Jenny Mowe
continued from page 7A
Including plenty of good basket
ball teams and many good basket
ball players. They themselves
were on the Powers team that won
the 1941 state championship — at
Mac Court, no less.
But, for everything these wise
old guys had witnessed, they’d
never experienced anyone like
Jenny Mowe.
“Everyone else was just fair,”
Elmo says with a wide grin. “But
Jenny was great.”
A big, strong girl with an even big
ger heart. The phenom with a great
attitude who carried her Cruisers
team all the way to the 1-A state
championships and then, when the
media and the crowds started show
ing up, always pulled teammates
into the spotlight with her.
Once they caught on, college
coaches clamored for Mowe’s at
tention. Tennessee’s Pat Summitt
senfher assistants to Powers. Con
necticut’s Geno Auriemma called.
The Cardinal’s Tara VanDerveer
was in the mix. And obviously,
Jody Runge was there too.
“Runge promised me a season
ticket if I could talk Jenny into
going to Oregon,” Elmo says.
“She come down to Elkton for a
game and I got to talkin’ with her,
and I told her I’d like to see her stay
close where we could all go see her
play. I said the only thing is if I
could get season tickets. And she
said, ‘You got it, if she goes to Ore
gon then you’ve got a season tick
et.’ But since Jenny’s been going
there, [Runge] hasn’t talked to me.”
It’s impossible to fault Runge
or any of the coaches for their no
holds-barred pursuit because Jen
ny was the type of prospect that
coaches dream of.
“The first play of the game, she.
gave a fake to the baseline, shot a
big-time hook shot, and at that
point I knew there was a big-time
player in the state of Oregon,” says
Runge.
Things could have been differ
ent. Originally based in New
port Beach, Jerry Mowe, Jen
ny’s father, followed his
lifelong surfing passion and
launched a 25,000-foot surfboard
factory, with 40 employees and an
average payroll of $25,000 per
week.
Yet he wasn’t content.
“I just said, ‘I can’t take it any
more,’” Jerry says. “So I gave it
up and said we’re gonna sell
everything and move out of
here.”
On arrival in Powers, Jerry
constructed a new surfboard
Kevin Calame Emerald
(above) Jack Bushnell and Elmo Frye are two of Jenny’s proudest fans. (Page 7a ) The
self-constructed Mowe family ranch is often a welcome respite for Jenny.
shop, significantly smaller than
his enterprise in Newport Beach.
This one was a small brick build
ing with no windows, just to the
west of Jack’s Place.
As Jerry stands outside of the
shop with Jenny’s mother Patty,
both turn their heads in unison
and wave at a passing car.
“It’s a place where, as you just
saw, everybody knows you,
everybody knows your business
and you have to keep your nose
clean,” Jerry says. “It’s a good
place to raise your family, total
ly.”
The Mowe family built their
two-story house and ranch —
home to cows, horses rabbits,
dogs, cats and a guinea pig
named Pumba — from scratch.
And on Saturday mornings,
while most kids sat watching car
toons with a bowl of Cap’n
Crunch in their laps, Jenny was
out doing chores with her broth
ers, Brian and Jeremy.
“There was always Dad out
there, ‘OK, we’re gonna go cut
some wood,”’ recalls Jenny, as
she reclines on a stairway after
practice. “You’d hear the tractor
start up and be like, ‘No.’ We’d
have to get up and take five-gal
lon buckets, walk around the
pasture and pick up rocks and
sticks.”
Mowe’s home workouts often
consisted of a two-mile run up a
steep logging road behind her
house. She was usually accompa
nied by her dogs, whom she kept
at a trot to set a pace.
Try picturing Shaquala
Williams doing the same thing.
But no one in Powers ever
gawked at the much-taller-than
average and particularly gifted
Mowe girl.
“Growing up, no one ever
teased me about being tall,” Jen
ny says. “My friends were always
cool with it. I think that’s why
I’m so secure with who I am. Just
me being me.”
Although the basketball being
played in Powers wasn’t near the
caliber of that in Portland or Los
Angeles, Jenny’s environment
cultivated other traits: self-confi
dence, devotion and work ethic,
the latter of which lends itself
perfectly to the blue-collar men
tality of the Oregon program.
“We’re one of the harder-work
ing teams around.” Jenny says.
“We definitely have to work
harder against some of those girls
who can jump out of the gym. It’s
my style of team.”
“A
ft
ed with a new con
tract,back-to-back
iNCAA tournament vis
lits and a deeper com
mitment to women’s basketball
from the university, Jody Runge
began the [1995] recruiting sea
son with her biggest victory: She
snagged one of the top high
school players in the nation, a
broad-shouldered, six-foot-five
powerhouse from a small town
in Oregon ... Jenny Mowe became
the cornerstone of the new Ore
gon team. Jody set her sights on
something more than another in
vitation to the Big Dance. Now
she was in it to win it.” — That’s
how Lauren Kessler finished her
book, “Full Court Press,” the de
tailed account of a season in the
life of Runge and her Ducks.
Jenny’s decision to attend Ore
gon did resonate, helping attract
the other highly qualified, highly
touted recruits on Oregon’s roster
today. Players like Angelina
Wolvert and Shaquala Williams.
“If Jenny Mowe wasn’t here I
wouldn’t be here,” Williams
says. “Oregon should be thank
ing her for the fact that I’m here.
If she wasn’t here, I wouldn’t
even have answered the phone
call.”
That’s nearly immeasurable
impact.
But the road to greatness, like
the one into Powers, is long. Jen
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