High Contrast: A Story of Basketball, Race and Politics in Oregon 1972

On March 25th, 1972, the largest crowd to ever witness a live indoor sporting event in the state of Oregon crammed into Portland’s Memorial Coliseum. The occasion? The High Contrast of the Oregon High School Boys Basketball Championship for large (AAA) high schools.But this was not just another championship. It was the first to feature the High Contrast of a team comprised entirely of African-American players – Portland’s Jefferson High Democrats – versus an “all white” collection of rural teenagers from a small, Eastern Oregon city – the Baker Bulldogs.Set amidst the backdrop of racist history plus the political tumult of 1972, this was much more than a game. It seemed to be a High Contrast battle for the soul of Oregon.High Contrast: A Story of Basketball, Race and Politics in Oregon 1972 weaves together a story of Oregon’s prep basketball heyday. High Contrast includes the likes of future UCLA All-American Richard Washington and close relations of later NBA stars Danny Ainge and Damon Stoudamire. But it centers on the guys from Baker and Jefferson, two teams from very different parts or Oregon. They featured players like Jefferson’s Carl Bird, Tony Hopson, Ray Leary, Charles Channel and future Harlem Globetrotter Ronnie Cole. Baker was built around the talents of Daryl Ross, who later played at Montana State.The 16-team single-elimination tournament, held during spring vacation in March 1972, included teams from across the state of Oregon, including the cities of Portland, Beaverton, Eugene, Medford, Klamath Falls, Estacada, Newberg, Redmond, Baker, Troutdale, Albany, Corvallis and West Linn.But 1972 was also a Presidential Election year of High Contrast. New York Rep. Shirley Chisholm and Hawaii Rep. Patsy Mink were the first-ever female Democratic candidates for President. Chisholm was Black and Mink an Asian American. Along with eventual nominee Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota, Mink campaigned in Oregon that spring ahead of the May 1972 primary and then co-authored Title IX legislation that passed Congress in 1972.In local Oregon politics, Republican Tom McCall remained the ground-breaking Governor of the state, dealing with controversial local issues such as school busing and drug decriminalization. Nationally, Wayne Morse of Eugene was running against Mark Hatfield, seeking to regain a Senate seat he lost in 1968 to upstart Robert Packwood (whose grandfather William was one of the founding fathers of Baker County in the late 19th century). There was also Oregon’s most powerful (and least known) politician - Congressman Al Ullman, who also happened to hail from Baker.These political stories pepper the pages of High Contrast, as does a comprehensive but concise history of Oregon’s complicated racist past, including Vanport, the KKK and “red-lining” and busing in Portland.Coaches like Jefferson’s Jack Bertell and Dick Beachell and their counterparts at Baker, Gary Hammond and John Heriza also feature in the story. In supporting roles were men like Benson’s Dick Gray, John Wyttenberg of Sunset High, Klamath Union’s Al Keck and Oregon’s all-time winningest high school basketball coach, Mike Doherty.The old record crowd at Memorial Coliseum was set in 1965, when the NCAA hoops final was played in Portland back before anybody called it “March Madness.” But 13,395 fans crammed the MC for the 1972 AAA Boys Basketball Championship, eclipsing the old record set for that UCLA-Michigan game by a little more than a hundred people.So the game(s) behind High Contrast were clearly a big deal, but the story behind the basketball is infinitely more interesting - and important. Only through the lens of an over-achieving and rebellious bunch of high school hoopers can we truly appreciate the courage it takes to overcome the historic legacy of bias and discrimination in America - and Oregon. Read more