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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 4, 1949)
[duck tracks By Tom King “ ' Emerald Sports Editor We can think of easier things to do than sit down and hammer out a last Duck Tracks. Like cleaning' out a blast furnace, for . example. That's a snap. r Traditionally, a column of the “swan song" variety is auppos v ed to be composed of a few pearly words of wisdom dedicated to the incoming editor. Well, Dave Taylor, who will take over for • us come fall, has been on the Oregon sports scene for quite a while, and he knows Ins wav « around. There’s really little we | could tell Dave that he doesn't • already know. SO, instead of following in ■ the wake of our predecessors, we think we'll just sort of strum , along, taking all the bumps and high spots as they happen to strike our fancy. It’ll be a rather hum - drum journey with no definite course. . . But, if you’d like to come along . . . The school year that ends in ’49 will gO down as one of the brightest , the University has known. . . . Ore gon has certainly landed squarely on its feet insofar as athletics is * concerned . . . And you’ll recall that it was only a short while ago that it was on its other extremity . . . Will ’49-’50 be as successful? . . . Perhaps not, . both as to the records compiled by the various teams and also finan cially . . . BUT that fact, in itself, isn’t so significant, because Oregon already , has made the grade, or at least it has gone a long ways toward mak ing it . . . There’s no toboggan in sight, for, as far as anyone can tell, Oregon seems to be stacking up to any other school in the Northern Division . . . Oh, there's plenty of room for improvement. . . We talk . ed to Athletic Director Leo Harris about what the prospects are for ex panding the sports program here. For example, there are several schools that support boxing; Idaho does this ... But there are financial obstacles . . . Many school’s receive subsidies from the state, but Ore gon’s athletic department bears the weight of its own burden. Segura Leads Duckling Hitters Joe Segura, catcher-outfielder on the Oregon frosh baseball team, captured the first team batting , crown with a hot .414 average. Sec ond honors went to Second Base man J. D. Wade, who hit .387, and ■ DeWayne Owens finished third with .384. Topping the eighteen-man list was Ken Dunkelberger, reserve in fielder, who picked up two hits in ■ four times at bat for .500. Segura drove in thirteen runs to head the runs-batted-in list. Wade and first baseman Phil Settecase followed with ten and nine respec tively. Dewayne Owens led the extra base hitters with a home run, two triples and a double. Summary: Player Dunkelberger Segura . Wade . Owens .. Settecase . Smith. Waibel . Danzer. Richie . Schmer . Proulx. Courtright. Dolbeer . Gilbert. Dunbar . Norton ...;. Dimon . Sipe . R Ave RBI .500 0 41 17 .414 13 31 12 .387 10 39 15 .384 3 32 10 .312 9 40 12 .300 3 17 5 .294 1 35 10 .284 -2 19 5 .263 2 37 9 .243 6 20 3 .150 5 10 0 .000 0 3 0 .000 0 3 0 .000 0 2 0 .000 0 2 0 .000 0 1 0 .000 0 1 0 .000 0 AR 4 2 However, boxing can be made to pay for itself, and chances are that someday it will be added to the sports curricula ... It will have preference when the day does ar rive. WHILE; most sports are winding up or already have wound up for the season, track is still going strong . . . Ahead are the AAU, NC AA and Big Ten-PCC Meets . . . Boys like George Rasmussen have a good, stiff schedule of events cut out for them. Rambling on, we sort Of get the urge to spill a few words on the gen eral athletic setup in these parts .. . We would be the last one in the world to say that the Athletic De partment at Oregon ir. the best in the country . . . It’s certainly not {he worst, either. But, it is good and it is solid . . . We are referring to the calibre of the coaches and their abilities to produce ... Jim Aiken’s record speaks for itself ... As we once heard it said, “Aiken is good, and he’s good for Oregon.” WE NOTED recently that Gale Bishop has made inquiries into the prospects of landing the basketball post . . . This implies that Bishop, at least, thought that John Warren is on his way out . . . Well, Bishop is wrong. We’ve heard a great deal of talk about “Honest John,” some favor able, but also some which was quite critical. Is Warren good for Oregon? . . . Well, the Duck five last year de feated the NIT champions, San Francisco . . . No, it didn’t win the ND, and chances are it won’t next season ... But it was a good basket ball team . . . We think Warren will be around Eugene for a long, long while . . . No need to slap the re spective backs of Bill Bowerman, Don Kirsch and the others . . . Un doubtedly they’re “good for Ore gon.” AS FOR HARRIS, we do feel he has done one thing which is high ly commendable . . . From all out ward appearances the athletic staff has been made into a solid, united team. Any differences are kept within the family so to speak. When one recalls the athletic shakeups at Washington State and UCLA and realizes that there was internal grief at each school, it is easier to appreciate the harmony prevailing in McArthur Court . . . Leo deserves credit for this ... We happen to know that in some schools there’s plenty of fireworks, unpeaceful ones, that go on behind locked doors. STUFF like that invariably leaks out ... Of course there are always differences of opinions, but at Ore gon, so far as we can tell, there is simply no prospects of an upheaval in athletics. Next fall fool ball makes it annu al appearance. That will help us tide over the summer. Well, that about brings to an end our little helter-skelter journey. There were a lot fewer BUMPS than we anticipated at the outset. ZURCHER TO RETURN Hal Zurcher told the Emerald last night that he will likely return for another season with the base balling Ducks. The outfielder had been expected to sign a pro con tract. Hutchins Second, Ras Fourth In Events at Compton Relays Expansion Plans Revealed For UO Athletic Facilities Increasing evidence of Oregon growing pains is the list of planned improvements,, enlargements, and repairs of most athletic facilities, announced Friday by Leo A. Har ris, director of athletics. The seating capacity of Hayward field, now somewhat inadequate in face of the modern gridiron Duck created by Jim Aiken, will be in creased by almost six thousand. A NEW ALL-STEEL construc tion electric scoreboard will be in stalled at the south end of the grid iron, at approximately the same spot that the present one now occu pies. The impressive seating in crease will be made possible by the use of both permanent and portable seats across the south end of the field. The portable rigs will be used on either end of the new seating section, and will also bolster the seating capacity at the baseball diamond. Even the long-suffering newsmen are geting a break, according to Harris. Present plans call for the enlargement of the press box atop the Hayward field bleachers, and the addition of an extra room to Band Schedules Football Trips Berkeley and Portland trips to football games will be made by the University band next year, with the Athletic Department assuming fi nancial responsibility. A permanent schedule has been devised, sending the band on trips to Portland and California games in odd-numbered years, and to Cor vallis, Portland, and Seattle in ev en-numbered years. The Athletic Department will ap propriate $2,400 for odd numbered years, and $2,000 for even-number ed years. The Portland game this fall is with the University of Washington, Nov. 5, and the Berkeley trip is for California’s homecoming game, No vember 12. UW Signs Coach SEATTLE, June 4—(£>>—'The University of Washington bol stered its football coaching staff Friday with signing of A1 McCoy, former head football coach at Northeastern university and Colby college, two New England schools. Director of Athletics Harvey Cassill announced the appointment. McCoy will serve as a gen eral assistant to Head Coach How ard Odell during the football sea son and the spring practice ses sions, and will have certain admin istrative duties the rest of the year, Cassill said. Portland Bows to Staters PORTLAND, Ore., June 4—UP)— Upstate high school players blasted out a 10-4 victory over Portlanders here last night in the annual Shrine all-star high school baseball game. Ed Whitney, first baseman from Klamath Falls, led the victors by whacking out two doubles, a triple and a single. Portland 000 200 101— 4 7 6 UpState . 410 131 OOx—10 10 2 Murcovich, Fenton (5), Rouw (6) and Turner; Buchheit, Simons (5) and Tareger, Van Loan (9). serve as a confectionary for the hungry ink-slingers. HOLLA WAV seats will be added on both sides of the basketball court, and the hall floor itself is presently being resurfaced. Harris anticipates the use of new suspend ed baskets, which would boost the McArthur Court seating capacity by some 700 with bleachers at both end's of the court. A new equipment room will be completed by the end of summer vacation, as part of a general rennovation of the cellar regions of “the home of the Ducks.” A full-body size hydrotherapy whirlpool tank will be added to the training room in time for the fall football wars, and the baseball bleachers are to receive a thorough repair job this summer. BESIDES a new scoreboard for the Howe field diamond, Harris ex plained that a retaining wall is to be built from the backstop on south, between McArthur Court and the playing field. George Rasmussen, Oregon’s star pole vaulter, finished in fourth place with a vault of 14 feet in last night’s Compton In vitational Relays at Compton, Cal. Jack Hutchins, Oregon fresh man distance man pressed winner Jerry Thompson by finishing a close second in the mile run. Thompson, former Texas ace and AAU 5000 meter champ, won the event in 4:14. Bob Richards of Illinois AC won the pole vault duel with a 14-foot, 6-inch soar. Smith of San Diego State and John Montgomery of USC tied for second place at 14 feet, 3 inches. Quarter-miler Herb McKenley, Jamaica, and Craig Dixon, UCLA high hurdler, rang up the fastest times of the year in their special ties. McKenley captured the 400 meter event in :46.2, and was clocked at 440-yards in :46.8. Dixon skimmed the 110-meter high hurdles in :13.9 with a :13.8 clocking for 120 yards. Hutchins and Rasmussen will compete in the Inglewood Relays tonight, against substantially the same field. Review Bowerman & Co. Rise From Oblivion By l>ave Taylor Coach Bill Bowerman’s Webfoot cindermen have completed their scheduled season, with only Pole Vaulter George Rasmussen, frosh distance man Jack Hutchins, and Sprinters Davey Henthorne still preparing for coming meets. SMARTING from a winless 1948 season and under the guidance of their new boss, Bill Bowerman, the Duck trackmen dropped their losing habits this year to cop sec ond place in both the Northern Di vision dual meet standings and the ND championship meet. They opened this year’s com petition with a 5-3 setback in the annual Oregon-Oregon State Re lays, but the defeat came through a bad break. The Ducks missed a 4-all tie when a baton pass from Jack Countryman to Dennis Sullivan was ruled ille gal in the mile relay. Bower man’s charges won the event by at least 20 yards. After the OSC relays, the Web foots returned to Hayward field and started on their winning ways by dumping the invading Idaho Vandals by a resounding 20-point margin. A host of new records were set since the Duck-Vandal dual dates back only to 1947. DAVEY Henthorne sliced time off the century, Walt McClure du plicated his teammate’s perform ance in the 880, Woodley Lewis upped the broad jump well over 22 feet, while the rampaging Ras mussen pushed the pole vault mark to 14 feet and Ray Heidenrich etched his name on the ledger with 144-foot discus toss. The following week Bowerman took his cinder artists into the Palouse country to invade the lair of the touted Washington State Cougars. Jack Mooberry’s made the Ducks number nine on the string of consecutive dual meet victims by drubbing them 73-58. After the Pullman outing, the Webfoots had a scheduled week rest, but it was this weekend which produced the most specula tive sports talk throughout the entire Northwest. Having an idle weekend, the Duck vaulting trio, Rasmussen, Don Pickens, and Lloyd Hickok, and ace sprinters, Dave Henthorne and A1 Bullier, accepted an invitation to a Klam ath Falls high school exhibition with the results almost unbeliev able. Ras vaulted 14 feet, 6 inches, the highest jump made by any undergraduate on the Pacific coast. However, Pickens and Hick ok also did themselves proud by leaping 13 feet, 6 inches and 13 feet, 4 inches to give Oregon the three top vaults in the Northern Division. Henthorne and Bullier turned in :9.7 and :9.8 second 100 >ard dashes on the trip. The Washington Huskies were the next target for Bowerman and Company. The Ducks, who arrived in Seattle definite under dogs, went calmly to work and upset the Huskies, 71-61 by cap turing the mile relay. It was on May 14 that the Web foots got sweet revenge for their opening defeat in the annual re lays as they edged out OSC, 66-65. The meet produced some surprise, as Bowerman juggled his men skillfully to insure the triumph be fore the mile relay was run. WOODLEY LEWIS was the electric eel that shocked the Bea vers, as he leaped 6 feet, 2 inches in the high jump to tie for blue ribbon honors with ND champ Ken Elliott. Lewis also placed third in the 100 and took first in the broad jump over defending king Bob Laidlaw. Little Davey Henthorne tied Lewis for individual scoring honors by taking first in the 100 and 440-yard dashes. (Phase turn to page eight)