It was a high school reunion like no other as generations of students, teachers and staff gathered Thursday afternoon for the final assembly in the gym of the old F.H. Collins Secondary School.

As the display for those entering the school – some with old yearbooks in hand – summed up with words, photographs and newspaper clippings: “Great things have happened here.”

And that’s exactly what was celebrated inside the crowded gym.

Before heading inside, former students lingered outside viewing old grad photos, hugging friends they hadn’t seen in some time and recalling the good times at the school.

While some recalled cutting class to go for a smoke and play cards in the former smoking room, others remembered shooting hoops in the gym and so on.

Current students of the school were seen meeting up with their parents who were also at one time F.H. Collins Warriors and among the 8,000 graduates who have crossed the stage.

The laughter and memories continued as the crowd made its way into the gym where a projector displayed both the decades at the school, which opened in 1963, and the trends that came with each decade.

Images of the Beatles (both in the 1960s and 1970s), classic cars, Pac-Man, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, The Office, Lord of the Rings and the logos of Facebook and Twitter came up on the screen in between photos over the years of F.H. Collins students and events and, of course, Collins himself.

Collins was the territory’s commissioner from 1955 to 1962, a year before the school opened. During his term, he brought forward several changes to education in the territory, improving the standards, it’s noted on the school’s website.

Humanities teacher Peter Grundmanis – or, as principal Darren Hays later described him, “the best toast master dude you could get” – took the stage.

“What a journey this has been,” Grundmanis said as he assured the crowd that it really was the last day for the old school.

The opening of the new F.H. Collins school next door has been greeted with cautious optimism in recent years as delays in planning and building have taken place.

Even at the most recent graduation ceremony in June, when construction of the new school was well-underway, staff referred to the 2015 grad class as “possibly the last grad class” of the old school.

Thursday’s assembly, though, was not about the ups and downs for the new school.

Rather, it was a stroll down Memory Lane as Grundmanis ran through a slew of his own memories over the past 25 years:

• the replacement of the gym floor, which meant busing students up to Yukon College for gym class;

• the former track, which featured a manhole in lane three (“if it was a sprint, it was a hurdle in lane three,” he said);

• the decisions that had to be made on controversial issues, including whether condom machines should be placed in the bathrooms; and

• the gophers who managed to make their way into the Lewes Boulevard school.

Asked for a show of hands on how many remembered seeing a gopher in their class, more than a few former students raised their hands after Grundmanis recalled coaching archery at one time when a rodent entered the gym.

“You can’t imagine what 12 kids with bows and arrows will do to a gopher,” he said.

The rodent, he assured the crowd, somehow managed to scurry away from the action unscathed while order was restored.

Grundmanis was just one of the staffers to share their memories.

The Senile Singers as they dubbed themselves – about 20 former teachers whose collective careers at the school spanned from 1968 to 2014 – soon came forward with their own tribute to school sung in the tune of the theme song from The Beverly Hillbillies. That TV show premiered in 1962, before F.H. Collins opened its doors to its first students.

The song strung together their memories of the building that’s “getting tired,” as they noted.

“Now it’s time to bid farewell to these hallowed halls ....” they sang as their efforts were met with applause from the crowd.

As the farewell ceremony continued, the crowd viewed what was termed a “small sampling” of graduates who have made the school proud with their accomplishments in the years since walking across the stage for their diploma.

It was a list, staff insisted, that could not possibly capture everybody but would offer a glimpse into what F.H. graduates have gone onto.

A long list of activists, filmmakers, Olympians and other athletes, performers, artists, authors, those who have served the country in the military, and politicians were featured.

Grundmanis didn’t let a problem with the sound system stop him from continuing as he looked to the future at the new school, pointing out that change can be difficult, but F.H. Collins has always risen to challenges.

He then recalled a few of the challenges – big and small – over the years at the old school from the first time the school sold pizza as a fundraiser and there were 270 pizzas left over, to changes in the education system.

Those alternations eliminated the junior high school system, with students then entering high school in Grade 8 and the concerns over Grade 8 students mingling with Grade 12 students.

And then there are the traditions of F.H.: Grundmanis still wonders how the Grade 12 class manages to make their annual mark on the building’s roof, and that had him asking a question of the students who will start at the new F.H. Collins after the Christmas break.

“What are you going to make your own?” he asked of the students, before staff began playing a montage honouring the school, the students and the decades that have passed.

It began appropriately in black and white, a student walking into the school seemingly in 1963 with a Beatles lunch box and record in hand, heading over to a record player and turning on the song I Want To Hold Your Hand.

A piece of that song moved into the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction as the camera made its way through the school.

The tour of the school continued with pieces of songs from each era playing as students and staff danced and/or showed off their lip synch abilities to popular tunes from each year.

Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody garnered the most laughter through the montage. It was an eclectic soundtrack that included the works of Abba, the Village People, Survivor, Van Halen, Guns n Roses, Madonna, MC Hammer, REM, Nirvana, Brittany Spears, Spice Girls, Alanis Morrissette, Lady Gaga, PSY, Taylor Swift and a long list of other popular artisits of each era.

The final parts of two songs were a clear farewell to the school as the film showed students walking out of the school to Europe’s The Final Countdown and finally waving good-bye to Na Na Na Na Hey Hey-ey Goodbye.

Following the montage, the school also paid tribute to former teacher Chris McNeill who passed away in 2014.

A short video featured him as many likely remember him, riding around the gym in costume, clearly having a great time and entertaining those around him.

Applause and cheers followed as Grundmanis declared it time to “close the cover.”

He then invited Hays to have the last word at the last assembly.

“One can’t help but be humbled,” Hays said, noting that as great as the old school has been, the F.H. Collins Warriors will make its successor even better.

After the formal event, like many who were there, he reminisced.

While many memories stand out, 9/11 – which happened just a week after he became principal – is probably the one that stands out as most prevalent.

There was “everyone scrambling” as a Boeing 747 Korean Air flight thought to have been hijacked landed in Whitehorse.

“That was pretty memorable,” he said.

While reflective on the years spent in the old school, Hays said he’s looking forward to the new facility.

Those who graduated from the old F.H. Collins will continue to be honured in the new school with space designated for the grad photos that currently line the walls. And, Hays assured everyone, there’s room for class photos of graduates for years to come.

Former students and staff continued to talk outside the gym, taking in the old photos and sharing memories.

As Commissioner Doug Phillips recalled, while much has changed since his days at the school in the 1960s, the stories of those days are not all that unfamiliar to current staff and students.

He was among those who started classes at what was then the “new” school in January of 1963.

As he said, they had opened the school in the new year because it “wasn’t quite ready” when it had been originally expected to open.

“It was huge,” he recalled of his first impression entering the building that winter day in Grade 9.

At the time, the Whitehorse school (now École Whitehorse Elementary) was beyond capacity, with students taking their days in shifts – he went to class at 7:30 a.m. and was finished by 12:30 p.m. when he and his friends would take off for the day.

“Marks were dreadful (that year),” he said, recalling the afternoons off with his friends.

When F.H. opened, it was back to a more standard schedule for the students and five decades later, Phillips remembers floor hockey in the gym and playing trumpet in the school band, performing in the Hougen Centre in the days leading up to Christmas.

“It was a blast,” he said with a grin. “It was the best years of my life.”

His school days at F.H. came to a close with graduation in 1966. To this day, he can find his photo on the wall.

“You won’t recognize me,” he said with a grin, pointing to the photo of a young George Phillips – for whatever reason they used his middle name for the grad photo, he noted – with the request Beatles-style mop-top haircut popular with students, but not his mom, at the time.

As the celebrations of the old school – complete with a cake celebrating each decade, including a final New Beginning cake featuring the new school – came to a close, alumni, staff and students made their way over to the new building, where basketball players were enjoying a practice in the gym.

It was easy to view the action. Windows surround the gym, screens are featured high in corners and there’s a shiny new floor for students.

There’s also an exercise room, and throughout the new facility, classrooms feature whiteboards that can project tablet screens and even high-tech chairs and tables allowing students to stand, sit or even fidget somewhat if need be.

Students had made their way over earlier in the day to claim their new lockers and get an even earlier glimpse of the building before the open house.

While many were impressed with the new facilities, a few were having a hard time saying farewell to the old school.

As Grade 10 student Jayden Demchuck recalled, the old gym is not only where she’s played basketball and volleyball and attended numerous school assemblies and events, it’s also where she grew up watching her cousin’s sporting events.

“I’m so sad,” she said.

Her mom, Jenny Pope, also has her own memories of sports in the gym and coming over from Jeckell Junior Secondary School (now Vanier Catholic Secondary) to take in and participate in sports events there before becoming a student there herself.

“It’s the attachment,” she said, noting the emotions she was sharing with her daughter.

Both schools remained open into the late afternoon, allowing alumni, students, past and current staff to walk in the past while also looking to the future.

See Monday’s Star for coverage of the new school’s features.