Local
A2
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
TURNING BACK THE PAGES
50 YEARS AGO
from the Democrat-Herald
September 19, 1972
HUNTINGTON — “When you are through with the remorse
and shock, what are you going to do with it?”
The words sounded strange coming from Huntington
coach Don Cosgrove as he spoke of a four-year rarity in the
Locomotive camp: how to pick up the pieces after a loss. But
it wasn’t just a loss last week at Meadows Valley. The 16-12
setback had destroyed the longest win streak ever in Oregon
prep football: 46 consecutive triumphs.
25 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
September 19, 1997
The Wallowa-Whitman National Forest may pay a con-
tractor to cut and remove low-value timber from Baker City’s
watershed.
The forest would recoup some of the cost by selling more
valuable green trees and any trees the contractor doesn’t
want, said Chuck Ernst, Baker District ranger.
10 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
September 19, 2012
A company that specializes in selling advertising space
on billboards is interested in renting space at the Baker City
Municipal Airport.
Meadow Outdoor Advertising sent a representative to
speak to the city’s Airport Commission earlier this month.
ONE YEAR AGO
from the Baker City Herald
September 21, 2021
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife employees, fi ring
from a helicopter, shot and killed three wolves from the Look-
out Mountain pack in eastern Baker County Friday morning,
Sept. 17, including the pack’s breeding male.
In addition to the breeding male, ODFW employees killed a
yearling male, born in the spring of 2020, and a fi ve-month-
old pup from the pack’s spring 2021 litter of seven.
The wolves were killed the day after ODFW announced that
the agency intended to kill up to four wolves from the pack,
which has killed at least six head of cattle, and injured two
others, since mid July.
According to a press release from ODFW, agency employ-
ees saw six wolves during the Friday helicopter fl ight.
The three wolves that were killed were near a dead calf,
and on private land.
ODFW biologists examined the carcass and determined
that wolves had killed the 450-pound calf, which was in the
Daly Creek area. Biologists estimated the calf died late on
Sept. 16.
Biologists found more than 30 pre-mortem parallel tooth
scrapes on the outside and back of the calf’s left hind leg
above the hock, and tooth scrapes of a similar size on the
right hind leg.
“The location, size, number, and direction of tooth scrapes
and severity of tissue trauma is consistent with wolf attack
injuries on calves,” according to the ODFW report.
ODFW announced on Thursday, Sept. 16 that agency
workers intended to kill up to four wolves from pack, including
the breeding male. ODFW is not targeting the pack’s breeding
female. In addition, four ranchers who have lost cattle to the
pack are authorized to kill up to two other wolves total.
ODFW estimates the pack consisted of nine wolves, a
count prior to Friday’s killing of three wolves.
ODFW employees killed two other pups from the 2021
litter on Aug. 1.
By targeting the breeding male, ODFW hopes to still allow
the breeding female to raise any remaining juveniles. Reduc-
ing the number of juveniles the breeding female will need to
feed increases the likelihood that some will survive, according
to a press release from the agency.
OREGON LOTTERY
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Mega 22
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PICK 4, SEPT. 18
LUCKY LINES, SEPT. 18
1-5-9-13-18-21-25-32
Next jackpot: $48,000
SENIOR MENUS
WEDNESDAY (Sept. 21): Taco salad, salsa, sour cream,
chips, fruit, pudding
THURSDAY (Sept. 22): Beef stroganoff fettuccine, rolls, green
salad, bread pudding
FRIDAY (Sept. 23): Roasted turkey, stuffi ng with gravy, rolls,
carrots, ambrosia, apple crisp
MONDAY (Sept. 26): Hamburgers with tomatoes, pickles and
onions, tater tots, cottage cheese and Jell-O, salad, ice cream
TUESDAY (Sept. 27): Chicken broccoli fettuccine, garlic
bread, carrots, ambrosia, cookies
Public luncheon at the Senior Center, 2810 Cedar St., from
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; $5 donation (60 and older), $7.50
for those under 60.
Game
Continued from A1
The game was much closer,
though, than many of the
pundits had predicted.
Baker actually led for much
of the game, and by as many
as 7 points twice in the third
quarter.
The Bulldogs’ last lead,
50-49, came with less than 4
minutes left in the game.
Yet it wasn’t just the surpris-
ingly competitive contest that
made that Saturday night, in-
side what was then Oregon’s
biggest arena, so memorable.
A combination of other
factors, some hinted at in the
title of Kaza’s book, gives that
32-minute game the power-
ful legacy that lingers, in the
memories of those who were
on the court and in the stands.
And it’s a game that retains
a fascination even for some
who weren’t there.
Kaza, for instance.
The author, now 63, was 12
then. And although he was
a rabid sports fan — he at-
tended all the games during
Kaza, in a phone inter-
the 1969 state tournament
view about his book on Fri-
— he didn’t make it to the ep-
day, Sept. 16, said he under-
ochal 1972 championship.
stood the allure of high school
But he said he came to un-
sports.
derstand, even as a boy, that
His dad was a teacher in
the Baker-Jefferson game was
Portland schools for 25 year,
extraordinary.
and he also was a band and
The main title of his book
orchestra leader, taking stu-
is a succinct explanation —
dent musicians to perform at
“High Contrast.”
games.
There were in fact many
“As a kid I got to tag along
contrasts.
to a lot of football and basket-
It is all but impossible to
ball games,” Kaza said.
depict the differences without
In his book he explores
resorting to cliché, but they’re
the popularity of high school
no less true.
sports in 1972 — a level of in-
Baker was rural and small
terest that is difficult to imag-
town and white.
ine today.
When you watched coach
The Blazers, Kaza points
Gary Hammond’s players you out, were a new franchise, and
might be forgiven
had not yet become
for wondering if the
the Oregon institu-
1960s had ever hap-
tion they would be
pened.
five years later when
The Bulldogs’ crew
they won their only
cuts were as solidly
NBA title.
1950s as tailfins and
The Oregon and
Sputnik.
Oregon State football
Kaza
And Hammond’s
and men’s basket-
basketball style was
ball teams were not
as traditional as his tonsorial
national contenders — and
requirements. Baker played a
in any case college sports
methodical, precise game, one weren’t yet the nationwide
that relied on crisp passing to
ratings behemoths we’re ac-
get open shots.
customed to.
Jefferson was urban and
“High school sports was just
metropolitan and all the play- the top of the pile,” Kaza said.
ers were Black.
And so the 1972 champi-
Some of the Democrats
onship game, with its myriad
sported Afros.
contrasts, was all but irresist-
And they played at a fre-
ible.
netic pace.
“The whole state was cap-
This collision of disparate
tivated by that state tourna-
styles no doubt contributed to ment,” Kaza said.
the unprecedented interest in
A context beyond sports
the championship game.
A total of 13,395 people
Although the basketball
crammed into the Coliseum
game is the centerpiece of
— 729 more than the listed
“High Contrast,” Kaza said he
capacity for the arena where
sought to put sports into con-
the Portland Trail Blazers, the
text with society, both in Ore-
city’s year-old NBA franchise,
gon and in the nation, in 1972.
played.
“It was a different era,” he
It was the largest crowd to
said.
watch a high school basketball
Americans were still fight-
game in Oregon.
ing in Vietnam.
And never had so many
Richard Nixon was running
people watched a Baker team
for his second term.
play.
The game featuring Baker’s
Both those records remain
“farm boys” and Jefferson’s
unchallenged half a century
more flamboyant team illus-
later.
trated a term that Kaza said
News
of Record
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Telephone: 541-523-3673
ISSN-8756-6419
Serving Baker County since 1870
Publisher
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Published Tuesdays, Thursdays and
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Baker Publishing Co., a part of EO Media
Group, at 2005 Washington Ave., Suite 101
(P.O. Box 807), Baker City, OR 97814.
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Postmaster: Send address changes to
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City, OR 97814.
Periodicals Postage Paid
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Copyright © 2022
Left: In this photo from the March 27,
1972, issue of the Baker Democrat-Herald,
Baker’s Craig Erickson, front, and Daryl Ross
surround a Jefferson player.
Above: Senior post Daryl Ross, 6-foot-
7, was the leading scorer on Baker’s 1972
state runner-up team. Ross went on to play
basketball at Montana State University.
Photo courtesy of Ann Ross
has only in more recent times
become something of a cliché
itself — “the urban-rural di-
vide.”
“And here we have it on the
basketball court,” Kaza said.
But he notes, too, that un-
like Oregon’s political divide,
which tends to separate peo-
ple into groups that have little
to do with each other except
for social media squabbling,
the 1972 championship game
brought people together, even
if for only one night.
Kaza said he tells a com-
prehensive story in his book,
including Oregon’s sometimes
sordid racial history, most no-
tably the state serving as fertile
recruiting ground for the Ku
Klux Klan.
Kaza’s own experience had
also given him a perspective
for race relations.
As a fifth grader living in
Beaverton, he was part of
group of white students who
joined a voluntary program to
attend Martin Luther King El-
ementary School in Portland,
where 97% of the students
were Black. Kaza was one of
two white students in his class.
“That experience forever
impacted his world view of
prejudice and discrimination,”
according to his author biog-
raphy on the Nestucca Spit
Press website.
Research during a pandemic
Kaza, who worked as a
sportswriter for the Valley
Times newspaper in Beaver-
ton from 1974 to 1982 before,
as he puts it, “leaving journal-
ism behind,” said he initially
decided to embark on a book
project in the spring of 2020.
“I started realizing this
was a story I could weave to-
gether,” he said.
After living in England for
about 25 years, he returned
to the U.S. in 2016. He and
his wife, Yee Cheng, bought a
four-screen movie theater in
Sisters.
Of course something else
happened in the spring of
2020.
COVID-19.
Kaza said the pandemic
both helped and hindered his
work on “High Contrast.”
Although he certainly
wouldn’t describe this as a
positive, because his theater
was closed for 431 days — a
number, he notes with a rueful
chuckle, he will always recall
with precision — Kaza had
more time than he would have
had otherwise for research.
But the situation also forced
him to conduct interviews —
including with several mem-
bers of Baker’s 1972 team
— remotely rather than in
person.
Kaza also talked with John
Heriza, who was Baker’s assis-
tant coach in 1972 and lives
in Baker City, and with Greg
Hammond, Gary Hammond’s
son.
Gary Hammond died on
April 26, 2008, at Pendleton.
He was 88.
Two starters on Baker’s
1972 team — Daryl Ross and
Mike Davis, the top two scor-
ers — have also passed away.
Ross died Jan. 7, 2015, at
age 60 from ALS (Lou Geh-
rig’s disease).
Davis died Jan. 4, 2016, at
age 61.
Bringing the book
to Baker City
Kaza said he’s working to
get copies of “High Contrast”
to Betty’s Books in Baker City.
Meanwhile, the book can be
ordered online at www.high-
contrastbook.com or at Ama-
zon.com.
He said he’d like to schedule
a book signing event in Baker
City later this year, and poten-
tially read excerpts at Betty’s
Books.
After growing up hearing
about one of the more re-
nowned high school sport-
ing events in Oregon history
— but not having been in
the stands to see it himself —
Kaza is glad he’s been able to
chronicle that game in book
form.
“I never envisioned actually
writing a book until this proj-
ect came along,” he said.
Find us online: bakercityherald.com
FUNERALS PENDING
LaVelle Scrivner: A memorial service
will take place in October, with the
date and time to be announced.
Arrangements are under the
direction of Tami’s Pine Valley Funeral
Home & Cremation Services. Online
condolences can be shared at www.
tamispinevalleyfuneralhome.com.
Ellen McBroom: Graveside service will
be Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 1 p.m. at
Mount Hope Cemetery in Baker City.
Online condolences can be shared at
www.tamispinevalleyfuneralhome.com.
POLICE LOG
CONTACT THE HERALD
Baker City Herald • bakercityherald.com
Baker City Police
Arrests, citations
SECOND-DEGREE CRIMINAL
TRESPASSING:Timothy Kelly Slaney, 33,
Baker City, 10:48 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 18
in the 1100 block of Campbell Street;
cited and released; arrested on the same
charge at 6:22 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 18 in
the 1500 block of Indiana Avenue; jailed.
DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF
INTOXICANTS: Songa Leonard Daniel, 21,
Meridian, Idaho, 1:10 a.m. Sunday, Sept.
18 on Campbell Street near Maverik;
MENACING (domestic violence):
Matthew Nathan Jeseritz, 44, Baker City,
9:48 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17 in the 2400
block of Madison Street; jailed.
PROBATION VIOLATION: Caleb James
Mansuetti, 20, Baker City, 7:46 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 17 at Campbell and Main
streets; jailed.
Baker County Sheriff’s Office
Arrests, citations
FAILURE TO APPEAR (2 Washington County,
Idaho, warrants): David Ramos Juarez III,
35, Ontario, 5:51 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16 at
Union Creek campground; jailed.
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