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--> --> Nov. 21: Nagel legacy stretches far and wide By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings When Ashland High athletic director Jim Nagel resigned from his head football coach post Tuesday, he took with him a long, rich legacy. Long as in all the way across the ocean. Nagel finished his career at Ashland with 170 wins in 20 years, but that doesn't include five wins over Osaka, Japan in seven attempts both here and abroad. Nagel was approached with the idea for an exhibition game against a team from Osaka by Japanese football coach Akira Furakawa back in 1987, and took to it immediately. Furakawa visited Ashland with Osaka's Kwansei Gakuin University football team, which made the trip to play Southern Oregon State College (now Southern Oregon University), then coached by Chuck Mills. "Kwansei Gakuin came to Southern Oregon to play and ... the head of the Western Conference of Japanese football was with them (Furakawa), and he talked about high school football and a dream of his to have a U.S. high school team come to the mainland," Nagel recalls. "So Chuck told them about us and he came over one day during practice and we kind of talked about his vision. I talked to my coaching staff and everybody was excited about the possibilities, so I went back before he left and talked to him some more." Within a year the Grizzlies were on a plane headed toward the other end of the earth, in the process becoming the first high school team from the United States to play in Osaka - a designation that led to an ESPN story and a feature by Japan's equivalent of Sports Illustrated. The Grizzlies won the game sloppily, 13-0, but that was beside the point. "We saw several Shinto temples or shrines," Tim Brown, Nagel's longtime assistant coach, said after returning from that inaugural trip. "It was really interesting stuff. They kept us jumping - we had an hour here, an hour there, then we were right on the road to see the next sight ... They really hosted us royally." Added Nagel: "You just can't help but be impressed with the people, how generous, kind, warm-hearted the people are." The Grizzlies also visited what was billed as the world's largest statue of Buddha (a 50-foot bronze likeness), the Osaka Castle and caught a ride on the 200-mile-per-hour "Bullet Train." Nagel and company became celebrities of sorts in Osaka, and Japan later named its version of the Heisman Trophy after Mills. The event was such a success, they decided to do it again three years later, this time in Ashland. Just like that, a pattern developed in which the team that traveled invited the other team back to its place for a rematch two or three years later. No official schedule was ever devised, said Nagel, it was just assumed after each contest that another would eventually be organized. The next, and possibly last, game of the series is scheduled for 2003, in Ashland. Then again, it may not be the last. "If they come here and they invite us back, we might entertain that," Nagel said. His reputation as a pioneer already established, Nagel was also invited to coach an Oregon all-star team and take it to Australia in 1991. He agreed, and now estimates that he's made that trip eight times, sometimes with as many as four AHS players and other times with none. Nagel has taken his last all-star flight to Australia (in 2001), he said, but remains on the committee. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing