50 years later, Moore class of ’74 set to graduate

By Jason Burger

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    MOORE, Oklahoma (KOCO) — Decades after storms rained on their special day, the 1974 graduating class of Moore High School will get a second chance to walk the stage on Saturday.

The class of about 500 students couldn’t walk the stage at graduation that year because a tornado warning cut their ceremony short.

“To come back 50 years later, and the school has opened their arms to make this happen,” said Mike Wilson, class of 1974. “We marched in, and we didn’t think anything of it. There’s pictures of it; it was just a sunny day.”

But like so many spring days in Oklahoma, a storm rolled in, along with the risk of a tornado.

“Maybe one song, maybe one speech, and then the Superintendent gets up and says you graduated, you’re done,” Wilson said.

And just like that, the ceremony was called off.

“We had paper gowns, and some of them just disintegrated into the girl’s dresses and stuff like that. It’s crazy the stories that everyone has,” Wilson said.

On Saturday, Wilson and his classmates will get redemption as they will hold the full ceremony they were robbed of 50 years ago, alongside the class of 2024.

“Some of them have found their speeches that they wrote back in 1974, and it’s going to be cool to listen to what Bob wrote down in 1974, to how much it’s changed now,” Wilson said.

Still in Moore, he remembers those days like they were yesterday.

“My buddy over there, we met in the eighth grade, we played baseball together, and there’s countless stories that we really don’t want to repeat, but he seems to want to do that every time we get together,” Wilson said.

Wilson said if there are classmates from 1974 who are no longer living, their families are more than welcome to walk at the graduation in their honor.

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