UPDATED:
Tue., Dec. 19, 2017, 6:41 p.m.
By Whitney
Ogden Spokane S-R
As soon as
Washington State’s basketball schedule was released, Danny Beard scrambled for
tickets. For the first time in seven years, his alma mater – Kansas State – was
coming back to eastern Washington.
This time,
the Wildcats would be much closer to home. They’ll travel to Spokane where
they’ll meet WSU in a nonconference game at the Spokane Arena on Wednesday
night.
Beard
purchased 10 tickets and has already put aside a game-day outfit, which
includes a purple Kansas State shirt, of course. But after living in Spokane
for 35 years, Beard has embraced the crimson red and will wear a WSU jacket
over his shirt in support of the Cougars.
He sported
the same getup the last time Kansas State stepped inside Cougar country in
2010, when the Wildcats ran away from WSU 70-56 at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman.
A few Kansas State staff members recognized Beard among the Cougars fans in the
stands that night and pulled him out of the sea of red to meet some of the new
administrators sitting behind the K-State bench.
“I had my
Cougar stuff on, and when they came I zipped my sweatshirt off and revealed my
Kansas State purple pride,” Beard said. “But as soon as I got back in the
stands, I put my Cougar stuff back on and zipped it up.”
It’s a
daring position to take for a man with deep roots at Kansas State.
Beard, who
grew up outside of St. Louis in the small town of Sparta, Illinois, was part of
an early 1970s Kansas State group of basketball recruits deemed the Fab Four,
which included Lon Kruger, the head coach at Oklahoma, Larry Williams and Gene
McVey.
The four
freshmen weren’t eligible to play varsity at Kansas State until their second
year in Manhattan. At the start of the 1971-1972 season, they walked onto the
court together and stunned the nation.
“We were the
small-town, farm-boy type, and we just came in and jelled,” Beard said.
The Fab Four
pulled the Wildcats back into the top 10 and led the program in two consecutive
appearances in the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight in 1972 and ’73.
Beard, who
averaged a career-high 11.3 points in 28 games in 1972, was named to the NCAA
Tournament All-Region team in the Midwest.
In his three
eligible years with the Wildcats, Beard never had a chance to play Washington
State, an original member of the Pac-8 at the time. The only time he traveled
to the state was to play the Washington Huskies, who beat the Wildcats in two
of three meetings with Beard.
Soon, Beard
was drawing the interest of several NBA teams. Midway through his junior year,
Beard was sought after by NBA scouts and received letters of interest by the
Chicago Bulls and Phoenix Suns.
Those dreams
of playing professionally were quickly disrupted during the summer before his
final season. Beard was diagnosed with pericarditis, an infection in the areas
around the heart that often leads to inflammation and, in Beard’s case, a heart
murmur. He was hospitalized for 16 days and forced to miss a month of practice.
The setback
led to a mediocre year for Beard in the 1973-1974 season. He averaged 9.2
points in 27 games, not good enough to get his name on the 1974 NBA Draft list.
Beard was
encouraged to attend some of the NBA’s open tryouts that summer, but he decided
against it.
“I still
have the letters,” Beard said. “I still have the envelopes that they came in,
but probably, in reality, I wasn’t good enough to play.”
Instead,
Beard went on to play for Athletes in Action, a semi-professional team that
competed against Division I college teams before the NCAA banned AIA and other
noncollegiate programs from preseason play in 2004.
After two
years on the court, Beard hung up his uniform and took an assistant coaching
job at Samford. He eventually left the Bulldogs to become an assistant coach at
Eastern Illinois.
During his
coaching days, Beard met Fred Crowell, who founded what is now known as NBC
Camps in Spokane. Crowell convinced Beard to come to the Northwest for a week
during the summers to help coach young basketball players at the camp.
For six
years, Beard planned his annual trip to Spokane to help coach. In 1982, he
decided to resign from the Eastern Illinois coaching staff and took up a
full-time position at NBC Camps, where he was named the organization’s senior
vice president.
Beard was
still one of the better players in the area during his first few years in
Spokane, until he was humbled in a game of 1-on-1 against Crowell’s son-in-law
Shann Ferch, a former collegiate player from Pepperdine.
The battle
drew a crowd of NBC Camps players after practice one day. They watched as Ferch
finally got the best of Beard.
“Shann ended
up beating me on a last-second shot. It was very, very good,” Beard said. “That
was probably the first time in a 1-on-1 game situation that I ever really
lost.”
It was also
the last time Beard attempted to take on another player alone.
That day was
imprinted in Ferch’s memory – when he downed the Kansas State great.
“It was one of those moments, kind of a like a rite of passage,” Ferch said.
Beard gave
40 years to NBC Camps before retiring in August this year. Now his focus has
shifted to part-time services at the Union Gospel Mission in Spokane while he
continues his occasional work as an ordained minister.
Beard also
serves on Hoopfest’s Board of Directors and has volunteered during Hoopfest
weekend as an elite court official and assistant marshall for 18 years. He also
volunteers in Hoopfest’s donation committee and regularly works in the IBA
program, an outreach basketball program for students in grades 6-8.
“Danny has
been just instrumental to basketball in this community, clearly,” said Matt
Santangelo, the executive director of Hoopfest. “(He’s) more kind of this
guidance counselor beyond basketball. He’s really just embraced that role.”
Living in
Spokane has made it difficult for Beard to get back to the Midwest to see his
friends from his glory days in the 1970s. He still keeps in touch with his
former teammates, especially his Fab-Four brethren. Beard was recently reunited
with Kruger when the Sooners made a trip to Portland to play alongside Gonzaga
at the PK80 Invitational in November.
Beard said
he likely won’t know anyone from Kansas State when he sees the Wildcats on
Wednesday, which makes it hard to switch colors for a day. While most would
support their alma maters, Beard will be loyal to his Cougars.
“In my
history of playing, in my commitment, in all those blood, sweat and tears,
there’s Kansas State. But in all reality, I live out here,” Beard said. “So I’m
going to be cheering for the Cougars.”
…………
(Below is
part of what Vince Grippi wrote and was posted Dec. 19, 2017, 9:06 a.m.)
Grip on
Sports: As Washington State gives Mike Leach a large raise, maybe it’s time to
re-exam our priorities
Tue., Dec.
19, 2017, 9:06 a.m.
By Vince
Grippi Spokane S-R
A GRIP ON
SPORTS • Washington State University announced yesterday Mike Leach had agreed
to a contract revision that will pay him somewhere in the neighborhood of $20
million. There are those types of neighborhoods in Pullman? Should there be?
Read on.
• It is the
last few days of 2017.
The State of
Washington is strapped for money to pay for a court-forced boost in basic
education. The colleges are trying to balance budgets that are out of whack,
without forcing their students into 30 years of debt.
And the arms
race in college football continues unabated.
Is it really
worth it?
Before we
answer that question – if we can – let’s take a trip back in time. Ten years is
all, to 2007, when Washington State parted ways with Bill Doba and hired
Eastern Washington coach Paul Wulff.
I pulled up
Wulff’s original contract today, just to see what he was paid.
The base
compensation for a year’s work? That would be $200,000. That’s right. $200,000.
Now that’s
not all the school paid him. There was another $350,000 in what was termed
“Collateral Opportunities.” The contract defined those in this phrase: “This
supplemental compensation is intended to reflect income paid by third parties
to the University for the types of collateral opportunities described” within
the contract.
In non-legal
terms, it was money from broadcast rights, apparel contracts, that sort of
thing, money those companies earmarked for the head coach but passed through
the school first. Every school did it to greater or lesser degrees – and still
does it.
So, of the
$600,000 the school paid Wulff in his first year (he received $50,000 in
deferred pay), less than half came directly from the athletic department
coffers, most of which is supposed to be accrued through donations from outside
interests.
We don’t
have a copy of Mike Leach’s contract with the university, even the one he
worked off of last season, but there is little chance 58 percent of the $3.5
million he will be paid in 2018 will be in “Collateral Opportunities.”
Much of it,
sure, but times have changed considerably in the 10 years since Wulff was
introduced.
The die-hard
Cougar fan will tell you it’s all worth it.
For them,
having suffered through nine wins in four years while Wulff had the reins, the
Leach years have been considerably more entertaining. Satisfying even. And, for
the school, more lucrative. The football program, after a considerable
investment in capital, is making more money than it would if the team was still
winning two or three games a year.
But is it
really worth it?
That’s sort
of an existential question. Is Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh worth $7 million a year?
Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez $6 million? Heck, is Nick Saban, whose Alabama team
wins almost every game it plays, worth $11 million?
If the bar
is “what will the market bear,” then yes. You want to win, you think coach X is
the guy to do it for you (and others do too), then, of course the salaries are
going to rise.
And in that
world, Mike Leach is worth the money Washington State is going to pay him.
There is
more in play here, however. Much more.
The optics
to the non-sports fan is awful. The school announces budget cuts. Positions are
eliminated. Opportunities lost. The athletic department is told to wipe out its
deficit and balance its ledgers. And then a few weeks later the football coach
receives a handsome raise.
To those
without a Cougar flag on their front stoop (and that’s a majority of people in
Washington), it just seems like a hell of a lot of money for a football coach.
(To be fair, the same can be said of UW’s Chris Petersen and his almost $5
million-a-year salary.)
It doesn’t
matter if the money comes through fund-raising – school president Kirk Schulz
announced the new deal and immediately took to social media to implore the
school’s supporters to dig deeper to help pay for this investment in future
success – it still doesn’t feel right.
And then
there is the irony of people making 1 or 2 percent of Leach’s yearly salary
being asked to contribute part of that to help keep him in Pullman.
Yes, it happens
all over, from Alabama to Minnesota, from Seattle to Miami.
But is it
right?
No, it
isn’t.
Our
priorities are out of whack. Just saying “everyone does it” and moving on
doesn’t cut it.
Look, I’m no
anti-sports, hemp-wearing dude who thinks athletics are a waste of time. Sports
have an important place in our culture and coaches are a crucial part of that.
Those who deny that are as blind as those who believe it is the be-all and
end-all.
But a
university’s top priority is to educate our youth, to prepare them for the
future, to help make our society and culture stronger. They have a mission, a
higher-calling if you will, and athletics is only a small part of that.
The
dichotomy of slicing away at one finger and putting a diamond ring on another
makes little sense.
It can be
rationalized, sure. It can be explained in terms such as “front porch of the
university” and “national exposure” and “invigorating the interest of fans.”
All of that
may be true. As may be the argument the increase in coaching salaries is market
driven. To remain in the top tier of college football, the investment has to be
made. It is the price every school, not just Washington State University, has
to pay.
One question
still remains though, as the cost goes higher and higher, with no end in sight.
Is it worth
it?
WSU: Funny
thing. The contract revision for Leach comes at a time when the school is still
searching for an athletic director who will be, in fact, Leach’s supervisor. …
Theo Lawson has all the particulars on the new deal in this story as well as
the news River Cracraft is once again a member of the Denver Broncos’ practice
squad. … The women’s basketball team rallied past Boise State on the road last
night. … The Leach news also garnered headlines from Seattle and around the
country.
…………
Two rail
advocates, one a WSU alumnus, killed in Amtrak train derailment in western
Washington
Amtrak cars
being cleared Tuesday, I-5 SB still closed
Based on
info from Associated Press and other sources, Dec 19, 2017
DuPONT,
Pierce County, Washington — Two longtime rail advocates were among the three
people killed here in Monday's Amtrak train derailment south of Seattle.
Jim Hamre
and Zack Willhoite were both members of the Rail Passenger Association and All
Aboard Washington, rail advocacy groups. Both men were passionate advocates for
improving rail passenger service in the Northwest, the RPA said.
“Both Jim and Zack have been advocates of
transit and passenger rail for decades, and we can’t thank them enough for
their work," said RPA president Jim Mathews.
Lloyd Flem,
executive director of All Aboard Washington, said Hamre retired a few years ago
as a civil engineer at the Washington Transportation Department. He says Hamre
lived with his mother in Puyallup.
Willhoite
worked for Pierce Transit as a customer service specialist. He had been with
the agency since 2008. "He has always been deeply appreciated and admired
by his colleagues, and played an important role at our agency," Pierce
Transit said in a prepared statement.
The name of
the third person killed in the crash has not been released.
Hamre started
work on the Milwaukee Road railroad in the early 1970s between studies at
Washington State University.
A member of
All Aboard Washington said Hamre and Willhoite, both members of the group,
attended All Aboard's annual membership meeting and silent auction Dec. 9,
2017, in Lacey, Wash. Apparently as an auction item, "Hamre had brought
his signature item, Cougar Gold cheese from the Washington State
Creamery," according to the Oregonian.
Hamre, apparently a Puyallup resident, apparently graduated from WSU in
1978 in civil engineering. He was was
first issued a professional engineer's license in the state of Washington in
1984.
………….
Behind the
press: Evergreen at risk from budget cuts
Cuts across
campus disproportionally impact Student Media's business model, jeopardizing
the future of the paper
By REBECCA
WHITE and MADISON JACKSON
December 18,
2017
After
generations of operating as a daily paper, the student-run, independent Daily
Evergreen could be cut to two days a week following high budget projections
that would drain our entire reserves.
Like many
other departments across campus, Student Media’s budget is tight. While the
official deficit projection is still uncertain, in an email Student Media
Director Richard Miller sent Friday evening, the working deficit is $156,000.
We have $136,000 in reserves.
Unless a new
source of revenue is found, it is impossible to maintain the Evergreen’s
current level of operation. Student Media cannot spend $156,000 and survive the
next year. Throughout the years, we have relied on advertisement revenue to
sustain what Services and Activities fees cannot.
Because our
student-run Advertising Department sells ads to WSU, the recent cuts to all
university departments disproportionately affect Student Media. The first 2.5
percent to be cut usually includes advertising and marketing. And by
duplicating services offered in the city, the university competes with local
businesses, reducing their resources to advertise as well.
We at the
Evergreen were told we would have spring 2018 to find alternative revenue
sources. We plan to propose a referendum to ASWSU for a $5 student fee, and to
explore voluntary subscriptions from faculty and staff to support the
Evergreen’s mission of informing the WSU community amongst other options.
Those plans
to find funding for the Evergreen haven’t changed, but the urgency with which
we have to execute them has grown. With fewer resources and more news than
ever, this is the worst time to cut the area’s only free, independent news
source.
While the
university’s reserves have shrunk, its public relations arm has grown
significantly. According to the University Fiscal Health website, the
communication department spent $500,000 over its budget last fiscal year.
It also
launched a new website this year, WSU Insider Beta, to write positive versions
of the news stories the Evergreen covers. One example, “Arts and music programs
continue to thrive at WSU,” highlighted all the programs the university still
has now that administrators decided to cut Performing Arts at the end of the
school year.
The primary
goal of WSU News, WSU Magazine and WSU Insider is not transparency, giving the
public the information it needs to make decisions. Instead, these “news”
sources exist to highlight the successes of the institution and downplay its
failures.
All
governments are unreliable narrators when it comes to telling their own
stories, and WSU is no exception. By reducing the most skeptical source of news
on campus, the university is one step closer to monopolizing news and replacing
it with positive PR.
That’s why
protecting print, an unchangeable record of this university’s story, is
essential. The Daily Evergreen’s website will never make as much of an impact
as its front page.
This past
semester, WSU administrators have attempted to reduce their $30 million deficit
by forcing departments to reduce spending by 2.5 percent. Over a series of
stories we reported that these cuts would entail reduced graduate student
stipends, less funding to some environmental centers and possibly increased
workloads for some faculty, not to mention the elimination of Performing Arts
and several retention counselor positions. Student Affairs has since found
funding for the counselor positions, amid outrage from students.
Besides
budget reporting, we have conducted investigations, one of which revealed that
university administrators may be letting corporate interests interfere with the
academic freedom of their own faculty, an issue brought to light after the
university’s battle with wolf researcher Robert Weilgus.
The
Evergreen is the voice and ears of students. Our reporters have been barred
from attending two Student Affairs budget meetings in their efforts to report
on deficit issues.
We have
attended forum after forum, on topics such as the new associate vice president
searches. We also publicize canceled forums, like the student conduct forum,
which has received very little public feedback or attention, despite the fact
the Student Conduct Board has been operating under emergency rules for almost a
year.
The
Evergreen follows issues students are passionate about, such as the inclusion
and safety of marginalized groups on campus, which after a year of unrest
culminated in a sit-in at the beginning of fall semester.
We felt this
story was important enough that it deserved more than a one-and-done approach,
and we published at least three follow-up stories by sending a reporter to
meetings with administrators, and asking one of the leaders of the sit-in for a
progress update at the end of the semester.
Outside of
our reporting, we increased the amount of public record requests and added a
public records page, titled Transparency, on our website to give readers access
to the same information we have, so they can evaluate the documents for
themselves.
Printing
daily isn’t only important as a legacy — it creates a physical archive that
preserves information in its original form, whatever may happen to the digital
copy.
We have
experienced the dangers of digital copies firsthand. In 2012, the Evergreen’s
servers caught fire, and all the digital records from 1997 to 2012 were lost.
The bound print edition and WSU Library scans are all that remains of those
years.
In its
123-year history, the Evergreen hasn’t always been a daily. For its first four
years it operated as a monthly, upgrading to a weekly in 1899 and then a
tri-weekly in 1923.
In 1950, it
added daily to its flag, and ran Tuesday through Friday. Back then, four days a
week was considered daily for college papers. It expanded to five days a week
in 1980. Since then, it has brought to light many historic events throughout
the history of both the Palouse and WSU.
Shawn
Vestal, a columnist at The Spokesman Review, weighed in on the Evergreen’s
situation.
If the
Evergreen doesn’t receive support now, it will not exist as we know it. Donate
here through the WSU Foundation to support us monetarily.
An emergency
Student Publication Board meeting will be held at 4:15 p.m. Jan. 10 in Murrow
123. It is open to the public, and all are welcome.
Carrying on
the daily tradition isn’t just important to this year’s crop of editors. It
matters to all the journalists who came before us, and all the journalists who
will come after us. And most importantly, it is essential for the wellbeing of
the WSU community as a whole.
Note: This
has been updated from its original version.
#
No comments:
Post a Comment