A REUNION: THE 1963 OREGON STATE MEN’S BASKETBALL FINAL FOUR TEAM

   Mel Counts' illustrious basketball resume includes an Olympic gold medal, two National Basketball Association championships, three more NBA Finals appearances and being a two-time All-American. He's in the State of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and the Oregon State University Sports Hall of Fame; a banner honoring his retired jersey number 21 hangs in the rafters of Gill Coliseum.
            So where does Oregon State's trip to the 1963 Final Four rank among those accomplishments?
            "It's right up there," Counts said during a gathering of those 1963 Beavers on January 27 in Corvallis. That team's reunion was just one highlight of a fantastic basketball weekend from January 25-28 at Gill Coliseum as the Oregon State men's and women's teams combined to go 4-0 with three of the wins coming over nationally ranked opponents; it also included OSU men's basketball alums from across several decades returned to honor longtime program secretary Anne Harper.
            The 1963 Beavers on hand for the weekend were Counts, Steve Pauly, Jim Kraus, Rex Benner, Jim Jarvis and Frank Peters; they also reunited with Jimmy Anderson, who coached them on Rook teams when they were freshmen.
            "It's just fun to get together and see some of these guys maybe you haven't seen in decades," Benner said. And the group had a chance to share memories of a very special season.

The Outlook
            In November, with the 1962-63 basketball season approaching, much of the world was still catching its breath from the events of the previous month. Late October saw the world as close as it has come to nuclear war between superpowers as the United States and the Soviet Union faced off over the USSR's placement of missiles in Cuba; U.S. President John Kennedy negotiated their removal. Further abroad, the U.S. would have approximately 11,000 military advisors in Vietnam by the end of the year and 1962 would see 53 United States military personnel killed in the country.
            That fall, Oregon State's enrollment reached five figures for the first time with 10,032 students on campus. Corvallis population was 25,573; the city was early in a 1960s population boom that saw it grow from 20,669 residents in the 1960 census to 35,056 in 1970.
            In late November, that expanding population was abuzz over an Oregon State football team that had just beaten Oregon and was headed for a Liberty Bowl date with Villanova in mid-December. Another big topic of conversation was the upcoming basketball season: the Beavers had 10 lettermen returning from the 1962 team that had reached the NCAA West Regional final.
Surmised the outlook in the OSU media guide: "Oregon State should have a good basketball team in the 1962-63 season – perhaps one of the best in the school's long and illustrious court history. But with one of the toughest schedules ever ahead, the Beavers may well have trouble equaling their 1961-62 record that brought 24 victories in 29 games."
            "I thought it was going to be a pretty good team," Benner said at the reunion. "We had some good seniors – Terry Baker and Steve Pauly. I think Mel and I were the only juniors, maybe, but we had Frank Peters and Jim Jarvis, sophomores coming up (from the Rook team; freshmen were then ineligible for college varsity teams). I think everybody was positive."
            Counts was a 7-foot center who had earned national attention the previous season, averaging a team-high 18.5 points per game and 13.8 rebounds per game as a sophomore. Pauly, who was moving to forward from guard, had averaged 11.5 points and Baker, another guard, averaged 10.7 points in the 1962 season.
            Counts' size was far from his only strength. He could not only dominate around the basket, he could score from long distance. Said Benner: "The centers at that time, they just played in the key and close to the basket. But he would get out and shoot it from a distance." Added Jarvis, "We'd set him up for what would probably now be 3-point shots in the corner. And he had a unique way of shooting – he shot with his total arm extended, he shot it like that."
In fact, after Counts' role in OSU demolishing Arizona State in the NCAA West Regional final, Corvallis Gazette-Times sports editor Jack Rickard wrote of overhearing one Sun Devils fan saying, "How can you check a 7-footer who shoots a fall-away jump shot from the outside?"
            The 1963 Beavers were largely from the state of Oregon. Counts and Gary Rossi were teammates at Marshfield High, Baker prepped at Portland's Jefferson High, Pauly at Beaverton High, Jarvis at Coquille High and then Roseburg High, Benner at Grants Pass High … eight of the 15 players on the varsity roster listed Oregon hometowns, and Peters – whose father Norm played on Oregon State's 1941 team that reached the Rose Bowl – had been born in Corvallis before moving to California.
            "For the most part it was all Oregonians, which was kind of neat," Benner said. Jarvis, whose father's high school basketball coaching career moved the family from Coquille to Roseburg, recalled splitting a season series with Marshfield during Counts' senior season: "My dad, at practice, used to stand in the key with a tennis racket like he was Mel, swatting shots. So we were all good friends, too."
            It was also a club dotted with two-sport athletes. In addition to Baker being one of the nation's top football players, Jarvis, Peters and Dave Hayward would be on that spring's Beaver baseball team that would come within one win of the College World Series, Pauly was a track and field athlete who would win the 1963 AAU decathlon national championship and Rossi was a jumper on the track and field team.
            This was toward the end of the stretch Oregon State competed as an independent; the Pacific Coast Conference had broken up in 1959 and OSU wouldn't rejoin its former conference mates in the Athletic Association of Western Universities until 1964. In between, the Beavers played in the 1962 Liberty Bowl, had the 1962 Heisman Trophy winner in Baker, went to three NCAA men's basketball tournaments and the 1963 Final Four, won a national cross country championship, had a pair of top-10 finishes at the NCAA Track & Field Championships, and a pair of trips to the NCAA baseball tournament, including that 1963 team that just missed a trip to Omaha.
            In the 1962-63 academic year alone, OSU won the Liberty Bowl in football, had Baker win the Heisman Trophy, reached the Final Four in men's basketball, placed sixth in the NCAA Track & Field Championships and was one win away from reaching the College World Series in baseball, losing to eventual national champion Southern California.
            "We just had a great year," Counts said. "As you know, you kind of go through cycles and that just happened to be a good cycle. The state of Oregon doesn't have a big population compared to California and some of the other schools but we just had a cycle of great athletes that came up, that came through and got the job done."

Oregon State vs. USC

Getting Started
            Oregon State was ranked No. 7 nationally in the Associated Press preseason poll. There was a bigger vote around that same time and the winner was Terry Baker: on November 27, three days after OSU beat Oregon 24-17, it was announced the Beaver quarterback had won the Heisman Trophy.
            The Beavers would begin their season with a trip to Seattle, debuting against Seattle University on Friday, December 7 and visiting Washington the next night. OSU would open its home schedule the next weekend with a pair of games against California. Oregon State's football success had landed the Beavers a berth in the Liberty Bowl on Saturday, December 15, meaning OSU would be playing its first four games without Baker.
            As Oregon State readied for its basketball venture north there was more news about Baker, as the Los Angeles Rams made him the first pick in the National Football League draft on December 3.
            Previewing OSU's opener, Corvallis Gazette-Times sports editor Jack Rickard wrote, "Since both clubs are playing their first game of the season tonight, the advantage there is the same. But Vince Cazzetta's Chieftains are tough to whip in the 4,000-seat Ice Arana before their highly partisan fans. Last year they handed OSU a one-point loss to break a 16-game Beaver win streak in this same pavilion."
            Seattle U. did it again, edging Oregon State 60-58 despite Counts' 31 points. The Beavers got their first win the next night, beating Washington 57-45 as Counts scored 31 points for the second straight game. The next weekend brought another split, losing to Cal 61-59 on Friday night before winning 70-60 on Saturday, December 15.
            After the second game, Golden Bears coach Rene Herrerias gave the Beavers a glowing review. "We are grateful for the split in the two-game series," Herrerias told United Press International. "Their Mel Counts is improved over last year. He is fine on the jump shots from 30 feet out … Oregon State will be up among the best when Baker gets back to direct the team. And there aren't too many men in college basketball today who can handle Counts."
            That afternoon, a continent away, Baker finished his football career in memorable fashion, running 99 yards around left end and down the sideline for the only score in OSU's 6-0 victory over Villanova in the Liberty Bowl in Philadelphia's Municipal Stadium. Baker would rejoin the Beavers the next week, just in time for their trip to the Kentucky Invitational.
            Its 2-2 start dropped Oregon State to No. 9 in the AP poll and the Beavers opener in Lexington would be against No.7 West Virginia. OSU lost 70-65 as Counts had an off night, but Gill told reporters, "He's had so many good ones for us he had one coming. It wasn't easy for him, but he kept his poise." Back in the lineup, Baker helped pick up some of the slack, contributing 15 points and seven assists. Observed Mountaineer coach George King: "I couldn't imagine Baker making the transition from football in so short a period of time. What would he have done with seen weeks' practice?"
            The next night the Beavers beat Iowa 61-55 to place third in the tournament.
            "My outstanding memory (of the 1963 season) is that we struggled in the beginning to try to find out who we were," Peters said at the reunion. "And then Terry Baker runs for 99 yards in the Liberty Bowl and now we had a point guard that could put it all together. So the thing that stands out is that we were a completely different team the second half of the season.
            "And we caught a lot of teams off-guard because they really weren't ready for us."
            Counts agreed that Baker's presence made a big difference for Oregon State, saying his return was when the Beavers really gelled: "And then the team kind of got together."

Hitting Their Stride
            The victory over Iowa was the start of a seven-game winning streak. Upon returning to Oregon the Beavers hosted the Far West Classic and took the championship by beating Idaho 80-53, California 58-50 and Iowa 64-57 in Portland's Memorial Coliseum. Counts torched the Hawkeyes for 35 points in the championship game as the Beavers remained unbeaten in FWC play since the event began in the 1956-57 season.
            "We played good defense," Pauly said of what made the Beavers successful that season. "As that season went along we played better together and beat some tough teams. We had some really good players and Mel was a big influence, of course, underneath the basket. We didn't have a particularly tall team; generally we just played well together and were good basketball players. Slats, you wanted to play well for him."
            Pauly said it was accurate to describe Gill as tough but fair.
            "If you played real hard for him and did what he said to do, how to play and that, you'd get along well with him," Pauly said. "He wanted what was best for you and for the team. When I picked Oregon State it was because I liked the Oregon State basketball tradition. I was just impressed with Oregon State in total. I enjoyed my years here playing basketball.
            "And Slats was tough, but if you could handle it, it was okay. You didn't want to take it personal."
            Added Jarvis: "I think all of us were pretty basketball smart. And Slats, he was tough – we had to do what he wanted us to do. And when we did what he wanted us to do, we'd win. It wasn't always a comfort zone for us, but making us better players and better as a team."
            A home sweep of Washington State was followed by a win and a loss at Stanford, then three more wins. The last of those victories, on February 1 at Gill Coliseum, provided a measure of payback against Seattle U. by a 66-60 score. The next two weekends were splits against in-state rivals Portland and Oregon, then OSU closed February with a home split against Southern California to leave the Beavers record at 15-7.
            In that era, there was no such thing as "Selection Sunday" after the regular season had concluded; the field for the NCAA Tournament was announced in mid-February with three weeks of games still on the schedule. OSU's record and schedule were good enough to guarantee the Beavers a place in the 25-team field.
            Its postseason place assured, Oregon State went on another roll the first two weekends of March, winning twice at Washington State and then topping Oregon 65-61 in Eugene and then 71-65 in Corvallis. That week, country music fans mourned the death of Patsy Cline, who had been killed in an airplane crash on March 5.
            The March 9 victory to close the regular season didn't come easy. Oregon State led 63-53 with 2:47 to play and Gill turned the game over to his reserves; when Oregon cut the gap to just two points, the Beavers sent the starters in to secure the win and a 19-7 regular season record.
            "The first team got me out of a bad spot tonight," Gill said. "As a matter of fact, they go the second team out of a bad spot, too."
            The victory also assured the Chancellor's Trophy would remain in Corvallis for another year; trophy annually went to the winner of the season series between the Beavers and Ducks.
            Now the Beavers had precious little time to prepare for the NCAA Tournament – it would begin just two days later, with OSU playing its third game in four nights.

Into the Tournament
            In those days when the NCAA tournament was held on a truly regional basis, Oregon State would open play on Monday, March 11, just 40 miles down the road in Eugene, taking on Seattle U. at McArthur Court; the other first round game at that site matched fourth-ranked Arizona State and Utah State.
The Beavers prevailed 70-66 with Counts scoring 30 points, 19 of those coming in the second half; Gill told reporters after the game, "I've never seen anything like it … no, I've never seen a better exhibition than his." With 14 seconds left and OSU up by two, a packed house of 10,108 fans saw Seattle's Eddie Miles miss the front end of a one-and-one to help the Beavers secure the win.
One fan of Baker's was disappointed with the result: Los Angeles Rams general manager Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch, who was on hand to sign his top draft pick should Oregon State be eliminated that night. The American Football League was still holding its own draft, creating a battle between the two warring leagues to sign college stars; even though Baker hadn't been taken in the AFL draft until the 12th round by the San Diego Chargers, Hirsch was taking no chances.
            ASU beat Utah State 79-75 in overtime, sending the Beavers and Sun Devils on to Provo, Utah for the semifinals of the NCAA West Regional against San Francisco and UCLA, respectively.
            The 1963 NCAA tournament held suspense in more ways than one: there was not only the question whether top-ranked Cincinnati could win its third straight championsip, but also whether Mississippi State would show up at all in the Mideast Regional.
The Bulldogs had won their third straight Southeast Conference championship; each of the past two seasons the school had declined the bid because a Mississippi state legislative order forbade the state's teams from competing against integrated squads. This was only two months after George Wallace became governor of Alabama and in his inaugural speech proclaimed, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!"
            This time, MSU President Dean W. Colvard and head coach Babe McCarthy defied the order. Under threat of arrest, they snuck the team out of Starkville and to Lansing, Michigan, for the Bulldogs' first-round game against Loyola of Chicago. A pregame midcourt handshake between Black Loyola captain Jerry Harkness and White Mississippi State captain Joe Dan Gold became a famous photo; Loyola won the game 61-51.
            In the same March 15 round, Oregon State took another close win, rallying to beat San Francisco 65-61; Counts and Baker provided the late spark and Kraus' defensive effort when Counts was in foul trouble was another key to the win.
Afterward, Gill did something out of the ordinary for him: he let the Beavers watch one of their future opponents, allowing them into the stands to see Arizona State play UCLA. Said Pauly: "Slats never liked us to watch other teams play because we'd get preconceived ideas of how to play them. He didn't like that … but he let us come out and watch part of that game – that never happened before."
            The Sun Devils thrashed the Bruins 93-79, scoring 62 points in the first half and their All-America center "Jumpin' Joe" Caldwell finishing with 22 points while Art Becker had 23. That pushed ASU's season record to 26-2. Recalled Pauly: "Arizona State was just running up and down the court. We did that to them the next day."
            On Saturday, March 16, the Beavers rolled to an 83-65 win and punched their ticket to the Final Four. Counts was guarding Becker and Pauly drew the defensive assignment against Caldwell. "Steve Pauly took care of their ace player," Jarvis said. "He just checked him so he held him way below his point average … Steve Pauly just got in his face and kept the ball away from him, and that was our success to winning that game."
Caldwell managed 17 points but shot just 6-for-19 from the field. At the other end, Counts scored 26 points and Pauly 21. Counts punctuated the championship with a dunk in the closing seconds to break the OSU single-season scoring record; he also had eight blocked shots and 13 rebounds.
            Afterward Gill told reporters: "Arizona State caught us at a time when we were going good." Wrote the G-T's Rickard: "That ranks as one of the great understatements of the season." Counts was named the tournament Most Valuable Player and Baker was also voted to the all-tournament team.
            Hirsch, his signing of Baker having been thwarted in Eugene, was also in Provo and again found himself unable to ink the Beaver star. He did likely score points with his prospective quarterback after the game; according to the Gazette-Times, Hirsch loaned Baker his car for a date with Laverne Lamb, an Arizona co-ed who had been queen of the Far West Classic.
            Once the celebration ended, the Beavers began preparing for an even tougher foe: No. 1-ranked Cincinnati, the two-time defending national champion.
            "The challenge is thrilling," Gill said.

The Final Four
            With the NCAA West Regional championship in Oregon State's hands, Corvallis Mayor Kenneth McGregor declared the week of March 18-23 as "Beaver Basketball Week" in the city.
After returning home from Provo, the Beavers had two days in Corvallis before leaving for the Final Four in Louisville, Kentucky. They flew out of Salem the morning of Wednesday, March 20 on a United Airlines charter; the Final Four would be played Friday, March 22 and Saturday, March 23 in Freedom Hall. The OSU band and rally squad would be on a similar flight Thursday and seats were available for fans on both planes, with a round-trip fare of $200 for the Wednesday flight and $150 for the Thursday flight. The second flight occurred the same day that Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closed, with its final 27 prisoners being transferred to other facilities.
            About 300 Oregon State fans saw the team off at the Salem airport; at a refueling stop in Denver they were greeted by Cliff Crandall – a member of the 1949 Beavers that also reached the Final Four, now living in Denver. When OSU's traveling party arrived in Louisville, it was greeted by an entirely different atmosphere than the hoopla now surrounding the Final Four.
            "Oh, boy – there's so much hype now," Benner said. "The buildup of the March Madness stuff, it goes on for weeks and weeks. We didn't have that buildup then. It was just kind of, you went to the regionals, you won the regionals, then you get to go back to Louisville. I mean, it wasn't that big a deal … I remember we got 50 bucks a ticket when we had our manager scalp our tickets. Fifty bucks back then was pretty good; now they're probably 500 or 600 or more."
            Pauly described the trip as, "We just went and stayed in our hotel and had a practice and went out to the game. I don't remember anything special."
            Peters recalled one encounter with a famous local resident. "This guy drives up in front of the hotel in a cherry red Cadillac, talking loud and fast," he told Portland Tribune sportswriter Kerry Eggers in 2016. "We thought he was funny. His name was Cassius Clay (later changed to Muhammad Ali). He lived in Louisville."
            Gill spent all his preparation on the Beavers' opening-round opponent, top-ranked Cincinnati, rather than giving time to second-night potential opponents Duke and Loyola. The Bearcats carried a 24-1 record into Louisville and many of the college basketball coaches in town for their national convention felt they would likely win a third consecutive national title.
            "Cincinnati definitely has the edge because it played here before in the tournament. It will have the psychological advantage," North Carolina coach Chuck Noe told the G-T's Rickard. Southern California coach Forrest Twogood, though, warned against dismissing OSU's chances: "This is a real good, strong, sound team."
            Gill liked his team's attitude going into the game, telling Rickard, "They've indicated to me that they're at a peak for the season. They have really demonstrated a lot of poise in the playoffs."
            From watching film of Cincinnati, Gill was impressed by the speed and quickness of its defense but noted, "I don't think our team will be overawed by their reputation … our sophomores have come on like real veterans."
            That Friday night in front of a sellout crowd of 19,153, the Beavers were within striking distance at halftime, trailing just 30-27. In the second half, though, Oregon State – playing its sixth game in 15 days and having traveled across the country – fell off the pace and lost 80-46.
            "There's nothing I have to say but express admiration for the tremendous team Cincinnati is," Gill told reporters afterward. "They did a lot of things to us no one has been able to do. We anticipated their press but they still hurt us with it.
            "Cincinnati was a good team," Benner said at the reunion. "I don't think we fared as well as we could have. Mel got in foul trouble – that hurt us … it was pretty close and then he fouled out and that hurt us a lot."
            Benner also remembered Bearcat guards Tom Thacker and Tony Yates giving the Beavers fits: "They were ballhawk kids. I mean, they came down and stole the ball about for or five times in the second half. They just played better than we did, that's all. We got beat by a better team, I think."
            Jarvis said Baker wasn't feeling well during that game and Yates took advantage of it, stealing the ball several times in succession.
            "Slats took him out and put me in there, and at the time I'm thinking, 'God, here's the Heisman Trophy winner and kind of my hero and he just got humbled in front of the world, and you want me to go in there?'" Jarvis said.
            Counts did manage 20 points before fouling out, but the Beavers' next-highest scorer was Jarvis with five.
            In the other semifinal, fourth-ranked Loyola beat second-ranked Duke 94-75, setting up a third-place game between the Beavers and Blue Devils. For the second night in a row it was a tough game for OSU as it lost 85-63.
            "We put so much into getting here, I guess we just didn't have much left for the tournament," Gill said after the game. "One thing that really affects shooting is the legs. This team is tired … we played five games in eight days the week before coming here."
            The Beavers shot just 25-for-87 from the field (28.7 percent). Counts had 25 points and 18 rebounds and Pauly 12 points and 11 rebounds for Oregon State, which was outscored by 11 points in both halves.
            Perhaps the best news of the day for OSU was the announcement that it would host the 1964 NCAA West Regional at Gill Coliseum.
            "I think it's been a great season," Gill said. "Nobody can take that Western Regional NCAA championship away from us."
            Following the third-place game, Cincinnati fell short in its bid for back-to-back national championships, losing to Loyola 60-58 in overtime. It was the first time the NCAA Tournament's title game was nationally televised, as syndicator Sports Network Incorporated sold the broadcast to 125 stations across the country; SNI had paid $150,000 for the rights for six years.
            Oregon State finished the season with a 22-9 record. Counts earned All-America honors, averaging 21.3 points and 15.6 rebounds per game while Baker averaged 13.4 points per game, Pauly 9.2 points per game, Peters 9.1 points per game and Jarvis 6.2 points per game.
            And, three days after the loss to Duke, Hirsch finally got his man - Baker signed a contract with the Los Angeles Rams.

Looking Back
            A number of the 1963 Beavers went on to more athletic prominence, including Counts' two NBA titles and Olympic gold medal and Pauly's decathlon national championship. A sampling of the team's post-collegiate accomplishments: Pauly also competed in the Cold War-era track & field dual meets between the United States and Soviet Union, Baker played three seasons in the NFL, Jarvis won an American Basketball Association championship with the Pittsburgh Pipers and played minor league baseball and Peters' baseball career took him to the Triple-A level and he later was player-manager for the notorious Portland Mavericks (cinema's "Battered Bastards of Baseball") in the 1970s.
            For Jarvis, the outstanding memory of that 1963 season was the people.
            "Just the guys I played with, and the efforts," Jarvis said. "Like Steve Pauly checking Jumpin' Joe Caldwell. It was what you saw other guys do and rise above their normal level. And Slats brought that out of you. And we were a real disciplined team, we didn't make a lot of mistakes. When opponents gave us an opportunity we took advantage of it. It was good times and we're all good friends."
            Pauly concurred.
            "I just remember it was a lot of fun," Pauly said. "It wasn't a lot of fun a year or two before when we weren't winning like that. When you win, it always takes away the tough times in any sport. I was fortunate to come to Oregon State and be in both basketball and track. We had good programs."
Recalling the Final Four experience decades later, Benner remembered the atmosphere in the arena.
            "We played in Freedom Hall in Louisville," Benner said, noting the arena's capacity was about twice the size of Gill Coliseum. "That's a lot of people … so that was the most people I'd ever played in front of, and for most of the guys the same way. Maybe the occasion was a little too big for us - I don't know."
            Still, the 1963 team got further than many might have expected at the start of the season.
            "We didn't have expectations to go to the Final Four," Peters said. "With Slats it was, 'One day at a time.' You never looked down the road, so it was 'Who do we play next?' And we played some good teams."
            Said Counts: "I don't think that it's something that we or anybody expected for us, to be in the Final Four. Even though we didn't win it, it was still a big deal because there's only four teams in the Final Four and we happened to be one of them. So it was really nice, especially representing Oregon State."

A REUNION: THE 1963 OREGON STATE MEN’S BASKETBALL FINAL FOUR TEAM

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