4A • March 3, 2017 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
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The championship that got away
T
he basketball Gulls have yet to win a
state championship. But they’ve sure
come close. As they look ahead to
the tournament ahead, players past,
present and future are watching a team with a
long legacy of success.
Mark Wickman’s name comes up almost
immediately in every conversation of Seaside’s
basketball stars.
“I had a great player, Mark Wickman,”
Coach Larry Elliott, who led the team from
1971-96, said. “He went on to Linfi eld, was
a little All-American academically as well as
basketball.”
The Gulls have never won a state champi-
onship, but Wickman’s scoring dominance —
abetted by the play of his teammates — in the
1973-74 season brought them close.
Seaside alum and 1973-74 basketball team
member Scott Maltman recalled “some good
athletes those years: Mark Wickman, Lee
Wilson, my younger brother Michael, Frank
Sheppard was our center. Mike Hartman was
the other guard my senior year.”
Others in a team photo include Mitch
Mooney, Tom Bates, Josh Gizdavich, Fritz
Beckford and Jim Norling.
“If we wanted to be in the gym, we were in
the gym,” Maltman said in January.
Wickman is not easy to catch up with today
— he’s frequently on the road as a fi nancial
planner — but we did manage to catch him for
a phone conversation on one of his drives in
southern Oregon.
Wickman transferred to Seaside High
School from a small religious school in the
Olympic Peninsula for the 1972-73 school
year.
“The two prior years, the Gulls hadn’t won
many games,” Wickman said.
The team fi nished 6-4 in the very tough
Cowapa League in 1972-73, beating two
league powerhouses, Scappoose and Tilla-
mook, during the regular season. Wickman was
picked for fi rst team all-league. Dave Allen,
Dave Butler and Tom Maltman gained second
team honors, setting the next season’s stage.
“I knew that going into the ’73-74 season
we could be a very good team,” Wickman
said. “We were big, we had guards, shooters,
we started 6-6, 6-5, 6-4 and we had 6-5, 6-4
coming off the bench as well.”
The Gulls reeled off a 9-1 record by early
January, the only loss coming to Portland’s
Class AAA Jackson.
Seaside was ranked No. 1 in the Class AA
Associated Press poll. “They know they can’t
sit back and rest on their record,” Elliott said at
the time.
“Oh my goodness, it was crazy,” Wickman
said. “Just crazy. We won our tournament and
another tournament. The gym was packed
throughout the year. The No. 1 ranking was
something people really got behind.”
You think “Go Gulls” fever is big this year?
With two tournament wins, “busloads of
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
fans” followed the Gulls to every game, Wick-
man said.
“We had a very good following on the
road,” he said. “This was the event, every
Tuesday, Friday and Saturday night in town to
go to, and people went.”
The season had its share of big games.
Wickman set a school scoring record
against Clatskanie, pouring in 38 points, 24
in the second half. He also hauled down 24
rebounds and had eight steals.
Cascade was dominant, as were the highly
ranked Rainier Columbians.
“I had a game where I was 15-15 from the
fi eld and they still beat us,” Wickman said.
“They just had our number. They had an all-
state guy that was about my size, and another
guy, second team all-state.”
Looking back at the record, Wickman’s
memory holds true. In a February 1974 game,
the Columbians shot 80 percent in the fi rst half
and 90 percent in the second half to trip up
Seaside.
The level of play remained high all year, as
did the excitement. A January contest brought
what the Signal’s sportswriter called “cardiac
basketball.”
Scott Maltman was the hero of a showdown
with Neah-Kah-Nie, making a layup in the
fi nal second of the game to win 48-46.
In another buzzer-beater, senior forward
Beckford gave the Gulls an 50-48 overtime win
against Scappoose with a reverse layup with 14
seconds on the clock. That win put the Gulls
into the State AA Tournament in Eugene.
Their fi rst matchup was against No. 2
Cascade. The game pitted two all-state centers
— Jeff Koenig played the position for Cas-
cade — and though it was the fi rst game of the
tournament, it was considered the jewel in the
crown.
Wickman still regrets the trophy that might
have been.
Seaside played 3 1/2 quarters of some of its
best ball of the year, the Signal reported, “man-
handling the Cougars and almost breaking the
game open at several points.”
With a little more than two minutes remain-
ing, Seaside led 57-53 and had a one-and-one
bonus situation at the foul line.
The Gulls missed the opportunity and in
the next 120 seconds Cascade reeled off points
as the Gulls lost the ball repeatedly on the full
court press.
Cascade capitalized on an 11-point burst for
a 74-61 victory.
Wickman scored 33 points in that game, 14
rebounds and “completely handled” Koenig
for the fi rst three quarters, but he and the team
ran out of gas as Cascade’s Koenig and all-
state guard Dennis Federico led the Cougars’
comeback.
“I’d had a real good game,” Wickman re-
called. “They came back, they had a couple of
guys who kept plugging away, we made a few
bad decisions and they took advantage.”
Wickman was “absolutely crushed.”
“I felt we were the better team,” he said. “It
sounds selfi sh, but knowing what I know now,
I would have said, ‘Give me the ball.’”
After the loss, the Gulls regained their
composure, rolling off three victories in a row,
winning the consolation trophy and fi nishing
fi fth in the state. In one of those tournament
games, Wickman set a record tying the individ-
ual fi eld goal mark in a tournament, 15. He was
named to the all-tournament team and was the
Class AA rebounding leader.
Cascade went on to beat the Gulls’ nemesis,
Rainier, for the title, 56-50.
“I know we provided the best matchup
against them than anyone at the tournament,”
Elliott told the Signal at the time.
The next year, the Gulls earned a repeat
trip to the tournament, winning their fi rst two
games before being stymied.
Wickman followed his Gulls career with
even greater glory, playing ball at Linfi eld Col-
lege — the alma mater of Coach Elliott.
At Linfi eld, Wickman was a three-time
All-American and four-time All-Northwest
Conference and all-district basketball player.
He was a nearly straight-A student.
Wickman’s bid at a major college tourna-
ment came in his sophomore year at Linfi eld,
when they faced a team from South Carolina.
“That was one and done as well,” Wickman
said. “Their starting lineup was 6-11, 6-10, 6-6,
6-6 and 6-2. We gave up about 4 inches at ev-
ery position, another one where we’re leading
with two minutes to go and I fouled out.”
Wickman’s career total of 2,357 points has
never been equaled at Linfi eld. Nor his career
rebound total of 1,109.
Wickman came oh-so-close to a career in
the National Basketball Association, drafted by
the Trail Blazers the season after they won the
title. “They won the title in ’77, my year was
’78,” Wickman said. “I went to rookie camp,
played a little bit in the summer league and
then got cut. I played four years in Europe. I
coached and taught for a little while, then went
into fi nancial services.”
Today he and his family split their time
between McMinnville and Bend.
Wickman looks back on his time in Seaside
and Coach Elliott. “Tongue in cheek part is,
he never ages,” Wickman said. “He looks the
same as he did 40 years ago. He was a Linfi eld
guy as well. Certainly that played a role in my
decision. I did a lot of camps there, looking
back 40-plus years, I look back and see his
growth as a coach. That was really, really
something that was encouraging to me.”
Perhaps with a little bit of irony, the Gulls
are back up against the team that took it all in
1974, the Cascade Cougars, on Saturday night
at the Gulls’ Nest.
Wickman has encouraging words for this
year’s Gulls as they take to the court once
again with hoop dreams.
“I just know they were there last year in that
championship game and they have to realize
how great an advantage having been there
last year in that championship game was and
how they can use that to their advantage this
year,” Wickman said. “It’s a confi dence issue.
Absolutely a confi dence issue. Believing in
themselves, they can win.”
‘Oh my goodness, it was crazy. Just crazy.
The gym was packed throughout the year.
We won our tournament and another
tournament. The No. 1 ranking was
something people really got behind.’
1973-74 team
photo.
Mike Maltman
Mark Wickman
1973-74 basketball team member
played a big scoring
role for the 1973-74
Gulls.
1973-74 stand-
outs Mark Wickman,
Scott Maltman, Mike
Maltman and Fritz
Beckford.
Mark Wickman
dominated on the
court in 1973-74.
FILE PHOTOS
My hospital visit didn’t make for much of a vacation
I
n my last column there were two
typos which made it sound silly
and that always bugs me. You
probably fi gured them out. The mar-
ried couple were two halves of the
same whole; not “where,” and the
leg amputation was one that did not
heal, not “walk.” Sorry. I hand print
my copy and often it’s not legible to
the transcriber. I need to try harder.
Valentine’s Day I went to the
hospital with Montezuma’s Revenge
— a lovely time. Montezuma and I
haven’t spoken for ages. The visit
ran into my son’s birthday on the
15th. A “friend” asked if I were va-
cationing. Not so you could notice!
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
David F. Pero
R.J. Marx
SCENE & HEARD
CLAIRE LOVELL
Stormy weather was fun to watch
out the window when I was cozy
inside, except when the lights went
out at midnight and we were on
generator for two or three minutes.
Disconcerting.
I discovered a lot of unpleasant
things about myself, except that it
comes with the territory. Nurses and
assistants were so plentiful, there
were many names to learn. One aide
(my word) who got the unpleasant
jobs, had a Spanish name which she
said meant “a rock before it became
a star.” I thought that was beautiful.
Everyone, from E.R. to discharge,
was so nice, except for putting me in
room 213. Maybe that caused me to
stay three days. Ha.
Has anyone else seen the three
deer that used to come to my back
yard or know what happened to the
mama with the broken leg? Was
there ever an accident on the high-
way, which took one of the fawns,
too? They’ve been a part of my
outside scene for so long, I’d like to
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Betty Smith
Carl Earl
PRODUCTION
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John D. Bruijn
Brandy Stewart
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
Rebecca Herren
Katherine Lacaze
Claire Lovell
Eve Marx
Esther Moberg
Jon Rahl
know how everything turned out.
Most outstanding news in the
paper recently was the article that
told us that Packy had died the day
before. I haven’t been to the zoo
for ages although there was a time
when every important detail of
Packy’s progress was fascinating to
us all. His birth started a whole new
circumstance in the zoo industry. I
wonder if TB is a common ailment
among elephants.
I’ve never been a fan of legaliz-
ing marijuana sales and I do believe
the time will come when we will
regret having so many (or any)
outlets. It makes sense to allow it in
Seaside Signal
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pharmacies for the conditions it alle-
viates but anything mind altering, it
seems to me, would be dangerous on
the highways. I think it’s cool that
our shop is next to the police station.
I had a phone “outage” on Mon-
day after my illness and got upset
because I couldn’t make any calls.
I’d forgotten to check what had
happened before — another phone
off the hook. Tsk.
Laugh lines
Pick: “Did you hear about the
kidnapping at City Park?”
Pat: “No, what happened?”
Pick: “His mother woke him up!”
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