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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Advertisement Email Story to a Friend April 23, 2006 "Our Valley 2006: Would You Believe" was published Sunday in the Mail Tribune. Hey, anyone seen Shibitz? Editor’s note: The Mail Tribune publishes its annual Our Valley edition today. This year’s theme is "Would You Believe?" By BUFFY POLLOCK for the Mail Tribune He was a straight-A student and football star, yet he never turned in homework or showed up to a game. Who was he? It’s a riddle that dates back more than 40 years in the halls of Medford Senior High School, and the answer is part of a plot whose conspirators remain anonymous even today. It all began in 1962 as a simple and time-honored tradition among high school students: rebellion against the administration. Advertisement Convinced that teachers and administrators were out of touch with students because of the sheer number of baby boomers flooding the school system, a handful of seniors conjured up a fictitious classmate to prove they were right. They called him Charlie Shibitz. "I can confirm I remember him and I remember knowing he wasn’t a real person," said 1963 graduate Gary Miller, now chief executive officer of ACCESS Inc. "I guess it was high school kids having a few laughs." The tradition continued in 1965, when students created a graduating senior dubbed Cosmo Yakavazi, according to alumna Sandy Darland, retired Mail Tribune advertising representative. "Every class would kind of adopt (students) that were never real people," she said. "I think they tried to screw the system � to prove you could graduate and never have gone to school." Perhaps the most mischievous student invented was Mickey Bitsko, who transferred into the school district just nine weeks before graduation in 1966. Named for a famed character from the pages of MAD Magazine, Bitsko always managed to elude teachers and administrators. One of Bitsko’s creators is a prominent local banker who even today insists his name remain anonymous. "There were a couple of them that floated through school in those days," said the 1966 graduate. "I think the guys of ’62 started it because my cousin was in that class and he told me about Charlie Shibitz. With our class, if anything ever went wrong, Mickey Bitsko got all the blame. People would say, ‘Well, where is he?’ And you’d point down the hall and say, ‘His locker’s down there.’ "Mickey took the heat for a lot of stuff," the banker said. "He was a counterculture hero � very enigmatic, but he had a pretty shallow personality." Medford School District officials were puzzled by rumors of Shibitz, Bitsko and others when questioned by the Mail Tribune. A search for Shibitz and Bitsko turned up only a few chuckles by one district secretary despite claims by a handful of graduates that Bitsko’s name was called up during graduation that year. Garner Haupert, 1963 student body president and now a doctor in Massachusetts, said Shibitz’ name was vaguely familiar. "I was actually on the football team so I would probably have known it, but I’m not positive after all these years," Haupert said. "We were pretty straight back in those days, you know. And I was the student body president so I had to behave myself. "It is a little strange. That name, in some strange way, does ring some kind of distant bell." The local banker who "hung with Bitsko a few times" said the inventors of Shibitz, Yakavazi and Bitsko proved their point. "We were out to prove how out of touch the teachers and administrators were with the students," he said. "If Mickey Bitsko was around today, and somewhere he is, he’d probably be some character off the Internet with his own MySpace account." The banker said students who created Shibitz and Bitsko are prominent citizens today. "The guys that did this are all really respected folks now and they’d be mortified if everyone found out," he said. "They were all ivy league, cream of the crop." Some, he chuckled, have even served on the board of directors for the very school district they tried to buck all those years ago. Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected]. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Discount Hotel Reservations online casinos news Ashley Furniture HomeStore Send Flowers Southern Oregon Loans California Casinos GMAT Prep Windermere Van Vleet Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Online Pharmacy Advertisement s