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Sometimes a sign is just a sign By Don Hunt As hundreds of fans filtered into the South Medford High gymnasium Saturday night for the championship game of the Abby's Holiday Classic, few noticed the blank spot on the wall outside the main arena. Two days earlier, someone associated with Lake Oswego allegedly removed one of the many South Medford boys basketball posters that line the upper walls of the lobby. The theme of this particular poster was, "South Will Rise Again." It was made during the 1993-94 season, one year after the Panthers suffered through a losing season in the Southern Oregon Conference. The South Medford players and coaches in the poster are dressed in confederate-like uniforms. The Lake Oswego fans, whose team featured a black player and a black assistant coach, apparently took exception to the placard and someone made off with it. It was returned the next day - a bit battered from being ripped off the wall - by two women who told South Medford coach Dennis Murphy they were from Lake Oswego and that the poster had offended their group. "I told them I was sorry but that they were reading way too much into this," Murphy said. Indeed, there was no intention to create any kind of racial discord when the poster was made eight years ago. The theme had everything to do with a basketball team on the comeback trail and really nothing to do with the Civil War, the deep South and the slavery that it represented. And yet, with the players dressed in gray, confederate-like attire, it's not difficult to see how a person of color could take umbrage to such a poster. "It is a little offensive," said Dennis Stone, the aforementioned Lake Oswego assistant coach. "It (the Civil War era) represented a time where a lot of people were oppressed because of their race. "I realize they (the South Medford people) meant no harm by it (the poster), but they should have chosen a different symbol." Stone went on to say that he was treated warmly by the South Medford coaches, players and fans during the tournament and that he thought it was wrong for the vandalism to have occurred. "If someone was upset about this then they should have brought it to an administrator's attention or written them a letter," Stone said. "What happened was theft, and that's wrong." The posters are the brainchild of Murphy, who came out with his first one during the 1987-88 season. They are intended to promote the program and, with local businesses buying ads that appear on the posters, they bring in a few bucks. These days, posters are put out by coaches and teams all over the state. "They've been an integral part of our program for 14 years," Murphy says. "We put them together on a Sunday afternoon and the kids have a lot of fun with it." Murphy admits the one in question was denounced by a South Medford teacher and an Ashland man shortly after it came out eight years ago, but that "it was meant as a publicity stunt and was nothing more than a play on words." In the ensuing eight years, as the poster held firm on the wall in the South Medford gym lobby, nothing was said about it. And don't think that people don't notice. Fans milling about in the lobby before the game and at halftime stare at them regularly. "A Redmond fan came up to me at the tournament last weekend and said they were the neatest thing he'd ever seen," Murphy says. This year's poster is expected to come out this week. It has a cowboy theme with the title "Ridin' For The Brand." Unlike a few years ago when the title was "Armed and Ready To Defend," this one has no weapons in it. "We're trying to be more sensitive to people's concerns," Murphy says. But the coach plans to reattach the controversial poster to the wall and I agree with the decision. This issue is a reminder that we all need to be cognizant of possible racial and ethnic slights. But the players in that poster are part of the basketball tradition at South Medford, and they deserve to hold their position on the wall. Scott Baker graduated from Willamette University in 1994 with a degree in business/economics and planned a career as an investment broker. But when the former Crater High and Willamette basketball standout did an internship with a firm in Salem and began working with retirement accounts, he couldn't imagine handling people's money "and not having it do well." So Baker went back to Willamette and obtained a master's degree in education, and for the last six years he has taught and coached at Reynolds High in Troutdale. Baker, 30, was in Medford last weekend when Reynolds played in the Abby's Holiday Classic. "I think I made the right decision - I love what I do," says Baker, who also coaches JV football and is an assistant coach in track for Reynolds. Baker's father, Larry, was a longtime teacher, football and track coach at Crater before retiring three years ago. Larry Baker coached the Comets to their last state playoff berth in football in 1985. "He comes to a lot of our games and we talk on the phone quite a bit," says Scott Baker, who has been the head coach at Reynolds for three years. "He taught me the value of discipline and has given me some pointers as far as what to do at the middle schools and that sort of thing." Reynolds lost all three games in the tournament to fall to 2-9, but the Raiders have only four seniors on their roster and their three best players are juniors. When Glencoe sophomore Erik Ainge swished a 3-point basket the first time he got his hands on the ball in an Abby's Holiday Classic game over the weekend, you knew he had to be related to former Boston Celtics, Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns standout Danny Ainge. And he is. Erik, a 6-foot-5 sophomore wing, is the son of Doug Ainge, Danny's older brother. Erik Ainge is also a quarterback on the Glencoe football team and was the school's starting shortstop in baseball last spring. "We don't know what his best sport is going to be," says Doug Ainge, 46, who has taught at Banks High School for the past 23 years. "He's pretty good at all three." 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 � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.