Oral History Program Val Weathers Interviewed by Jamie J. Weeks 26 June 2014 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Val Weathers Interviewed by Jamie J. Weeks 26 June 2014 Copyright © 2014 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description The Weber State College Oral History Program was created in the early 1970s to “record and document, through personal reminiscences, the history, growth and development of Weber State College.” Through interviews with administrators, faculty and students, the program’s goal was to expand the documentary holdings on Weber State College and its predecessor entities. From 1970 to 1976, the program conducted some fifteen interviews, under the direction of, and generally conducted by Harold C. Bateman, an emeritus professor of history. In 1979, under the direction of archivist John Sillito, the program was reestablished and six interviews were conducted between 1979 and 1983. Additional interviews were conducted by members of the Weber State community. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Weathers, Val, an oral history by Jamie J. Weeks, 26 June 2014, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Val Weathers June 26, 2014 Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Val Weathers, conducted on June 26, 2014 by Jamie J. Weeks. During the interview, Val discusses his time spent at Weber State College as a student from 1958 to 1959 and then again in 1962. JW: This is an oral history interview with Val Weathers. It is being conducted on June 26, 2014 in his home in Ogden, Utah. The interviewer is Jamie Weeks. The subject of this interview is Val’s time spent at Weber State College as a student from 1958 to 1959 and then again in 1962. Also present is Stacie Gallagher, our video technician. JW: To begin with, I’d just like to ask you about your early life, when and where you were born, and some of your background as much or as brief as you’d like it to be. VW: I was born, raised, and lived on Harrison Boulevard. I started out as a bat boy for the Ogden Reds, and played basketball and baseball in junior high, at Ogden High School and then at Weber Junior College. I knew that I was going to, for sure, play baseball in college (Appendix pg. 1). I had scholarships from all the schools, but I got a call from this magnificent man, Bruce Larson. He wanted me to go play golf with him, and at the end of the day, I had a scholarship to play basketball and baseball and it was just an incredible blessing in my life. JW: Was the scholarship for both baseball and basketball? VW: Right. 1 JW: Was he the coach of the basketball team at the time or was he the head of the athletic department? What was his tie to Weber? VW: No, Bruce Larson—everyone needs to be very clear on this—was a junior college coach in Arizona. Reed Swenson retired the same year that I graduated from high school. Therefore, they hired Bruce Larson to come to Weber. We were out on the golf course and he says, “I’m bringing with me one of the best players in the nation—Alan Holmes.” That was really an absolute truism. Bruce Larson was—I was closer to Bruce Larson than my father. He was a great man. So, we got beat in the finals in 1958, which no one would ever dream that we would go to the finals, and then we won the whole enchilada in 1959 (Appendix pg. 2). JW: You probably already have copies of these, but here are some of the newspaper articles from 1958 and 1959 about the team. VW: I have some of these. My wife does a good job of keeping scrapbooks, but we were honored here a year or two ago, and one of the things that really never came out that the whole world needs to know about is this—I was watching TV last night and there’s going to be a special on the sixties on CNN tonight on segregation. We had Alan Holmes in 1958, and we had Alan Holmes and Joe Carter in 1959. Alan’s out of Arizona and Joe’s out of Wyoming. The incredible thing about Weber Junior College is that we had someone in the community—I mean, Weber didn’t have any dorms. We could give you tuition and books, but that’s all we’ve got. So, the Porters and Waiters Club on lower 25th street gave them free room 2 and board. The purpose of the Porters and Waiters Club was that, when the railroad was crazy in Ogden and robust with trains going in and out, when the Porters and Waiters got off the train they had a place to eat, because they couldn’t buy a meal in town. So, I actually played semi-pro baseball in the summer for the Porters and Waiters Club. It was an incredible opportunity for Joe and Stretch to be able to come and play. When we would go out on the road—no one has ever said a word about this, but we’d go into a restaurant and they’d say, “You can’t come in, or those two have to come in the back door.” Our response was always, “If they can’t come in the same door as us, we will look for another restaurant.” The same thing happened when we were driving around in these two cars going back to Kansas or California or whatever to play, and several times we were denied housing. They wouldn’t let us in the motel with Joe and Stretch. We had some of the greatest baseball players in the history of baseball start here in Ogden. Frank Robinson was only 17 years old when he played here. The same thing happened to him; he had a very difficult time finding a place to buy a meal. JW: Even here? VW: Here in Ogden. JW: I wondered if it was different for players here in Ogden than maybe it was in the south or when you would travel to other cities to play? VW: It was a little different, but there were still barriers in Ogden. Maybe not for Alan Holmes, he could walk in any door of any color, but when I saw some of these 3 professional baseball players come in and not be able to buy a meal—it was an interesting time. I didn’t realize, you know, until I get old and start thinking about these things, the pressure the coach must have felt to try and make his way through that and make us all feel comfortable. We didn’t know they were black. We went everywhere together—Bruce Larson made a huge jump in Weber Junior College. He was here for only two years, the two years that I played, and then he was offered the head job at the University of Arizona. JW: Are you still in contact with any of the men you played with? VW: A lot of them have passed away surprisingly, and I understand Alan Holmes isn’t doing very well. To be able to go to Kansas and play in the national championship we had to go to Phoenix and play against some of his old teammates that were playing for a junior college down there. When Alan Holmes and Bruce Larson walked into Ogden, it made a big difference. JW: It must have been an exciting time for the whole town. VW: It was enormous. I think at that time I knew seriously everyone in town and everyone knew me. The little gym down there would be just packed on 25th Street. People were upset that they couldn’t get into the games. So, we would play our games at different high schools. We’d go to Weber High School when it was on 12th and Washington, or we’d play a game up at Ben Lomond and Ogden High because the stands would hold more, but regardless of where we played, it was sold out—packed. 4 JW: Where was the game played in 1959 when you won the championship? VW: At the National Junior College Championship in Hutchison, Kansas. It still is held there every year. I can remember when we won the championship we had the pallbearer car from a funeral, that was one of our cars, and then we had a station wagon. We would travel two or three hundred miles, play a game, eat, sleep, and travel another two or three hundred miles. JW: That sounds so miserable for tall basketball players to sit in. VW: We became incredibly close. When we won the national championship, we drove home and came down Weber Canyon right out here, and there was no freeway then just a little two lane road, and at the mouth of the canyon was just a service station. But we came down the canyon and all of Ogden was there to greet us. They took us out of those cars and put us in convertibles and took us around and down Washington Boulevard and the people in Buehler and Bingham [Utah Tailoring Mills] were coming out with shirts and sweaters, just tossing them in our car. Then they had a welcome home on the steps of the city and county building. A couple of times a week we would go to dinner as guests of the social clubs—the Chamber and all those entities. So, we ate well for a couple of weeks. JW: Town champions. Here is a picture from your yearbook and one from the old Signpost newspaper. It looks like you also played baseball? VW: It was fun. One year on our semi-pro Porters and Waiters team, we were going to Helper to play in a tournament, and not everyone on here [yearbook picture] 5 was on the Porters and Waiters team. Our catcher couldn’t go. Bruce Larson was a catcher in college, and he says, “I’ll go.” So, he went down and played in the tournament with us, and that was a lot of fun. JW: Well, you weren’t very old to be traveling all over. Your parents were fine with you just going and doing that? VW: Yeah. Really. JW: It was a different time period. VW: It was. As you think back on that, when we were playing semi-pro we would meet at the Porters and Waiters Club at ten o’clock on a Friday night You know, I had the green light from my mom and dad from day one. I think about when I was ten years old and I went on the road with the professional baseball team. Now I wouldn’t recommend that for all ten year olds to say the least! We would travel and meet there at 10:00 p.m. and go to play in a tournament somewhere—Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada. We would travel all night, we would play a game Saturday, play maybe two on Sunday, and then travel home all night so we could go to work on Monday. You can only do that when you’re young. JW: That’s true. VW: One of the highlights of my life also, was the opportunity to go to Argentina on a mission. When I played two years at Weber, I went to Argentina for two and a half years. 6 JW: I wondered if that’s what was happening during the two years you took off of school. VW: Well, it was only a two year school, so I came home after two and a half years with a baseball scholarship to BYU and Utah. However, I was number one on the draft board [Vietnam War], and I was getting called within 30 days. So, I joined the Air Force Reserve and served active duty out here at the base and then I went and started negotiating my scholarship and they said they wanted me to red shirt a year, and I said, “You know what, I’ve been out for almost three years, I want to get through college and I don’t want to be sitting around red shirting.” So, I didn’t play anymore, I just went to school. JW: It seems like you still had a presence at Weber in 1962, because you were still writing stories for the Signpost. There are several Val Weathers stories in the Signpost in 1962. VW: Well, if you looked in the Standard Examiner in 1962, there was a lot of stuff there also. This is what happened: the sports editor of the Standard Examiner traveled in our two cars—one or the other car to go cover the games, because everyone in Ogden was concerned about the game, and I became very close to the sports editor. So, when I got back from Argentina he said, “I want you to write for the Standard and cover all of Weber’s games.” I said, “Rich, I flunked out of all my English classes, you can’t be asking me to do that.” “No, Val, you’ll do great.” So, I covered Weber when Dick Motta was a coach here a couple of years. I could write a book on that. JW: That was a big deal. 7 VW: So, I had good seats at the game and I had to really knuckle down and go down to the newspaper and try to write something appropriate, and if Dick Motta didn’t like it, he’d call me at home. He ended up being the coach of the Chicago Bulls in the NBA. JW: Let’s talk about some other things you were involved in while at Weber. You were involved in Excelsior, right? (Appendix pg. 3) VW: One of the things that I’ll just put in because you probably didn’t pick it up, but the Moench building down on the lower campus is where the theater is and H.E.D. Redford was in charge of the theater at Weber. He wanted the basketball team to be in a play. JW: Taming of the Shrew. VW: Yes, it was. So, that was a fun experience too. JW: I wondered because it’s your only performance. Is that right? VW: Yes. A one-time deal. Well, you know, everyone at the college was a big basketball fan—the staff, the faculty, everyone. The treatment we received I won’t talk about the treatment except to say that I had friends standing in line to get classes and we would just walk in a week early to the registrar’s office and say, “This is the classes that we need.” My time at Weber could not have been any better. JW: Here is a picture of you as Mr. Collegiate (Appendix pg. 4). It reads, “Mr. Collegiate, voted on by the fellow students.” 8 VW: Yeah, this was voted on by all the students and I was always to a game and wasn’t at the dance to be able to receive it, but it was a thrill to be able to win. JW: I did find this awesome quote in the Signpost. It’s from 1959 and it’s about Sleeping Beauty. Did they call you Sleeping Beauty? VW: They called me a lot of things. JW: “Val Weathers is an Ogden High graduate. He lettered in basketball and baseball and he is very sharp in the latter. Val played guard for Weber last year and was an extremely valuable player this year. Val is a business major. According to Loren Burton, Val likes to sleep. Probably trying to catch some sleep in between games?” VW: One of the things you can do in those cars to cut the journey is to get some sleep, and at that age you never have enough sleep. One time, we’d been out late. We were supposed to meet at the gym at six and we were leaving to go to Colorado to play a couple of games. So, I was tired and I said, “Is it okay if I get in the back and sleep?” Alan Holmes said, “I’ll drive.” JW: The students took turns driving? VW: Oh yeah. Basically, I always drove and the coach would drive the other car. So, we’d take Redwood Road because this freeway wasn’t in, and it would go the furthest south. We failed to negotiate a turn and ended up in the middle of a plowed field with Alan Holmes driving, and we were lucky we didn’t get killed— very, very lucky. So, they came back and we called home and asked them to 9 send another car to us and they sent a car down and Bruce said, “Val, please stay behind the wheel.” So, that was a scary escapade. Another story that was fun—we played home and home. We’d drive to Boise, play Friday night, and then drive to Ogden and play Saturday night. So we drove up to Idaho, won the game and Saturday morning we were starting back, and one of the cars goes out, the engine burned out. So, the coach came back, and of course he took Alan Holmes and Joe Carter and he picked a total of six guys, and they went home to play the game. To the rest of us he said, “Get home any way that you can.” There were some that hopped a freight train into Ogden and rode it all the way in from Idaho. I came in, in the bed of a pick-up truck. JW: You hitch-hiked? VW: Yeah, in a snowstorm. They had their pregame meal at Keely’s which was a little restaurant on Washington Boulevard and we walked into Keely’s right in time for the meal. So we got there in time for the meal and we played the game. JW: We talked about the diversity on campus, what about the political atmosphere, what was that like on campus? Was it politically active or really the only thing you’re seeing is the beginning of Civil Rights? Or did you even know? You were involved in basketball. VW: No, I think Civil Rights was the strongest issue, but I think we were oblivious to the system. 10 JW: Later on, the campus looks like it is pretty active, especially as we move forward with the continuation of Vietnam, there were a lot of political things happening on campus, and I didn’t know politically if it was very active during the late 50s. VW: No, it wasn’t. We had veterans that were going to school with us at Weber. I think LeRoy Overstreet may have been a veteran when he showed up here. Alan Holmes—have you ever heard of Billy “the hill” McGill? JW: I have not. VW: All-American ball player for the University of Utah (Appendix pg. 5). In the time that I was in Argentina, he and Alan Holmes were up at the Porters and Waiters Club and driving back to the University of Utah they got in an automobile accident. To save Holmes’ leg, they had to cut muscle out of it. He was an absolute, dead-certain NBA player, but now he’s only got one good leg. He went down to the University of Utah and he was an all-conference player with just one good leg. The thing that I have enjoyed about having played with him is, that if I had a better shot than Holmes did, I had the ball. He’d give it to me every time. He was a ten times better shooter than I was, but he shared the ball. When we went back to the nationals, they would always pick the toughest player on the other team and Holmes would say, “I’ve got him.” So, he played on both ends of the floor. JW: These are great stories. Switching gears, who was the college president when you were at Weber? VW: Dr. Miller. 11 JW: I’ve heard great things about President Miller and how involved he was with the students. VW: He was great. He had a daughter my age that ended up marrying Dick Connelly, who was the captain of the 1959 team. All we had on the campus up here were buildings one, two, three and four. Then there was a government type shed that served as the Union Building. So when the car burned out, coming home from Boise, and I’m walking down the hallway, I feel an arm around my shoulder as we were walking and it is President Miller. He said, “Val, what happened to the car?” Like I was directly responsible. JW: Well, you were the driver. VW: Yeah. But he was very involved. Everyone was involved. It was just a great opportunity. JW: Other than your coaches, who were some of your favorite professors while you were at Weber? VW: Dr. Smart got a lot of guys into dental and medical school, but it was always fun to go to his class. O.M. Clark was an economics professor. I really didn’t have a class that I didn’t enjoy. We’d go in, “We’re leaving town, I want to make sure I don’t miss anything, what am I supposed to be studying while I’m gone. What do I need to be reading?” They were always helpful. JW: That’s interesting that they were so patient with your schedules. 12 VW: Well, I don’t think there was one of them that ever missed a game. It was a very exciting time because, you know, I’d pay to go watch Alan Holmes, and yet I got to play alongside him. JW: Is there anything else you want to cover as a student? I know you were also involved in the Wildcat Club. You were on the board for a while. VW: Yes. JW: I think that’s the greatest thing about Weber, the students that attended and had such a great experience are willing to give back their time later on. VW: Yes, I don’t know how many years I served on the Wildcat Club, but it was quite a few years. The one thing that no one knows is that Claudia and I have been season ticket holders for 48 years at the basketball games. It was a question of whether we were going to have a T.V. or whether we were going to have basketball tickets at the inception. We also went on a Mormon mission to Puerto Rico and while we were gone, I kept my seats and gave them to clients. Then when the Dee Events Center was built, I was the first one in line to pick the seat that I wanted. I didn’t take the front row right behind the team, and I didn’t take the front row because I wanted to be at the same level as the basket so I could see if someone would jump over the rim. Now, they all jump over the rim. So, we are on the third row. JW: Right behind the team? VW: Yes. I’ve heard some really bad coaches come through and heard some really good coaches, but I can hear pretty much all they’re saying. 13 JW: Well, you’ve seen some incredible players come through then. VW: Yes. For a few years, my two oldest grandsons would go and that was a tradition. We would go to the Texas Roadhouse for dinner and then we would go to the game. They loved to go to the game. They’re now in junior high and high school and I have a hard time getting a date with them and when I do, we do that, but it’s tougher than it used to be. We’ll have the tickets until they put me in a box because there are plenty of people that we’ve given the tickets to and they love to go if we’re not available. Randy Rahe does a great job and we’re lucky to have him here right now. JW: Is there anything you’d like to add that we haven’t covered? VW: I wanted to mention that there was more going on in the sixties color-wise than people realize. One of the players on the Porters and Waiters baseball team was an ex-pro baseball player, and I can remember us traveling to a game and he had just got home from Georgia. He drove straight through, and he got picked up three times. He went to courts in the back of the grocery store, and it cost him all he had in his wallet all three times. So, we’ve come a long ways, but we’ve got a long ways to go. As a kid I’d go sit up in the balcony and watch Reed Swenson because I didn’t miss a ball game anywhere. I’d find a ride to take me. I’d always go to Utah, BYU or Utah State games. I thought Bruce really shifted gears for the school and in my personal life. He just had a whole lot to do with what direction I was heading in. JW: Were you able to stay in touch with him even when he went back down to Arizona? 14 VW: Yes. He was a young man when he came here, and I’m 75, so he’s got to be in his early 80’s. I don’t know really what our age difference was. JW: In the picture he doesn’t look much older than the boys. VW: He still plays handball five days a week. He has one daughter whose husband is stationed at the base, and he rents a place up in the valley here and takes his whole family, which is spread out all over the place, skiing every year. He also holds a basketball camp for all his grandkids. JW: That’s awesome. VW: We chat quite a bit. My son went for an interview at one of the hospitals down there in Tucson and I called and told him, “He’d taken care of me it seems like my whole life now, so it’s his responsibility to take care of my son.” Every time I talk to him, he always says, “Is Stretch okay? Will you check on Stretch?” When he said he was bringing a really big player to town and we are going to win a lot of games, he really meant it. JW: Where is Alan now? VW: He’s in Salt Lake. They’ve got some kind of diversity thing over at the college that Jim Hurst is involved with that has Alan Holmes’ name on it, and we donated a little money to that. JW: I’m sure it’s this way with other universities, but being in the position I’m in, I see it more here in Ogden. I just think it’s great to see the give-back to the university. It makes all the difference when the community stays close. 15 VW: My two years at Weber were euphoric. I was not worried about, “What am I going to do for a living? What am I going to graduate in?” The difference in that though is that when I got back from Argentina the gears had shifted in my life because now I was serious and I had to figure out what I wanted to major in, what I would be happy doing. The fact of the matter is, when I got back, I graduated from college in one year, so a total of three. I took one class when I got back from Argentina in the 1963 or 1964. I was ready to graduate from the U, but I needed to take math 101. I couldn’t talk my way through that and they said, “Well, if you want to take it at home and transfer it down, you can.” When I talk to people today, I still am trying to decide what I want to major in when I grow up. We had really just a great time and were treated very well by the whole world, and we didn’t ever wear out that welcome. I see a lot of people that do that and they want more. JW: I don’t think students have the freedom anymore of just going to school for two years and really living and enjoying. There’s so much pressure to get through and make a decision as to what you’re going to do with the rest of your life. You don’t get to just go to school and have fun. VW: Well, I don’t know, maybe I should have been thinking more about it because I never dreamed that I was going on a mission. It wasn’t in my plan at all, but I am eternally grateful that I did. It taught me more than ten Weber Colleges. So, I feel like I’ve gotten about ten doctorate degrees. I watch my son and they have two other little boys. He went on a mission out of high school and came home and he’s been going to school for 13 years straight. He’s in the operating room almost 16 all day long. Our two oldest are adopted, and then we have a daughter and a son, a doctor, that passed away. JW: Is your daughter still around here? VW: Yes, she lives out in Syracuse, she works for a company up in Ogden Valley that has a facility up there for about 35 boys with anxiety issues, and it’s a registered high school. They have dormitories and the whole thing, and then she has a private practice in South Ogden. She pretty much runs out of hours every day. A friend walked up to me in church and handed me a card and said, “I want you and your wife to go see this doctor.” I said, “Why?” We’d never ever talked about anything. I looked and it’s a fertility specialist. I’d never had a conversation with this guy, but we went to the appointment and the doctor was at the U, and he wanted to do a medical procedure on my wife and found out she had endometriosis really bad and cleaned her out and the next thing you know, Dr. Weathers shows up. So, I had several of my friends say, “You know if you hurry I think the window is open.” I was forty-something when he was born. I said, “I’m going to be on social security when he gets home from his mission. JW: It has been interesting to hear stories about Weber sports and the diversity issues during the late 50’s. VW: Well, that club was owned by Annabelle Weekly, a black lady, and she swung a big stick in Ogden. I don’t know how many athletes from Weber Junior College have gone through that facility, but a lot of them that didn’t have a dormitory or anything else; they had a place to stay. 17 JW: I think it’s interesting that they didn’t put them in homes with local families. VW: I don’t know that it ever came up. It was just taken care of. The black players at the P&W were treated like kings. It was really a big bonus for Weber. We had the Carter boys, Joe and his brother, Louie, played baseball. They worked in the coal mines in Wyoming their whole lives and they’re both gone now because of that atmosphere and what it does to your lungs. JW: How many people were able to stay in the Porters & Waiters Club? It seems like there would have been a lot of them, but I don’t know how many rooms they had available. VW: I don’t know how many we had at one time, but they still had to make room for porters and waiters. So, I think maybe there might have been 15 rooms or so. They’d eat anywhere, but I don’t know whether they got any money for food. We were given jobs on the campus. My job was to sweep the welding room, so I don’t know what everyone else had to do. I made a mistake. I was offered a very attractive job at Weber to come back and get my degree there with a full-ride and I turned it down because I wanted a degree from the University of Utah. I had some fabulous classes down there. I learned a lot, but I think when it was all said and done, a degree is a degree and the world out there—I was ready for professional life when I got through with doing this. So, the degree was the frosting on the cake. I learned a lot, but I thought it had to be from a specific school and in retrospect, it didn’t. My life would have been a lot different. They wanted me involved in journalism and athletics and I ended up being a banker 18 and a real estate developer, so my life would have gone in a much different avenue. JW: Thank you and I appreciate you letting us come into your home. It’s been so interesting. These great stories fill a void for us. VW: Thank you for coming. 19 1 Appendix 2 3 4 5 6 7 8