Annie No. 1 Share Posted January 20, 2022 Article in Around the O by a former UO student about working hard and enjoying the first win as a coach. Dick Harter: Holding Bricks in the Air 1 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck No. 2 Share Posted January 20, 2022 Annie, thanks so much for finding and posting that link. If I could I'd start a Forum to discuss nothing but Dick Harter and the Kamikaze Kids! It truly was a magical time. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kamikaze Kid Moderator No. 3 Share Posted January 20, 2022 Great story. I could read about those Harter teams all day long. I loved how the Harter basketball teams nicely segued into the early Brooks football teams. The scrappy underdogs that could actually knock off the biggest of boys from time to time defined for me the essence of being a Duck fan in those days. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck No. 4 Share Posted January 20, 2022 On 1/20/2022 at 2:36 PM, The Kamikaze Kid said: The scrappy underdogs that could actually knock off the biggest of boys from time to time defined for me the essence of being a Duck fan in those days. Watching a game in The Pit is something I'll never forget, just going in the front doors is unforgettable, it always smelled of popcorn! Taking charges was not done back then, certainly not in the Pac-8. It went against everything that Wooden believed basketball should be. Bill Walton and Marques Johnson bot say later that they both loved and hated playing in The Pit. The intensity was fabulous to play in, but Wooden wanted fans to behave like they were at Wimbledon. UCLA was a big rival, but the hatred between the Beavers and Ducks basketball teams has never been matched from what it was back then. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DUCKED No. 5 Share Posted January 21, 2022 On 1/20/2022 at 2:36 PM, The Kamikaze Kid said: Great story. I could read about those Harter teams all day long. I loved how the Harter basketball teams nicely segued into the early Brooks football teams. The scrappy underdogs that could actually knock off the biggest of boys from time to time defined for me the essence of being a Duck fan in those days. Well, there is a recent book called Mad Hoops, written by former Register-Guard columnist Bud Withers, all about the Harter years and the Kamikaze Kids. It is a great read. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
McDuck No. 6 Share Posted January 21, 2022 On 1/20/2022 at 4:24 PM, DUCKED said: Well, there is a recent book called Mad Hoops, written by former Register-Guard columnist Bud Withers, all about the Harter years and the Kamikaze Kids. It is a great read. I wasn't aware of the book, thanks. Skipping Amazon I found https://madhoopsthebook.com/. The site has a section titled Floor Burns and Flashbacks written by Bud Withers, a writer I always enjoyed. Just read the entry "A warm night with the Kamakazes" and bookmarked the site so I can read the rest. A teaser is below, good stuff. In 1974, Harter took the team on a summer junket to Australia. Except in those days, such a trip could be ridiculously long and the competition would never end. Most foreign trips nowadays are of the 10-days-or-so variety, with perhaps four or five games. The Ducks, believe it or not, played 19 games on the trip, won all of them, and were gone 30 days. They stopped off in Tahiti for a game en route, and were lodged in a dowdy motel. Players complained about it, so the Ducks were moved to a military installation with concrete floors, and, says Stringer, cockroaches running a three-man weave everywhere. It became a dilemma – pull the blanket hard over your body to protect your hide, or expose yourself to the steamy tropical air. “And the coaches were in a resort!” Stringer exclaimed. That was the game when Harter, displeased at the Ducks in the first half, threatened at halftime to invoke a curfew and his relaxation on drinking alcohol on the trip. So Oregon went out and won by 40. 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmer No. 7 Share Posted January 21, 2022 I was a junior during Harter's first year at Oregon. They were pretty bad. Steve Belko left the cupboard pretty bare when he retired. Harter's first team finished in last place and only won about four games total. The next year they were much improved and it was apparent that Dick Harter could both coach and recruit. The legendary John Wooden coached at UCLA. Only the conference champion got to the NCAA tournament in those days. Ralph Miller, Bob Boyd, Marv Harshman, George Raveling and other great coaches patrolled the sidelines during his tenure. Several of his teams would have made the expanded tournament and would have probably enjoyed some success. I often wonder how his teams would have fared with the advent of the shot clock and three point shot given that style of play. He did coach some in the professional ranks so maybe he would have adapted. His teams always played great defense. Those are great memories of watching games in Mac Court. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaiTaiDuck No. 8 Share Posted January 21, 2022 On 1/20/2022 at 8:24 PM, jimmer said: I was a junior during Harter's first year at Oregon. They were pretty bad. Steve Belko left the cupboard pretty bare when he retired. Harter's first team finished in last place and only won about four games total. The next year they were much improved and it was apparent that Dick Harter could both coach and recruit. The legendary John Wooden coached at UCLA. Only the conference champion got to the NCAA tournament in those days. Ralph Miller, Bob Boyd, Marv Harshman, George Raveling and other great coaches patrolled the sidelines during his tenure. Several of his teams would have made the expanded tournament and would have probably enjoyed some success. I often wonder how his teams would have fared with the advent of the shot clock and three point shot given that style of play. He did coach some in the professional ranks so maybe he would have adapted. His teams always played great defense. Those are great memories of watching games in Mac Court. The good OL days! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nw777b No. 9 Share Posted January 21, 2022 SOURCE: Albany Democrat-Herald PAGE 15 Albany, Oregon Saturday, April 10, 1976 I believe Harter got a whopping $38,000 deal later, if I recall correctly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
