Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
jeffsmith@dailyemeraldcom
Tuesday, January 15,2002
Best Bet
Men’s Basketball: Willamette
at Oregon, 7:00 p.m., FSN
McArthur Court’s 75th anniversary
Students rush
the floor at McArthur
Court on Saturday
after Oregon’s
victory over
Stanford.
The Ducks, who
are 10-0 this year
at home, are a
combined 613-351
at Mac Court in its
75-year existence.
The Ducks host
Willamette
tonight at 7 p.m.
to celebrate the
anniversary.
Celebrating ‘A grand old place’
■ Many former Ducks will return for tonight’s
game against Willamette, including the leading
scorer in the 1939 championship game
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
A chuckle is heard in the raspy voice. Then a
pause. And then a sigh.
John Dick knows that tonight will be special. He
knows that the 75th anniversary of McArthur
Court will be a memorable event that will gather
more than 50 former players and coaches of the
Oregon basketball family.
He recognizes the magnitude of bringing back
Willamette to face Oregon at 7 p.m. tonight in a re
match of the Jan. 14,1927, game between the two
schools that marked the beginning of what is now
the oldest Division I facility in the nation.
He just wishes some of his teammates could be
there, too.
Dick scored a team-high 13 points to lead Ore
gon’s “Tall Firs” over Ohio State, 46-33, on March
27,1939, in the first ever NCAA Tournament final.
He loved his teammates. They were his family.
Together, they made up a team that will forever be
mentioned in McArthur Court lore.
But tonight, when Dick, 83, is among those hon
ored at halftime, he will be the only player present
from Oregon basketball’s lone championship team.
“I miss all of my teammates,” Dick said. “I’m
one of the few survivors. Coach is gone. The stu
dent manager is gone. The trainer is gone. All of
the starters except me are gone.
“That makes it a little less joyous occasion, but
it’s still nice to know that people care.”
But Dick also knows that tonight’s anniversary
celebration isn’t about his team. That special group
has had plenty of reunions over the years, includ
ing at the 1988 Final Four when the NCAA hon
ored 50 years of the tournament.
Turn to McArthur, page 8
—
Oregon Media Services
John Dick (bottom row, tar right) is the only surviving member of the starting lineup from the 1939
NCAA champion Oregon “Tall Firs,” who won the first ever NCAA Tournament.
US. hockey team hopes
win will unite America
Hank
Hager
Behind the Dish
Take a look at any sports fan’s movie collection, and
you’ll most likely see “Field of Dreams,” “61,” “Slap
Shot” and “Hoosiers,” among others.
What you probably won’t find is a copy of the 1980 “Miracle
on Ice” game between the United States and the Soviet Union.
I guess that’s where you could call me odd.
Save for “Hoosiers,” I own and watch all of those movies
on a regular basis. I even own “Eight Men Out.” Yeah, I’m a
sports freak. But the piece of sports media that I revere the
most is my copy of the game many call the greatest sporting
moment of the 20th century.
So, when I find myself trying to relax, I pop in the tape, and
for the 30th time, watch as Mike Eruzione and Jim Craig take
on the vaunted Soviets and shock the world. And to this day,
I still get chills from watching Craig wrap himself in the
American flag and hearing Al Michaels call out his famous,
“Do you believe in miracles?”
You’d better believe I do.
Now flash forward to the present, and.look toward Febru
ary in Salt Lake City. Exactly 30 days from today, the U.S.
Turn to Hockey, page 6
Pac-10 women’s title up for grabs
■With Pac-10 play half over, five teams
are within one game of second place
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
Stanford is No. 1 in the Pacific-10 Conference
women’s basketball power rankings. The rest is
not so clear-cut.
With the first half of conference play wrapping
up at the end of this week, Arizona State (14-4
overall, 5-2 Pac-10) is second behind Stanford,
with four other teams — including Oregon —
within one game of the Sun Devils.
All told, the Pac-10 crown will likely be up for
grabs when the first women’s tournament is held
at McArthur Court in March.
Powell named Player of the Week
For the third time this season, Stanford sopho
more Nicole Powell was named the Pac-10 Player
of the Week. Powell averaged nearly a triple-dou
ble — 21.5 points, 17 rebounds and 8.5 assists —
as No. 4 Stanford (16-1,6-0) swept Oregon (10-7, 5
3) and Oregon State (7-8,4-3) at Maples Pavilion.
“Nicole had a monster game,” Stanford head
coach Tara VanDerveer told the Stanford Daily af
ter Powell’s school-record 23-rebound perform
ance against the Ducks. “She
does so much for our team. She
can play with anyone (in the
country) — we know it, she
knows it and you know it.”
Powell, the 2001 Pac-10
Freshman of the Year, is aver
aging a double-double this
season (16.5 points, 10.3 re
bounds). In 47 career games,
Powell has 16 double-doubles and three
triple-doubles. No other player in Pac-10 his
tory has recorded more than one triple-double
in her career.
Trojans begin home stretch
Southern California, picked to finish fourth in
the Pac-10 in the preseason media poll, could be
the last team standing at the conference tourna
ment. The Women of Troy are currently 5-2 in the
Turn to Basketball, page 6