Brenda Terrell remembers running through those wooden bleachers.

Mindy Stitt recalls the moment she became destined to be a guard.

Matthew Storm’s memories go beyond the game of basketball.

Steve Shiever recanted the difficulties of trying to build a new one.

Hundreds packed into the “old” Dover gymnasium on Friday night as the Lady Longhorns and Longhorns hosted Ninnekah in a pair of high school basketball contests.

Dubbed the “Final Farewell,” they were the final two games to be played in Dover’s historic gymnasium that sits inside the elementary school.

Built in 1920, the gym and school will be torn down this summer after a new elementary and gym are completed on the east side of the current high school.

The century-old gym hasn’t regularly hosted high school games since the district completed its “new” gym just prior to the 1980-81 season.

Still, the elementary gym has been the site of countless elementary games, high school and junior high practices as well as an unending amount of other activities hosted by Dover over the past century.

“It was very touching walking back in here. I’ve seen some people I hadn’t seen since I left,” said Shiever, the former principal and superintendent who attended the event with his three sons Steve, Matt and Mitch. The eldest two are Dover graduates.

Shiever was among several former teachers, coaches, administrators and employees who paid the old building their final respects.

Shiever was first hired as a principal at Dover in 1971-72 and later became superintendent before moving on to Frontier in 1989.

“This place is very special; some of the best years I ever spent in education,” Shiever said. “I love the people, the students. It was a very good experience.”

Still, Shiever knew the gym had outgrown its use as a high school basketball facility in the late 1970s as it surpassed more than 50 years old.

The school put a bond issue before voters to build a new gym.

“It failed by two votes,” Shiever remembered. The district learned of a couple of illegal voters in that election and had the results recalled.

“We had a new one two months later and it failed by three votes,” he said.

“But the third time it passed.” A 1984 Dover graduate, Stitt is now the executive director of Oklahoma Energy Resources Board.

Though she played all of her high school career in the newer gym, she grew up playing in the old one.

She recalled when school ball started in the fifth grade – still the days of 6-on-6 – and Phil Humphrey was her coach.

“I was left-handed. I couldn’t make a right-handed layup to save my life,” she said.

“He sent me to the guard end and that’s how I became a guard.”

It worked out well for Stitt, who played on three state tournament teams, including a state runner-up squad in 1981, and earned All-State during her senior season.

Terrell graduated in 1978 and was a member of the school’s first girls team to ever reach state that season.

She remembers fondly coach Glynn McCauley saying “Spider, get out there…and tossing me on the court.”

What’s not so fond a memory?

“Running those bleachers and lines,” she said.

Terrell now lives in Mannford. She relived Max Vincent “jumping up and hitting the basketball net” at graduation.

She was among those who made the trek back to Dover last week along with her best friend since kindergarten, Janice Andrews.

Five generations of Terrells have made their way through that gym.

“I loved being in there with so many friends of all generations,” she said of the night. “I hate to see it go, but I’m excited for the growth for future kids.”

A 1990 graduate, Storm returned for Friday’s game from Dallas where he leads marketing for a software company and teachers at the University of North Texas.

“Friday night reminded me that room was much more than a gym,” said Storm.

“Memories of band concerts, graduations, funerals and school assemblies all flooded my mind that night and reminded me how proud I am to be a Dover Longhorn.

Trilla (Guinn) Ramer is Dover’s elementary principal and helped spearhead the event.

She said 175 alumni signed in “but there were a lot of names of people not signed in who I know were there.”

They represented nine different decades of Dover graduates.

Storm echoed a lot of their sentiments.

“The farewell was bittersweet for me because while I will miss that building, the progress in Dover is undeniable,” he said. “The new elementary school will be amazing and will give students a modern advantage.”

Ramer graduated from Dover in 1992 and returned to her alma mater as an administrator in 2015.

“When I looked into the stands on Friday night from the gym floor, it was like looking at my childhood,” she said. “So many of those men and women were role models to me and so many others.”

What she saw were those people laughing, smiling, reminiscing.

“It was such an incredible night,” she said. “We wanted to give the alumni and the community a chance to say goodbye to this building and especially the gym.

“Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time reminiscing about their high school days and catching up with friends they hadn’t seen in a long time.”

They were able to do that due in large part to Ramer’s work.

“We had several of our staff step up and help, but Trilla was the ringleader behind all this,” said Superintendent Jay Wood.

“That building is very special to her just like the rest of the alumni. She spent a ton of time organizing and promoting the event to our community so that no small details were left out.

“She deserves a lot of the credit.”

Ramer shared in the success.

“I really appreciate Jay Wood for making sure this event happened and the hard work the Dover staff put into making it a huge success,” she said.

Shiever was among the hundreds who enjoyed it.

“This has been very special,” he said, looking around the packed gym.

And that was the goal when the plan was put into place.

“We had a great turnout and heard so many positive comments about the evening. Our gym and hallways were packed,” Wood said.

“The old gym and elementary building mean so much to our former alumni. The building holds a ton of memories for all of our community.

“I am glad we were able to give it one last time to shine.”

When the stands had emptied and the last person had shuffled out the door, Ramer turned the lights out in the gym, then took one last photo for posterity’s sake and reflected on the night.

“There was no shortage of smiles and hugs; that’s what I love about Dover,” she said. “And memories… so many memories were shared. It’s always a great night to be a Longhorn and Friday’s farewell game proved, ‘Once a Longhorn, always a Longhorn.’”