Huckleberries: CdA routing still resounds for Kellogg basketball player

How many of you were there in late fall 1970 when Coeur d’Alene High christened its new basketball gym with a game against Inland Empire League foe Kellogg? Dean Lundblad was there as the coach of the host Vikings. The late Cotton Barlow was there as the CHS athletic director. Blogger Raymond Pert, of Eugene, Ore., by way of Kellogg, wished he hadn’t been there. Coming off a successful freshman season for the Wildcats, Raymond had hoped to establish his credentials as a prospective all-IEL basketball player by leading the Wildcats to victory over the hosts. He remembers the day clearly. He recalls, for example, that he was the trigger man for the fast break – the Vikings’. He attempted 16 shots from the field and hit only one. Raymond: “I fired up a shot. It richocheted off the back of the rim. It rebounded like an outlet pass. The Vikings were off and running. And we couldn’t catch up to them.” By the final buzzer, a Viking team that included Dick Schaffer, Duffy Taylor and Bryce Bemis (whom Raymond guarded) in the starting five had blitzed Kellogg 106-57. Prior to the game, Kellogg coach Larry Curry had fretted that the tight new nets on the new court would slow his team’s running game because the ball wouldn’t swish through quickly enough. Now, Raymond wonders how many points the Viks would have scored with loose nets. After the game, Curry huffed to his players: “They won’t score 100 on us next time.” He was a prophet. In the other two encounters between the teams that season, Coeur d’Alene won 77-46 and 88-61.