Changing Team Players

Our team’s record in conference play for 1954 was a miserable five wins to seven loses.  From my point of view there seemed to be a lack of cohesion among the players.  Maybe that’s normal when almost half the team’s players are new.  Besides I sensed Red was searching for a winning combination and it kept eluding him.   Besides Minnick and Roffler who graduated, Grahman, Hancock. And Wright didn’t return.  The new members on the team were: Fletcher Frazier-freshman, Willard McGillivary-sophomore, Dan Sherwood-sophomore, Aubrey Verstegen-sophomore and Bob Berkhart-freshman.

Of all the new players I was most impressed with Frazer.  He was a black man that could jump.  Oh, how he could jump.  He had no problem dunking the ball.  I would have given anything to be able to jump that way.  Red was impressed with his jumping too.  Frazer started many games and I found myself back in the alternant center position.   I roomed with Frazer on trips and tried to find out what he did to develop his leg muscles.  All he would tell me were jokes such as he had to run away from the police a lot while growing up, or his mom made him eat a lot of Mexican jumping beans.  He was interesting to be around.  I hadn’t been with many black people and I thought of the black family that lived close by Brink’s ranch.  This reinforced my observation that all black people aren’t alike, just as all white people differ.  I enjoyed my visits with Frazer, but I felt he was keeping a great deal of information about himself private.

  
On one of our trips to the coast we stopped at Cashmere, a small orchard town nestled at the approach to Blewett Pass in the Cascade Mountains.  Our bus stopped beside “Tiny’s Fruit Stand” and a huge man put a box of apples on board, and wished us good luck with our games.  He was “Tiny” Dick Graves, a resident and business man of Cashmere.  When Tiny turned out for football at EWC the next fall he was something to be reckoned with.  His fault was his temper which caused his removal from game after game.

Tiny at 360 lbs.

Tiny lived in Sutton Hall and from time to time did some minor damage to the facilities while venting his rage.  He liked going to the malt shop down town with some of the team and ordering hamburgers.  He ate three or four at one meal.  Most of the time Tiny was usually a gentle giant.  He was having the time of his life and was a major fan of EWC athletics.                                                                          

As a business man he drove a large white car with apples and his logo painted on it.  He hired several college students to drive the highways of eastern Washington, strategically placing signs advertising his fruit stand along the way.                                                                                             

“Tiny” Dick Graves came to a sad end.  He had followed the Cashmere High School basketball team to Chelan for a game.  During the game Tiny became upset at a referee and had such a violent outburst that it triggered a heart attack.  He died instantly in the stands.  He was a popular figure in the area despite his temper and he has been missed.  When I pick up a red delicious apple from Washington State I think of Tiny.

  Earl Enos was the coolest head on the team and Ellis and Edwards contributed normal solid play.  Both Ellis and Enos would graduate in the spring.  Frazer left school and didn’t return for the 1955 season.  I didn’t hear the reason for his departure.

Fun in the Snow:  There were heavy snow storms in Cheney that winter.  The city pushed the snow to the center of the streets, leaving a one-lane road on either side.  The pile in the center was so high it hid vehicles from view of oncoming motorists.  Many drivers installed 8-10 foot whip antennas on their vehicles with a flag attached to the top.  It looked strange to see a flag moving along on the other side of the snow pile.                                      

After basketball practice Bill Ellis loaded as many guys into his old Chevy sedan as it would hold and cruised around until he found an open spot like an intersection.  Given the snow packed street and lack of traffic, he would put the car into a spin and correct into another spin.  He called this “spinning brodies”.  I guess there wasn’t too much danger from his improvised carnival ride.

*Taken from "Which Road Should I Follow?, Volume 1, Growing up in the country", an autobiography by Edwin K. Hill.