OC Men's Basketball
History

The Washington Junior College Athletic Commission – consisting of one commissioner from each of the 13 junior colleges, who recognized that Phil Pesco had contributed materially to the quality of athletics in the conference, wished to provide an acknowledgement of their indebtedness to Mr. Pesco.

They considered designing the conference championship trophy, the Phil Pesco trophy, by they recognized that the terminology would be confusing and clumsy.

They dropped this possibility and voted unanimously to award the outstanding basketball player (to be selected by coaches and sports writers) of each state championship series an award, namely the Phil Pesco trophy.

No finer person could have received the Phil Pesco Outstanding Player Award than Terry Easter. His mid manner and exceptional playing were envied and much talked about in the recent junior college conference basketball championship.

No one deserved it more than Easter, a young man from Seattle. Phil Pesco discovered him in Seattle without any high school basketball experience. Pesco worked to develop Easter into the fine player that he is today.

Even though his team did not win the State Championship, it was certainly no fault of his. In three contests he poured in 109 points, a fantastic 36.3 per game average. He grabbed nearly 50 rebounds and shot 59 percent from the floor, meshing 36 of 61 attempts.

It isn’t often that a player of Easter’s caliber graces a basketball floor. His mild and even shy manner and likable personality make him a gentleman on and off the court.

After the long hard fought season the Olympic College Rangers and Grays Harbor Chokers wound up tied for the top spot in the Southern Division Junior College race with 10-4 conference records. This necessitated the Chokers’ invading enemy territory for the playoff game.

The local cagers could not find the basket in the early going and fell behind. They finally found the range and started on the comeback trail which culminated with Mike Pugh knotting the score 63 all with 37 seconds left and sending the game into overtime.

A blistering overtime period, with Darryl Milton scoring 10 points, led the Rangers to a 84-73 win over the collegians from Aberdeen.

The win boosted Olympic’s record to 16-8.

Olympic Rangers saw lots of action and hard hitting opponents this year in basketball. Their first seven games, most of which were not-conference, were away games. When the stout Rangers began their conference play, they looked like a real top notch ball club. Olympic held their own most of the season with the soft touch of John Henderson, Jim Hunter, and Terry Easton. They showed their strength on the boards with well earned rebounds of Jack Nighbert, Mike Pugh, and Jim Tarabochia. With agile guards of top school spirit, and a fighting second team, Olympic had all the ingredients for a winning season and thus made it one.

Olympic’s 1963 basketball campaign commenced in the opener with Yakima in the season’s first conference onset on home grounds with a 81-62 conquest.

Coach Don Cooley started the second unit in the game with Lower Columbia and won it 98-65. Olympic College went down at the hands of the Grays Harbor Chokers 78-59. Olympic’s gallant Rangers got back on the winning trail by beating the Clark College Penguins 65-60.

The Rangers fell to the Wenatchee Knights 59-45 as they were unable to connect in the second half of play. It was a gallant team effort that enabled the Rangers to make a runaway of the contest with the Highline Thunderbirds 89-59.

Olympic absorbed defeat at the hands of Skagit Valley 113-91. The Rangers managed to shake off an early game cold streak to come up with a 68-47 decision over the Everett Trojans.

The Rangers won the next three contests. Olympic College beat Lower Columbia 74-58, Grays Harbor 82-71, and Clark College 74-62.

The Rangers found the fouls too numerous and were defeated by Grays Harbor 74-70.

A fine team effort enabled the Olympic Rangers to finish in a first place tie in the southern division of the state junior college conference with a 88-73 bombing of Centralia.

Nov. 1962 -