Roy McNeal (39-28) Howard Hobson (56-14) Jean Eberhart (123-74)

Transcription

1 Roy McNeal (39-28) Howard Hobson (56-14) Jean Eberhart (123-74) M en s basketball at Southern Oregon was first introduced in 1926, the year the college, then Southern Oregon Normal School (SONS), opened its doors. The college tapped Ashland High coach Walter Hughes to head the fledgling program, and games were played at the old Ashland Armory or at the Ashland Junior High floor, depending on which court was available. Hughes and his Siskiyous compiled an 8-6 record that included a victory over the Oregon State Beavers. Longtime SONS professor and physical education instructor Roy McNeal assumed the hoops reins from , racking up a mark. McNeal was best known for establishing the Southern Oregon Invitational Basketball Tournament in 1928, which helped spur the establishment of basketball programs at numerous small high schools on the West Coast. Hobson, Eberhardt and the Glory Days When McNeal gave up his coaching duties to establish the school s Geology department in 1932, the philosophy of SONS basketball took a complete about-face under the direction of coaching legend Howard Hobbie Hobson, a University of Oregon graduate. Hobson was a firm believer that the only way to have a consistently good team was to recruit one. Consequently, Southern Oregon became one of the first colleges in the state to import its talent, and in the subsequent seasons, it showed. From 1932 to 35, Hobson s teams went 56-14, including three straight wins over his alma mater, Oregon, in The season was also the college s first 20-win campaign. The Ducks took notice. The following season, Hobson and most of his players relocated to Eugene, where Hobson s U of O teams went on to win several Pacific Coast Conference championships and claim the inaugural NCAA tournament in Hobson also went on to write a definitive book about the sport before the NCAA Hall of Famer finished his coaching career at Yale. After Hobson s departure, Southern Oregon tapped another U of O graduate and a successful prep guru, Jean Eberhart, to coach football and basketball and to establish a physical education program at the college in the summer of When the NAIA was formed in 1937, the innovative Eberhart was tapped as the first Northwest District Commissioner, and he was responsible for the development of the unique officiating nests placed above each basket with room enough for one game official. (A third referee was stationed on the Jean Eberhardt s innovative officiating nest. court.) The nests were used in the Southern Oregon-Western Oregon contests in Ashland in 1938 and at the NAIA regional tournament in Portland. The new officiating system proved to be successful and widely used, especially in high schools across the country, gaining Eberhart national notoriety. In fact, one of

2 his articles on the nests was published in the December 1942 Esquire magazine. Although Hobson and his predecessors planted the seed, it was during Eberhart s seven-year reign that Southern Oregon basketball became a consistent Northwest power. One of the reasons was the 1936 construction of Memorial Court in Britt Hall, which served as Southern Oregon s home basketball arena for the next 20 years. Considered one of the best gyms on the West Coast for several years, the Raiders rarely lost there. Eberhart s best season was the season during which the Red Raiders won the right to represent Oregon at the national AAU tournament in Denver. In , Eberhart s team posted an impressive 18-8 record, and in , SONS finished with a 24-3 mark, the school s winningest campaign by percentage (.889). Upon completion of his World War II Navy tour of duty in 1946, Eberhart returned to Ashland, but opted to open a sporting goods store in downtown Ashland instead of returning to the meager-salaried coaching ranks. Eberhart finished his Raider hoops career with a mark. Dave Hughes earned OCC all-star honors in and War Vets, the NAIA and the OCC Al Simpson was the school s first post-war coach and the first SONS grad to guide his alma mater. Simpson, a football and basketball standout under Eberhart, presided over two of the school s most successful seasons in Buoyed by the influx of more mature players back from the war, Simpson s Raiders went 8-0 in football, winning the Far West Conference, and went a surprising 23-3 in basketball, including a school-record 16-game winning streak that brought SONS national attention. Despite their vaunted fast break and fierce man-to-man defense, Simpson and the Raiders fell one game short of qualifying for their first NAIA national tournament. What the squad could not quite reach, the first of legendary Dr. Ted Schopf s 17 Red Raider teams accomplished in In his first year, Southern Oregon went 24-3, won its only Far West Conference hoops title and played in the NAIA Tournament in Kansas City. During his 17-year reign, Schopf and his teams compiled 241 wins, including the first two Oregon Collegiate Conference championships in and Affectionately known as Genial Ted, Schopf advocated an up-tempo style that produced several of the top scorers in school history and the school s first All-American, Keith Wade, in Schopf, who also coached the baseball team for 22 seasons, was posthumously inducted into the Diamond Jim Whitney, a NAIA Hall of Fame in member of OCC title squads Bill Holmes succeeded Schopf in in and 68-69, had a During his 10-year stint, Holmes compiled 105 wins, fourth on Southern Oregon s all-time win daughter (Nicole) and a son list. Holmes is best remembered for the amazing team that went 23-6, 10 more wins (Clason) play at SOU. than the year before, earning the team a trip to the NAIA national tournament. The Al Simpson (23-3) Ted Schopf ( ) Bill Holmes ( ) Gordy Carrigan (40-64)

3 return to glory, however, was brief, and the Raiders managed to qualify for postseason play only once more until Steve Humann (23-60) Mark Winans (14-16) Pete Barry (100-82) Tom McCracken (60-120) Ch-ch-ch-Changes From 1975 through the next 10 years, the Raiders went through six coaching changes. Those circumstances were coupled with the demise of the Oregon Collegiate Conference in 1970, forcing Southern Oregon, Western Oregon, Eastern Oregon and Oregon Tech to join the tough Evergreen Conference with the larger and better-funded Washington state colleges. The tougher schedules took their toll on the win-loss column, although SOC managed to qualify for the regional playoffs in Under the guidance of former Raider hoops star Gordon Carrigan in 1979, Southern became only the second school from Oregon to beat perennial national powerhouse Central Washington in a conference clash. The Raiders were in the process of upgrading the program for a potential run at NCAA Division II status when the program was rocked by the resignation of its popular coach, Steve Humann, during the season. Humann underwent unsuccessful emergency surgery after being diagnosed with a brain tumor and student assistant Steve York guided the team the remainder of the season. Mark Winans, hired on an interim basis for the campaign, ended three consecutive 20-loss seasons and helped the college to its first post-season berth in five years. The team was eliminated from the NAIA regionals by the College of Idaho, and the Raiders finished the campaign overall. Colorful Coaches When Winans, co-founder of Joseph Winans furniture store in Medford, turned down the permanent position, then-sosc athletics director Chuck Mills turned to Pete Barry, a successful-yet-embattled coach exiled from the University of San Francisco. Barry, who led his teams to consecutive NCAA Division I tournament appearances, was the last Dons coach before the USF program was forcibly shut down by the NCAA for rules infractions in As it turned out, nothing except success followed Barry to Ashland. The Raiders posted back-to-back 20-win seasons and made five NAIA District II playoff appearances over the next six seasons, the college s most successful era since the 1940s. Barry departed with Mills for a Coast Guard Academy coaching job in 1990, and he was replaced by longtime high school and college coach Tom McCracken. Under McCracken s reign, Southern Oregon frequently racked up scoring averages in excess of 90 points and boasted Pete Barry brought his magic touch to Southern Oregon and guided the Raiders to back-to-back 20 win seasons and five playoff appearances. three conference scoring leaders, including Ricky Acoff, the school s first NAIA National Player of the Week (1995). McCracken s fast-paced style led to numerous scoring records that allowed the Raiders to remain relatively competitive in the Cascade Conference despite glaring recruiting disadvantages and funding shortfalls. Despite the offensive fireworks, the Raiders managed just a mark

4 during his tenure, and McCracken was reassigned within the athletic department following the season. The McDermott Era Hired May 28, 1996, Brian McDermott became the 14th head coach in the program s 70-year history. Unfortunately he didn t have much time to prepare for the campaign, in which SOU finished 2-29 and winless in conference action. While the Raiders were struggling on the court that season, McDermott racked up over 25,000 miles on his car odometer assembling one of the best recruiting classes in program history. His efforts paid dividends the following two seasons. The Raiders went from 2-29 to in , an NAIA-best 13-game improvement that yielded the school s first conference playoff berth since Inspired by the preseason coaches poll that picked Southern to finish seventh in the league, the Raiders posted upsets of two top-five conference foes en route to a dream season. SOU went 22-9 overall, captured the school s first league title in 30 years and went from obscurity all the way to No. 3 in the NAIA rankings. The season s most defining moment was the Cascade Conference tournament championship at McNeal Pavilion. In front of a standing-room-only, raucous and partisan crowd of more than 1,500, the Raiders posted a over archrival Oregon Tech for the league s automatic berth to the NAIA fracas. But after earning the No. 3 seed to the 32-team national tourney, SOU s title hopes were dramatically dashed in the first round when a Bluefield, Va., guard nailed a 30-footer at the buzzer for an shocker. Known for peaking during conference play in January and February, SOU made a Cinderella run to the league tourney finals in as the No. 6 seed, and reached the semifinals in Sparked by three-time All-American forward Shea Washington, the season was the most successful campaign in school history. A win over Saint Ambrose advanced SOU to the NAIA Tournament s second round for the first time, where the Raiders downed Newman A narrow loss to Cedarville in the quarterfinals ended SOU s season. The following year the Raiders posted a 23-9 record, finishing second in the conference standings and advancing to the NAIA Tournament in back-toback years for the first time. This trip featured even greater heartbreak, as key injuries set the Raiders up for a overtime defeat against William Jewell in All-star guard Tom Chipps, the school s alltime leading scorer, started on three McDermottled playoff squads. the first round. Southern Oregon toiled through a rough stretch of losing seasons in the dominant Cascade Collegiate Conference following the season, but everything came together in the fall of 2012 to set the stage for a historic year. Honorable Mention All- American Eric Thompson returned for his sophomore season after setting the program s freshman scoring record the year before and Oregon State transfer David Sturner stepped in at center for a Raider team that set a program record with 25 wins. Thompson and sharpshooter Kyle Tedder each surpassed 500 points to give SOU a pair of 500-point scorers for the first time, and both Thompson and Sturner claimed Honorable Mention All-American honors. The Raiders advanced to the NAIA Tournament s Sweet Sixteen for only the second time after an first-round win over Madonna, but SOU s season ended in the second round with a loss to tournament host College of the Ozarks. Southern Oregon ranked 10th in the final NAIA poll, swept the three-game season series against archrival Oregon Tech for the first time since 1972 and pushed Brian McDermott 1996-present

5 Coach McDermott past Ted Schopf as SOU s all-time winningest coach.