Document text
Lee Ragsdale, who succeeded the legendary Bill Bowerman and preceded the equally prominent Fred Spiegelberg as head football coach at Medford High School, died March 4 in a Medford retirement home. He was 91. Ragsdale coached just four seasons for the Black Tornado ' 1948 through 1951 ' before becoming an administrator for the rest of his career as an educator. Nonetheless, Ragsdale, a tall, reserved and eloquent man, left his mark on Black Tornado football. He posted a 26-9-2 record and guided Medford to the state semifinals in 1948, where it lost 13-6 to eventual champion Grants Pass. — He was a very sharp guy and he had a good football mind, said Medford resident Fritz Brewer, 73, an offensive and defensive end on Ragsdale's first team. Brewer later played at the University of Oregon. One of Ragsdale's coaching strengths was special teams. The Tornado spent a lot of practice time working on punt and kickoff returns and it paid off to the tune of nine or 10 touchdowns in 1948, Brewer said. We had two guys back there, Jack Morris and Rich Riggs, who could run the 100-yard-dash in 9.9 (seconds), Brewer said. He (Ragsdale) taught us the finer points of the picket line, and those two scatbacks did the rest. Morris ran back a kickoff 99 yards for Medford's only touchdown in its state semifinal loss to Grants Pass. Ragsdale is also credited with putting more emphasis on sports in the grade schools ' especially football ' as a way of building up the Medford program. Bowerman had started the practice in the early 1940s, Brewer said. Ragsdale, who had coaching stops in White Salmon, Wash., Camas, Wash., and Mount Angel before arriving in Medford in 1947, was named the Black Tornado head coach in 1948 when Bowerman left Medford to coach track at Oregon. One of Ragsdale's first priorities was to hire a line coach. He and assistant superintendent Elliott Beckey journeyed to Portland and hired a fiery, young World War II veteran named Fred Spiegelberg. Spiegelberg succeeded Ragsdale in 1952 and posted a 253-62-10 record over the next 30 years. Spiegelberg, who died in 1996 at the age of 76, ranks sixth on the all-time win list in Oregon high school football. Lee was a very distinguished man who always had positive things to say about people, said Scott Spiegelberg, a son of Fred Spiegelberg and a former Tornado quarterback. I know my dad loved coaching for the guy. Lee was a class act. Ragsdale's son, Dick, was a standout athlete for the Tornado. During the 1959-60 school year in which Medford won state championships in football, basketball and baseball, the younger Ragsdale starred on all three teams. He later played football at Stanford and is now a lawyer in New Jersey. During his 14-year stint as Medford High athletic director, Ragsdale helped to oversee the renovation of the Medford Stadium's (now Spiegelberg Stadium) west grandstand in 1962. Ragsdale, who was born in Baker City on Christmas Day in 1912, left Medford to serve as a department head and then dean of the School of Health and Physical Education at Portland State University until his retirement in 1979. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail