The Moore, Oklahoma, High School Class of 1974 took their seats in the football stadium under darkening skies.
The class president welcomed the crowd, after which the principal, looking out at the clouds, declared that all students had graduated and instructed attendees to evacuate immediately.
“The sky turned pea green, these scary clouds rolled in and the sirens started wailing,” said Noora Murray South, one of the graduates.
Another graduate, Sterling Crim, grabbed his girlfriend, Leanne Boyd, by the hand and pulled her under the bleachers next to the brick wall of the concession stand.
The tornado never came, touching down instead west of Moore, but the day – and the ceremony – were ruined.
The graduates were soaking wet, their blue paper caps staining their clothes, and they received their diplomas unceremoniously from their high schools later in life. But even as they went on to college, jobs and families, many of them still held onto the hope of one day standing on the commencement stage.
South, Crim and about 200 of their classmates and relatives of those who died had a redo of their graduation ceremony on Saturday.
The weather in Moore on Saturday was hot and sunny with a slight risk of thunderstorms, but dangerous spring weather is common in Moore, which is about 15 minutes south of Oklahoma City.
According to the National Weather Service, Oklahoma sees an average of more than 57 tornadoes each year.
“Traditionally, this area is one of the most tornado-prone areas in the country, maybe even the world,” said Nolan Meister, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma.
Meister said the science of forecasting tornadoes “gets better every year,” but it remains difficult to predict when they will strike and how strong they will be.
In May 2013, a massive tornado ripped through Moore's Cleveland County neighborhood, toppling 10-ton storage tanks, flipping cars and destroying schools. The storm ultimately killed 91 people, including 20 children.
Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore was reduced to a pile of twisted metal and toppled walls that collapsed, killing seven students.
The devastating tornado was rated a Category 5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which measures tornado strength on a scale of 0 to 5, and was one of several different tornado outbreaks that crossed the state that day, according to a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Another massive tornado struck Moore in May 1999, with wind speeds reaching 302 mph, killing 36 people and destroying thousands of homes within 85 minutes.
The Moore Public School District has found ways to accommodate students who missed out on graduation ceremonies, including holding belated ceremonies for students whose graduations were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and memorializing the seven victims of the 2013 tornado at the 2022 commencement ceremony in which they would have graduated.
The desire to hold a graduation ceremony was a common topic at Moore High School's class of 1974. Former classmates discussed the idea on social media, with some suggesting holding a mock ceremony at the Holiday Inn, but others found the idea tacky.
Finally, last year, Mike Wilson, a former student who works as a sports announcer at Moore High School, proposed to school officials the idea of holding the graduation ceremony in conjunction with his class's 50th anniversary reunion.
“As you get older, you look back and think you missed something,” Wilson said, adding that the high school administration quickly organized a full-scale ceremony in the high school auditorium, including marching to the music of Edward Elgar's march “Pomp and Circumstance” and crossing the stage to receive their diplomas.
“We weren't going to say no to them,” said Principal Rachel Stark, who graduated from the school in 1988. “We wanted to give them a chance to walk.”
Class President Bob Baker and Junior Class President Phyllis Marichal Clark shared speeches they wrote in 1974, adding some contemporary comments.
For Crim, Saturday's ceremony was especially emotional.
After a failed commencement in 1974, he and Ms. Boyd moved to San Antonio, Texas, for college, where they settled, married and started a family.
The couple's grandchildren joked that they never graduated.
His wife was diagnosed with colon cancer about eight years ago, and Saturday's graduation marks three years since her death.
“She always wanted to see graduation and was always there to cheer us on,” Crim said.
“Are you taking someone?” he added. “Take her.”
