Document text
33 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, February 12, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend January 23, 2004 Where are they now? Jeff Hardrath Medford High School, 1964 By DON HUNT Mail Tribune When Jeff Hardrath came home from track practice on a spring day in 1964, there was a shiny, new Cadillac parked in his driveway. Inside, a dapper, distinguished man with black glasses sat talking with Hardrath’s parents. Advertisement It was Tommy Prothro, the head football coach at Oregon State University who had driven to Medford to recruit Hardrath, one of the top linemen to ever put on a uniform for the Medford High Black Tornado. "I was leaning toward the University of Oregon, but Tommy put the hard sell on me," says Hardrath, now 58 and living in Everett, Wash. "The state track meet was the following weekend in Corvallis and Tommy had me stay the whole weekend." That did it. Hardrath would become a Beaver. Had he not suffered a serious knee injury in a spring practice scrimmage in 1966 that effectively ended his career, Hardrath likely would have made his way to the NFL. He was that good. While at Medford High, Hardrath, who stood 6-foot-2 and weighed 224 pounds as a senior, earned first-team, all-state honors as an offensive tackle. The Tornado went 11-0 and won the state championship his junior year, then went 7-2 the following season. As talented as Hardrath was in football, he was even more dominant in wrestling. He posted a 31-0 record his senior year — with 26 falls — and breezed to a state title in the heavyweight division. Hardrath added a state AAU wrestling title a few weeks later and then entered the West Region Olympic tryouts in Corvallis. Wrestling against mostly collegians, he advanced to the finals in the 213.5-pound weight division before dropping a 1-0 decision to Jerry Conine, who would go on to represent the United States at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. "There were a lot of coaches who felt my athletic future might best be served on the wrestling mat," Hardrath says. "I was offered full rides by the University of Washington and Oklahoma to wrestle and play football, but my heart was in football." Hardrath bulked up to 245 pounds at Oregon State and moved into the Beavers’ starting lineup in the third game of the 1965 season under new head coach Dee Andros. He was named the team’s top rookie that season and seemed destined for bigger and better things when he tore ligaments in his right knee during a scrimmage the following spring. "Our quarterback had thrown an interception and I was running down the sideline to make a tackle," Hardrath says. "Skip Vanderbundt (who would later play in the NFL) hit me from the side. It wasn’t a cheap shot. It just happened." Hardrath underwent reconstructive surgery and played five games for OSU the following season, but then suffered torn cartilage in the same knee and had to call it quits. Hardrath’s dreams of an NFL career were over, but he graduated from OSU in 1968 with a business degree and eventually found his way back to Medford, where he lived from 1979 to 1996 while working for a beverage distributing company. He would probably still be here if he hadn’t come down with a potentially fatal lung disease called interstitial pulmonary fibrosis in the winter of 1987. The disease, for which there is now known cause and no cure, robs the lungs of their ability to absorb oxygen. Medication helped Hardrath slow the ailment for about 10 years, but by 1997 he was confined to a wheelchair and tethered to an oxygen bottle. He and his wife, Natasha, moved to the Seattle area in 1998 so he could he be close to the University of Washington Medical Center and its state-of-the-art equipment. On June 15, 1999, Hardrath received a lung transplant. "Thanks to the parents of a 16-year-old Montana boy, I got a second chance," Hardrath says. "My doctor told us the donor lung was found in the nick of time." Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times