By Pigskin Pete

        Collegiate football at the Division I  level carries the seeds of scandal with economic and emotional impacts unrivaled by other institutional activity.  These seeds have just sprouted some very ugly growth at two major universities, Colorado and Washington....and the blame in both instances extends clear to the top.  As a university president, you must remain attentive to who and what is happening in your athletic department.  Lack of administrative control begs for unfavorable press and sanctions from the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

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Beaver recruit Ellison anxious for opportunity 

Coach Riley looks forward to adding linebacker to the mix 

The Portland Tribune --  El Camino (Calif.) College coach John Featherstone has sent DeLawrence Grant, LaDairis Jackson and Tevita Moala to Oregon State -- the first two to the NFL, as well. His latest prodigy to don orange and black, Keith Ellison, fits right in.

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Duck Grid Recruiting Making Waves Nationally

                By Pigskin Pete

        University of Oregon football coaches have done a nationally noted sales job on the 2004 class of recruits. 

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State athletes take a bow
Oregon Sports Awards comb fields, tracks and courts for the best 
By STEVE BRANDON  --  The Portland Tribune 

Trophies went to 12 athletes, one coach, one team, two team executives, one statistician and one local company. But the overall winner at Sunday night's Oregon Sports Awards had to be the state itself.  An impressive cast of celebrity presenters --led by  Joey Harrington and Jerome Kersey --joined the winners in saluting the state where they learned to play and the people who helped them achieve.

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Pole Position
By ANDY GIEGERICH  --  The Portland Tribune 
As the popularity of NASCAR racing surges, area cities vie for a Northwest track A Florida-based developer is seeking a site on which to build a NASCAR-sized facility like the
Homestead Miami Speedway.

Portland is gearing up for an emerging contest with Seattle for a track that would bring NASCAR racing, billed as America's fastest-growing sport, to the Northwest. However, the lack of an immediately viable site and sources of funding could handicap Portland, local observers say. Still, local boosters plan to pursue the venture because of its revenue potential. A track in the Portland area that could accommodate as many as 80,000 NASCAR fans -- many of whom travel long distances and camp out for days in advance -- could inject millions of dollars into the region's economy.

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Recalling the Bright Side
Of Gridiron Greatness

   By Fred Delkin

 When we were just learning the gridiron game, our attention was grabbed by the exploits of one Johnny Bright, Heisman Trophy candidate who toiled at tailback for Drake University.  An Indiana all-star prepster at Fort Wayne’s Central High in football, basketball and track at a mere 5-10, 180 pounds, Bright was ignored by major home state universities (Notre Dame, Indiana, Purdue) and settled for a ride at Iowa’s Drake. 

And what a ride he went on…leading the nation in total offense as a sophomore, repeating the feat as a junior and again topping collegiate ranks as a senior until slowed by an injury.  The latter had racial overtones that shocked the sports world at the time.  Bright, a black, was leveled by a white tackle from Oklahoma A&M (not Oklahoma State) in a deliberate foul that broke Bright’s jaw.

As a junior, Bright set an NCAA record of 2,400 total yards almost evenly split between passing and running.  He wound up with over 6,000 yards total offense for his Drake career, averaging 236 yards per game and scoring 384 points in 25 outings.  In those days, freshmen were ineligible for varsity play.

The 1951 NFL draft saw Bright as the first round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles.  He would have been Philly’s first negro player, but instead went north to the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League at a time when the CFL was competing financially with the NFL for collegiate talent.   Injuries inhibited his talent in the two years Bright served Calgary and he was traded to Edmonton, where he became a hall-of-famer.

 A statistical superman

Bright led the Eskimos to the CFL Grey Cup title in 1954, 1955 and 1956.  In 1958, he rushed for a CFL single season record of 1,722 yards.  In 1959, Bright was CFL rushing leader for the third straight season and was voted the Schenley Award as CFL Outstanding Player (the first black to be so honored).  Bright retired in 1964 as the CFL’s all-time leading rusher, with 10,909 yards in 134 seasons. 

He still holds CFL records for most career playoff touchdowns, most yards gained in a Grey Cup game and most consecutive games played (197), at both running back and linebacker.   His exploits earned CFL Hall of Fame honors in 1970 and his career at Drake brought him into the American College Football Hall of Fame in 1984.

Following retirement as a player, Bright remained in Edmonton.  His Drake college degree qualified him for full time teaching and coaching in Edmonton.  His legendary life ended early, with a fatal heart attack at age 53.

Johnny Bright is buried in his adopted home of Edmonton, 400 miles north of his Indiana birthplace.  He deserves our look back at his accomplishments and deserved place among gridiron greats.

Quiet legend has date with fame   Russian champion settles down as a coach in Beaverton 

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Duck A.D. Makes
Sense on Grid Topics
 by Pigskin Pete

 University of Oregon Athletic Director Bill Moos recently made much sense with his opinions on the current state of college football.  He decries the glut of bowl games, with Division I teams almost certain for post season play if they manage a winning season (Oregon (7-5) vs. Wake Forest (6-6) in the Seattle Bowl!!) and the plethora of bowl sponsors putting the heat on schools to meet ticket sales minimums.

Duck Football Program
In Full Recovery Mode

Ducks Dominate Prepster Choices
Dollar Damage Infects Cagedom
Planet’s Fans Await 16th World Cup
Duck Hoop Glory Has Bright Future
Never Give a Duck an Even Break
4 Bowls End Grid Season Here’s Expected Results | Riding the Rails to Pac10 Disaster  | | 2001

Arena football lives:
Mouse Still Roaring on an Indoor Stage  He stands a mere 5 ½ feet tall, but his deeds tower above the accomplishments of any Oregonian who has practiced the pigskin profession.

Colleges Sign 29 Oregon Recruits

Oregon Sports Taverns
You've been on the road all day and need to find a place that's got the game! This list covers the larger towns in Oregon.

WebTickets Dot Com   This outfit claims it sells tickets to any sporting event in the world. Ticket availability, seating charts, schedules, directions to the event are all part of that global service. " Tickets to sold-out  events and premium seating are specialties." (They also buy tickets, which explains how they can do that.) 

Cycling in Portland  Bikeways and maps, bike parking, blue bike lanes, safety tips and other information.  The city will teach you how to fix a flat tire, transport your bike to where you want to ride it, link you to cycling clubs and for a small fee provide you with secure commuter bicycle parking, showers and permanent clothes/locker space.

(Official city site)

Ski Report links: North
Timberline Lodge | Hoodoo Bowl | Cooper Spur
 

Football stampedes into Sisters Sisters has a new home football team. (This is real football, using retired pros and former college players who still enjoy contact sports.)

King of the mat
State champ says dedication the name of the game  Nervous tension in the sweaty staging area beneath could cut it with a knife.

Great fun on Golf's Senior Collard Greens  We hear K-Mart declared bankruptcy, yesterday. It's a shame.  They are an obvious victim of terminal PC. Once more we see that what goes around comes around. 

Tiny Creswell Breeds Basketball Superiority  The little burg has only some 2,400 residents, but it boasts the birthrights of two of the current stars in collegiate basketball.

BY MICHAEL O'BRIEN 
Headlight-Herald Sports Editor 

Tillamook High School is wisely taking some time, May 3-9, to encourage its students to participate in a "Respect week," with tolerance, kindness and appreciation of others representing goals of the concept. Considering the number of youngsters in Tillamook County who have chosen athletics as extracurricular activities, respect should be, and is for most, high on the list of what they gain with their efforts. 

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Timbers aim to hit ground running 

Well-stocked roster of returnees, new talent should solidify season 

The Portland Tribune -- The Portland Timbers will start training camp Thursday with one major goal --a fast start to the season. The Timbers got off to an 0-5 two years ago, then missed the -A-League playoffs last season after a 2-6  start.

Portland finished 15-11-2 in 2003.

  "At the end of the season, we were one of the best teams in the A League," coach Bobby Howe says. "At  the end, we had Vancouver's number and Seattle's number. If we had scored more points in May, we'd  have made the playoffs very comfortably."

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TMook Mania Greets Determined Kids
BY MICHAEL O'BRIEN -- Headlight-Herald Sports Editor

[From an introductory note by Michael O'Brien]  We haven't been able to book Janet Jackson yet for this, but working on it. 16 full-color glossy pages from me this week on the two teams and their seasons. First time ever a public school has had both number-ones at the end of the regular season. God I love small towns.  (Here's proof of that last statement. )

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Requiem for a dream 
For too many Knott Street boxers, despair displaces glory 
By TODD MURPHY --  The Portland Tribune 

Once, he was a local hero.- He was a Knott Street boxer.-  And in 1950s and '60s Portland -- before an NBA  basketball team would become the pride and then the scorn of a city -- being a Knott Street boxer was about as much glory as a Portland kid could imagine. But in the end, in Tony Jacobs' desperate, sad and lonely end almost a year ago, he was a world away from all that.   They found Jacobs' body in March 2003 behind a gas station's trash bin at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Fremont Street. 

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The glow of the experience shines on Archer   BY MICHAEL O'BRIEN -- Tillamook Headlight-Herald Sports Editor

One of Oceanside's newest residents, George Archer, was headed for a possible basketball career in 1953. Archer, who stands 6'6", was a big kid and played the game well.
   Like others of us who grew up in those times, Archer earned his princely sum of $8 a day caddying at the nearby Peninsula Golf Club in San Francisco. Quite often, an established caddy would get the same bag, weekend after weekend, and Archer was impressed, at an early age, with one of his customers' happy manner.
   One day, he ventured to ask the gentleman whose bag he was packing, "Where does that wonderful glow you have come from? You really seem to enjoy yourself out here three days a week when you're golfing." The gentleman replied, 

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Baseball Plan Leaves Many Unanswered Questions
By Matt Evans

 Of the many, many things government in Oregon is or could be involved in, Major League baseball is probably one of the most exciting.  Baseball in Portland is off the charts when it comes to "cool."  However, the plan advanced by advocates to finance the potential team and its stadium, and promises made on the economic development impact of the team raise significant questions which should be answered before any financial commitment is made.

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Top sprinters may have key gene   Becoming one of the fastest men or women in the world is all about years of hard training, healthy eating and early nights - or is it? 

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Pigskin Pete Roundup:
Dollars Determining UO Athletic Future

Charlie the Tuna is dead
by Michael O'Brien
In his wake he leaves the world as this friend's most unforgettable character, should Reader's Digest wish to inquire. Did you know him?
        I crossed paths with Charlie somewhere around 1969 in Spokane. There were common friends and there was Playfair Race Track. Always the warm smile, always a mysterious ability to vanish into thin air, which became part of his legend.

Where winning is painful
by Michael O'Brien - Tillamook Headlight-Herald Sports Editor

        It all hinges on moments. A tolerance for pain. Stamina and deep intestinal fortitude. In the end, there's no one their to bail you out. Your teammates and fans are somewhere out there, glimpsed through the sweat in your eyes, heard through the roar in your ears.

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Accident victim leads adventurous life 
by Mark Morical for the Bend Bulletin

The only way for the surfers to reach the waves was to fling themselves from the eight-foot-high cliff. One wave-seeker slipped on the wet rocks and fell down into the water. Unharmed, he 
began making his way toward the waves. Seeing this, another surfer decided to dive in.  But when he did, something went wrong. 

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Jocks do say the darndest things -- even Yao Ming 

(From the Portland Tribune) -- They say some of the darndest things in the NBA. - It was a good year for quotes, but three quipsters rose above the rest -- Houston's enterprising Yao Ming, who doesn't even speak  English; his always-engaging teammate, Maurice Taylor; and Seattle's dim-bulbed center, Jerome James.  The 7-6 Yao gets third place in our rankings, with kudos to  his interpreter.  Yao, after facing 5-5 Earl Boykins:

"Even when I looked down, I couldn't see him."

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Last of the great 3-A tourneys
It's late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, depending on one's perspective. The gymnasium floor at Gill finally cleared about an hour ago and here in Corvallis, there are signs of elated Cheesemakers everywhere.

Perfect ending for this Blazer team    This month, a joyful 25-year reunion was on the menu at the Rose Garden in Portland, where the current Blazers play. 

If this is Friday, those must be White Buffaloes   It's as hard as you'll ever see kids play. Only a few will go on and play at the next level, but being a town hero can last forever.

Small Change: Strong medicine for sports addicts  If you've ever had to miss a good friend's wedding to accommodate your significant other's inability to miss a week-six college football game on TV, between two Big-Ten teams who play 2,000 miles from where you live— lend me your ear.

The Boxer On The Beach
Friday Night Legends & Small Town Heroes | Oregon's quintessential fan?

Uof O DUCKS FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
PSU VIKINGS FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

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