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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1996)
Devers’ hopes of taking gold in 100m hurdles not to be Atlanta 1996 ■ ULYMPICS: Gail Devers cleared the hurdles this time, but didn’t have the speed to win a meda By Paul Newberry The Associated Press ATLANTA — This time, Gail Devers didn’t fall. She simply got beat. Devers finished fourth in the 100-meter hurdles Wednesday night, failing to pull off a gold-medal double that she had all but captured in Barcelona before she tripped over the final hurdle and crashed across the finish line fifth. In Atlanta, there was no tumble, no mishap at the end of the race. It was a dis mal start that ended her hopes. “Obviously, it was not to be,” Devers said. “But I finished fourth, better than I did in Barcelona. And I finished on my feet.” She lowered her head and charged at the finish line, a desperate attempt to at least get a medal. But she was edged by one hundredth of a second for the bronze by Patricia Girard-Leno of France. The gold went to Ludmila Engquist of Sweden, who nosed out Brigita Bukovec of Slovenia. "It’s not a disappointment,” Devers in sisted. "Definitely I wanted to come in here and win, but I’m the type of person who thinks everything happens for a rea son, and if it didn’t happen it wasn’t meant to be at this time.” Devers had repeated as the 100-meter champion Saturday night, cementing her title as the “World’s Fastest Woman,” but she proved to be mortal with 10 2-foot, 9 inch barriers in her path. She had decorat ed her talon-like fingernails with a metal lie gold polish, but it was not an appropri ate color on this night. “I came in here for two golds, or three golds for that matter,’1 said Devers, who also will run in the 400-meter relay. “The fact that I already have a gold doesn’t make it any better. ... It just fires me up for the next time.” The only other woman to win both the 100 and 100 hurdles in the same Olympics was Fanny Blankers-Koen of Holland, who did it in London in 1948. No man has ever done it. When it was over, Devers stood alone near the finish line while Engquist and Bukovec celebrated. The American looked up at the scoreboard, hoping that she had pulled out a bronze, but the photo finish gave third to the French hurdler. With that, Devers turned and walked out of the stadium. DEVERS INSIDE Carl Lewis wants another chance to break an Olympic record Page 6 MARK McTYRE/EmerakJ Designated hitter Steve Hacker’s offensive explosion led the Eugene Emeralds to a 10-4 victory over Everett Wednesday night. Ems ‘Hacker’ their way to a 10-4 victory ■ BASEBALL: Steve Hacker provided all the runs Eugene needed to beat Everett Wednesday night By Chris Hansen Freelance Reporter It was supposed to be Elvis Presley enter taining the 3,500 fans in attendance at the Eugene-Everett game Wednesday night. But, instead, it was Steve Hacker who be came the crowd pleaser — when he left the building — in the sixth inning with a monstrous three-run home run over the right-cen terfield wall. On the same nieht that he was named the Black Angus Ems Player of the Week, Hacker knocked in six runs while going 4-for-5 at the plate in a 10 4 Eugene victory. “When we get runners on third,” Hacker said, “I’m just so anxious to get my fastball or hanging change-up and drive the ball. I’ve got enough power that if I make con tact, it will go somewhere and get a run in. Turn to BASEBALL, Page 6 Member of Oregon^ 1939 NCAA championship team dies ■ ALUMNI: Hall of Famer Lauren Gale was one of only four members remainingfrom Oregon’s basketball championship team The Associated Press GOLD BEACH — Lauren “Laddie” Gale, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame who led the legendary 1939 Oregon “Tall Firs” to the first NCAA championship, died Monday. Gale, 79, died in Curry County General Hospital where he had been admitted a day earlier. He died of natural causes. At 6-foot-4, Gale was the second-tallest player on the Oregon team, behind 6-8 Urgel “Slim” Wintermute. The Ducks finished 29-5 that season and won the Pacific Coast Conference North ern Division with a 14-2 record. Then they played California in a best-of three series at Oregon for the PCC title and won the first two games to advance to the Western playoffs at San Francisco. The Ducks beat Texas 56-41 and Okla homa 55-37 to advance to the NCAA’s first national champi onship game where they would play Ohio State on a neu tral court at North western. In the title game, Gale and guard Bob by Anet both scored 10 points, and for ward jonn luck scored i j as uregon Dear the Buckeyes 46-33. With Gale’s death, only three members of the 11-member team survive: John Dick, who was from The Dalles and now lives in Eugene; Ford Mullen and Bob Hardy. “He was a wonderful person, and I will miss him sorely,” Dick said. “Not only was he a wonderful person, he was a wonder ful basketball player, as his selection to the National Basketball Hall of Fame attests. He was the first player from the entire Pa cific Northwest to be selected.” Gale was bom in 1917 in the communi ty of Hellsgate on the upper Willamette River. He grew up in Oakridge and played high school basketball there. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps at Long Beach, Calif., training pilots in water survival and coaching service basketball teams. After World War II, he played semipro basketball before settling in Salem, where he owned a gas station for a short time, was a distributor for Master bread and worked as an automobile salesman. He moved to Eugene in 1964, and two years later married Ginny Thompson and moved to Florence, where he began a ca reer in real estate. He was inducted into the National Bas ketball Hall of Fame in 1976, the State of Oregon Hall of Fame in 1980, and the Uni versity of Oregon Hall of Fame in 1993. He was a member of the Gold Beach Ro tary club and Bethany Lutheran church. He is survived by his son, Lauren Jr. of Florence; daughters Robin Terrett of Gold Beach and Tia Menser of Florence; six grandchildren and two great grandchil dren. A memorial service is set for 10 a.m. Fri day at Bethany Lutheran Church in Gold Beach.
