FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
MOUNTAIN
BIKING
Chainbreaker race
set for Saturday
The Cascade Chain-
breaker mountain bike
race will return to trails
west of Bend on Saturday
for the 26th edition of the
longtime event, which
was canceled last year
due to the COVID-19 pan-
demic.
Registration is available
until Wednesday at 3 p.m.
at obra.org. Day-of-race
registration will not be
offered per OBRA guide-
lines.
Masks will be required
at the event, except when
racers are in motion. Spec-
tators are not allowed.
Due to fire risk, there is a
camping ban on Skyline
Forest property and the
Chainbreaker venue.
Youth, beginner, ad-
vanced and elite cate-
gories are available for
mountain bike racers.
Location, directions,
and course maps will be
posted Tuesday at obra.
org.
Packet pick-up will be
Friday from 2 to 6 p.m. at
Webcyclery in Bend. Day-
of-race packet pick-up is
also available one hour
prior to start time.
For more information,
contact Ann Leitheiser
at ann@bendendur-
anceacademy.org.
Outdoors
A tenderfoot’s guide to
wild turkey hunting
—Bulletin staff report
MOTOR SPORTS
3-time Indy 500
winner Unser dies
Bobby Unser, a three-
time Indianapolis 500
winner and part of the
only pair of brothers to
win “The Greatest Specta-
cle in Racing” has died. He
was 87.
He died Sunday at his
home in Albuquerque,
New Mexico of natural
causes, Indianapolis Motor
Speedway said Monday.
Unser won the Indy 500 in
1968, 1975 and 1981.
His younger brother, Al,
is one of only three four-
time Indy 500 winners in
race history. Al Unser won
the race in 1970, 1971,
1978 and 1987. The Unser
family tradition stretched
to Al Unser’s son, Al Unser
Jr., who won the Indy 500
in 1992 and 1994.
“Bobby was a ferocious
competitor on the track,
and his larger-than-life
personality made him one
of the most beloved and
unique racers we have
ever seen,” said Roger Pen-
ske, the current owner of
Indianapolis Motor Speed-
way but the team owner
for Unser’s 1981 Indy 500
winning car.
“Beyond his many
wins and accomplish-
ments, Bobby was a true
racer that raised the per-
formance of everyone
around him. He was also
one of the most colorful
characters in motorsports.”
Bobby Unser was born
Feb. 20, 1934, in Colorado
Springs, Colorado, and
moved with his family as
a child to New Mexico. His
father owned a garage
along Route 66 and he his
brother grew up tooling
around in old jalopies be-
fore he began his racing
career in 1949 at Roswell
New Mexico Speedway.
After two years in the U.S.
Air Force from 1953 to
1955 — a stint for which
he was always proud —
Unser.
He was one of just 10
drivers to win the 500 at
least three times and Un-
ser and Rick Mears are the
only drivers to win the
500 in three different de-
cades. Unser was one of
six members of the Unser
family to race in the India-
napolis 500.
—Associated Press
I
knew better than to get up and
move. I’d only been in place at the
base of the oak tree for 30 min-
utes. But I moved.
West of Roseburg the valley gives
way to foothills. Stands of tall firs
and hillsides studded with oak trees
provide roost cover for turkeys.
Berry patches and small meadows
offer feed and, on warm spring days,
insects to catch in tall grass.
A turkey had gobbled back to me
and then gone silent. I suspected a
hen had caught its attention.
I gathered up the decoys.
GARY
LEWIS
If the gobblers didn’t want to come
down the hill then they might work
out into the meadow to the west.
I decided to try to get there ahead
of them. Halfway through my move,
I saw the birds where I least expected
them.
Instead of down in the creek bot-
tom, the turkeys were on the slope
above the old stagecoach road, now
spread out in a ragged line, headed
right toward me.
Four gobblers and a hen. On
the move. Four shiny ones and a
buff-colored female. Three were
jakes while the one at the back had a
longer beard.
Below the turkeys on the hill,
there was only tall grass to hide me,
but it was enough. Now the last jake
cleared the bigger tom. With the gun
at my shoulder, I had to raise up out
of the cover to make the shot.
See Lewis / A6
On a solo
hunt in the
Melrose Unit,
the author
surprised this
15-pound
gobbler
traveling
with three
jakes and a
hen.
Gary Lewis/For
The Bulletin
NFL | DRAFT
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
QB Wilson looms over
Seahawks’ selections
There’s plenty
of changes for
Beavers during
this offseason
BY GEOFFREY C. ARNOLD
The Oregonian
The Seattle Seahawks say
they made the most of their
three picks in the 2021 NFL
draft.
The Seahawks’ three picks
were the fewest for any team
in the league and their selec-
tions were the second-fewest
players in the common draft
era that began in 1967. Even
with the paltry number of
selections, the Seahawks ad-
dressed holes on offense and
the continuing echo of quar-
terback Russell Wilson’s com-
plaints about the unit.
“We feel really excited
about what we did,” Seattle
general manager John Schnei-
der told reporters Saturday. “It
was a very productive draft.”
The Seahawks selected
wide receiver D’Wayne Es-
kridge in the second round,
cornerback Tre Brown in the
fourth round and offensive
line Stone Forsythe in the
sixth round.
The Seahawks used their
second-round pick (No. 56
overall) to select Eskridge
out of Western Michigan. Es-
kridge is the favorite to be the
team’s third wide receiver be-
hind Tyler Lockett and DK
Metcalf after David Moore
signed a free agent deal with
the Carolina Panthers.
Eskridge posted 25 catches
for 660 yards and seven
touchdowns in just five
games, averaging 26.4 yards
a catch in 2020. Eskridge
averaged at least 20 yards
a catch during each of his
final three seasons and av-
eraged 18.5 yards a catch
during his career with the
Broncos.
Eskridge is small (5-feet-
9, 180 pounds), but very fast
(4.38 seconds in the 40) with
the ability to take the top off
defenses. Eskridge is also a
kick-return specialist, he av-
eraged 27.5 yards a return in
2020.
See Seahawks / A7
BY STEVE GRESS
Corvallis Gazette-Times
Russell
Wilson
AP file
So much has changed for the Oregon
State women’s basketball program in the
five-plus weeks since the Beavers ended the
season with a 59-42 loss to No. 1 seed South
Carolina in the NCAA tournament.
Aleah Goodman chose to forgo a possible
extra season to declare for the WNBA draft
— she was drafted No. 30 overall by the
Connecticut Sun.
Jasmine Simmons, after three seasons
in the program, decided to return home to
Australia.
Then freshmen Sasha Goforth and Savan-
nah Samuel put their names in the trans-
fer portal and found new schools closer to
home at Arkansas and West Virginia, re-
spectively.
On top of that, two members of the
coaching staff — Brian Holsinger and Katie
Faulkner — took jobs elsewhere.
All of a sudden, head coach Scott Rueck
had a plethora of holes to fill.
See Beavers / A7