I was a teenager during the Harter years and my basketball coach in High School was a Harter player (although recruited by Belko) by the name of Paul Halupa who was actually sort of featured in the SI piece. I pretty much idolized that team, especially Ronnie Lee, one of the greatest Ducks of any Era.
I bought the kindle version of Withers book and was shocked by revelations of Harter that were never a part of a teenage fan's world, especially in the 70's. It was bittersweet memories because of those revelations. Still, a worthwhile read for any Duck fan.
Love this. The Ducks and Beavs through those years were so fun to watch. Even though I don't think I could have played for him, Ralph Miller's take on basketball was amazing. Watching the beavs fast break without a dribble was a thing of beauty.
I attended Oregon from 1970 to 1975 and ended up teaching with my good friend, Bruce Coldren, at Lowell High School. Bruce's family became my family during my years together at Lowell and beyond. Oregon basketball was exciting to say the least and the community was all in on supporting the team. today's basketball culture lends itself to players who are only on campus for one, two or at most three years. It is difficult to become attached to the players in the manner that the community and student body did during the 70's and 80's. Dana Altman did a very poor job of inviting former basketball Ducks to the program and it rankled the many pre-Altman Ducks. In fact, when Ernie Kent was at Washington State, many former players were given game tickets by Ernie and never by Oregon. Anyway, some of my favorite memories were spent watching basketball at Mac Court. Go Ducks!
The Dick Harter teams were all Withers says (Withers and Blaine Newnham were the must-reads in the Register-Guard in those days). The tenacity of those teams won games they should have lost, including the Lost Weekend upset of UCLA. The tactics included often sending the team's best foul-shooter, Mark Barwig, to the line regardless of which Duck had been fouled. Often, the refs didn't notice--and swish swish. But the style of play had downsides. I remember Walton going down hard in that Lost Weekend win and sliding into the bottom row of bleachers under the north basket, where a fan kicked him in the back. The tripped cheerleader was the final straw for many of us and, as Withers' wonderful book shows, Harter never recovered.
I was at that Coutin game but I was only 8 and didn’t see the trip. But I remember thinking that Harter wasn’t going to get out of there alive. Probably walked by that dented trophy 100 times over the years. I also remember a game when Ricky Lee punched John Murray in the face right over the ref’s shoulder but didn’t get tossed. Supposedly Murray said something racial to Lee so the ref let it go. My parents told me they went to a game in Mac one year and some of the students brought in bricks to hold up when the Beavs were shooting free throws. My dad said “All it would take is one drunk kid to chuck that brick and . . .” Needless to say, they never went back. Great memories Tyson.
Bud Withers was the main (but there were many...times were just a bit different) high school sports writers when I was at Thurston in the early/mid 80's. You knew you had a big game when he was at your game as opposed to one of the other writers that covered high school sports. I read that book. It brought back a lot of good memories. They would often play three times a year. Twice in league, then a third time in The Far West Classic, which was a great, eight team, tourney hosted at the old Memorial Coliseum. OSU won one time on a last second miracle bank shot by a guy named Ricky Lee. Probably knocked the Ducks out of the NCAA tournament, which was super hard to get into back then. Man, those teams just hated each other.
I was a teenager during the Harter years and my basketball coach in High School was a Harter player (although recruited by Belko) by the name of Paul Halupa who was actually sort of featured in the SI piece. I pretty much idolized that team, especially Ronnie Lee, one of the greatest Ducks of any Era.
I bought the kindle version of Withers book and was shocked by revelations of Harter that were never a part of a teenage fan's world, especially in the 70's. It was bittersweet memories because of those revelations. Still, a worthwhile read for any Duck fan.
Can remember how Mac Court pulsated from the crowd’s cheering. ‘Dive on me, Ronnie Lee’ was a cheer. Mark Barwig the king of drawing fouls. Fun times.
Love this. The Ducks and Beavs through those years were so fun to watch. Even though I don't think I could have played for him, Ralph Miller's take on basketball was amazing. Watching the beavs fast break without a dribble was a thing of beauty.
Will definitely get his book now
I attended Oregon from 1970 to 1975 and ended up teaching with my good friend, Bruce Coldren, at Lowell High School. Bruce's family became my family during my years together at Lowell and beyond. Oregon basketball was exciting to say the least and the community was all in on supporting the team. today's basketball culture lends itself to players who are only on campus for one, two or at most three years. It is difficult to become attached to the players in the manner that the community and student body did during the 70's and 80's. Dana Altman did a very poor job of inviting former basketball Ducks to the program and it rankled the many pre-Altman Ducks. In fact, when Ernie Kent was at Washington State, many former players were given game tickets by Ernie and never by Oregon. Anyway, some of my favorite memories were spent watching basketball at Mac Court. Go Ducks!
The Dick Harter teams were all Withers says (Withers and Blaine Newnham were the must-reads in the Register-Guard in those days). The tenacity of those teams won games they should have lost, including the Lost Weekend upset of UCLA. The tactics included often sending the team's best foul-shooter, Mark Barwig, to the line regardless of which Duck had been fouled. Often, the refs didn't notice--and swish swish. But the style of play had downsides. I remember Walton going down hard in that Lost Weekend win and sliding into the bottom row of bleachers under the north basket, where a fan kicked him in the back. The tripped cheerleader was the final straw for many of us and, as Withers' wonderful book shows, Harter never recovered.
I was at that Coutin game but I was only 8 and didn’t see the trip. But I remember thinking that Harter wasn’t going to get out of there alive. Probably walked by that dented trophy 100 times over the years. I also remember a game when Ricky Lee punched John Murray in the face right over the ref’s shoulder but didn’t get tossed. Supposedly Murray said something racial to Lee so the ref let it go. My parents told me they went to a game in Mac one year and some of the students brought in bricks to hold up when the Beavs were shooting free throws. My dad said “All it would take is one drunk kid to chuck that brick and . . .” Needless to say, they never went back. Great memories Tyson.
Bud Withers was the main (but there were many...times were just a bit different) high school sports writers when I was at Thurston in the early/mid 80's. You knew you had a big game when he was at your game as opposed to one of the other writers that covered high school sports. I read that book. It brought back a lot of good memories. They would often play three times a year. Twice in league, then a third time in The Far West Classic, which was a great, eight team, tourney hosted at the old Memorial Coliseum. OSU won one time on a last second miracle bank shot by a guy named Ricky Lee. Probably knocked the Ducks out of the NCAA tournament, which was super hard to get into back then. Man, those teams just hated each other.