When Gonzaga Prep opened its doors to young women in 1975, the change wasn’t just felt in the curriculum—it was a HUGE change socially for both the young men and young women.
Girls who had come from all-girls schools laughed as they recalled the difference. Some remembered with apprehension, “The hardest thing for me was that I went to Catholic school all my years, and so I had uniforms. Then it went from uniforms to ‘I had to find some clothes to wear,’” said Mary (Conley) Mealey `76.
“And it was a struggle for me. I actually went and got three pairs of blue pants and many shirts that kind of went with it, because I didn't really know how to dress for school like that. The first day at Holy Names had been just ‘come as you are.’ There was no makeup. You wore curlers to school. Clothing was kind of disheveled in a way. Sometimes, you just grabbed your uniform off the shelf. The first day [at Prep] was like all these girls … I thought I knew them. I was like, ‘Who are you?’ They had the makeup and their hair, and they had these really nice clothes.”
With limited options for girls, some even wore their Holy Names uniforms to Prep. “That didn’t last very long.”
It mattered to the boys, too. Mike Reilly `77 recalls, “Every boy attending Prep is a better man for it. For me, I recall coming into a coed class my junior year. I was wearing the same old drab clothes with little to no styling. And then, on the first day of coed school, I realized how out of position I really was. I looked over in our pre-calculus class at Mark Steilen `77. Suddenly the previously and similarly drab-dressed boy had changed. Steilen now had windblown hair, a silk shirt, hip-hugging stylish bell bottoms, 4–7” platform shoes, and puka shells around his neck.
The girls were fawning over Steilen! Most of the rest of us hadn’t yet ‘raised our game.’ I remember coming home and telling my mom, ‘Hey, I need some help. These JCPenney cords and Red Ball Jets tennis shoes are not going to cut it with the likes of Steilen sauntering up and down the hallways at Prep.’ Despite some reasonable support from my mom, I never really caught up to ‘Stylin’ Steilen.’ But I did raise my game.”
From that moment on, fashion at Prep became an ever-changing mirror of each decade:
Through it all, coeducation reshaped more than wardrobes—it reshaped the culture. The arrival of young women at Prep elevated expectations, sparked new traditions, and transformed the student body.