friends. I have lots of great memories. I am proud of being a Bulldog. But the greatest of all was when I graduated. I had a great moment. I got a standing ovation. It was the best moment.

— Lloyd Thurston In 1981, the Daily Herald wrote a story on Thurston titled “He is not ‘Handicapped’ for love.” Thurston is now in his 50s and has been married for over 25 years to a sweet woman who also has challenges. He works in the laundry at the temple, and has worked for all his adult life.

O

ne of my most memorable moments was as a sophomore in 1991. I was sitting in the old choir room, just east of the faculty parking lot waiting for class to start. In walked one of my high school crushes, just a year older than me, and three other guys holding a flower. They were walking towards the center of the room, and my “crush” turned and walked up to me and invited me to sit in the middle of the room on a chair. Everyone watching! He and his friends proceeded to circle around the back of me and serenade “For the Longest Time” by Billy Joel barbershop style. I was so surprised and flattered. They handed me the flower and that was that. No special reason, just to sing and make a friend’s day.

— Melanie Epling

I

remember being in an assembly when the principal came out and announced that the President of the United States John F. Kennedy had been shot. It went dead silent and afterward everyone walked around very somber that day. A dance was held that night. It was debated whether we should have the dance but it was decided to go ahead. It was a somber affair.

— Helen Prescott

I

have many happy memories of Provo High. I loved my sewing class where I learned things that helped me through my life.

I liked the Biology class that was taught by a coach who often talked about sports the entire class time. I loved eating lunch on the lawn in front of the school as we brought sack lunches or got a burger from across the street. Graduation was awesome at the old Provo Tabernacle. Many happy days for our class of 1960.

— Eva Johnson

I

only attended PHS fall semester of 1975, class of ’76. What a wonderful group of teachers I had, especially the music staff. Mr. Barker for choir was wonderful. That small group of us that went to All-State had great fun.

— Laurie Bailey

W

e had a wonderful graduating class in 1960. We have had reunions every five years since graduation. We celebrated our 55th anniversary at Riverside Country Club in Provo in 2015 and look forward to our 60th reunion in 2020. We have a website that records our lives (and deaths) since graduation: www.provohigh1960.com.

— Robert Valentine

M

y husband and I met outside D wing when I was a sophomore and he was a freshman. Not high school sweethearts, really great friends though. We now have our oldest graduated from PHS this May. We are class of 1992 & 1993 and our son will be a part of the last graduating class 2018. Lots of love for the Bulldogs at our house.

— Kristie Williams

I

was in the 1960 graduating class. When we entered as sophomores the outside PE grounds were primitive. I had early morning PE and it was freezing outside. Our teacher had goosebumps, but she was able to at least wear a sweatshirt. We wore our beautiful regulation uniform of green shorts and white shirts, without sweatshirts. We would go west of the building through a field, over a log that crossed a stream, and there we would have class. We were always afraid we would fall off of the log into the stream, get hypothermia, and die.

— LaDonna Houtz Rawlings

T

wo teachers especially helped me through my high school years. They were Mr. Roylance who taught drafting and Mr. Christlieb who taught metalworking. Both of them knew their subjects well, but they also knew how to relate well with their students.

— J. Sherman Feher

I

was in the first sophomore class at the new school in 1956. I graduated in 1959. My best memory and one that changed my life was when Ray Jones my speech teacher asked me to play the role of Johnathan in “Arsenic and Old Lace” He took this introverted kid and molded him into an actor. I received the award for “Actor of the Year” for my performance in that play. That led to a life long love of the theater arts. Although I had a career in the real estate business for more than 50 years, I still found time to give back to my community by founding two community theaters and doing more than 100 plays before health reasons forced us to give it up. Yes Ray, who passed away a few years back, changed my life.

— Bill Brown

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