I guess, somewhere along the line, I know or know of most of you players who will be reading this stuff. A complete history of East High Basketball will never be complete. It is continually growing. Each of us that experienced it has something to pass on to our children and grandchildren. For most of us it was a magical time.
I can remember getting to go to the first state championships in 1958. I remember, as a child sitting at the end of the bench for the Anacortes game and being sick that the season was going to end that way... with a loss. And then the first basketball miracle I can remember happened as Mahugh, Olson, Stautz, Fouch, McLean and others helped create the legend that would be East basketball and Lyle Bakken. The comeback was heroic, traditions were set and good things came from that night. A few years ago I worked for one of the players on that Anacortes team - he remembered each of the East "devils" who stole his 5th place at state. Most of all I appreciate Mike Beard. Mike did not get to play much and he got saddled with the coach's grade school kid as a roommate on the trip. They were not just great basketball players, they were great people.
The two platoon system when Dick Anderson was captain was the next magic. No matter how they were divided up in scrimmages they were always great battles in the standard mid-week college game. Never did a clear starting group that deserved the majority of playing time come forth.
John Tracy was the most gifted small athlete of the 60's. Ambidextrous and at only 6' he posted up at the foul line. I remember him shooting off balance shots just to get rid of it and running to the opposite side of the basket to rebound his deliberate miss and put it back in. Foul shots not working right, go left. And Wayne Gibson - the fireplug who was quick but not nearly big enough. He also epitomized East Basketball as he would chew off a leg before giving up.
In 1966 I got to sit on the bench as one of the most talented teams played to just two losses - both to Port Angeles who took second in the state. Cal Pharr, Eric Steinman, Larry Love, Alan Stautz, Keith Gundlefinger, Morrie Miller, Al Kravitz, Alan Albertson, Joe Mount, Al Miller and the other one of you who temporarily skips my feeble mind were as competitive as they come.
The later 60s were a bit of a blurr for me with college but teams that should have been nothing when it came to talent figured out a way to win - watching Steve Boyce shoot a fluid jump shot or Davey Pyles dribble through presses kept fans in the stands.
In the 70s with my brother playing and the legendary Rick Walker and teaching in Bremerton I came back into focus. Rick took an inexperienced team to state second as a sophmore. As a junior he lead a senior dominated team to state again for a championship and his senior year he took his own class to another state title. His supporting class each year was outstanding. Hegland (2), McKenzie, Walthall, Barnes, Langston, Campbell, Gibler, Olson, Lindberg, Hackett and Rich Arena's impossible shot that sunk Timberline and more and more players continued the legend.
So many individuals to forget because each time East put out a team. While other schools look back and remember who dominated play for each year, with the exceptions of the nationally noted Bakken and Walker, East was a team more than anything else. The notoriety of one player lasted only a few months beyond his graduation.
While I coached in Washington I dreamt about coaching against my father. To this day I think we could be in agreement - I could have possibly out-thought him but never could my kids have outplayed his. I learned from the best and from that I could create new, but that ability to get kids to play like East - that is a gift that is tough to pass down.
My father gets a lot of credit. Some may say it was practice, some may say it was games, some may say it was his luck with personnel or how his assistant coaches followed the East High Philosophy as started by the 57 and 58 teams. They all have their points but there was something else I would like to leave you with as a legacy...
Think about Sunday afternoons in the gym, think about times Les took just a few minutes to rebound for you alone, think about the hours of practice that helped mold a team, think about the times East would be up by 20 and the reserves who did not get to play much got into the game and felt they had contributed more than just practice. Think about the hours given at the gym to kids who would never make the program but were not cut out on Sunday afternoons. Make it a point to spend that type and amount of time with your kids or with your grandkids, or with someone else's grandkids. Build the respect in them you had that, no matter how tired you were, got you up and ready when you heard those immortal words, "On the line..."
Most of us did not get into too much trouble because we had a sense of belonging to that group, and we had someplace to go - give that back - and the legend of East Basketball and Les Eathorne will really mean something after that leaky, drafty building we called home is a strip mall. There is a legacy.
What I do now is insignificant in comparision to all the memories we have from that time were were an East Knight. After 30 years of teaching in Washington I now direct all adult sports activities for Parks & Recreation in Henderson , NV - second largest city in Nevada .
John Eathorne
Henderson , NV
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