Did these North Dakota high school girls really earn letters for eating breakfast?

GRAND FORKS — OK, possibly that headline is a stretch. These younger ladies in Grand Forks Central’s 1936 yearbook did not simply earn college letters by consuming breakfast, however that was an enormous a part of the drill.

Meet “The Outing Membership.”

Practically 40 years earlier than Title IX was handed and women had extra alternatives to take part in athletics, these Grand Forks women discovered a brand new alternative to get entangled. By the way in which, that is the second time in three weeks I’ve featured Grand Forks Central Excessive Faculty college students in “Again Then with Tracy Briggs.”

I wrote about some college students right here in 1966 going for a teeter-totter report

. I promise it is only a coincidence. I am not taking funds below the desk from the administration there. However you guys have my quantity, proper?

Anyway, the 27 younger ladies in “The Outing Membership” took “Saturday Morning Breakfast Hikes” to earn credit score and that large GF letter to placed on their class sweaters.

In accordance with the yearbook, “ranging from Central about 7 o’clock, they hike at the least 5 miles on every journey, and the attainment of their aim all the time means one factor — breakfast!”

What a grand concept, proper? The place was this membership in 1982 after I was in highschool?

However lest we expect these women simply walked across the block earlier than plopping down for pancakes and eggs Benedict, the yearbook assures us that generally the meals was “humble fare however they did not thoughts.”

After that they had hiked 65 miles complete, the scholar was given 50 factors towards attainment of a faculty letter. The ladies would additionally get credit score for further miles hiked so long as they had been with at the least two different “sport women.”

The yearbook estimated that the ladies had hiked the equal of an airline journey from Grand Forks to San Francisco — greater than 1,200 miles.

Once I shared this photograph on my private Fb web page suggesting we restart a brand new “outing membership,” I had 70 likes and greater than 35 ladies who stated they’d be all for beginning a 2022 grown-up model of the membership — maybe not breakfast, however glad hour.

I had others say their Saturday morning working golf equipment are mainly the modern-day model of The Outing Membership.

Tracy Clow is a part of Fargo Ninja Runners. The group has been round for 9 years and consists of 130 members who’ve adopted in The Outing Membership’s footsteps. Clow says after the run, they could cease at a brewery or go for brunch.

“It is so enjoyable to get outdoors and run with pals. The miles click on by and the conversations may be severe to hilarious. And who does not like a reward after a exercise?” she says.

Personally, I have been a part of my very own model of The Outing Membership for about 25 years. It began round 1998, when Billy Blanks was all the craze. Bear in mind him? He was the man who popularized Tae Bo, a exercise combining taekwondo and boxing.

My pal urged a bunch of us attempt to do his Tae Bo exercise in her basement. We did it for a few Thursdays when somebody urged we exit for a chew to eat afterwards. As you’ll be able to think about, the basement Tae Bo exercises fell by the wayside, however the eating continued. And since pie was usually concerned, one pal’s husband dubbed us the Tae Pie or Pie Bo membership. Intelligent man.

1 / 4 century, marriages, infants and numerous pie later, our model of The Outing Membership remains to be going robust. Perhaps somebody wants to provide us our letters already.