95-year-old ringer a real horseshoe vet
By ERIC MORTENSON
Of the Emerald
The Fifth Street Merchants and neigh
borhood groups who sponsored Skinner's
Mudhoie Days over the weekend brought in
a ringer to make the celebration a success.
The ringer, of course, was Henry Cook,
who was the central spirit of the Henry Cook
— 5th Street Public Market Invitational
Horseshoe Pitching Tournament, one of
the most popular of the Mudhoie Days
events.
Cook is 95 years old, with bright blue
eyes and a ready smile. He is tall and slen
der, with large bony hands and a shock of
white hair.
He is also a horseshoe pitcher from way
back. Cook organized the first Oregon hor
seshoe pitching tournament and won the
contest twice. The first time was in 1923
and the second ‘ around 1940."Until his
right arm gave out about 15 years ago, Cook
still pitched in tournaments around the
state. He has remained interested in the
sport, however, and still attends as many
tournaments as he can. As a reward for his
long time support of the game, Cook was
elected into the Oregon Horseshoe Pitch
ers Hall of Fame in 1973. Now that spon
sors hope to make the Henry Cook Public
Market tourney and other Mudhote Days
events an annual affair, it seems that Cook
has come full circle.
As he sat watching with interest the three
days of exhibition matches and tournament
contests, Cook explained some of the finer
points of the game and talked about the
people who play it.
Cook noted that some people still believe
that players take shoes off of horses for use
in contests. They don’t. Competition horse
shoes are larger and heavier, regulation
weight being two and one half pounds. The
players take careful aim and toss the shoes
underhanded at metal stakes, which are 40
feet apart and should lean three inches to
ward the pitcher. When perfectly thrown,
the horseshoes land racked around the
stakes, and the throw is called a ringer. It
takes a steady eye but the best players can
throw ringers 80 or 90 per cent of the time.
There are a variety of throwing styles but
Cook’s favorite is known as a turn and a
quarter pitch. The shoe spins one complete
turn on its way to the target and then a
quarter turn more, allowing the open-faced
shoe to clank directly on the stake. It is
comparable to a swish shot in basketball.
More than the competition itself, Cook
enjoys the men and women who practice
the sport. “You meet so many nice people,”
he said, "and you’re out in the open.”
Horseshoe pitchers around the state
generally know their opponents well and
the competition is friendly. “No one gets
mad,” Cook said. “They just pitch their
hearts out.”
Cook laughed and said “Oh land sakes”
as an amateur pitcher sent a shoe skipping
across the 5th Street Public Market pit and
crashing into the wooden fence bordering
the playing area. “It’s more fun to watch
amateurs than professionals,” he laughed,
“they try so hard.”
Quite a few people in Lane county are
picking up the sport. The Emerald Empire
Horseshoe Pitchers Association was
formed just one year ago but organization
President Leo Connolly says the group now
has 103 members.
With a tournament to honor one of their
most esteemed members, the group ex
pects to attract more people into the sport
and build some first-dass pits in the area.
Cook said that it “feels pretty good” to
have a tournament named after him. “Boy, I
like tournaments,” he said.
Henry Cook
Professionals discuss growth management at institute
By MELODY WARD
Of the Emerald
“Growth management" will be
the theme of the Bureau of Gov
ernmental Research and
Service's fourth annual Planning
Institute, to be held at the Univer
sity Wednesday through Friday.
Aimed at practicing planners,
attorneys, planning commission
members and interested citizens
from around the state, the Institute
is organized into half-day ses
sions which will focus on topics
like inter governmental coopera
tion, growth management sys
tems and techniques, environ
mental issues, and preservation
of farm land.
“We normally don’t expect
many people from the commun
ity," says Institute coordinator
Peter Watson. “We pitch it at prac
ticing professionals. But students
are welcome to sit at the back for
parts of the program as they
wish."
Watson describes the Institute
as “sort of like continuing educa
tion for planners." He says that
this year’s session is actually
over-enrolled, a situation he attri
butes to the recent planning legis
lation. Some 150 persons have al
ready paid the $40 registration
fee.
Ed Sullivan, the governor’s
legal counsel, will open the Insti
tute Wednesday morning. “He’ll
comment on all the new planning
legislation and how it will affect
operations in city and county
planning offices — the practical
impact," says Watson. “Planners
feel a real need to find out what
has happened. Almost everyone
in the state knows that Ed is the
person to talk to."
Institute participants will also
give special consideration to the
problems of the Boardman
Hermiston area in northeast
Oregon as a case example of how
agricultural expansion causes ex
plosive growth in and around
small cities. Problems related to
controlling urban growth are com
pounded because of the antici
pated future construction of sev
eral huge power generating
facilities and an aluminum plant
near the area.
Conference draws sun worshipers
Eugene will be the gathering
place for an unique sort of "sun
worship" later this month, when
more than 100 community leaders
meet to discuss potential barriers
to the widespread use of solar
energy.
The U.S. Energy Research and
Development Administration
(ERDA) awarded a $6000 grant to
the University Solar Energy
Center so that it could design a
workshop that would bring people
together to talk over development
of solar power.
"We’ve invited people who
would have the first contact with
solar energy when it comes into a
community — a cross section of
bankers, homebuilders, ar
chitects, consumer groups,
utilities (who would be serving the
back-up forms of energy), en
vironmentalists, realtors — so that
they can help ERDA identify prob
lem areas," says John Reynolds,
this year’s director of the Univer
sity center.
Reynolds, also an architecture
professor at the University, pin
points potential problems like high
initial costs and lack of access to
the sun in downtown areas as ex
amples of the sort of topics that
the conference will cover.
Slated for August 20, the
Eugene workshop is part of a pilot
program funded by ERDA. If it and
others in Amherst, Mass, and
Durham, N.H. are successful,
ERDA may launch a series of simi
lar workshops across the country.
Reynolds is dedicated to solar
energy; he sees it as the only
workable long-term answer to our
energy needs. “I came into it be
cause I wanted a renewable alter
native,” he explains. “Uranium,
gas, coal and oil are finite — when
they're gone, they're gone.” He
admits that the sun may not be the
only answer, but maintains that
solar power can provide for “most
of our space heating needs."
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In 1968, an enterprising Coos
Bay man designed and built his
own solar house, an event which
Reynolds cherishes as an exam
ple of how well sun power can
work even in relatively cloudy
areas. Last year, the house self
generated almost 90 % of its heat.
"If it hadn’t been for Henry
Mathew I probably would get dis
couraged," Reynolds says. “But
what he's done shows that solar
energy is something you can do
yourself. It’s not too feasible to
build your own furnace, but I know
many people are capable of con
structing their own collectors.”
The Solar Energy Center was
established in 1975 with grants
from Pacific Power and Light
Company and faculty research
funds to study how solar power
can be used in Oregon.
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Another major attraction is an
open lecture on growth controls in
Great Britain. Dr. Richard Ragatz
of the Dept, of Urban and Reg
ional Planning will give the talk at
7:30p.m. Wednesday in room 107
of Lawrence Hall, free of charge.
Watson says that besides the
practical benefits from coming to
the Planning Institute, the two-day
experience offers ample time to
compare notes with other plan
ners. “Half the fun of coming to
this thing is that you meet practic
ing planners from all over the
state,” he remarks.
For a complete rundown of
program topics and presentation
times, call the Bureau at
686-5232.
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