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Carving her own niche photo by Andrew Marriman Jaime Stanford shrugs off her famous bloodline By Don Hunt Because of them came hoops and Stanford U. James Naismith surely had no idea just how popular basketball would become when he thought up the game in December of 1891. Naismith, a physical education instructor who landed a job earlier that year at the International Young Men�s Christian Training College in Springfield, Mass., was an early advocate of the adage, "healthy body, healthy mind." PE often consisted of little more than calisthenics and repetitive drills in those days, although soccer, football and lacrosse were popular activities outdoors. But what about indoors? Naismith decided he had to come up with something to motivate and inspire his students in the gym, but he didn�t want them rough-housing on the hardwood floor. He came up with the idea of throwing a large ball into peach baskets, and told the students they had to bounce the ball up the floor and not simply run with it. He came up with 13 basic rules, posted them on the school�s bulletin board and, with the assistance of the janitor, nailed the baskets on opposite ends of the gym. A ladder had to be used each time a student successfully tossed the ball into one of the baskets. The game was an immediate hit and it wasn�t long before high schools and colleges across the country began implementing the game at their own schools. Naismith, who was born in Almonte, Ontario, Canada, later taught at the YMCA in Denver (1885-1898) and at the University of Kansas (1898-1937). Naismith died in 1939 at the age of 78. He was voted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959. Leland Stanford, meanwhile, is known for more than founding the California university that bears his name. Born in Albany, N.Y., in 1824, Stanford earned a law degree, ran a mercantile business with his five brothers in Sacramento, campaigned for Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and became the California governor one year later. Stanford was also elected to the U.S. Senate in 1885, but some would argue that his greatest accomplishment wasn�t as a businessman, politician and university founder, but as a railroad visionary. Despite opposition from certain West Coast business leaders who were turning high profits from having their goods shipped around Cape Horn, Stanford ignited an effort to complete the first transcontinental railroad. Stanford and fellow Sacramento merchants formed the Central Pacific Railroad company that laid track eastward and connected with the westward-building Union Pacific on May 10, 1869, in Promontory, Utah. Stanford founded the university that bears his name in November of 1885 as a tribute to his only child, Leland, Jr., who died of typhoid fever at age 15. Leland Stanford, Sr., died in 1893 at age 69. ASHLAND � Jaime Stanford is intent on creating her own identity, both as a person and as an athlete. That�s why she rarely offers information about her intriguing heritage. And even if she did go around bragging about the famous people she�s related to, who would believe her? Hi, I�m Jaime Stanford and my great, great, great grandfather was Leland Stanford. Yes, THAT Leland Stanford, the former California governor, senator and railroad visionary who founded the university that bears his name. The observer would look at the 19-year-old Southern Oregon University basketball standout carefully, to see if she�s joking. If she were really feeling full of herself, she might add: "You know, I�m also related to James Naismith. Yes, THAT James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, the physical education instructor who hung those peach baskets at opposite ends of a gymnasium in Springfield, Mass., in 1891 and had his pupils toss soccer balls into them for something new to do. "James is a great, great, uncle on my mother�s side, and that�s probably why I�m so awesome at hoops." No, young Stanford doesn�t go around saying stuff like that. There is a certain amount of pride to have bloodlines with such celebrities, but Stanford simply isn�t the type to trumpet her ancestry or anything else that others might find impressive about her background. "It�s just never been a big deal to me that I�m related to either one," shrugs Stanford, a starting forward on the Southern Oregon University women�s team. "It�s not that I don�t respect them or think that they did some good things; it�s just that I want to be known for who I am, not who I�m related to." And so just who is Jaime Stanford? For starters, she�s a 6-foot sophomore post from Haines, Alaska, who is as gritty and tough-minded as an old salt on the high seas. And Stanford has spent a fair share of time on a troller fishing boat in Alaska, where the labor is intense, the sleep scarce and the ocean often unkind. "It�s not a place you want to be if you�re a wimp," she says with a smile. "You�re out there for 10 days at a time working 18 to 20 hours a day. You�re gaffing fish and throwing them over your shoulder. "You get maybe 10 minutes for lunch � your whole body smelling like fish � and then it�s back to work. "Probably the worst thing is, you don�t get to shower the whole time you�re out there (the boat doesn�t have one). "But I love it out there. You bond with the people you�re working with and I�ve seen some of the best sunsets ever." Stanford is the only daughter in a family of five. She has an older brother and a younger one, and both of her parents are outdoor types who don�t believe in pampering any of their children. "I was a tomboy from the word go," Stanford says. "My dad�s a real sports guru and my brothers are total sports junkies. Most everything we�ve done has been outdoors." Stanford played almost every sport that was available in Haines, a tiny town numbering about 2,500 just north of Juneau in the southeastern part of the state. That included volleyball, basketball, swimming and track, where she was a standout hurdler, triple jumper and discus thrower in high school. She transferred to Mt. Edgecumbe High, a boarding school in Sitka, for her senior year. Road trips routinely required getting on a ferry or two � sometimes a plane � and traveling hundreds of miles. "Some of them lasted three or four days," Stanford says. "It was crazy." Stanford averaged 14 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in leading Mt. Edgecumbe to a third-place finish at the state tournament her senior year. But because she spent a lot of time playing other sports, she didn�t possess some of the fundamental skills � namely ball-handling and outside shooting � that college coaches like to see. She wound up at Southern Oregon not because she was heavily recruited, but because her best friend�s sister was attending SOU and because her father, James, thought the university and the town would be a good fit for Jaime. "I didn�t want to live in a big city and I didn�t want to go to a Division I school because I didn�t want to sit the bench," Stanford says. Raiders coach Shirley Huyett winced at some of Stanford�s fundamental shortcomings when she arrived on campus in the fall of 1999 but also noticed her mental and physical toughness. Stanford was someone you�d see not only on the high seas, or on the top of some mountain, but also on the outdoor courts playing "ratball" with guys. "She doesn�t have the basketball background a lot of girls around here have � playing at the AAU level, going to camps and all that stuff," Huyett says. "But she�s the type of kid you win with because she�s so athletic and so competitive. "Every time up the court, you can count on her to rebound and play defense." Not that Stanford can�t score. She erupted for 26 points on 12-for-14 shooting from the floor and added 12 rebounds in a 72-60 victory over Northwest College last Thursday, then came back with 16 points and seven boards in a 95-52 win over Evergreen State College two nights later. Those numbers helped Stanford gain recognition as the Cascade Conference player of the week. She�s averaging 8.7 points per game on the season and leads the Raiders in rebounding at 6.7 and in blocked shots at 1.0. Stanford would surely be further along if not for a series of setbacks. She fractured her cheekbone after slamming heads with a teammate in practice last season that sidelined her for 12 games. Then last spring she knocked out three teeth after becoming ill and fainting in her dorm. If that weren�t enough, Stanford has also suffered from tendinitis in her shoulder and has a mild case of anemia. But to Stanford, those are small obstacles in the game of life. Just a few more hurdles to leap over en route to the next challenge. One wonders if Leland Stanford and James Naismith aren�t peaking down from the heavens, proud as punch that they can claim HER as THEIR kin. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.