While organizing Saturday night's University of Utah gymnastics-team 20th-year anniversary reunion that will bring together about 50 of the 70 or so former Utes, Megan Marsden rhetorically asked if the athletes should wear name tags during this weekend's functions. After all, it's been a decade and more since many of them were in Salt Lake City. Some have never seen a meet in the Huntsman Center (Utah began competing in its practice gym), and many have never met face-to-face.
Not on the coach's account, was Greg Marsden's quick reply to his wife about name tags. Don't need 'em, he said."I remember every one of them like it was yesterday," says the only gym coach the Utes have ever had. "That's not an issue with me.
"For every one of them, I had a funny name and remembered funny little things about them," he says.
Returning alums, who paid their own air fare and hotel costs, have asked for about 250 tickets to Saturday night's final '95 home meet (Utah vs. BYU) to accommodate their families and friends.
The alumni will attend a Saturday luncheon at the University Park Hotel, then be introduced to the meet crowd at 7 p.m. Competition begins at 7:15.
At the luncheon, alums will receive 20th-anniversary highlight videos and other gifts. Members of national-title teams of 1981-86 will get championship rings individually engraved with the years they were on title teams. Utah began giving rings in 1990.
With nine national titles, most of the alumni will either get rings or already have them. Only those from the first few teams and perhaps some from late-'80s will miss out.
Marsden says, however, that of all the Ute success stories, his own most cherished memory is of the first team (1976) that was 10th of 16 in the AIAW Championships at Appalachian State. "We hit all our routines and finshed 10th. It felt like we won," Marsden recalls. "Nothing was more rewarding than that."
Some athletes from the early years wondered if Utah really wanted them for the reunion since they had no titles. "I told Megan, `You tell them it's most important for them to be here. They built the base,' " says Marsden.
"We owe them what our program is today," says senior Aimee Trepanier, who performs for the last time in the Hunstman Saturday. "It will be neat to kind of say, `Thank you.' "
Of the visiting alumni, the other senior, Suzanne Metz, says, "That's incredible. To see all the people I've heard stories about and seen pictures of. They're legends," she says.
Former Utes were asked to return questionaires telling about their lives since and their best Utah memories. Of 42 who returned the survey, 25 live in Utah though they're from Maine, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, Wisconsin, Michigan, Washington or California.
Diana Downs Escalante (1978-79) is a Ph.D and bacteriology professor at University of Wisconsin. Elaine Alfano (82-85) owns a New Jersey gym and is the 1995 U.S. National Aerobic champion. Sandy Hancock Vanderlinde owns a gym in Annabella, Utah. Many work in medical fields as nurses, therapists and dieticians, and many others are gymnastics coaches.
Victoria (Tory) Rubenstein Schwartz (79-80) is creator/founder of "Victoria Bags" and designs and manufactures hand-painted accessories for galleries and boutiques. Linda Kardos Wood (81-84) is marketing communications manager for a Fortune 100 company and a gymnastics judge who worked the 1994 Goodwill Games in Russia. Jessica Smith (88-91) is a civil engineer.
Salt Lake native Diane Ellingson Smith (78-81) broke her neck practicing for a pro gym tour soon after captaining Utah's first title team. She's been in a wheelchair since but is a professional motivational speaker and author and is married to a Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey Circus clown.
Most-remembered is the 1990 hot-pink NCAA Championship when the U. rebounded from the gloom of 1989's fifth-place NCAA finish. Others recalled the first title ('81) and the '83 championship with just seven healthy athletes.
Kardos Wood's favorite memory was making and accomplishing a freshman pact with Megan McCunniff Marsden to win four NCAA team championships. Hancock Vanderlinde's favorite memory is of Marsden knocking himself out trying to perform her floor routine. He didn't mention that one among his memories.