About a boy from Blaine
Luke Ridnour will always
be a small-town boy,
as a trip to Blaine reveals
Adam Jude
Senior Sports Reporter
BLAINE, Wash. — It’s
hard to believe, but the
folks here don’t miss Luke
Ridnour. They don’t fight for
seats at the local bars when
their version of Jimmy Chitwood ap
pears on national
television.
This tiny
border town
can’t miss
Ridnour.
He ma
live 400
miles
away
in Eu
gene, but
he’s ever
present here —
and not just because of all his high
school records.
Blaine sees Ridnour all the time. If
not his retired Borderites’ jersey
hanging from the rafters at the
Blaine High School gym, then on
eight television screens at the
Wheelhouse Tavern or on the big
screen at Pastime Tavern. And if not
in those places, then Blaine surely
can’t miss all 100 feet of Ridnour in
New York’s Times Square, though
that seems like another planet to /
Ridnour’s 3,770 former neighbors.
So, you see, Ridnour is every
where. He can’t be missed because
thdre-’s nothing to miss. In fact,
Ridnour misses Blaine more than *
Blaine misses Ridnour. There’s per
haps something twisted in that, but
that says something about Ridnour, f
Oregon’s point guard who relishes
the small-town virtue of hard work
rather than the spotlight.
“He’s our star,” says Miranda f
Ziegler, 21, Pastime’s bartender and a
high school classmate of Ridnour’s.
Ridnour quickly became a star in
Eugene, too.
Since donning a Duck uniform in
the fall of 2000, the 6-foot-l, 175
pound junior has started every
game of his Oregon career. As a
freshman, he became the first Duck
to be named the Pacific-10 Confer
ence Freshman of the Year. Last
season, in leading Oregon to the
Elite Eight, Ridnour was a first-team
all-conference selection and honor
able mention All-American.
This season, he became a member
of Oregon’s 1,000-point club, and is
in the top-five in three career cate
gories for the Ducks (assists, steals,
and three-pointers). The resume
goes on.
As impressive as his statistics
are, Ridnour’s leadership, un
selfishness and faith are what truly
amaze his teammates.
“He’s well-humbled and well
grounded,” fellow junior guard
James Davis said. “He’s the most
down-to-earth guy I know. He puts
God first in everything he does.”
All of the accolades, the hype, the
Paul Bunyan-size billboard — Rid
nour doesn’t care much for any of
that. As “the ultimate gym rat,” as
Kansas head coach Roy Williams
called him last month, Ridnour
just wants to play basketball, and
credits all his success to God.
“The Lord’s blessed me with
skills and I’ve just taken that
and love to play,” Ridnour J
said. “I truly feel most com
fortable when I’m on the
court.”
Which has a lot to do with be
ing from Blaine, where Ridnour
said, “There’s not a lot else to
do.“
Perhaps as equally impressive
as Ridnour’s devotion to Chris
tianity is his desire to be the best
on the basketball court: “I want to
win more than anything and I’m
not going to let anything else get in
the way,” he said.
Ridnour is known for a tireless
summer-workout regime.
“He has a constant
work ethic,” said
Jay Anderson,
an Oregon
junior forward
and one of
Ridnour’s
roommates.
“He doesn’t
stop. Some
times we have to
force him to take
breaks.”
Anderson said
Ridnour’s work is
contagious, making
everyone else on the
team better.
“He’s the type of
person that if there’s
one dinner roll left at
the table, he’ll give it
to you,” Davis said.
“I admire him. He’s
a special person.”
Tim McBride can’t
wait any longer. He’s
already lit another
cigarette and asks
Ziegler, the bar
tender, for anoth
er Miller Lite.
“Let’s get the
game going,”
McBride scoffs
at the TV.
like an eterni
ty — though,
in reality, it’s
probably been
20 minutes —
since Gonza
ga defeated
North Caroli
na State in
the first
game of
the Jim
my V.
Classic
in East
Rutherford,
N.J., and the
Oregon-Cincin
nati game is
next. It’s the
Ducks’ first appear
ance on ESPN this
season, and a win would
help sway some East Coast
support. Blaine, too, would like to
see the Ducks — and its home
town hero — do well on national
^ television.
This typical Tuesday started
off on a positive note. The Blaine
natives opened their local newspa
per to find a spread of Ridnour’s bill
board, which was unveiled the day
before in Manhattan. As if anyone in
Blaine had missed their star in the
morning, Ziegler passes the newspa
per around faster than the pints.
“He so deserves it,” Ziegler says.
“There’s some people that make it
big, and you wonder, ‘How’d that
jerk make it?’ With Luke, it’s the
complete opposite. It’s about time.
No one deserve's it more.”
Ridnour, by the way, was appre
hensive when first asked to be on the
Turn to Ridnour, page 8B
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