Accompanied by her husband/artist ‘The Bench Man,’ ‘The Chair Lady’ will be attending the Pipestone-Jasper Athletic Hall of Fame induction banquet, Oct. 13 in Pipestone.
Of course when she steps up to the podium for her short acceptance speech, friends, teammates and family might remember Paula Manning Fagre by other monikers, such as ‘Live Wire’ or ‘Spark Plug,’ as the 1975 Pipestone High School graduate was rarely at rest as a student/athlete.
“It’s not even possible for me to sit and watch, I have to be moving all the time,” said Fagre, a member of the volleyball, gymnastics, track & field and cheerleading programs during years as an Arrow. “It’s just in my blood… not what I do it’s just who I am. When I came to Pipestone, I signed up for everything. I put my name in for everything, and I could do that there. That’s what’s really nice about those small towns.
“The only thing I didn’t do was play an instrument… that and debate, I don’t like confrontation. I’ll fight you on the gym floor, but not at the podium.”
And fight on the gym floor and track Fagre did.
She fought with Coach Ann Miller and her teammates as part of the first student/athletes to represent Pipestone interscholastically, as the school board approved by vote to join the MSHSL in all the girls’ sports for 1973-74 – Fagre’s junior year in school.
With her teammates Cindy Roth, Sue Johnson, Lynn Newgard, Shellie Schroeder, Lynette Cambern, Marcia Floody, Bev Eischens, Sharlene Steuck, Debbie De Koekkoek, Jean Bolling, Jane Yseth, Mollie Backlund, Vanessa Paulsen, Carol Stevens and Barb Wallerich, several of which were classmates in a larger senior class, Fagre and the Arrows captured the Southwest Conference volleyball crown in 1974.
It was a group of something like 12 seniors and two juniors,” Coach Miller recalled. “They were an exceptional group, a hungry group because they wanted it so bad. I felt gifted to have them, and they set the bar high right from the start. We went 9-0 that season and won the conference championship – beating the bigs like Marshall and Worthington.
We’d beaten Worthington during the regular season, but lost to them in the district tournament. That year everyone played in one class. The next year Worthington went up to the bigger class, so we kind of missed out that way.”
As for Fagre’s contributions, the setter and back row player was as hungry or more than the rest of the group.
“Paula was quick, and she had to be,” Coach Miller said. “She was also very flexible and stronger, which helped her in all the sports, but she was also very dedicated – the whole group was. They were usually at practices early and came no matter what… on snowmobiles if they had to. They were upbeat and like sponges, soaking everything in because they wanted to succeed. If I’d told them banging their heads against a wall would make them a better player they’d probably do that; they we just an exceptional group.”
The feeling was mutual for Fagre. Having moved to Pipestone between sixth and seventh grades, she more than adored the Arrow coaches.
“I remember coming in seventh grade and coaches Miller, Mary Hutchinson and Warren Bailey were not only extremely knowledgeable, but also very exciting to be around, and I wanted to be just like them – so inspiring to me,” she said.
Although her heart was rooted in volleyball, the latter pair of coaches was responsible for directing Fagre’s learning and breathtaking aerial feats during the ensuing winter season of gymnastics at the Armory – the sport the imminent Hall of Famer is perhaps best known for.
“I enjoyed the team aspect of volleyball, and it was the sport I loved the most,” she said. “I was diving all over the floor and digging the ball, and I could jump like a kangaroo. I was always so nervous in gymnastics, being in front of the crowds and basically competing alone. I was lucky I had coaches Hutchinson and Bailey because they were just so knowledgeable.”
True to form, Fagre had no intention of sitting and/or watching while practicing gymnastics at the Armory. A svelte 5-2 ‘mighty mouse’, she competed in each of the four disciplines, the vault, the uneven parallel bars, the balance beam and the floor exercise – regularly winning the All-Around competition at area dual meets.
“She was a heckuva gymnast; she worked hard, was able to pick up stuff so quickly, and she has a great personality,” recalled Coach Hutchinson. “She was tiny, but powerful, and I can just see her now and the smile on her face – a beautiful gymnast. She would inspire those around her to be their best, pushed herself, and in turn they’d pushed themselves. She was easy to work with, a natural in gymnastics… made it look easy.”
Although she made it look easy, gymnastics proved somewhat of a love/hate activity for Fagre.
She loved certain aspects of each event, enjoyed learning new skills and moves, but Fagre was also quick to recall the toll the sport regularly took on her body.
“Coach Bailey, who worked with us while coaching the boys’ team, was so up on gymnastics,” she said. “I don’t know how he found all this stuff without the Internet, but he’d come into the room and say, ‘I have this new move,’ and a belt (safety strap) would go on us and up we’d go. It was crazy.
“I always scored highest in the vault, but I loved floor the most because I took dance, ballet and tap when I was living out in California. It was natural for me, and I always knew I wanted to do gymnastics. It was tough though. The uneven parallel bars was a wicked event, and I can remember wrapping our hips around the bars to where my hips would bleed; the skin would tear off my palms and I would literally hold puddles of blood in my hands. And I would dream about burning the balance beam. Still, I loved every one of the events.”
Lucky to have the coaches she did while competing as an Arrow, Fagre was also lucky that the MSHSL held its inaugural state gymnastics meet her senior year.
Although the Arrows just missed out going to state as a team, being edged out by Fairmont by a mere 2.3 points in the regional meet, Fagre and Sue Johnson qualified as individuals for the March 14-15 (1975) event in Minneapolis.
Fagre totaled 24.38 points in the all-around competition, earning her ninth place overall in the one-class meet. She also placed in the top-12 in the vault and floor exercise individually.
“For someone coming to our size of school and competing in one class, against everybody in the state of Minnesota, that’s quite an achievement,” Coach Bailey said. “Paula was very coachable and a great teammate, it wasn’t all about herself when she was in the gymnastics room. She was very deserving of the honor and awards she earned as a competitor and she’s just as deserving of the honor she’s receiving now.”
Fagre was just as awed that ‘little’ Pipestone could compete with the bigger schools and to further celebrate the program’s David vs. Goliath theme the star of the girls’ team saw teammate John Fjellanger win the boys’ high bar state gymnastics title that same season.
“It points to the dedication everyone had on those teams, coaches and gymnasts,” Fagre said. “I recall Mary (Coach Hutchinson) spotting me on bars when she was eight-and-a-half months pregnant. She went, ‘oh, I think I have to go,’ and that’s when her son Chip was born. They worked tirelessly hard to make us the best we could be, and that’s what I’m grateful for… what I remember.”
Although fast and perhaps a ‘natural’ on the oval as well during the Arrows’ spring track & field campaign, Fagre didn’t like the long intervals between her events – the long jump, 60-yard hurdles and the 440-yard relay, where she ran the anchor leg. It was where her ‘heart was least’ in regard to sports, including cheerleading.
In helping the Pipestone faithful support its Arrows, Fagre was able to use her gymnastics and dance skills, and the squads were remarkable in their own right.
“I remember going to a cheerleading camp in Minneapolis with our squad, and we were pretty good,” she said. “It was a huge camp, and out of 300-400 girls we ended up earning grand champion honors. It kind of went hand-in-hand with the things I was doing in other sports, but it was unusual to see a cheerleader come out there and do an aerial cartwheel into the Chinese splits – not everybody does that.
“I think Ann Miller was our coach/advisor, but we really did most of our own stuff… still remember our routine to ‘25 or 6 to 4.’ Back then they were fired up for pep rallies. I’m glad I lived in those days.”
While she didn’t recall many specifics regarding cheerleading, Coach Miller does recollect recruiting Fagre and some of her cheerleading teammates to perform in the school’s production of Camelot, one of the bigger ensembles ever to take the stage at the high school.
“There were a lot of dancing parts and guys had to wear tights, which caused a bit of a stir, but everyone was more than willing,” Miller said. “I asked her if she could dance in the play and it was like anything you asked of her, ‘yeah, I can do that.’ She gave her all in everything she did.”
Although not recruited to participate in athletics at the intercollegiate level, Fagre let it be known to the coaches at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter that she’d continue to ‘give her all’ if given the opportunity.
Fagre walked on as a member of the Gusties’ volleyball team in the fall of 1975 and later walked on – at the behest of Coach Bailey – the gymnastics team.
“I think Warren called Coach Nancy Baker, saying ‘you have to see this girl,” Fagre said. “She said, ‘OK, do a few cartwheels on this line… do some aerials,’ … something like that. She stopped me midway and said, ‘OK, you’re in.’ I did both my freshman year, but the sports overlapped a bit so I stuck with just volleyball after that season.”
Both sports continued to be part of Fagre’s life after college, however, as she coached volleyball and gymnastics at Annandale High School for several seasons – regularly taking her Cardinals (individually) to the state gymnastics meet in the 1980s.
Fagre often contacted Miller for advice when coaching in Annandale, to the great delight of the latter.
“We would talk a lot when she was coaching, had a good give-and-take as colleagues, and it was neat to have that different type of relationship after high school,” Miller said. “In everything she does, Paula hits the ground running.”
While Fagre’s father Ron Manning, who served as the Director of the Chamber of Commerce while living in Pipestone, always wanted his little girl to be a good athlete, mom Marion – who passed away two years ago – gifted her daughter with the eye and skills Paula continues to use today in her successful usable art and repurposed creations business – Colorado Treasures.
A team for 39 years, Richard Fagre ‘The Bench Man’ and Paula ‘The Chair Lady’ have expanded their horizons in recent years to include furniture of all types while also producing original paintings, collages and more.
“It’s something I picked up from my mother, her passion for art; she was a beautiful realistic artist, and her painting at the Nokomis Apartments is still there in town,” Fagre said. “I didn’t major in art, but even back in high school I was always doodling – love to draw.”
Although Fagre’s passions lean toward the artistic rather than the athletic, quickly pointing out she hasn’t been in the gym for some time, it’s likely she’ll leap on stage when receiving her Pipestone-Jasper Athletic Hall of Fame award, Oct. 13 in Pipestone.
“Warren called me about two-and-a-half years ago and requested info from me for the ‘Hall,’” Fagre said. “I didn’t hear anything, and it went away. I thought, ‘it’s nice to be considered,’ then that was the end of it… was enough for me to be considered. So when he called to tell me I was being inducted I was very surprised because that group of Hall of Famers is pretty incredible. To be included in the place where I consider home is pretty amazing. My heart belongs to the green!”
