BY MICHAEL O'BRIEN

On entering the lovely ancestral farmhouse, which represents Velda Dahl's birthplace (June 7, 1918), we adjourn to a comfortable room. A Saturday afternoon fire crackles in the background, this week's Sports Illustrated adorns the coffee table and UCLA and Ball State are doing battle on the television set. To my host's delight, Ball State is up by 12 points approaching halftime. 
      "I can't help it, I love to see UCLA get beat; for no other reason than the fact that they humiliated Oregon teams for so many years. It's probably unfair, but that's how I feel," offers Dahl. 
      Makes a sportswriter feel right at home she does.

Dahl's live sports viewing resume includes several Rose Bowls and season tickets that had her in the building when the Trailblazers won their world championship on June 6, 1977. She was seated directly above Carl Lewis's 100-meter gold medal run at the Los Angeles Olympics and would have been at the World Series this year if the Mariners had held on. A Super Bowl is  still needed to fulfill her wish list as a fan.  She's very unhappy about the current state of the Rose Bowl, now property of the BCS Championship Series. "I just don't understand it. It's been ours (the Pac-10's) for years and now they just yank it away."

        But if you want to talk high school boys basketball, with the possible exclusion of retiring Tillamook coach Bob Lamb (25 seasons), there's no better-informed  regional conversation available, regarding Oregon  prep hoops for this short-tenured sports reporter.

        Dahl, a 1935 graduate of Tillamook High School hasn't missed many Tillamook boy's games since 1932. She can speak to the years when Tillamook played teams like Hillsboro, Salem, Jesuit and McMinnville over in the old armory on Third Street, a place that no longer exists. "Back in the days of real sportsmanship, when you could hear a pin drop when someone was shooting a free throw," Dahl mused.
        Dahl has attended all 18 of Tillamook's state tournament appearances. She laments the recent change of venue, which has 3-A boys and girls competing simultaneously in Corvallis, a shift from Eugene's storied Mac Court where the tournament had been held, well, forever.
        Dahl enjoyed the same seats for many years at Mac Court, reserved annually. "It's such a great building, the place just shakes with excitement and has such history. In the balcony, you're right on top of the players," she offered.

        A picture of good health at a youthful 83, Dahl has resided for the past several decades in the same seats at Tillamook home games. Four rows up behind the scorers table, enjoying the games with Laurie Lamb and her other friends. During a recent season, healing from a leg injury, Dahl was unable to make the climb to her usual vantage point. She found a way to keep a good view of the game. 
        "I went to the bench, next to the coaches, and said move over boys, I need the seat." She resided on the team bench during that period of time with no objections.
        A good friend and supporter of recently retired coach Bob Lamb, Dahl pays him high praise. "Bob was so able to get the most of the boys, regardless of how a season started. You'd go downtown and hear this and that about how the team is not going to be very good at the start of a year, and then by season's end, they'd be a state again."

        Dahl is genuinely concerned about budget cuts that are affecting prep sports statewide. "We have to do everything possible to make programs available for every youngster that wants to play. If that means 'pay to play' with some relief for those who can't afford it, that's what we need to do."
        "I wish the kids every good thing," she said. "I miss the teaching link, knowing the kids as well as I used to, having taught them on their way to being athletes. Now, I enjoy watching the kids whose parents I taught. I still feel like I know them. The link is still there," Dahl shares.
        Through her seven-plus decades of viewing Tillamook's trials and tribulations on the hardwood, so many changes have occurred. The days of going to the coach's house for sandwiches and soft drinks after a game at the old armory represent sweet memories. Dahl remains constant through these changes, taking her fourth-row center-court seat each night, each year, quintessentially defining the word 'fan' for all of us. And she does so with class.

OMED: 12-15-01, Velda Dahl passed away Friday, December 14, 2001.  The latest information we have received indicates that she was coming home from watching her grandson wrestle at the high school.  There was an auto accident.  We don't know the details.  What we do know is that Heaven, today, is a better place.  Our sympathies go out to those who were close to her, and Godspeed to a wonderful lady whose lifelong encouragement of youngsters is a Super Bowl sized legacy.  And the Great shall weep in envy of the accomplishments of the Humble.
 

(C) 2001 Michael O'Brien