A special weekend for Erickson, 2001 Fiesta Bowl champions
Last weekend was a special one for Dennis Erickson. But it was that way, too, for a lot of coaches and players who served under him during perhaps the most special season in Oregon State football history.
Erickson, six assistant coaches and 55 players were on hand in Corvallis to represent the 2001 Fiesta Bowl championship team that was inducted into the Oregon State Athletic Hall of Fame.
Talking Jerome Kersey with The Oregonian’s Aaron Fentress
My former colleague at The Oregonian, Aaron Fentress, had me on his “Blazer Focused” podcast this week to talk about “Jerome Kersey: Overcoming the Odds.” We discussed the former Trail Blazer great’s upbringing and career at Longwood College, what Jerome tick, his path to success in The NBA and much more, including who is the greatest Blazer of them all, Clyde Drexler or Damian Lillard.
How does ‘The Jackhammer’ do it? ‘I have no idea’ says the Beavers’ Colletto
There is no spot for Jack Colletto on Oregon State’s football Mount Rushmore. They likely won’t put his likeness in bronze on campus. He won’t make any All-America teams or cause NFL scouts to swoon.
But it’s safe to say that in 125 years of football in Corvallis — from the Farmers to the Hayseeds to the Aggies to the Orangemen to the Beavers — there has never been a player quite like “The Jackhammer.”
With Rohn Brown of Mechanicsville, Va., on Jerome Kersey
I spent three days in Virginia last week participating on book events for “Jerome Kersey: Overcoming the Odds.” Prior to that, I did a podcast with a local broadcaster, Rohn Brown, who went to school with Kersey at Longwood College in Farmville, Va. Rohn asked a lot of good questions and I tried to give good answers. The result:
Book Signing at the Moda Center When the Portland Trail Blazers Take on the Detroit Pistons
Join me Tuesday November 30, 2021 in Portland at the Moda Center. I will be signing my latest book "Jerome Kersey: Overcoming The Odds" pregame and again at halftime of the Trailblazers v. Detroit Pistons game.
I will be joined by special guest Terry Porter. We will be on the 100 level at A24 inside the main South entrance next to a retail location.
A conversation with Chad “The Body” Doing …
I spoke with “Rip City Radio” host Chad Doing on Tuesday’s Trail Blazers pre-game show. We discussed a variety of topics, including Neil Olshey, Nikola Jokic and Jerome Kersey.
A day in the life of George Fox football
NEWBERG — My Saturday begins — a bit sleepy-eyed — at 7:45 a.m. I walk into a meeting room on the second floor of the Duke Athletic Center next to Stoffer Family Stadium on the George Fox campus with Todd Shirley, the running backs coach who has happened upon me in the parking lot.
I have been invited to spend a game day with the Bruins’ football program by its head coach, Chris Casey, whom I’ve known since his time coaching at Aloha High in the early 2010s. When I retired from 45 years of sportswriting for Portland newspapers in 2020, Casey had extended the offer by phone. The 2020 fall season, however, was wiped away by COVID-19. Just before the 2021 campaign kicked off, I got another call from Chris. Come on down!
Book Signing at the Moda Center When the Trail Blazers Take on the Chicago Bulls Wednesday November 17, 2021
Join me Wednesday November 17, 2021 in Portland at the Moda Center. I will be signing my latest book "Jerome Kersey: Overcoming The Odds" pregame and again at halftime of the Trailblazers v. Chicago Bulls game.
I will be joined by special guest Teri Kersey. We will be on the 100 level at A24 inside the main South entrance next to a retail location.
Book Signing at Barnes & Noble Bridgeport Village
Join me Sunday November 14, 2021 in Tigard at the Barnes & Noble Bridgeport Village. I will be signing my latest book "Jerome Kersey: Overcoming The Odds" from 1-3 PM.
The book is a biography on the late, great Trail Blazers' forward. they will also have my book, Jail Blazers, for sale.
Kents pair together for historic broadcast: ‘It was a very emotional couple of hours’
Ernie and Jordan Kent made a little history Tuesday at Matt Knight Arena, and had some fun while doing it.
The Kents broadcast Oregon’s season-opening 83-66 win over Texas Southern — Ernie providing analysis, Jordan handling play-by-play duties for the men’s contest carried by Pac-12 Network/Oregon.
Has there ever before been a father-son team work a major-college basketball game on TV together?
Book Signing at Chapters Books & Coffee Friday Night In Newberg
Join me Friday night in Newberg at Chapters Books & Coffee during the First Friday ArtWalk. I will be signing my eighth book "Jerome Kersey: Overcoming The Odds" from 5-7 PM.
I will have a selection of my other books for sale including "Jail Blazers," "Civil War Rivalry" and "The Bill Schonely Story."
Book Signing at CJ's Sports Bar & Grill Thursday Night November 4, 2021 In Oak Grove
Join me Thursday night in Portland at CJ's Sports Bar and Grill. I will be signing my eighth book "Jerome Kersey: Overcoming The Odds" from 5-7 PM.
I will give a short talk about about the book, a biography on the late, great Trail Blazers' forward. I will also have a Q & A session. I will also have a selection of my other books for sale including "Jail Blazers," "Civil War Rivalry" and "The Bill Schonely Story."
The wonderful part of this book event is that CJ's owner Terry Emmert -- a good friend of Jerome's -- and Bucky Buckwalter will join me in a discussion about the late, great Blazer forward that will begin about 6 p.m.
Iconic coach alive and still kicking at 90: ‘Linfield might as well be called Rutschman U’
McMINNVILLE — The mid-week lunch crowd at Golden Valley Brewery is bustling, but few of the customers seem to notice the sporting royalty in their midst. Then again, perhaps they are just giving Ad Rutschman some privacy as he dines with sons Don and Randy while conducting an interview with some guy holding a digital recorder.
With Neil Everett and Dewayne Hankins, talking Blazer broadcasting for 2021-22
Summing up the Blazer broadcasting scene for the upcoming season — and there are plenty of changes …
• Neil Everett sounded like a kid in a candy store when I caught up with him via phone while he was at his vacation cottage in Seaside.
“I just found a vintage Trail Blazers jacket at an antique store in town,” Everett told me. “I don’t know what year it’s from, but it has to be 30 to 40 years old and it looks like it’s never been worn. I’m so fired up.”
Everett paid $300 for the jacket.
On Oregon State’s historic takedown of Troy, along with a look at that win back in 1960, and a nod to the late Steve Hall
Pontificating on one of the biggest Oregon State football victories this century …
• Every 61 years, the Beavers beat Southern Cal on its home turf.
The way they did it Saturday night in a 45-27 dismantling of the Trojans in LA Memorial Coliseum was impressive.
This isn’t a great USC team, and it seems in some disarray following the Sept. 13 dismissal of Clay Helton as head coach.
That doesn’t lessen the impact that the victory has on Oregon State’s program in the fourth year under Coach Jonathan Smith.
Canham: ‘Looking at what we have back and coming in … I’m excited’
It can’t be that time already, can it?
Ah, but it is. Oregon State begins fall baseball practice on Thursday, Sept. 9.
Summer has flown by, and the fall portion of the second full season of the Mitch Canham era in Corvallis is around the corner.
The 2022 campaign will be one of redemption for the Beavers, who fashioned a credible 37-24 record (16-14 in Pac-12 action, tied for fifth) and came within whisker of advancing to a Super Regional in 2021.
On the Pre Classic, Rich Brooks’ 80th birthday party, Adley (and Ad) Rutschman, Damian Lillard, Kevin Calabro and the Trail Blazers …
Sporting items on my mind as we swing into a new week …
I’ll put the Prefontaine Classic up against any 2 1/2-hour sports event in the state of Oregon — and yes, I’m including a basketball game involving the Trail Blazers.
The 47th annual invitational — with a crowd of 8,937 looking on at the newly refurbished track and field shrine called Hayward Field — featured nine meet records and seven world-leading marks in the first international meet since the end of the Tokyo Olympic Games two weeks ago.
The day I got the best of Barney — and inspired his career game
By Bob Robinson
(Editor’s note: Robinson, now 87, wrote sports for Oregon newspapers for 42 years, the last 37 at The Oregonian. “Robbie” was the paper’s beat writer for the Trail Blazers when they won the NBA championship in 1977. The Central High and U of O grad was a renowned golf writer at The Oregonian and is the author of four books.)
When Barney Holland died on July 21 at 89, it brought a flood of memories to sports followers in Oregon — including me.
During a long high school basketball coaching career at Lebanon, North Eugene and Aloha, the
former University of Oregon athlete compiled a record of 406-224 (.644) and won three state championships and seven league titles.
Holland earned several individual awards, too, including McDonald’s National Coach of the Year selection in 1977 after his North Eugene team won the second of back-to-back state AAA titles and lost only one of 54 games over two seasons, with All-American Danny Ainge leading the way.
Tinkle begins work with ‘deep roster’ as Oregon State basketball prepares for 2021-22 campaign
Once a college athletic program climbs a mountain, the trek doesn’t end. In some cases, it is only getting started.
That’s what Wayne Tinkle hopes is happening with Oregon State basketball.
Tinkle, soon to begin his eighth season at the OSU helm, will be coming in off the glow of a remarkable late-season run that saw the Beavers reach the Elite Eight in March.
After starting the regular season 11-10, Oregon State reeled off nine victories in 11 games — including three straight to rule the Pac-12 post-season tournament and subsequent wins over Tennessee, Oklahoma State and Loyola Chicago in the NCAA Tournament — before finally being eliminated 67-61 by Houston a step from the Final Four.
The Beavers, who claimed the first Pac-12 Tournament title in program history, became the second No. 12 seed ever to reach the Elite Eight in their first trip there since 1982. They finished the season ranked 20th in the final Coaches’ Poll, the first time they have been ranked in any poll since March 1990, when they were No. 22 in the Associated Press rankings. At 20-13, it marked the second time since 1990 the Beavers have reached 20 wins.
Tom Jordan’s labor of love will end with this year’s Prefontaine Classic
An era with the Prefontaine Classic is ending. And no, I’m not talking about a demise of the greatest single-day event this side of Civil War football on the state’s sports calendar.
The 46th running of the best track and field meet in the United States is set for August 20-21 at revamped Hayward Field, and — with fingers crossed due to COVID-19 implications — it promises to provide 2 1/2 hours of sensational entertainment as always.
But this will be the swan song of Tom Jordan, who serves for the 37th year as meet director.
Jordan, 72, is stepping aside because, frankly, the job calls for the energy of a younger person.