WATCH: Scotland star recalls being 'thrown off stage' during Full Monty dance
Former pupils have been sharing memories of their time at Galashiels Academy ahead of its demolition...
Last updated 13th Dec 2025
It's believed to be one of only a few schools in Scotland to produce a captain of both the senior Scotland football and rugby teams.
Pictures of Gregor Townsend, Chris Paterson and John Collins hang on the walls in the PE department at Galashiels Academy.
But the full-time whistle is set to blow on the secondary school, which is due to be demolished next year, as staff and pupils prepare to move into a new £56 million community campus next door.
More than 1,000 people returned to Elm Row for a trip down memory lane over the weekend, with three Farewell Tours of the building, which was officially opened by the Queen Mother in September 1964.
Addressing the first tour as guests gathered in the main hall on Friday, Townsend said: "The last time I was on this stage, it was the Sixth Year dance. We'd had this idea... we got the okay to sing a rap song: Vanilla Ice - Ice, Ice, Baby. So we practiced all week.
"And that year there was a film out called the Full Monty. So we had a secret plan that halfway through the rap we'd start to take our clothes off.
"And we must have told a few people because we were rapping away, and we got our tops off, and (maths teacher) Mr Proudfoot came and pulled the plug - cut the music; so we were thrown off the stage!"
WATCH: Click on the link below to view our video report...
The former Scotland captain - now head coach of the national team - went on to praise the school for helping to kick off his rugby career, with its first tour of Canada in 1988.
"Playing against older people, I came back a better player," he explained. "What then the school gave me to be the player I could be, going out at lunchtimes to practice my kicking; (PE teacher) Rob Moffat was always out there helping me.
"Not only in my playing career, but also my coaching career. He's really helped me open doors and be a really good source of advice when I first started coaching. So I owe him, and I owe the school, so much."
A number of weel-kent faces lined up to pay tribute to the school and share their memories.
John Collins, who sent a video message, praised the "wonderful PE department" for giving him a taste of so many different sports - but admitted football was his "number one".
"The Scottish Cup every year was the thing we looked forward to as footballers," he recalled.
"The football team was not run by the PE department, it was run by two wonderful teachers - Mr Paterson and Mr Sutherland, history and geography teachers.
"I remember fond memories playing against the teams from the schools from the cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow; always thinking they were going to have an easy game against a rugby school. They were greatly mistaken because we had some wonderful football players as well."
While being in its present building for 61 years, archives show Galashiels Academy was first established in the town in 1696.
Depute Head Teacher Malcolm Changleng told Greatest Hits Radio: "There were people here today from New Zealand and Australia, who came back for this. And from all over Scotland and the UK.
"It shows how much Galashiels Academy means to them, and how much it has set them up for their futures."
But he added: "It's all about the future now. The present building will get knocked down in January onwards. Where we are standing now will become a hockey astro (pitch) - the first blue-surfaced hockey astro in the Borders.
"And then it's a rugby astro, and there are lots of grass pitches for all the others sports; and running tracks.
"This is going to be one of the best facilities in western Europe, and I hope that Galashiels and the community really flourish with it."
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