MARILYN HAGERTY: 'Good old Golden Rule days' in 1961

• Marilyn Hagerty

Marilyn Hagerty

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Grand Forks public schools opened doors to 7,103 students 50 years ago.

Lake Agassiz School was new. So was Schroeder Junior High, where there was a three-week delay in opening. With parochial schools reporting, there was a total of 8,443 students in all city schools.

The parochial schools included St. Michael’s, St. Mary’s and St. James High School as well as Immanuel Lutheran grade school.

At UND, there was orientation for 1,200 freshmen. And classes started at the new State School for the Blind facilities in Grand Forks, where one-third of the students were those with partial sight.

The traditional football game between St. James High School and Central was played with a hobnob following the game. Central beat the Jimmies in 1961 by a score of 27-7, avenging the public school's loss from the previous year.

Ron Bergh of Central galloped 47 yards for his second touchdown of the game. Bergh and Gary Iverson took care of all the scoring for Central.

The Grand Forks Chiefs wound up their baseball season as one of six teams in the Northern League. In his "Looking Through the Knothole" column, Herald sports editor C.D. Locklin said the Chiefs were winning at the beginning of the season. They lagged behind when the Aberdeen (S.D.) Pheasants took over first place in the league.

The Chiefs finished the season with a sweep at Winnipeg.

Names in the news 50 years ago:

** Retiring Postmaster E.J. Collette turned the key to the Grand Forks building over to G.F. Paul. Collette had been in his post since 1940.

** Mr. Dee and the Imperials called themselves “the hottest band around” and were playing for a dance at the Grand Forks Armory.

** Diane Ulvedal, Miss North Dakota, left for the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City. After the pageant, she enrolled in Concordia College at Moorhead, Minn.

** UND President and Mrs. George Starcher were hosts to 500 faculty members and their spouses at a welcome tea in Memorial Union.

** C.B. Ayars retired as head of Northern States Power here. He was succeeded by R.E. Pile.

** Central High halfback Ron Bergh, a junior, scored four touchdowns in the 46-0 win at Grafton, N.D. Also scoring touchdowns were Jim Grina, Gary Iverson and John Evangelist.

** UND Coach Marv Helling’s football team surprised Montana State with a 46-0 win at Memorial Stadium here. The Sioux had a 21-0 lead at half time. The next game was at Nebraska, where that powerful team beat UND 33-0 in Lincoln, Neb.

** Donald Pearce was head librarian when the million-dollar Chester Fritz Library opened its doors on the UND campus.

In area news 50 years ago:

** Gilby, N.D., saw a half-mile of its main street get hard-surfaced in a single day, replacing what had been called “no man’s land.” The chuck holes and frost boils were said to have plagued townspeople and visitors for years.

John Griffin was chairman of the Gilby Village Board, and Omar Vein was president of the two-year-old Gilby Civic Club.

** At Rugby, N.D., firefighters were battling a big fire at the end of September. The fire loss was more than $100,000. A gas tank explosion had rocked this city of 3,000, the Herald reported. The fire was brought under control in two hours.

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