By Bea Randall / Herald Forum
In 1960, when I was a sophomore at Everett High School, my father cut an article out of The Everett Herald and handed it to me. The article said that the high school track team was going to the district meet where boys and girls would be competing.
I packed my shorts and tennis shoes. The boys got in line on the bus and I stood at the back of the line. Harold Hoiby, the coach, stopped me and asked me where I was going. I showed him the Everett Herald news article and he let me get on the bus.
When we arrived at the district track meet in Shoreline I was the only girl there. Mr. Hoiby asked me for the newspaper article and I gave it to him. He took it to the meet officials at the other end of the field. There was lots of loud language and arm waving.
The coach returned and told me I could run but not against any boys; I’d have to run all by myself. Then he asked me what events I wanted to run.
I didn’t know what to run at first, but I ended up competing all by myself in the 100-yard dash, the long jump and the hurdles, just as they were set for the boys.
A week later I went to the state track meet. There were a few girls there, maybe 25. The announcement came over the loud speaker that no girls’ events would be run unless there were at least two girls entered in it. I only had planned to run three events, but was told I could enter four. I was surrounded by a group of girls all begging me to pick their event so it could be run. I picked the 440-yard run as my fourth event.
Two years later, at the state meet I entered and won the shot put. Although we didn’t know each well at the time, my future husband was a shot-putter. Our freshmen year at Everett Junior College he spent the first two quarters of the year looking for me, the girl who’d won the state shot put title. That spring I was the only woman who turned out for the college’s track and field team. I even owned my own shot.
Charles and I married 28 months later. We both went on to coach track and field. He coached track for 30 years at Arlington High School and cross country for 20 years, after which he received the Hal Moe Award from the Washington State Interscholastic Athletic Association.
I co-coached the Arlington High School girls team with physical education teacher Mavis Broughton, taking our team to the 1971 State Championship, even though it did not become an official meet until two years later.
I coached track for nine additional, official years for the school district. My husband and I were married for 56 years. When he passed in 2020 at age 80 we were still in love and watching every track meet we could find on TV. Arlington High School’s first home track meet each year is call the Randall Relays in his honor.
Charles Randall taught biology for 30 years at Arlington High School and for 10 summers worked as a naturalist at Olympic National Park on the coast. Together we raised three sons and have five grandchildren and four great grandchildren so far. My grandson, Michael Randall teachers science and is the head track coach at Stanwood High School. My son, Bill Randall, also was a Stanwood assistant coach.
Thank you, Everett Daily Herald. I have lived a wonderful life because The Herald ran that article in the newspaper in 1960.
Beatrice “Bea” Randall lives in Arlington.
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