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Photo by Bob Pennell Forty years ago, Jerry Anderson and his teammates were the main attraction in front of these grandstands, now at South Medford High. Triple Crown: Medford was in a class by itself By DON HUNT of the Mail Tribune There was no question that the athletes walking the halls at Medford High during the 1959-60 school year were something special. Something very special. But not even the most knowledgable prophet could have predicted that the school would win state championships in football, basketball and baseball during the same school year. After all, the Black Tornado hadn't won a state football championship in 15 years, hadn't claimed a state basketball title in 31 years and had never won a state baseball crown. For a school to pull off such a feat takes lots of talent, a great deal of resolve and a certain amount of luck. But Medford had all of those elements working in its favor, and with a 3-1 baseball victory over Parkrose on June 4, 1960, the Black Tornado completed what became known as the triple crown of Oregon high school sports. It had never been achieved before, and it has never been duplicated in the ensuing 40 years at the Class 4A level. "Just winning the football title was a big mountain to get over," says Dick Ragsdale, the quarterback of the football team who is now a lawyer in Trenton, N.J. "That was (head football coach Fred) Spiegelberg's first title. He had come close, but he hadn't won one until then." Ragsdale, who went on to play football at Stanford, was one of seven athletes who played major roles on all three teams. The others were Jerry Anderson, fraternal twins Lowell and Cal Dean, Ken Durkee, Bob Quinney and Jim Barry. Talk about athletes. Anderson, an end in football, a forward in basketball and a pitcher-outfielder in baseball, was first-team all-state in all three sports. Lowell Dean was first-team all-state in football and baseball and an all-conference basketball player. Ragsdale was first-team all-conference in each sport, and Cal Dean received all-state mention in football and baseball. "Our backups in basketball could have finished second in the Southern Oregon Conference," says Anderson, who went on to play football and basketball at the University of Oregon. "And that's the truth. It was an amazing group of guys." And a group that hung out together off the playing field. Whether eating a hamburger, fries and Coke for 49 cents at Jack's Drive-In (located at the present site of Golden Spike Pizza), limping over to the Quinneys after a grueling summer football workout or playing penny-ante poker at the Andersons, the athletes spent as much time socializing together as sweating together. "I've got so many memories, but the greatest thing of all was the camaraderie with the guys," says Lowell Dean, who now lives in Salem. "We were all such good friends, and some of us still get together quite regularly." High school sports in those days were almost a bigger deal to the community than they were to the athletes themselves. In 1959, the population of Medford was only 24,000, about a third of what it is now, but crowds of 6,000 were common at the home football games. A crowd of 21,512 watched Medford defeat Jefferson for the 1959 state football championship at Portland's Multnomah Stadium, and a then-record crowd of 10,400 squeezed into McArthur Court in Eugene to watch Medford down Marshfield for the 1960 state basketball title. There wasn't an empty seat in the house. Six bus loads of Medford High students made the 285-mile trip to Portland for the championship football game, including the 109-member band that put on a dazzling halftime show. Medford's 1959 football team was awash in talent. About half of the starters had returned from the '58 squad that advanced to the finals before losing 21-7 to Jefferson. The big question was, could the Black Tornado beat Jefferson and the great Mel Renfro, the Democrats' quarterback and running back who would eventually make his way into the NFL Hall of Fame. Jefferson didn't have two of its best players from the year before -- future Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Terry Baker or Herb Renfro, Mel's older brother. But it still had plenty of horsepower. From the beginning of the '59 season, the teams were seemingly on a collision course. All season, Medford was ranked No. 1 in the state poll, Jefferson No. 2. The Black Tornado steamrolled over each of its regular-season opponents, scoring 50 or more points four times and allowing no more than one touchdown in all but two of its games. Anderson and Lowell Dean, nicknamed "The Gold Dust Twins" by Spiegelberg, were the top two ends in the state. Ragsdale, who often operated out of the single wing, where he took a deep snap from center, was a dangerous runner as well as passer. And the Tornado had such an abundance of skilled running backs that the leading rusher for the season -- Dan Sieg -- had less than 900 yards. In the playoffs, Medford had to sweat out a 13-6 victory over No. 3-ranked Marshfield in Coos Bay, then crushed South Salem 42-6 in the semifinals, earning the Tornado its much-anticipated matchup against Jefferson, an inner-city school in Portland. Like Medford, the Democrats came into the title game with an 11-0 season record, but they were also riding a 34-game win streak that dated back to the 1957 campaign. As is so often the case with two great teams, defense and special teams dominated the action. Medford's only touchdown during the 7-6 victory was a spectacular 77-yard, trick-play punt return by Durkee. The second-quarter score came after Durkee took a handoff from Ragsdale on a reverse. Durkee dashed to the right sideline and likely would have been stopped for a short gain, but Lowell Dean threw the biggest block in school history. Dean leveled one Jefferson player, who in turn wiped out two other Democrats. The domino-effect block left an unimpeded path to the end zone for the speedy Durkee. "My job was to peel down the field and block the first guy," Dean recalls. "On their previous punt, I let the guy go because I had a bad angle and would have clipped him. But the next time (on the touchdown), I blasted the guy. It was a great feeling." No one knew it at the time, but Skip Bennett's extra-point run over right tackle -- there were no two-point conversions in those days -- proved to be the winning point. Jefferson's only touchdown was also spectacular. The Democrats got on the board with just 4:52 remaining in the game when Renfro hooked up with Herb Washburn on a 66-yard touchdown pass. Barry, one of Medford's defensive backs, got a hand on the ball, but Washburn caught the deflected pass and went the distance. "I felt like running out of the stadium and right out of town," Barry says. "At the time, I felt about 2 inches tall." Barry's angst abated, however, when a host of Tornado players stuffed Harvey Jackson at the line of scrimmage and prevented the Jefferson running back from scoring the game-tying extra point. The final moments of the contest had fans on the edge of their seats. Following the Jefferson touchdown, Medford failed to get a first down and Lynn Knight's 37-yard punt left the ball at the Democrats' 34-yard line with three minutes to play. But the Tornado's worries were short-lived. Renfro's first pass was knocked down as Ragsdale, Durkee and Cal Dean provided coverage, and one play later Anderson made an interception. Medford then ran out the clock. Spiegelberg, whose teams had finished runner-up in 1956 and '58, finally had his first title in his eighth season as the Tornado head coach. Medford went into the 1959-60 basketball season beaming with confidence. Anderson had been an all-state player the year before, and most of the best players were back from the previous season, when Medford advanced to the consolation championship game at the state tourney. But as was the case in football, an ominous obstacle stood in the way: Marshfield and its 6-foot-10 center, Mel Counts. As fate would have it, the two teams met in a nonleague game to open the season. It wasn't really a fair fight in that Medford's football players -- who were also its best basketball players -- had had only two practices to get ready. Counts, who would go on to star at Oregon State and spend nine seasons in the NBA, ravaged the Tornado with 33 points and 15 rebounds as Marshfield registered a 66-58 victory. The trip to the Oregon Coast became doubly frustrating the following night when Medford played horribly in a 42-36 loss to North Bend. "We had no timing whatsoever," says Jerry Shults, a part-time starter on the basketball team and now an assistant coach at North Medford High. "We were completely out of sync and got it handed to us pretty good." Two weeks later, the Tornado traveled to Roseburg and suffered a 72-68 loss as Indians star Jim Jarvis erupted for 30 points. But the following week, Medford got revenge, clobbering the Indians 79-48 at Hedrick Junior High -- Medford's homecourt in those days. It would be the start of a 21-game win streak to close the season. The basketball team had all the necessary components to win a state championship: quick, ball-hawking guards in Ragsdale, Durkee and Cal Dean; a bruising big man in Lowell Dean; a scoring machine in Anderson; and fine all-around players in forwards Shults and Quinney. The Tornado also had a good coach in Frank Roelandt, who worked the players mercilessly in practice and was known to holler like a Marine drill sergeant. "Compared to the practices, the games were a picnic," says Cal Dean, who now lives in Lake Oswego. Medford went unbeaten in conference play and breezed past Jesuit (75-41) and St. Helen's (80-51) during the first two games of the state tournament. In the semifinals, the Tornado had to rally from a 32-22 halftime deficit to overhaul South Salem, 56-52, setting up a showdown with Marshfield and Counts for the state championship. As in the nonleague game 2 months earlier, the Tornado couldn't stop Counts, but something else did: fouls. To the chagrin of the Coos Bay faithful, marvelous Mel was whistled for three fouls in the first half and picked up his fourth personal early in the third period. Marshfield coach Bruce Hoffine elected to keep Counts in the game, and the decision proved disastrous. Just seconds after the Pirates had taken a 39-38 lead -- their only advantage of the night -- Anderson drove to the hoop at the other end and connected on a hook shot. Tweet! Referee Bill Gatch whistled Counts for his fifth foul, eliminating him from the rest of the game. Counts, who had 24 points and 11 rebounds in his abbreviated duty, appeared to be simply standing in place when Anderson drove into him and initiated the contact. "I went right into him hoping to draw that fifth foul, but I honestly don't think it should have been called," Anderson says. Neither did the Coos Bay fans. Boos cascaded down from the balconies of McArthur Court for a full three minutes, and coins and debris began littering the court. With Counts gone, Marshfield was mincemeat. Anderson sank the free throw and Cal Dean scored the final five points of the third period as Medford took a 46-39 lead. The Tornado went on to a 63-56 victory, securing its first state basketball crown since 1929. "Counts was far and away the best player in the state," Anderson says, "but we had the better team. And we absolutely wanted to play Marshfield to prove it." Medford had never won a state baseball title prior to 1960, but with all those same faces from football and basketball in the lineup, how could the Tornado not be confident? Anderson was the only tried-and-true pitcher, but with a vacuum-like defense and a batting lineup that would make the Yankees proud, the Tornado had reason to fear no one. The team suffered a major setback, however, when Durkee -- the starting third baseman -- got into a car wreck on April 10, 1960, and was paralyzed from the chest down. (See story on Page 1A.) The rest of the players dedicated the season to their fallen teammate, and with Lowell Dean batting a whopping .534, Anderson hitting .412 and right fielder Mike Parsons .400, Medford mowed down 23 of 25 regular-season opponents. The only blemishes were an early-season, 2-2 tie against Grants Pass (rain prevented the last couple of innings from being played, creating the deadlock) and a 3-2 loss to Klamath Union that left those two teams tied for the Southern Oregon Conference championship. Medford defeated Klamath 7-5 in a playoff game, earning the Tornado a trip to state. Medford defeated North Eugene 5-2 at Eugene's Bethel Park in the first round of the state playoffs and, with Anderson throwing a four-hit shutout, rolled to an 8-0 home victory over The Dalles in the semifinals. Now the Tornado was just one step away from that mammoth milestone -- the triple crown. Standing in its way was Parkrose, and while the Broncos didn't seem to pose nearly the threat that Jefferson and Marshfield had presented in the earlier title games, they proved to be worthy. In fact, Parkrose took a 1-0 lead in the first inning and held it until the fourth. That's when Lowell Dean, the Medford first baseman, clubbed a 350-foot home run over the wall in left field, tying the game. Two innings later, shortstop Cal Dean lashed a long triple to center and catcher Ken Jensen followed with a double against the left-field wall that proved to be the winning hit. Lowell Dean added an insurance run with an RBI single. Anderson was again the winning pitcher. He gave up six hits and had eight strikeouts with no walks. He worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning when he struck out Parkrose cleanup hitter Lawry Jacoby and No. 5 hitter Dave Chapman to retire the side. Lowell Dean remembers the big homer as if it were yesterday. "It was a 2-0 (two balls and no strikes) curveball, and I got all of it," Dean says of the pitch that was delivered by Parkrose's John Mahoney. "As soon as I hit it, I knew it was gone." Adds Quinney, who played in the outfield that day and went on to play basketball at Brigham Young University: "Lowell's home run was the greatest thrill I ever had as an athlete." That entire school year was quite a thrill -- for the athletes, who posted a cumulative record of 61-4-1 in the three sports; for the student body; and for the partisan townsfolk who had something to brag about for years. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA