Kathy Loghry - Centennial Princess

This week we're going all the way back to 1968, which was around the beginning of Kathy's career.  That year she participated in something call the College Football Centennial Queen competition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the sport. 

Of course 1968 was absolutely tumultuous year with the TET offensive in Vietnam, the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and MLK, the riots at the Democratic national convention just to name a few.  However, in the midst of this chaotic time, Kathy launched her career and did so as the quintessential all American girl. 

In this competition, there were fourteen coeds chosen from the nine major conferences as well as four regions and independents.  Kathy represented the Pac 8 (yea I know, it is amazing how the conferences have changed.  Several such as the Southwest and Missouri Valley don't even exist now!).  I don't have pictures but below is a link to a PDF file for the NCAA newsletter that talks about the finalists.  Kathy is on page 6.

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/NCAANewsArchive/1968/19681201.pdf


I know the picture quality isn't good.  In fact when I first saw this I wasn't sure it was our Kathy.  However, the bio checks out so it must be her.  And what do we learn?  Well in addition to being in the Rally Squad, she was in something called Beaver Belles(Must.Resist.Urge.To.Make.Inappropriate.Comment.) (1)  We also learn that she was also model of the year in Oregon so she must have already done some local modeling.  It says here that she was majoring in elementary education.  Not too sure about that GPA, but perhaps we can give her a break on that.  After all, she was probably VERY busy.

Also note the editorial on page 2.  It is a riot.  Little did he know that all those "hippies, yippies, protesters, and trouble-makers" would be running things now, which may not be such a good thing.  Come to think of it, a competition such as this could never be held today with all the PC nonsense we have on college campuses now.

So how did it turn out?  Well, unbelievably Kathy DIDN'T win?!?!?  What?  Are you freaking kidding me?  Were the people that voted blind or something?  I'm sure the winner, Barbara Specht, was decent looking and all, but come on man!  This is Kathy Loghry we're talking about. 
Well Kathy did place however.  Apparently in addition to the queen, two runner up gals were awarded the title of Centennial Princess.  Kathy snagged one of those which isn't too shabby.  Remember that she beat out alot of California beach blonds to represent teh Pac 8.  I was able to locate the following PDF that has some pictures of the three gals at the convention...

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/NCAANewsArchive/1969/19690201.pdf

Once again the pics are grainy and not that great.  Kathy is flashing that million megawatt smile of hers, so she doesn't appear too disappointed.  From other sources we know that she has already landed a major modeling contract by this time, so that should have soothed the pain.  Not sure if Kathy finished college or not.  It would have been very difficult because her career was hitting on all cylinders at this point!


Footnotes (those again!)

(1) I meant no disrespect to the Mighty Beavers of Oregon State by that little comment.  I have known several people that went there.  From the stories they told me, they had as much fun with the name of their mascot as anyone!  So it is all in good natured fun.   In fact, I am scheduled to watch the Beavers play in the Alamo Bowl this year and will be pulling for them to come out on top (so to speak)!   Of course the match up we all want to see is Oregon State versus South Carolina.   For those of you unfamiliar with American college football, you'll just have to look up the mascot names to figure it out!