How quickly a half-century flies!
This writer's introduction to sports — for all intents and purposes — came in 1954 at the tender age of 12. As the years passed, we realized the significance of some of these moments, and, indeed, some haven't been equaled. 1954 was a sports year to remember.
Many of these magic moments provided the foundation for a sportswriting career that began as a junior in high school with the school newspaper and spanned 16 years with The Oregonian, as a writer and later a desk editor, before being transferred to the copy desk when The Oregonian went to a universal copy desk in April 1976.
But many of these memories remained indelible in our minds, and, collectively, made 1954 a banner year.
Probably the highlight was Roger Bannister's sub-four-minute mile (3:59.4) in crosswinds on a cool English afternoon at Oxford on May 6, 50 years ago. Bannister's record was later eclipsed by Australia's John Landy in Finland, but Bannister got the record back on a sunny Saturday afternoon in the Commonwealth Games at Empire Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia.
On a Saturday evening in March — really a Saturday night, we stayed up to watch a 10 p.m. tape delay, because that was the time it was shown, of the NCAA basketball final in which Tom Gola, later to play for the Philadelphia Warriors and New York Knicks and serve as a local public official, led La Salle past Bradley for the title. Bradley had beaten Southern California in the semifinal the night before — incidentally, the last time USC made the Final Four. The Final Four was not a high priority then for sports fans.
Baseball had some magic moments. We remember Stan Musial hitting five homers in a doubleheader on a Sunday afternoon in May, then in midsummer hitting a grand slam — inside the park. That also was the summer the New York Yankees, who had won the five previous World Series, spent the summer trying to catch the Cleveland Indians, who won a record 111 games and the American League pennant that year. The Yankees went 23-7 in July and 21-7 in August but still couldn't do the job.
Of course the Indians will be remembered for being swept in the World Series by the New York Giants. Effectively, the turning points came in the first game when National League batting champion Willie Mays made his famous running catch of Vic Wertz's 460-foot drive while running toward the center field wall, then pinch hitter Dusty Rhodes winning it with his pop fly home run into the right field seats in the 10th.
One of our favorite players was Cincinnati Reds first baseman Ted Kluszewski, who was the NL home run champion and led first basemen in fielding percentage. We thought that combination of power and defense was kind of neat. But he was big and slow, with the result that his range in the field was somewhat limited. Still, his numbers were impressive.
Courtesy of The Sporting News, which my father purchased for me for a quarter a copy at Portland Beavers baseball games, this writer was able to follow the Longhorn League's Joe Bauman's pursuit of organized baseball's home run record. The Roswell (N.M.) first baseman's record of 72 stood until 2001, when Giants outfielder Barry Bonds matched, then exceeded it.
The Pacific Coast League's Portland Beavers, who we followed with regularity, were involved in three no-hitters that season. The first was by Bubba Church of the Los Angeles Angels at Wrigley Field, and we saw the second, by the Beavers' Bob Alexander at Vaughn Street, and the third, which I also saw, was by Hollywood Stars lefty Roger Bowman the last game of the season. That was a perfect game, the only one we have ever witnessed, and relegated Portland to a cellar finish, a game behind the Sacramento Solons.
The manager, Clay Hopper, had his niche in baseball history as manager of Jackie Robinson at Montreal in 1946.
Because of no-repeat rules and bowl contracts, two unbeaten and untied teams — UCLA, which was the national co-champion with Ohio State, and Oklahoma — were unable to play in bowl games that season. That season, a different college football game was televised each week, and we were able to see the likes of Wisconsin (Alan Ameche), Ohio State (Howard "Hopalong" Cassady) and Southern California (Jon Arnett, among others).
Portland viewers also got to watch the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League regularly and marveled at the skills of quarterback Otto Graham (he took the Browns to 10 championship games in 10 years), receiver Dub Jones, running back Ray Renfro and the like. Of special interest to us were Lou "The Toe" Groza, considered one of the best placekickers of his time — and he also was an excellent offensive tackle. The punter, Horace Gillom, was and still is one of our all-time favorites, boasting a strong leg, seemingly never getting off a bad punt and had a 43.8-yard career average. The Browns that year (the last Sunday of the year, believe it or not), rolled over the Detroit Lions for the championship, then successfully defended their title the next year against the Los Angeles Rams. Those were that franchise's last titles until the Baltimore Ravens 34-7 rout of the New York Giants in 2001.
Nearly last, but certainly not least, there is a Utah angle. My grade school principal at the time, Cougar Club and Utah Sports Hall of Famer M. Dale Schofield, might be a good one. He was a hurdler for BYU in the 1930s, was Cougar track captain as a senior and was on the 1936 Berlin Olympic team in which Jesse Owens won his four gold medals. The Salt Lake native was completing his fourth year at Sabin Grade School in Portland at the time and was transferred the following year. Things this writer liked about him were his sports-mindedness and coming across as a valued friend.
This writer has only one regret about 1954 events. We started collecting baseball cards that year, and Ted Williams (the first and last in the Topps series), Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider and Ernie Banks were all in the Topps series with large press runs. We only wish we had squirreled away about a dozen of each — in mint condition, of course. Same with Mays and Mickey Mantle in the Bowman series. With Henry Aaron, it would have been more of a challenge because, as far as we know, the Topps series containing his card was never sold in bubble gum packs in the Portland area.
Tom Hatch recently retired as a Deseret Morning News copy editor.