Centennial Princess - Updated!!

Way back, Way WAY back in the early history of this blog I had a post about a very critical  part of Kathy's career.  It was the 1968 NCAA Centennial Queen competition.  I noticed, after exchanging emails with a loyal reader, that the original links are broken.

Well that just will not do.  After all, here at the World Wide Headquarters of The Kathy Loghey Blogspot we are very sensitive to customer satisfaction.  And with our ever improving technology (thanks to our ever productive research department) we are proud to present an updated version of that post.

"Centennial Queen, what is that ?" you ask.  Well, 1968 was the 100th anniversary of the NCAA.  And one of the ways that they celebrated that fact was with a Queen competition.  Each school nominated a candidate and then each conference selected from among them.  Then there as a national vote and, well it's pretty complicated, but it was kind of like a combination of Survivor and Idol.

So who did Oregon State choose?

Naturally they chose Kathy...

And naturally she was selected for the National competition as the Pac 8 rep..

This naturally this caused a major stir in a local effort to elect Kathy as Centennial Queen...

Notice that one actually had to send a card to an address - no email or texting back then!

Even the governor voted for Kathy! And that is Dick Fosbury who pioneered the high jump technique of going over the bar backwards.  Up to that time, high jumpers went over the bar in a forwards manner.  The new technique was called the "Fosbury Flop" and is used by all high jumpers today.

"A vote for Kathy is a vote for Oregon"  Well said.....

Here are some pics from the original link showing teh 14 finalists....

And a close up....

Elementary Education.  Hmmm, somehow I think her career goals were about to take a major change!!

So how did it turn out?  Well she made it to the final three...

And then, well, she finished second........

"What?!?" I'm sure you're saying right now.  I mean how could she finish second??  The winner, Barbara Specht of Texas Tech, I'm sure was a very lovely gal (and I know a thing or two about Texas Tech coeds, but that's, ahem, another story,)  But, this is Kathy Loghry of future modeling fame. Oh well, perhaps the voters didn't get the full story or something.  Still this launched Kathy's career as she got a major modeling contract in all this.

Both Kathy and the other finalist were given the title of Centennial Princess, hence the title of this post.

 Yeah, Kathy doesn't seem too upset finishing second.  After all, she already had a major modeling contract in her pocket when this pic was taken.

Still, this is a great look back in time.  The year 1968 was so turbulent in so many ways.  All of these lovely ladies represented what was best in America then.