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Black pioneer was more than an athlete By Paul Fattig Mike Doherty never had the pleasure of getting to know Claude Hines. Yet he knows Hines like a brother. He can tell you about his humanitarian efforts, about his leadership, about the positive legacy he left behind. "All of the men who knew Claude ... will tell you he was the primary influence in their lives," Doherty said. "Everyone who knew him speaks to his influence on them, not just on athletics, but to their behavior and sportsmanship," he added. "That says a lot about Claude Hines." Indeed, it speaks volumes about the man who died at age 76 in 1985 in his native Baker City. We last visited Hines in this column five years ago, when Black History Month was being celebrated at what is now Southern Oregon University. At the time, Medford resident Tommie Smith, who had led a successful effort in 1992 to have Hines named to the school�s Sports Hall of Fame, spoke of his altruism and his athleticism. Black History Month is again being celebrated at the school Hines attended from 1928 through 1932. And Hines is once again up for well-deserved honors. Doherty, 64, a teacher and the boys� basketball coach at Oregon City High School, recommended Hines be named to the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame. The selection committee in Portland is expected to make its decision before the month is out. Like Smith, Doherty is focusing on more than athletic prowess. Consider his Jan. 8 letter to the selection committee: "His athletic success came at a time when Oregon was not receptive to black students and black athletes," Doherty wrote. "The Ku Klux Klan was still active and only menial jobs were available to blacks." Hines arrived in Southern Oregon just six years after the infamous photograph you see in local history books was taken of the KKK marching in downtown Ashland during the 1922 Independence Day parade. Ignorance and intolerance proudly reared their hooded heads in those dark days. Yet there were also those who fought for acceptance and understanding. In a 1996 interview, Carrol Howe of Klamath Falls, a retired school superintendent and former state legislator who has since passed away, recalled his former college teammate with fondness. The two corresponded over the years. The football team named Hines the honorary captain at the end of the 1930 season, Howe recalled. "When we traveled on the road, (Coach Roy) McNeal would tell the hotel people we had a black player," Howe said. "If the hotel showed any reluctance, we wouldn�t stay." Hines was the first prominent black athlete in Oregon at both the high school and college levels as well as the first black student at SOU, Doherty says. Hines was a great athlete who lettered in football, basketball, baseball and track at the college. He had also excelled in high school sports back in Baker City. But he was also a great human being, stressed Doherty, who also hails from Baker City. "I knew about Claude when I was growing up," he said. "He was tremendously well-liked by the community." For the past couple of years, Doherty researched Hines� life. He talked to old teammates as well as those who saw him as a mentor. After college, Hines had returned to Baker City where he became recreation supervisor at the YMCA. It was there that he influenced people like Tom Holman, who went on to star on Oregon State University�s 1949 championship basketball team. "We learned so much from Claude," Holman told Doherty. "He taught us the basic fundamentals, sportsmanship, how to win, how to lose, respect for each other." When World War II broke out, Hines volunteered for the Army in 1942. He was assigned to an all-black unit, serving in New Guinea and the Philippines. Following the war, he retired to Baker City where he worked in a sawmill. He also coached a women�s softball team and hunted and fished throughout much of Eastern Oregon. "Claude survived and succeeded because of his character, his talent and his tolerance," Doherty wrote to the selection committee. "He was an outstanding athlete and an outstanding native Oregonian." You can reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.