'The right girls at the right time': North Central High School class of '78 recognized 45 years later for athletic achievements

Aug. 6—It took more than 45 years, but a group of female athletes from the North Central High School class of 1978 finally received their varsity letters.

Lorri Slauson, a three-sport athlete from the class, handed out red "NC" letters to about 15 women at their 45th high school class reunion Saturday night at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 51, one block east of the high school.

"It's pretty awesome, I feel, just to be recognized after all these years," said Deanna Kuehl, who played basketball and tennis.

The women made up some of the high school's first girls sports teams, which formed in the years following approval of the Title IX legislation in 1972. The federal law provided girls and women the same educational and athletic opportunities as their male counterparts.

"In my heart, I just feel like we were absolutely the right girls at the right time. Because when you start five sports in two years, you have to have a group of girls that just flood those sports, and (our class) were the majority of every single team, even through our senior year," Slauson said.

Slauson spent 34 years as a teacher, coach and athletic director before retiring last year. She spent most of her career at Chase Middle School in Spokane.

She said last year's 50th anniversary of Title IX inspired her to present her classmates and fellow teammates with varsity letters.

Some of Slauson's female classmates received a varsity letter while in high school, but many did not and received necklaces instead, she said. The women did not receive letterman jacket pins at the time either, so Slauson attached a gold pin to the letters for each sports season they participated.

She said North Central High School ordered the letters and pins.

"I wanted these women to have that letter that represented a big part of their high school experience," Slauson said.

She said she believes girls didn't receive letters because the school's female sports were new at the time and the school didn't know what to do.

Debbie Robertson (Rosengart) shows off her letter with pins during North Central's class of 1978's 45th year reunion on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023, at VFW 51 in Spokane. Class member Lori Barnett organized getting pins and letters for women who lettered as NC athletes. (Tyler Tjomsland/The Spokesman-Review)Buy a print of this photo

Still, Slauson said the necklaces were awesome.

"We were so excited to just be able to play," she said.

Slauson said she was also excited to wear uniforms and play several basketball games. In middle school, she wore P.E. clothes and only played a couple games.

Kuehl was a sophomore on the school's first girls varsity basketball team. She said she was excited to play basketball in front of a crowd, which she had never done before.

She said the importance of playing on the first girls basketball team didn't sink in at the time.

"We didn't really realize we were on the forefront of a great movement in women's sports at that time," said Kuehl, a nurse at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center. "We were just starting out."

Karen Crull-Miller, class president who competed in track and field, gymnastics and volleyball, said they did not feel pressure being on the first girls teams because the thought didn't cross their minds.

"All we knew was that we loved to compete," she said. "We loved our friends. We had fun, but we worked hard."

Crull-Miller said she and a few other girls joined the boys track team in 1975 and hoped a girls team would soon be started. It began the following year.

Joining the boys team "caused quite a stir," Crull-Miller said, but she commended the boys for being nice to the girls.

Crull-Miller, who lives in Spokane and works in social services, went on to compete in track at Spokane Community College and then received a scholarship to compete at Eastern Washington University, but health problems derailed her career.

"She was our (class's) finest athlete to graduate from North Central High School," Slauson said of Crull-Miller.

Slauson announced each athlete, the sports they played and presented their letter and pins Saturday. She also announced the names of about 10 women who were not at the reunion but who would receive their letters and pins in the mail.

Debbie Rosengrant-Robertson, a four-sport athlete, was one of the athletes Slauson called up to the stage Saturday.

"It was pretty cool to be recognized this late," said Rosengrant-Robertson, a retired nurse at Sacred Heart and Providence St. Joseph Care Center.

Colleen Deasy-Olleman, who competed in tennis and track and now lives in the Seattle area, called the recognition "a little overwhelming" and "a big honor."

"It was just fun to be out there, it was fun doing stuff, it was fun being active," Deasy-Olleman said of her high school sports career.