In the fall of 1974, the girls’ tennis team won the school’s first state championship. Donna Sauls coached the team that consisted of Lanier Brown, Ann Clark, Dockery Clark, Ann Dortch, Bayse Hendrix, Carola Hertle, Cathy Inabnet, Elizabeth Wright and Patti Ward.
Author: Beth Boulton
Greensboro Day School had a varsity football team for 1 season during the fall of 1973. (There was a JV team for two seasons during the fall of ’73 and ’74). Winless seasons with losses by forty or more points on a regular basis and the risk of injury quickly persuaded the school that this program was not sound, either educationally or physically. Athletic Director Lenwood Edwards, himself a football man, saw this clearly. The decision to concentrate on sports more native to our ACC environment, particularly basketball and soccer, has produced many successes in those programs. It had been widely thought in the 1970s that for an independent day school to be successful in the South, it would have to provide a mirror, albeit a small one, of the social ambience available in the large public school down the street, and football was surely a part of that ambience. But in this, as in numerous other instances, Greensboro Day School has proven otherwise!
The first Student of the Year Award was given in 1972. Julia Elizabeth Laughlin was the first recipient of the award. In 1984, the award’s name was changed and is now known as the Founders’ Award. The Founders’ Award is presented annually at graduation to the member of the graduating class who best exemplifies the characteristics of scholarship, sportsmanship, and leadership implicit in the founding of our School.
The first yearbook came out in 1972, at the conclusion of the second year of the school. The name of the yearbook was Prowler, a name that is still in use to this day. The first yearbook was dedicated to Ms. Norma Gibson.
The first Green & Gold Day was held on May 5, 1972! The celebration, put on by the Parents’ Council, became an annual tradition and has been held every year since, now called the Fall Festival.
Bob Satterfield, Jo Ellen Stewart, Nancy Teague, Susan Aldridge, Ava Brewer, Beth Garriss, Joyce Lawrence, John Bingaman, Brian Jeffreys Jr., Judy Geiger, and Jane Brabham were the school’s first teachers joining Ted Welles (Head of School).
In the Fall of 1971, it is believed that David Howard ’76 was the first Bengal to get on the scoreboard, recording a goal against Forsyth Country Day School.
Coach Lenwood Edwards joined the faculty midway through the first year and was the school’s first athletic director and coach of most sports. Edwards was also the first president of the Piedmont Athletic Conference of Independent Schools (PACIS) and was instrumental in allying Forsyth Country Day School, Durham Academy, Carlisle School, Kernersville Wesleyan, Westchester Academy and North State Academy of Hickory (since closed), in athletic competition.
The October 8 edition of the Bengal Lancer described the process by which the mascot was chosen. A committee that included John Jester, Coach Edwards, Headmaster Welles and students, had decided on an animal (although some favored Blue Devils and one parent was reported to have suggested the Lafayette Escadrilles). Welles had hoped to use an animal native to North Carolina, but Billy Cone’s suggestion of the Tiger led the committee to choose the Bengal, for whom we cheer today!
Our school seal has evolved over the years since we first adopted it in 1970, but the “flame” element has remained constant. The torch embodies the intentional way in which our students are prepared at Greensboro Day School. The seal was designed by Ann Clark ’76 and Ann Dortch ’76.