On paying a mint to attend a Super Bowl, Chip Kelly, Beaver women’s hoops, ‘Pioneers of the Pacific’ and the loss of some important sports people …

Super Bowl LVIII was spendy. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

Covering some ground on the sports front after a Super Bowl weekend …

• I covered four Super Bowls during my career working for Portland newspapers. One of them was in 2000 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. (It was one of the great games in Super Bowl history, ending when Tennessee receiver Kevin Dyson was tackled inches from the goal line as time expired in St. Louis’ 23-16 victory).

I flew my oldest son down for the game. I believe I paid $325 for the game ticket and thought that was high. It was a decent seat — not a nose bleeder — but not in prime viewing territory.

This year, the average ticket at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas cost a record $8,427. I would rather buy a 2019 Nissan Sentra, or take my wife on a deluxe cruise of the Caribbean, or pay for a portion of a kitchen remodel, or take my family for a three-day weekend at the Ritz-Carlton Maui Kapalua.

But some people cherish the opportunity to see the Super Bowl at nearly any cost — or have so much discretionary income that it doesn’t matter. I’m happy being in front of the TV at home, close to the refrigerator and the bathroom. Adult beverages are cheaper, too.

• Chip Kelly’s move to Ohio State as offensive coordinator for the Buckeyes is puzzling to some. Why would a head coach in a Power 5 program (UCLA) who wasn’t fired take an assistant’s job elsewhere?

Having followed Kelly since his days at Oregon and through NFL head coaching jobs in Philadelphia and San Francisco, I am going to take an educated guess.

The Chipster didn’t like the way things were going in Westwood, where some administrators and boosters tried to get him fired not long ago and the athletic department is cash-strapped. He has had a hard time recruiting there, has lost some coaches — including defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn to USC and quarterbacks coach Ryan Gunderson to Oregon State — and also a number of players through the portal, including QB Dante Moore to Oregon. The Bruins have always had trouble developing interest in football, with the Rose Bowl more than an hour drive away from campus and half-empty stadiums the norm for home games.

Chip seems fed up with dealing with NIL and transfer portal issues; he’ll leave that to new Buckeye head coach Ryan Day, who quarterbacked for Kelly when he was offensive coordinator at New Hampshire in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. And by the way, Ohio State’s NIL support is said to be pretty spectacular, which regrettably now matters a lot in college football.

And I think Chip, now 60 and plenty wealthy, just wants to coach ball, not be bogged down with the extraneous BS a head coach is loaded down with these days.

The timing of Kelly’s decision, though, is merciless on UCLA, coming just after the second phase of letter-of-intent signing. The Bruins, who almost immediately hired former UCLA running back Deshaun Foster as their new head coach, still have to deal with a new 30-day period for Bruins players and signees in the portal.

And by the way: Wouldn’t it have behooved Jonathan Smith to not pull the trigger at the first Power 5 job offer that came down the pike? Had he waited a month or two to jump ship at OSU, he might have gotten hired by Washington, where he served as offensive coordinator. Or UCLA, back on his home turf.

• Voters in the Associated Press women’s college basketball poll aren’t paying attention.

Colorado dropped from fourth to eighth place this week after losing to Oregon State for the second time this season. The Buffaloes are 20-4. The Beavers, 20-3, climbed from 17th to 11th in the poll. That’s a nice jump, but shouldn’t they be ranked higher than a team they have beaten twice?

Colorado remains higher than OSU in NET ranking, No. 15 to No. 17, based largely on strength of competition. Utah, incidentally, is sixth despite the fact that Oregon State has trounced the Utes twice.

To be fair, the Beavers played their entire non-conference schedule at home other than the Maui Invitational. It’s probably better, anyway, to lay low in the rankings. They will get their chance to prove their mettle in the final Pac-12 Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. That’s what counts.

Good news: Ron Callan’s radio broadcast of the OSU women’s games against UCLA Friday and Southern Cal Sunday at Gill Coliseum will be carried by KEX radio (1190 AM).

The new sports documentary “Pioneers of the Pacific” chronicles baseball’s history since it was first played in the region in 1866

• I recently watched a private screening of the director’s cut of Kirk Findlay’s documentary “Pioneers of the Pacific,” a history of baseball on the West Coast. Findlay is a Vancouver native and Columbia River High grad who worked for years in various roles with Portland TV stations. He says it is his fifth full-length documentary, including one titled “Farewell, Portland Beavers” for KOIN in 1993.

Findlay is writer, producer, director and narrator of this film he says he has been working on for five years.

It displays an excellent collection of photos, film and newspaper clips, newsreels and cigarette cards of baseball in the region from as far back as 1866. Findlay includes information about baseball in California and Washington, but focuses on Oregon and, in particular, the Triple-A Beavers and players who wore their uniform.

That list includes old-time future major league greats such as Mickey Cochrane, Harry Heilman, Joe Tinker, Roger Peckinpaugh and Ken Williams. You may never have heard of Williams, a Grants Pass native who played with the Beavers in 1917. He went on to a 14-year major league career as an outfielder that included one of the greatest offensive seasons ever with the St. Louis Browns in 1922, hitting .332 with 39 homers, 155 RBIs, 128 runs scored and 37 stolen bases. Williams became the first 30/30 player in MLB history.

Others featured in the film who played for the Beavers: Jim Thorpe, who hit .307 in 35 games at age 37 in 1922, and Satchel Paige, who pitched five games at age 54 in 1961, sporting a 2.88 ERA in 25 innings.

The great Jim Thorpe played 35 games for the Portland Beavers in 1922

Also displayed are Beaver greats from the 1960s, including Sam McDowell, Luis Tiant, Lou Piniella and Tommy John, who is shown in an interview with his left arm in a full cast after elbow reconstruction by Dr. Frank Jobe in 1974. John went on to win 164 more games in a 26-year career that ended at age 46, benefitting from what would be the first example of Tommy John surgery.

There is film of Babe Ruth’s barnstorming tour that stopped in Portland in 1924 and excerpts from his home run exhibition at Vaughn Street Park. And of Pete Rose complimenting the large crowd at Civic Stadium during an exhibition game between the Beavers and their parent Philadelphia Phillies. And of outfielder Rodney McCray’s infamous run through the right-field fence chasing a home run at Civic in 1991. Interviews with famous Beavers Ad Liska, Eddie Basinski and Artie Wilson. Reflections from media types such as George Pasero, Dwight Jaynes and Bob Blackburn, the latter telling a great story about broadcast partner Rollie Truitt setting fire to his shoe during a re-creation of a Beavers game. And plenty of the Portland Mavericks of the 1970s, with Frank Peters, Bing and Kurt Russell, Jim Bouton and Rob “Big League Chew” Nelson.

Along the way, Findlay provides a chronological history lesson of Portland through the years, including footage of the great floods of 1892 and 1948, the 1905 World’s Fair, the first Rose Festival and a visit by Elvis to Multnomah Stadium.

I enjoyed the film, which runs an hour and 55 minutes. Findlay knows it is too long and will pare the final product by as much as a half hour. I would recommend most of the trimming be done to its California and national portion, focusing on the Northwest and specifically on Portland.

Findlay and partner/executive producer Lucy Ramsdell are seeking a distributor such as Netflix or Amazon as well as financial support to cover expenses and compensation for time with what has obviously been a project of the heart. There is plenty of good stuff that the area’s baseball fans would enjoy. Those with interest in supporting the endeavor can contact him here.

Former Beaver basketball player Rob Holbrook is remembered as a “great teammate” (courtesy OSU sports communications)

• The death of Rob Holbrook from the great “Orange Express” Oregon State basketball teams of the early 1980s hit his teammates hard.

Holbrook, 63, succumbed to a heart attack on Jan. 15 at his home in Beaver Creek. He had recently retired from his position as a cottage manager with the Oregon Youth Authority in Woodburn. Holbrook, a sweet-shooting 6-8 forward, is the first player to pass from the 1980-81 OSU team that spent much of the season ranked No. 1 nationally while starting 26-0.

"It was a shock,” says Rob’s father, Bob Holbrook, who says he spoke with his son every day on the phone. “He wasn’t sick. He was overweight, but he didn’t drink other than beer and didn’t take drugs.”

Bob Holbrook reminded me of a story that involves me. After Rob had graduated from Parkrose High in 1979, he had yet to decide on where he would play college ball. As a junior at Parkrose, Holbrook had teamed with Ray Blume to lead the Broncos to the state 3A championship. Blume was now a freshman at OSU.

Holbrook was invited by then OSU assistant coach Jimmy Anderson to play in a couple of pickup games in Corvallis that summer. Anderson and head coach Ralph Miller liked Holbrook but weren’t prepared to offer him a scholarship.

Says Bob Holbrook: “Ralph told Rob, ‘We’d like to have you, if you’re willing to walk on. Why don’t you get your favorite newspaper reporter to write a story about you?’ That’s when we contacted you.’ ”

I don’t recall that. I do remember covering the state tournaments in 1978 and ’79 for the Oregon Journal and being impressed by Holbrook’s talents, and in particular his shooting ability. That summer, I wrote a story about Holbrook and his intention to walk on at Oregon State.

“That article was one of the things that Rob kept until the day he died,” Bob tells me.

Holbrook played well enough in the two summer State-Metro all-star games that the Beavers decided to give him a scholarship. He played sparingly as a freshman but started as a sophomore on the front line alongside Steve Johnson. Holbrook then filled the sixth-man role as a junior and senior, a player who could handle all three front-line positions coming off the bench. He shot .575 from the field and .885 from the free-throw line during his college career.

Holbrook played two years professionally in France and, as a fireballing right-hander, pitched three seasons of minor league baseball before arm trouble curtailed his career. Holbrook never married or had children. His first love was being a sports fan.

“He was kind of a hermit doing that,” his father says. “He was 100 percent into watching sports. He had three TVs at his home and watched games in a variety of sports.”

That’s the way Holbrook was most of his life.

“We hung out quite a bit in college, and he would just as soon sit down and watch ESPN as do anything,” says Charlie Sitton, who played two years at OSU with Holbrook.

“Rob was a sports fanatic, a sports nut,” says Jeff Stoutt, who served three years as a teammate of Holbrook’s with the Beavers. “He wasn’t a gym rat like a Mark Radford. He would go to practice, work hard, have a blast and then go home to watch sports on TV. He knew everything about every team in every sport.”

Holbrook was a popular and valuable member of his Oregon State teams.

“Rob was a great teammate,” Radford says. “He fit our system well. He was a stretch 3/4 who had a post game but also was the classic set shooter we needed to keep defenses honest when they double-teamed Steve down low. Ralph loved that about him. He would have been even more valuable if we had the 3-point line in those days.”

“Rob never had a bad day of practice,” says Sitton, who roomed with Holbrook on the road for two years. “He loved playing basketball. He was always positive, but he was also very competitive. He wanted to be a starter. One time as a practice ended, he went up to Ralph, took his jersey off, rung out sweat and said, ‘Coach, look how hard I’m working. I need more playing time.’ Ralph just laughed.”

“Everything was fun with Robby,” Stoutt says. “He was a kid in a man’s body. He had so much fun every day at practice. He loved being a Beaver. He was perfect for us, playing the high post. If you doubled down on Steve, which you had to do, he’d sink that little set shot. He was very easy to play with because he didn’t make many mistakes. He stayed in his lane and took care of business.”

Before every practice, Holbrook would take the floor and chuck a near-full-court shot.

“The odds of him making it were a million to one,” Stoutt says. “But every once in a while he would flush that thing, and he would run around the court celebrating. Ralph would be there, shaking his head.”

Blume was his closest friend on the team.

“We played Babe Ruth baseball together when I was 14,” Blume says. “His dad was one of the reasons I wound up at Oregon State. He took Rob and me to a game in Corvallis my senior year (at Parkrose) and we watched Lonnie Shelton play. The place was packed and roaring. I thought, ‘This is pretty cool.’

“Rob loved life and his sports. He was happy being on the basketball court, golfing, watching sports. He had that deadly set shot, and he knew the game of basketball.”

Rob played in my summer golf tournament several times over the years. He was an easy-going, gentle giant of a man. I enjoyed his company.

“We’ll miss him,” Blume says. “He was a great part of our team. Everybody loved him.”

• The high school boys basketball coaching community lost a pair of stalwarts recently.

Ken Harris, who had outstanding runs at Churchill and Sunset, died from complications with dementia on Jan. 12. He was 85. Harris’ career record of 618-336 from 1964-2003 places him No. 7 on the all-time win list for coaches of larger schools.

“What a nice person and classy guy,” says Nick Robertson, who ranks second on that list with a 699-310 mark from 1965-2005. “Our teams probably played 45 times over the years. He won a lot of games, but I was impressed with his demeanor when he didn’t. We’d go into a meeting the next day after his team had lost in double overtime the night before and he was still Ken Harris, smiling and talking and visiting. Ken was able to move on more quickly than a lot of guys.

“He was an innovative coach. He would defend you different than anybody else did. He gave you fits. And he was a high-character person. If a kid skipped class and the rule was you missed the game, you missed the game. He didn’t have to go talk to the administration about it. He knew what he was doing. I really admired the guy.”

Long-time prep coach Tom Rohlffs hired Harris to help him run the “Ten Star Hoop Camp” one summer.

“We ran it for five years together,” Rohlffs says. “Ken was as organized an individual as I ever worked with. He was meticulous at detail. Working with him was going to be successful, whatever the endeavor. And he was very tough to coach against.”

Shawn Alderman, who coached at Tigard for 25 years, died on Jan. 31. He was 52. Alderman’s career record was 317-247; he won a state 4A title in 2002, beating Jesuit 69-59 in overtime.

“That’s one I’m having trouble with,” says Robertson. Alderman played for Nick at Beaverton High, then went on to play baseball and basketball at Lewis & Clark.

“Shawn was like a son,” Robertson says. “He coached a lot like I did. We talked about coaching and compared notes all the time. Just the saddest thing.”

The Canby community lost a great friend and civic leader with the death of Frank Cutsforth

• I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the death of a friend and city of Canby legend Frank Cutsforth, the patriarch of Cutsforth’s Market who died on Nov. 2 at age 80. I was among the 700 or 800 who attended Frank’s celebration of life on February 3.

A civic and community leader, Cutsforth’s true love (besides family) was sports. He supported many youth and high school teams in the Canby area for many years. The outpouring of love for him during his wake was great to see.

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