Churchill 9/4/26

We decided to take undertake a significantly shorter expedition this week and drove through the unseasonably wet countryside to the city of Eugene.  In 1950 the city had two high schools and a population of 35,000.  Over the next 15 years that population almost doubled and North Eugene and Sheldon high schools had opened their doors.  That still wasn’t enough to accommodate all of the students, so in 1966 Winston Churchill High School opened in the southwest corner of town, named for the former British Prime Minister who had died the previous year. 

My first thought was how odd it was for the school to be named for a British politician. Then I remembered that Gladstone is also named for a Brit.  Burns was named for a Scottish poet, and David Douglas for a Scottish botanist. The  C.S. Lewis Academy was named after the English scholar and author, and though he eventually became an American citizen, for most of his life Dr. John McLoughlin was a Canadian and he’s got a school, too, so I guess Churchill wasn’t such a strange choice after all.  It wouldn’t surprise me if the honor was rescinded one of these days, though, given his complicated legacy.  He was born in a palace and took on the staunch imperialism and antiquated conservative attitudes toward minorities that most of his peers held.  It’s hard to imagine him turning out otherwise, but those attitudes have gone out of fashion and have been reason enough to change the names of other schools.  Was his wartime leadership valuable enough that his shortcomings should be overlooked?  I don’t feel strongly enough to advocate one way or the other, but so far at least, the answer seems to be yes.

So, we took the Randy Pape Beltline as far south as we could, and when it came to an end at 11^th street we got on that and went east for a mile or so.  After turning south onto Bailey Hill Road we saw the school sitting in the middle of a nice suburban residential area and, conveniently, a pub right across the street that looked perfect for our pre-game refreshments.

Gryff’s Pub is large and might be the least Duck-y establishment in the whole city, which was a welcome sight.  There was no escaping the fact that you were in Duckville, but they keep it to an unobnoxious level.  The food’s good, the price was right, and I even had a Hop Valley IPA in honor of us being in Eugene, and it wasn’t half-bad, I must say.  We sat nibbling our food and sipping our drinks while watching the Williams sisters on the big screen playing doubles at the U.S. Open.  How is that even possible?  I don’t think they’re that much younger than me, and they can still do that?  I’d like to know their secret.  Another beer please! 

Back across the street, we drove through the maze that is the Churchill High School road system.  My instincts proved correct when I took the right turn toward the south side of the school and we wound our way behind the school.  There’s nothing fancy about it, and maybe being the third high school added to the district inside a decade, the powers that be just wanted some functional buildings that could handle over a thousand students.  It’s a look that’s never in style, but it also never goes out of style, so it was a good decision in the long run.  We could have gone to another large lot on the north side, we discovered later, but the walk to the field would have been longer.  It wasn’t really raining, but the drizzle was constant and the shorter the distance between us and a dry covered grandstand, the better.

Except there wasn’t a dry covered grandstand.  Just a cold, wet, aluminum structure that was definitely not built in 1966 but is apparently the standard these days.  We did notice a few losers with umbrellas, but we would think of stooping to that level. As it was, we paid our $7 each and tried to keep our paper rosters dry as we made our way through the sprinkles to a couple of spots in the clearly-designated Lancer section of Halvorsen Field, named for a math teacher and football coach who won 176 games and part of a state championship during his 28-year career.  As a Lancer for the night, I felt I should be asking the people around me if any of them had any boils, but Mrs. Ednold would have been embarrassed, so I didn't offer my services. The band and students had their place, the visitors had theirs at the far end since there were no bleachers for them on the other side of the field, and we had ours right in the middle of them all.  The worn rubber running track separated us from the artificial turf field, and the concessions and restrooms were in a tidy building south of the stands.

One of those students at Churchill back in 1966 was Margaret Johnson.  As a sophomore that year, Johnson won state championships in both the 100 yard dash and the 220 yard dash, setting state records in each.  By her junior season she was married and Margaret Johnson Bailes again won the two sprints at the state meet.  Then she tied the world record in the 100 meters, won the 200 meters at the Olympic trials and finished second in the 100 meters to Wyomia Tyus. Before the Olympics in Mexico City she caught pneumonia and wasn’t able to medal in either event, but ran the second leg on the 4x100 team that won gold in world record time.  

Johnson Bailes second from right.

Not long after she returned home she discovered she was pregnant, moved to California with her husband, and never ran another race in her life.  She was 17.  Her state records lasted over 50 years, and may never have been broken if she’d have run again her senior year.  She’s in the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and the High School Track and Field Hall of Fame and she’s got an Olympic gold medal, which isn’t a bad list of accomplishments for someone who retired after their junior year of high school.  And to think, if she’d have come along just five years earlier there wouldn’t even have been any girls track and field in Oregon for her to compete in.

Jordan Kent was another track phenom at Churchill, class of ’02.  He broke Mel Renfro’s long jump record on his way to winning 11 individual and team state championships in track and basketball, and then became the U of O’s first three-sport letterman in 60 years when he started playing football his junior year.  Then he was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks and spent a few years in the NFL with the Seahawks and Rams. 

David Vobora was two years behind Kent at Churchill and played his college football at Idaho.  He was the very last player selected in the 2008 NFL draft, but managed to hang around with the Rams and Seahawks for a few years as a linebacker, and Beaver star Tim Euhus was also a Lancer before playing tight end in the NFL for a few years.

None of those people played for a state champion Lancers football team, but Churchill did tie Medford to share the title back in 1977, and they’ve also come out on the losing end of three other championship games.  On either side of the weinerpus season they went six years without a winning record, but in 2024 they were ironically resurrected by a coach named Layne Coffin.  They went 9-2 that season and last year were a state semi-finalist.  They compete in 5A Special District 5 of the 5A classifiction and started the season with a non-league loss last week at Canby, while this week’s opponent Liberty of Hillsboro will be playing their first game of the season. 

I had promised Mrs. Ednold that the weather would improve once the game started, so as the two teams lined up for the opening kickoff the light sprinkles turned to a steady shower.  By the end of the first quarter the rainclouds had passed, but we spent the rest of the evening soaked to the skin.  The players didn’t let a little rain stop them, but it did seem to slow them down a bit.  Both sides moved the ball well on the ground back and forth, but it wasn’t until the first quarter was almost over that the Lancers were finally able to cross the goal line.  That back and forth theme continued in the second quarter, and the Liberty Falcons took a 7-6 into halftime. 

Though it wasn’t raining any more, it was still gloomy and we were still wet, and even a nice, short halftime dance routine from the Lancer cheerleaders did little to enliven the large crowd, except for the students, who were hyped up at the first home game of the season and were ready to cheer for just about anything.  The cheerleaders had a vocal group in front of them throughout the game, and the team was not going to lose due to a lack of yelling and jumping around.  The Lancer band has their own section in the grandstands but, I assume since school doesn’t start until next Tuesday, they were not in attendance for this game, and they were missed. The cold popcorn and hot coffee from the Snack Shack did not disappoint, however. 

The teams came out and traded touchdowns in the third quarter, setting up an exciting end to the game, but a Lancer fumble during a promising drive with about four minutes left proved to be the final nail in their coach (Coach Coffin!) as the Falcons ran out the clock to wrap it up.  Both teams had scored two touchdowns, but the Falcons had scored on both of their conversions to win by 3 points: 12-15.   As entertaining as it had been for us spectators, it was a tough way for the Lancers to lose a game between two very evenly matched teams, but there were enough positives in their play, especially on the defensive side, that I wouldn't rule out a playoff run for them in a few months.

Say what you will about The Bucket, but it does have both a functioning heater and (usually) CD player, and they were both put to good use on the ride home. The former did the job of taking off the chill from our still-soaked clothes, while the latter showered us with the cool-poppy 80s sounds of Joe Jackson. Warm, and cool: That was the Ednolds on the way home. And always, some would say.