After 50 years, Maroons of '64 are coming home

For the Sidney High School Class of 1964, there are many memories – both bitter and sweet.

On Nov. 22, 1963, as the 113 classmates were enjoying a Friday free from classes because of teacher conferences, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In 1964, U.S. involvement in Vietnam escalated into a war that eventually would draw several class members into combat. As the class graduated in early June 1964, a massive civil rights effort to register black voters was underway in the South.

Back home, in early fall of the Class of ‘64’s senior year, the Sidney High football team – one of the last to still carry the Maroons moniker and the colors of maroon and white – upset the defending state champion North Platte Bulldogs. As the class gathers this weekend for its 50-year reunion, that’s the football game they’ll remember. The rest of their senior football season was, let’s say, less memorable.

The basketball team almost rose to glory, winning the conference championship but falling short of a state tournament trip with a heartbreaking district loss to Alliance, which Sidney had defeated twice earlier in the season.

The wrestling team sent six members to the state tournament, including Jim Langdon, the third of the locally famous Langdon brothers’ wrestling trio. A few months later, Jim became the first classmate lost when he was killed in a California car accident. The class now honors an SHS senior each year with the Jim Langdon Memorial Scholarship. The track team also won the conference championship.

A Class of ’64 athlete still owns a distinctive record among Sidney High athletes 50 years later and will be recognized with a surprise presentation during this weekend’s festivities.

The Class of 1964 was unique in other aspects. It broke tradition by choosing class rings with oval sets, rather than the SHS tradition of square sets. When the junior class couldn’t afford to stage the traditional senior banquet preceding the prom, the Class of ’64 threw its own party. Thanks to parents, the Class of  ’64 also had the first organized all-night party following graduation.

The Class of ’64 helped debut the new statewide English curriculum, one designed in part by one of Sidney High’s most popular teachers, Dorothy Holloway. She recently celebrated her 100th birthday.

Among other unique aspects of the Class of ’64: the cheerleaders’ daring flip, an exchange student from New Zealand (Dave Martin) and a Rotary exchange student sent to New Zealand (Jim Knicely). After a summer of ’63 trip to perform in Mexico City, the SHS marching band was recomposed into the school’s largest-yet symphonic band in the fall.

For its 50-year reunion, the class also chose a nontraditional, early autumn gathering. The reunion begins Friday evening with tailgating at Dude’s, a return to Weymouth Field for this year’s Homecoming football game, and a reception at the Holiday Inn, the reunion headquarters. Members of the SHS classes of 1963 and 1965 have been invited to the reception, along with 1964 graduates of the former St. Patrick’s High School.

Saturday events include golf and morning coffee at Hillside, a tour of the high school (the one the class attended is now among the memories), a class photo and an evening banquet. At least five faculty from 1964 are expected to attend the banquet, along with one of the Langdon scholarship winners. Almost half of the class’s 96 surviving graduates have registered to attend the banquet.

A Sunday morning sendoff with coffee and doughnuts is planned for the community center in Legion Park.

Bill Eddy is a 1964 graduate of Sidney High School. He worked two summers for the Sidney Telegraph at the start of a journalism career from which he retired in 2011. He spent most of his career – 32 years – as an editor for the Lincoln Journal Star.