Chet's IS an Experience!
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THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010 • DAILY COURIER, GRANTS PASS, OREGON — 3 E GP High’s 1919 grid team was legendary School proclaimed itself mythical state champs because teams were too afraid to play them By Larry Cathey of the Daily Courier he athletic landscape in the Grants Pass area has Texperienced immense change in the past 50 years. But dig back even further, and you’ll find yourself in a world of maskless football hel- mets, heavy-fabric basketball dresses, baseball gloves that resemble undersized oven mitts and “mythical” state championships. Grants Pass didn’t have much of an athletic scene dur- ing the early portion of the 20th century, but it slowly LIBRARY OF CONGRESS started to incorporate boys Grants Pass native Ken Williams was the first and girls teams, and scheduled games against other schools in Major League Baseball player to hit 30 home runs hopes of playing a contest or and steal 30 bases in the same season, accom- two each season. Members of the 1919 Grants Pass High School football team, which proclaimed plishing that feat with the 1922 St. Louis Browns. Athletic records are itself mythical state champion because it beat everybody it played — if the oppo- sketchy, but just three years nent decided to show up. Coach Niel Allen is the first person in the back row. after Grants Pass Academy GP’s Ken Williams was became Grants Pass High seven years. School in 1894, the first team In 1918 — 29 years before Baseball was GP High’s first sport major league star in ’20s in school history emerged in Mel Ingram became coach — the form of a nine-man crew the football team didn’t play at Athletics at Grants Pass High were a hit-or-miss proposition during By Lance Ogden that spent its afternoons on a all. World War I rang, and the early stages of the 20th century. Even after some teams were of the Daily Courier diamond. boys at that time couldn’t formed, they disbanded for years on end. What follows is the best For 11 years after its incep- screen their calls. But, in per- attempt to nail down a specific starting year for each sport between en Williams was one of the area’s earliest and great- tion in 1897, the baseball team haps a strange twist of fate, 1897 and 1935. est athletes. Williams, who was born in the Merlin seemed to have a stranglehold the young men returned from 1897 — Boys baseball area and attended school in Grants Pass, broke into K on officially recognized sports their respective tours of duty, 1908 — Football; boys and girls basketball the major leagues with the Cincinnati Reds in 1915. In 1918 at the school. and the 1919 football team 1910 — Tennis the left-handed swinging Williams started playing for the St. Guys like Art Benson, became the talk of Southern 1915 — Track and field Louis Browns. He only played in 67 games the following two Ernest Lister and Ray Pool Oregon. 1921 — Girls baseball seasons, but in 1920, his career caught fire. were the proverbial big men Grants Pass, coached by 1926 — Volleyball The outfielder never again played in less than 100 games on campus, because, athleti- Niel Allen in his first and only 1929 — Girls soccer until 1929, the year he retired. cally, they were the only men season at the helm, scheduled Williams arguably had one of the finest seasons in MLB on campus. games throughout the season. history in 1922 when he became the game’s first member of Until the late aughts, high The team demolished Ashland playing at the same level as the 30/30 Club after hitting 39 home runs and stealing 37 school youths didn’t have 26-0 in its opener, and followed two injured starters. bases. Williams was the only member of the 30/30 Club until many sanctioned athletic that victory with a triumph The forfeit gave Grants Grants Pass’ victo- 1956, the year Willie Mays hit 36 homers and stole 40 bases. endeavors from which to against Medford. Pass a 5-0 record as the team The same season, Williams drove in 155 runs, which led choose. That began to change A 53-7 victory against Cot- claimed the unofficial title of ries that season the American League, had a .332 batting average and a .627 in 1908, however, when the tage Grove moved Grants Southern Oregon’s best. slugging percentage. football team and the boys and Pass to 4-0, a record that also Realizing what the team included a 26-0 win He was the first player to hit home runs in six consecu- girls basketball teams were included a forfeit against Med- had accomplished led to a tive games, two homers in one inning and three home runs formed. ford in the second meeting, push for region versus region over Ashland and a in one game. Mainly the teams played and set up a Thanksgiving Day games to determine a “best in 53-7 victory over The 39 homers in ’22 also gave Williams the AL home run other classes in the same showdown against Lebanon. A state.” Because of records crown, making him the only non-New York Yankee to earn school — seniors and freshmen full-page advertisement ran in against their local opponents, Cottage Grove. that distinction between 1920 and 1931. vs. juniors and sophomores — the Daily Courier touting the Jefferson was dubbed the best “Ken Williams was a tremendous outfielder and a helluva but every once in a while, the game, which cost 50 cents to team in the Portland area, as power hitter with a great arm,” The Sporting News maga- programs scheduled an inter- attend. was the case with La Grande lis in late December. When the zine’s Paul McFarland told the Daily Courier in 1987. “There scholastic game against Med- Locals who showed, though, in the eastern part of the state. snow arrived, however, Cor- are guys in the Hall of Fame now that couldn’t carry his ford or Ashland. didn’t receive their money’s Corvallis earned the top spot vallis “disbanded” its team jockstrap.” It wasn’t until the football worth when Lebanon refused in the Willamette Valley. and a showdown never After retiring in 1929 with a .319 career batting average, team arrived, though, that to play the second half of a 0-0 Because Jefferson appar- occurred. Williams returned to the Grants Pass area and became the scheduling other schools game. ently didn’t play by certain From that point on, Grants owner of the Owl Club Tavern. He also coached a local became more of a priority. According to the Daily rules, and logistic issues for Pass considered itself the semipro baseball team and became a policeman. The GP football team still Courier’s brief account, the La Grande, the GP team mythical state champions … Williams died in 1959 at the age of 68. played only three games or Lebanon coach said his thought it had set up a winner- because, seemingly, nobody less a season through its first reserves weren’t capable of take-all game against Corval- wanted to play that team. Pacific, Redwood highways helped make local area ideal tourist spot Chet’s IS By Susan Goracke of the Daily Courier By 1935, Grants Pass was a popular tourist destination — or at least a stopover — given its an Experience! prime location at the junction of the Pacific and Redwood highways. Since the early 1900s, city fathers had been houseplants, pond supplies, organic and extolling the city’s ideal climate to anyone who synthetic fertilizers and pest controls and would listen. In 1908, members of the city’s Com- mercial Club contracted with Sunset Magazine to a fun selection of garden art. They also publish a 64-page booklet with photographs carry statuary, ceramic pottery, outdoor describing the area’s charms. furniture, birdhouses and feeders and Early travelers had arrived on the Southern pond supplies. Local organic vegetable Pacific Railroad. But with the growing popularity The Chateau was completed at the Ore- growers have selected Chet’s as their only of the automobile in the first decade of the 20th gon Caves National Monument, south of outlet. century, highways soon connected Grants Pass Cave Junction, in 1934. The Flower Shop brings an additional with the outside world. dimension to the business offering fresh In 1921, the Commercial Club changed its But it wouldn’t be until 1937 — with the com- floral arrangements, silk flowers, as well name to the Grants Pass Chamber of Commerce, pletion of the Golden Gate Bridge — that Grants as an array of gifts. and in 1923, the group joined the Redwood Pass officially would become linked to San Fran- Star Seed and Feed was located on G Street Product lines at Chet’s are always cisco via the Redwood Highway. Empire Association. from 1925 until 1976 changing, staying focused on current trends In 1928, Redwood Highway from Grants Pass In addition to visiting the caves and Crater to the California state line was completely paved Lake, which had become a national park in 1902, and new introductions leaning heavily towards Eighty-five years ago, Chet’s Garden Center the organic and nontoxic products. and in 1931, Caveman Bridge with its trio of tourists came to fish the Rogue River, lured by was a small friendly business. Today, Chet’s is graceful arches, was dedicated. It was the fourth Zane Grey’s tales. By 1935, the county had 18 Chet’s greenhouses allow them to offer plant bigger but still friendly, giving away advice and material 12 months of the year, helping and bridge to span the Rogue River in that spot.