Viking_Yearbook_67

76-81 They locked the door on PSC sports fans this year and President Branford P. Millar told a bunch to go away. I t was the year of the win, the NCAA crown, the go-go Vikings. And the untitled “new” gym was filled (unofficially) beyond the wildest dreams of the fire marshall. The PSC football team ended it’s unheralded 4-6 season with an almost upset of Idaho State in the Cranberry Bowl, the annual Thanksgiving extravaganza at Multnomah Stadi­ um. Gallant men were not enough, however, as the Bengal Tigers held the last-gasp Vikings under, and celebrated the turkey fest with a 27-7 victory. 82-85 The speed merchant basketballers played to full houses throughout the season and Millar played doorstop at the new gym’s official opening. Basketball popularity heightened as the fans were doubly treated to a winning team and a razzle dazzle style of play that accentuated point production and the sud­ den and unpredictable application of the full court press. It was a grand show. Senior Bill Wilkerson supplied the consistency backbone to the team’s fiinal 19-7 regular season record by setting a new school point mark of 657. Wilkerson finished the season in top 20 scorers among the nation’s collegiate division schools. The team ended the season by heading south to San Diego for the Far West Region IV NCAA College Division basket­ ball tournament. There they bombed out, got bombed out, laid the proverbial egg that wasn’t golden and came back looking to next year. 86-87 The wrestling team, as usual, didn’t bomb out but rewarded coach Howard Wescott with his first undefeated sea­ son. Westcott and Co. moved through the season undaunted as they toppled Pacific Eight Conference champion Oregon State, 21-11, the University of Oregon, 24-9, and the Uni­ versity of Washington 24-8, in an end of the season flurry that deflated the northwestern big time athletic mills. The Viking mat squad then paused to uproot powerful Wyoming, 17-12, and moved into the NCAA College and Uni­ versity Division wrestling championship a t Wilkes-Barre, Pa. They were ranked first in the college division when they went there, and when they got back, it was official. They were national champions. Returning 115-pound champion Rick Sanders continued his pinning ways to retain the national crown and become the outstanding wrestler of the meet. Marasu Yatabe, 145-pounder, gathered PSC’s second individual title. In the university division the Vikings placed fifth with Sanders again taking the national title. Sanders later went on solo to the Amateur Athletic Union national free-style championships, where he placed 1st in the 125.5-pound division. 92-95 Then the dance went one, flew on, moved on through the red and blue glitter of glass and color against the raucous, lonely, grouped up-freaked out notes of a horn, a guitar, strings flown out against a swirling dizzy crowd of people whirling through the circled hall and down the soaring, weaving floor. You didn’t dance this year, you went to the ballroom, you heard the sounds, the new, old big bang running sounds of a new religion taking off with fire and the roar of the lions caged up, strobing-stroking, moving-ever moving, bright and blinding light, music falling off the walls and over the terrace rail to gas fumed gatherers with beer and women. If you were old and straight or young and straight, you didn’t go near the pit of the Friday-Saturday night Park Block bluster. You walked along the sidewalk on the other side of the street and looked up to the third floor bedlam of flashing noise. If you passed among some of those who somehow be­ longed up there, you pretended not to notice them or how they dressed or what they said or who was on their arms or in their hands. You walked along and only looked and thought, and heard what it is, and wondered what it was like and you knew it never would be yours. You felt better but somehow wished that you had not passed along so soon and could retrace the steps that led downtown and only let you out when you had drunk too much, and maybe not then. You never went in, old man-young man. And the music moved on through the bones and limbs of women, girls in mini-tent-sandaled color of fabric, unlabeled clothes. And if you couldn’t hear the music when the doors were locked and the police had moved them all along, if you didn’t hear it again when you walked the halls or the park, you didn’t go back. Then the dance went on... 96-101 The Drama year began with a production of Max Frisch’s “Firebugs,” a play of protest against Fascism and con­ formity. The production which starred Arnold Hummasti and Gay Mathis was somewhat uneven but the sets were evocative. The Music Department added its forces to a production of that proverbial musical chestnut, “The Mikado.” At times the orchestra was too loud or the singers too low but the produc­ tion often sparkled as brightly as Mary Collins’ costumes. A strange new director, Leila Saad, presented Ferlinghetti’s “A Coney Island of the Mind” as a musical revue. One of the first Cabaret performances of its kind, it went through many successful performances. The year’s highlight, “Hamlet,” was probably the least in­ teresting play. An imported professional and several fine cast members could not raise the play from confusions of concept and interpretation. The play just couldn’t work. The Lunch Box Theater was sparked by Hummasti’s pro­ duction of Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano.” The production was light and subtle and played with a sense that meaning might be more important than production methods. It had all the qualities the department’s other productions lacked. 102-103 PSC’s newest addition to the concert scene was its Cabaret, a suggestion by Alan Cherney which gradually drew in the Music Committee and the Poetry Series. The late Friday night session gave a home to both concerts and the spoken word and supported many student talents. Brahms’ German Requiem was performed by the chorus and orchestra in the early part of March. The concert was sponsored jointly by the PSC Musicians’ Trust Fund. Perhaps the most ambitious work to be performed by PSC, the German Requiem was enthusiastically enjoyed by the downtown critics. But the most exciting thing in the PSC season was the advent of the new Group for Contemporary Music. The group pre­ sented some of the more modern works in the chamber reper­ toire. And the audiences were Philistine or IN as the work struck them. Always present was the Tape Recorder that was the most Avant-Garde of the performers. PSC found that there was some music you couldn’t sing, whistle or hum, hut that in some music there were new and strange noises. The group had a qualified success. 104-105 The White Gallery exhibited everything from chil­ dren’s art to a display of photographs taken by the yearbook photographers. But one of the most dramatic showings was made up of drawings and paintings by Henk Pander, who came to the United States from Holland two years ago. 74