When 317 young women walked into Gonzaga Preparatory School on Sept. 2, 1975, they were stepping through more than just a doorway. They were crossing a threshold that would change the school in the most consequential way since its founding in 1887. On that day, the school became one of only four all-boys Jesuit high schools in the country to welcome women.
There have been pivotal moments throughout the school’s storied history: the move from Gonzaga University’s campus to the Mission Ave. building; the years at the Baxter Army Hospital barracks during and after WWII; and the acquisition of the property and opening of Gonzaga High School at 1224 East Euclid—the creation of the Fair Share tuition program. But the addition of women was truly a watershed moment, increasing the school’s enrollment by 50 percent. It swelled the classrooms, hallways, and lockers. It necessitated hiring 17 more teachers for a total of 55. It demanded renovation of classroom spaces, locker rooms, and bathrooms. It broadened the curriculum to include courses then marketed as “appealing to girls”— cooking, sewing, art, and girls' P.E. Most significantly, it expanded opportunities for young women in every aspect of their lives—mind, body, and spirit.
The 2025–26 school year marks 50 years of coeducation at Gonzaga Prep. Throughout the year, we will honor the women whose presence and leadership have shaped the school since that moment and reflect on how Prep has grown over the past five decades. 50 Stories for 50 Years will celebrate the impact of the first women to walk our halls and the legacy they passed on to today’s students. Follow along as we share stories from campus and beyond—and watch for opportunities to reflect, engage, and celebrate this ongoing journey of growth, inclusion, and transformation.
This story begins in the mid-70s—disco on the dance floor, bell-bottoms in the halls. Watergate had shaken trust in institutions, and the Vietnam War had left a generation disillusioned. Title IX and the women’s movement opened new doors in education and athletics. Times, they were a-changin'. Enrollment at Prep had peaked in the 1960s at nearly 800 and then stabilized at the start of the decade. Holy Names Academy and Marycliff Academy were experiencing a steeper decrease in enrollment due to declining birthrates in the region. The Baby Boom was over.
Beth (Arnold) Brasch `76 recalls the uncertainty after learning Holy Names would close and before Prep confirmed it would admit girls. Not everyone wanted to go to school with the boys, and not all of the boys were ready for girls to “invade” their space. Marycliff Academy remained open for the moment, with a population of young women who still desired an all-girls learning environment.
Past school president Al Falkner, who was a teacher at the time, famously tells—paraphrasing—of then president-principal Bill Hayes, S.J., telling faculty in the fall of 1974, “There WILL BE NO WOMEN at Prep.” Then, just in the winter, he walked in and said, “I just want to tell you now, next year there WILL BE WOMEN at Prep.”
The school scrambled to make changes to the building before the start of school: According to school board memoranda, bathrooms were remodeled, the cafeteria was cleaned and painted, and urinals were removed from the girls locker room. A wall was taken down in the carpentry room to expand and accommodate equipment for home economics, including ovens and sinks.
The Spokane Chronicle documented the first day, quoting Fr. Hayes: “The ratio is two boys to one girl, and we do have a different mood this year. It’s a little quieter, calmer, but everyone is enthused.”
“When we got here in late August, early September, the only two girls' bathrooms were the one by the gym, which had been converted, and the girls' locker room, which had also been converted,” said Beth (Arnold) Brasch `76, who had spent her first three years of high school at Holy Names. Brasch recalls a chaotic first semester: “We had three to a locker, and the hallways were crammed.”
There was an adjustment for the young men, too. Some were resentful at first—it felt like the girls had entered a space that had been theirs. They had their customs, a senior lunch table among them.
Academically, women of the time often pursued professions possible through vocational training. Many who went to college became teachers and nurses. High school curricula were tailored to this reality at Catholic schools for girls. By enrolling at Prep, young women could now pursue a science track or other advanced courses alongside their male counterparts.
It was three years after Title IX, which meant athletics for girls were offered at Prep, but it took some time to get rolling. The yearbook shows team photos for golf, volleyball, tennis, and track. Some of those first teams took a beating, and it took pioneering teachers and coaches like Denise Schlepp and gifted athletes like Terri Givens `83 and Lisa Oriard `84 to begin writing the history of women’s sports at the school. The first title for any girls' team was golf in 1992.
Spiritually, the most memorable, unifying, and enduring element of a Prep education that came with coeducation was the Search retreat, which was held for seniors—boys and girls together. The food drive, already a storied tradition at Prep also grew with the able arms of young women to carry cans of food alongside boys each November. The school newspaper, the Gonzagan, noted that the presence of girls reignited the seniors’ enthusiasm to reach the class goal in the drive. It also organically spread the word in neighborhoods that Prep had indeed gone coed.
These first women have stories to tell—and so do the many who came after—of how Prep impacted their lives both in high school and in their trajectory beyond. Each week from now through Reunions 2026, you will have a chance to learn about the countless ways Jesuit education impacted the young women (and men) who have graduated from Gonzaga Prep and transformed the school itself.
Do you have a story to share about the impact of Gonzaga Prep’s move to coed? Firsts, achievements, fun anecdotes? We want to hear about it. Send us a note to [email protected], including 50 years coed in the subject line.
Article compiled using interviews with alumni, past administrators, newspaper clippings, and archival documents.