Back to Mac?

Byline: Steve Mims The Register-Guard

Growing up on the corner of 18th and Onyx streets, Nick Robertson needed only to walk a couple of blocks to watch the 4A boys basketball state tournament at McArthur Court.

He was joined by spectators from throughout Oregon at the 1965 tournament, which attracted 95,717 fans to set an attendance record that still stands.

Yet, despite thriving crowds and strong, vocal support to keep the tournament in Eugene, it was announced that the event would be moved to Portland in 1966.

"Everyone was irate when it went to Portland; people were booing Oden Hawes, the head of the OSAA," Robertson recalled. "Eugene did such a good job with it, but the OSAA figured there were so many schools in the Portland area that they could make a change and save money."

Nearly four decades later, the Oregon School Activities Association may once again make a change in an attempt to save money.

On Monday morning, University of Oregon athletic director Bill Moos will present a proposal to the OSAA executive board that would bring the Class 4A boys basketball tournament back to Eugene in March of 2004. The board will vote on the offer following Moos' presentation.

"It's time for a change," said Robertson, who has won nearly 700 games in a 39-year coaching career that has included the past 20 years as head coach at Beaverton High School.

The OSAA already has made one drastic change this year by cutting the size of the state tournament. Eight teams will play over three days, as opposed to the longtime format of 16 teams in a five-day tournament.

Now the OSAA will decide to move back to Eugene or stay in Portland.

"I think it would be awesome at U of O," said Kelly Bokn, a 1983 Willamette High graduate who coached Redmond to the state title this year. "I was a coach at Creswell when we played the 3A tournament at the University of Oregon, and we have been to the tournament in Portland the last six years.

`There are a lot of things I like about the Memorial Coliseum, but I think moving to a venue where the fans are closer to the kids has a better opportunity to fill it up. I think you can get close to a sellout crowd, and I think the atmosphere would be more conducive to the high school setting."

Attendance declines in Portland

The popularity of prep basketball in Eugene during the 1950s and 1960s was not limited to the state tournament. Games between North Eugene and South Eugene were often sold out at Mac Court.

Yet the 4A boys tournament was lured away from Eugene by the nearly 13,000 seats at Memorial Coliseum, which opened in 1960. On the day of the 1965 championship game, the OSAA Board of Control voted 3-2 in favor of moving the tournament to Portland.

Petitions were passed around Eugene, and the local protest reached the state level when the Oregon Legislature voted to send a letter to the OSAA asking it to reconsider its vote. There were concerns about transportation and supervision for the teams in Portland.

University of Oregon president Arthur S. Flemming also asked the OSAA board to reconsider, but the board voted once again in favor of moving to Portland.

Attendance in Portland was comparable to Eugene in the early years, as 90,000 fans regularly filled Memorial Coliseum, but those figures soon began to drop.

Crowds of less than 80,000 started showing up in the late 1970s, and then the numbers dropped into the 60,000 range in the 1980s. During the past 10 years, no tournament has drawn more than 55,000, and in seven of those years the attendance was less than 50,000.

When attendance was listed at 37,345 in 2002 - including 5,872 for a championship game between Jesuit and Tigard - the OSAA started talking about changes.

Cutting the tournament field in half was not popular among coaches, but the executive board voted to do that in a cost-cutting measure. A change of venue is gaining support from many coaches.

"I don't think Portland has supported the tournament, and if you centralize it you might get better support," said Tualatin coach Rick Osborn, who played for Oregon from 1984-88. "It will be harder to get there with eight teams, but for me, I'd love to take a team down to Mac Court."

In an attempt to generate more interest, the OSAA voted to seed teams for the boys tournament in 2001 and 2002. One of the marquee matchups of the first round in 2002 was No. 1 seed South Medford versus Portland powerhouse Benson in an 8:45 p.m. game.

"I told people before the game there wouldn't be 1,000 people there, and there couldn't have been that many," South Medford coach Dennis Murphy said. "For whatever reason the people in Portland don't come out and support the tournament, and I think that people in Eugene will. Even the college kids, enough of them didn't play that long ago so they will go watch."

The college crowd might increase in Eugene, but the number of high school students in attendance is likely to continue its decline.

"I don't think the students will travel down there," Robertson said. "They don't travel much even in our own league, so I doubt if they will travel to Eugene. It will be like watching South Medford in Portland. They have about 10 students in the first round and its up to 20 if they win and then if they play on the weekend they might get a couple of hundred."

Osborn was a three-time all-tournament selection who helped Parkrose win the 1982 state title as a sophomore. Nearly 68,000 fans showed up for the tournament that year and the student sections were full, which is in contrast to recent years.

"I can remember as a player the student section was filled up on both sides of the end zones all the way to the top, everyone went," Osborn said. "You would be angry when you lost because people stopped coming in the consolation rounds."

Mel Krause, who coached Franklin to the 1956 title and North Eugene to the 1963 championship, wants the tournament to get students involved again.

"I think Eugene is the perfect atmosphere, particularly if they do like they did before and have the downstairs level for the students with the adults above," said Krause, who coached Oregon's baseball team from 1970-81. "At the Memorial Coliseum, the students on the end of the court are so far away that they hardly go any more. It is a student tournament. They should have good seats to get into the thing."

The Portland Trail Blazers, a frequent target of criticism in Portland, have received some of the blame in their role as tournament host.

"It's not the same as when Harry Glickman ran the Blazers," Krause said of the Blazers' founder who was with the organization until 1994. "He was a great fan of high school sports, he grew up in Portland, and he knew that was where you promote your future fans of the sport."

Robertson said Glickman used to avoid having the Blazers play at home on Tuesdays and Fridays so the schedule didn't interfere with the preps.

"The University of Oregon is trying to make us a deal, and the Memorial Coliseum and the Rose Garden won't give you a thing," Robertson said. "It costs $13 to park there and that kills us, or there is a Trail Blazer or Winter Hawks game going on the same night."

With the Pac-10 men's basketball tournament being played at the same time in Los Angeles, the 4A boys tournament probably would be the main entertainment in town during its weekend.

"Eugene and Springfield are large enough to accommodate events with the number of motels and restaurants but also small enough for a community event, and it would be a big deal to the community to host this event," OSAA executive director Tom Welter said. "In Portland, it is such a large area that we hardly register on the radar screen. It is not embraced like the track and field meet in Eugene, and if we move other events there we hope they get the same notoriety."

Effects on Portland schools

Five of the nine Class 4A districts are in the Portland area and the idea of moving the tournament out of that city is sparking mixed emotions.

The Portland Interscholastic League has faced budget woes this year that have threatened a teachers' strike, the elimination of athletics and an early end to the school year.

Now, the boys basketball tournament, where some of the league's greatest athletic moments have occurred, may move more than 100 miles south of Oregon's largest city.

"Obviously, we are disappointed for our kids and our parents because we are usually pretty competitive in boys basketball and have a good following," PIL athletic director Greg Ross said. "It puts a hardship on our ability to participate and watch games. We have a lot of low-income folks who would not be able to afford it."

Still, Ross understands why the OSAA would consider such a move.

"Portland and the Memorial Coliseum have not put forth much effort to keep it here," Ross said. "If anyone knows about economics, it's us."

Oregon's offer to host the boys basketball tournament, two state football championships and the state track and field meet for a total of $10,000 seems almost certain to save the OSAA money compared with what it must pay at Memorial Coliseum. The nonprofit group returns any excess revenue back to schools at the end of each school year.

"The preliminary discussion on the package that Eugene put together, it appears to be a break-even situation for schools that travel," Ross said. "There are only eight teams, not 16, plus there is an effort to try and put together a package for room and board for teams. The difference is that we have to stay there and not at home, so that is the tough part for our parents and fans."

Robertson, who led McMinnville to the 1979 state title and Beaverton to the 1998 championship, admitted that a move could also affect Portland teams on the court.

"Moving would certainly hurt the metropolitan teams," he said. "I think we have an advantage when we play at home."

North Eugene emerged as champion in the first tournament held in Portland, as the Highlanders defeated Sunset 60-42 for the 1966 title. In the 38 years that the tournament has been in Portland, Midwestern League teams have won six championships.

"If we do make the tournament, playing at Mac would be better for our kids," Thurston coach Doug Piquette said. "They can sleep in their own beds instead of travel, and let the Portland teams deal with the financial things we deal with and finding a place to practice or watch film."

At a time when sellout crowds are common for Oregon men's basketball games and the university is looking into building a larger basketball arena, the state's top prep teams might be on their way back to Eugene.

"Because of the great job the Ducks have done, basketball is big in Eugene," Murphy said. "A basketball fan in Eugene who says 'Let's go watch the Ducks' might now say 'Let's go watch the high school kids.' It is three days instead of five, and some people in Portland might scoff a little, but every Saturday in the fall they drive down to watch Oregon football games. The fact they have to drive an hour and a half to watch basketball is not that big of an inconvenience."

QUOTABLE 

On excitement for '65 tourney:

"Thursday's action began with the public address announcer saying, 'Tonight's opening game matches the Thurston Colts ...' and that was as far as he got for a few minutes. Noise took over from then on."

- The Register-Guard, March 24, 1965

On tourney's departure:

"Our business has doubled during the five-day tournament period. It's been a time of the year we all look forward to after the January and February business lull."

- Stanley

Roberts,

restaurant

owner

"Very well, stage the basketball tournament in Portland's Memorial Coliseum! There is every reason to believe it may result in the biggest blunder in Oregon school or athletic history - financially and morally."

- R-G sports editor Dick Strite

On concerns about kids in Portland:

"I don't think they'll get good supervision in Portland. ... Youre going to have one helluva mess when you get a bunch like that in Portland."

- Fred Braatz, Eugene motel owner

"They're nuts if they think we're sending our kids to Portland."

- Pendleton mother

On support for Portland:

"I don't think we'll get as big a crowds the first couple of years, but I think it'll catch on in a couple of years."

- Don Jewell, Coliseum GM

Newspapers on both sides:

"We wonder if Portland has anything so threatening to the safety of high school girls as the 6,000 or so men who attend the University of Oregon. In our day at Oregon the favorite fraternity sport was the kidnapping of entire teams of rally girls for the entertainment of the brothers at lunch or dinner. ... Eugene's claim to safety fame isn't very convincing."

- The (Salem) Capital Journal

"Portland is having enough trouble with the Beatles and the American Legion competing for the Coliseum without adding 16 high schools to the confusion."

- Oregon Daily Emerald 

CAPTION(S):

Programs mark the 1950s and '60s glory days of the tournament at McArthur Court. Wayne Eastburn / The Register-Guard In the 1965 tournament, Thurston (black uniforms) plays Parkrose for third place in a packed McArthur Court. Tourney: Many coaches favor Eugene Continued from Page E6