THIS WEEK IN HISTORY.

Byline: The Register-Guard

1877: After running an item from a reader regarding changes to school elections in the Eugene school district, the newspaper is suggesting a departure from the current system, which is "to gather up a crowd at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, go to the district school house and hold the meeting and adjourn sine die, ten minutes being the usual limit of time allowed." The paper's proposal is that the clerk add a ballot box, which would be open from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. on election day.

1907: A robbery, the subsequent capture of one of the robbers, and his escape from the Springfield jail were "three chapters in an exciting occurrence at Springfield," according to the paper's March 20 edition. The men stole cigars from Walter Wilmot's store, but Wilmot chased one man down and City Marshall Shahan soon arrived to take him to jail. But the man's two accomplices broke into the railroad section house that night and stole tools to break the door of the jail and "liberated the prisoner. The trio has not been seen since."

1937: Bellfountain High School of south Benton County, with 19 boys enrolled at the school, beat Lincoln High School to win the state basketball title. Bellfountain won the "B" loop championship to face "A" loop winner Lincoln of Portland. It was the first time a Class B school won the overall state crown. "It was just a mild workout for the Bells," the paper said, winning 35-21.

Oregon State College was helping replace the sawdust field at Hayward Field with grass, the last of the Northwest's major schools to do so.

Eugene city councilors were looking at bringing in parking meters. The new devices were purported to cut down on downtown traffic congestion and "turn in a tidy income to the police."

1977: Four methods of developing downtown Eugene to make it more competitive with the Valley River shopping center were to be reviewed during a meeting at city hall. Among the ideas: Sears moves out of its downtown store to make room for a 75,000- to 90,000-square-foot retail/restaurant/entertainment center; a 250- to 300-room hotel and an expandable 55,000-square-foot civic meeting facility are built. Keeping the Bon Marche and Sears downtown, and attracting at least one other major retailer are considered priorities.

2006 (left): More than 500 people converged on the Federal Courthouse plaza in Eugene to protest marking the third anniversary of the Iraq war. "I'm a patriot and I believe that we support our troops; however, I do not support the policies that took us to Iraq," said state Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene.