Jack Laird Combined
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p.1 Jack Laird combined Bob. Murphy: [0:01] Hello again everybody, Bob Murphy. Today we're going to talk a little bit about basketball. We're going to go back as far as we possibly can with Jack Laird, our old buddy. We have spent so much time and so many years together. Jack: [0:13] , we've never had the opportunity to put all this stuff on a record like this. But, we talk about the history of Stanford sports, basketball has always been a part of that history, and we're going to talk about it here today. Tell the folks a little bit about where you came from and how you entered Stanford and what it's all about. Jack: [0:31] Laird: Well, I came from Portland Oregon. I was just a very actually kind of a modest or mediocre player in high school, but I stayed out of school one year to get some money to go to college. During that time, I played with the Multnomah Club, which is sort of like the Olympic Club in San Francisco. [0:52] I didn't play for their team, but I'd work out with them, play around. I also played for a church team, and I played for Portland Gas and Coal Company, an industrial dig. I was playing for a couple of teams at a time also. [1:06] So anyway, bottom line is Howard Hobson who was then the coach at the University of Oregon came up one day, and he was very interested in my coming to Oregon. But at about that time, my parents who were not at all wealthy as far as Stanford goes. In fact, my dad was out of a job and it was during the Depression, which is why I was working a year to get money to go to school. [1:30] Actually, in retrospect, I might've played a lot more if I'd taken Hobson's offer to come to Oregon, than I did at Stanford. But at the time, it impressed me. I thought, "Well, gee, if a great coach like Hobson could think I was pretty good, I'll wow them down at Stanford," which didn't exactly turn out that way. Anyway that was sort of the beginning, and so I went to Stanford. Murphy: [1:51] Jack, I would guess that now that's about an hour and 15 minute plane ride from Portland, but that isn't the way you traveled. I'm sure you were on the train, and you went by Mount Shasta and all the big mountains on the way to Stanford. Laird: [2:03] Yep. Murphy: [laughs] [2:04] Laird: [2:05] I rode a train. I think it was about 15 hours that it took, or something like that, to go from Portland down to, well San Francisco and then to Palo Alto. Murphy: [2:14] You entered Stanford in '36? Is that about right? p.2 Laird: [2:17] Yeah, in the fall of '36. That's right. Murphy: [2:20] And of course, the Depression, of course, in the '30s an interesting lifestyle then. Stanford was well established. A lot of Stanford still looks now the way it did then, but there's been much added to it since then. You've seen it all. Laird: [2:35] Yeah, a lot of it looks the same. But it's just expanded tremendously. What was the main campus, I guess, they might have called it the core campus then, now it's just expanded, as you know, I guess for miles outside. Murphy: [2:52] But the beauty of it is the Quad is still the same, and of course, Hoover Tower has been added since then. Laird: [2:57] Yeah, the Quad was the same. In fact one of my jobs, I went down, and obviously did not get any scholarships at Stanford, but I did get a lot of jobs. I helped work on, I guess it was a Federal deal or something, they were building Frost Amphitheater, and I worked on that as a freshman, and I had a lot of other jobs down there. [3:17] You're right, the Quad itself is probably the same. It's all the other buildings outside that building. Murphy: [3:24] Now, what was the tuition then? Do you recall? Like $100 a quarter? Laird: [3:29] You're awful close. It was $115 a quarter. Murphy: [3:32] Yeah. Laird: [3:33] $345 for the year. Murphy: [laughs] [3:34] A lot of people could afford to send their kids to school now at that. Couldn't they? Laird: [3:40] Yeah. Well, of course, everything is relative. But still in those days, that was kind of expensive compared to, say, the University of Oregon or I guess Cal or some of those. I think, I'm not sure, the 15 of the $115 was sort of like a student body fee that was supposed to go for things like, I don't know maybe sports, maybe the band, maybe things like they have for student stuff. Murphy: [4:05] Now, you moved in to Encina Hall, I would expect. Laird: [4:08] That's right. Yeah. Murphy: [4:10] Encina Hall then looked just as it does today, although it doesn't function as... Even in my day, back in the '50s, 550 guys from all over the country and parts of the world that you've never heard of all were living under one roof. It was pretty much the same then. That didn't change for a long time. Laird: [4:27] Yeah, the exterior of Encina is almost the same as it was then. But, of course, now it has offices and that thing. I had two roommates. One was from Compton, California, and the other was from Modesto, I believe. p.3 Murphy: [4:40] Well, and right across the street was the old pavilion. Laird: [4:44] That's right. Murphy: [4:45] The old pavilion was built back in the '20s. Ernie Nevers, Nip McHose, and all kinds of great athletes played there before you. Tell the folks a little bit about that because there already was a great tradition in Stanford basketball. Laird: [4:56] Yeah, they've had some great teams, and to be honest with you, if somebody said, you know, how we did through the '20s or '30s, I guess I wouldn't know. I was a big basketball fan. Growing up in Portland, my favorite teams were Oregon and Oregon State. Murphy: [5:09] Sure. Laird: [5:10] I could tell you the starting lineup of the Oregon team that I would have been on, that they talked about. So I didn't know too much about the early stuff, the history, at Stanford. I do know, just to correct something, it wasn't called the old pavilion in those days. Murphy: [5:28] Yeah. Laird: [5:28] It was The Pavilion. Murphy: [5:29] "The Pavilion." Laird: [5:30] And I think the capacity was around 2,500. Murphy: [5:33] 2,700. Laird: [5:34] 2,700, OK. Murphy: [5:35] 2,700 and I don't think it ever changed. In fact, I don't think the old pavilion ever changed until Maples opened, and that was some time back in the '60s. Maples is about 30 years old now, and of course, it's being redone as we speak. Now it is really going to be something when it's reopened, Jack. It's going to be fun to see. Laird: [5:56] Oh, yeah. No, there was no room to expand the seating in the old pavilion. I mean it was there, and that's it. Murphy: [6:02] All right. Now we're going to spend a few minutes talking about a guy by the name of Hank Luisetti. I knew Hank. In later life, he was in the travel business, and I led some tours over to the islands and worked with Hank and visited with Hank. He was just a wonderful guy. [6:19] But before we get in to all this basketball, he had a little case against Stanford, something about Al Masters, and he just had a little antipathy about Stanford that I tried to heal a little bit, but I didn't have much success. Do you know anything about that? Laird: [6:33] Well, I know what caused it. Hank had appendicitis in 1938 - actually it was probably in '37 in the fall when he got it - and he had to have an appendectomy and p.4 so forth. He figured that the school, the athletic department, or somebody, should pay for it, and no one paid for it. I don't know the legal ramifications of it, but that made Hank kind of bitter. [6:59] I think as years went on, he still maintained that bitterness that he had to pay for that. That's really all I know. That's what it was about, and that's what generally solidified his, maybe, lack of fondness for Stanford. Murphy: [7:15] Yeah, he had a little grudge against the old athletic director, Al Masters. Who knows what an appendectomy cost then. If the tuition was $100, an appendectomy was probably not that much. [laughs] Laird: [7:25] You're probably right, you're probably right, but again everything was legal. In fact, as I mentioned before I had jobs.