Dodging with Durham
By Paul Durham, Daily News-Register Sports Editor
Thursday, Jan. 17, 1955
“Not much has been heard around here lately about the
scourge of the Northwest Conference, Oonie Gagen. Rumor floating up and down
third street in McMinnville and over the length and breadth of the Linfield
campus is that the phantomlike Oonie dropped into town a couple of times
recently, and pulled a dirty trick on coach Roy Helser and the Wildcat
basketball club … Seems that brother Gagen put transparent lids over the
baskets in the Linfield gym and arranged some sort of device which caused the
covering rings to slid off when the other team was shooting. Particularly did
Oonie’s lids work effectively when the Linfielders shot free throws … This
seems to be the only explanation for the high percentage of missed four shorts
for the Cats since Helser has been having the boys drill from the foul line for
tours at a time. It’s possible that Oonie is sore because when he played
football for Linfield he received only honorable mention all-conference instead
of making the first 11 … One of the reasons that Gagen drops by the Linfield
campus on occasion is that he is interested in one of the college cuties, Molly
Putz. Her picture appears in today’s column so that everyone can see that Oonie
has good taste. There is a movement on by the members of the South 40 gang at
Linfield to get Oonie’s gal friend kicked out of college so Oonie won’t be
around the sneak those lids over the baskets anymore. Of course, if Oonie’s
flame did get the boot Gagen might burn down the Linfield gym some night and
everyone knows that a catastrophe that would be.”
