World Gone By: In 1970, Raymond Gulls bring home state title

From the archives of The Daily World

75 years ago

March 9, 1945

With a total of well over 3,000 books digested during the past 14 years, Halleck Siegman is the Aberdeen city library’s best customer and probably one of Aberdeen’s best read citizens.

White haired and dark eyed with a face singularly unlined for its 70 years, Mr. Siegman poses the calm dignity of a man who has made books his bosom companions for so many decades. Reading for entertainment and education, he likes his literary diet varied, with biography, travel. foreign translations and a few classics composing the most substantial fare, seasoned with a sprinkling of modern fiction, including the modern super sleuths, of which the Leslie Charteris character the “Saint” has first place in his affections.

50 years ago

March 9, 1970

Saturday night, Coach Jerry Halpin’s superb Raymond club played virtually flawless basketball to beat one of Elma’s greatest teams for the 1970 state Class A championship.

The decisive 78-63 victory before nearly 6,000 fans at the UPS Fieldhouse in Tacoma gave the ‘Gulls the right to chant “We’re No 1,” and the Raymond fans brandished a banner that read “Never under-rate Raymond,” as Pat Rogers, twice an all-stater and unequivocally the finest guard in Raymond High School history, cut down the netting.

Roger’s stunning leadership of the Raymond team — coupled with a brilliant 29-point performance from junior guard Mark Ford — was clearly the secret to the Seagull success story.

25 years ago

March 9, 1995

Janice Lead got a harsh hello her first day in Aberdeen.

“Don’t be selling crack to the white man!” a stranger screamed at the reading teacher as she stood at a gas pump.

“Why do I have to be a drug dealer? Because I’m black?” Lead asked Wednesday during a forum on race relations.

Lead wasn’t alone in her perception that minorities are often stereotyped, forgotten or harassed in Grays Harbor and Pacific counties.

The candid discussion was part of a day-long seminar on multi-culturalism. It was sponsored by the Community Mobilization Against Substance Abuse, together with CCAP and the Grays Harbor Human Rights Coalition at the Nordic Inn in Aberdeen.

Janice Lead, who teaches at Harbor High School and Miller Junior High, said people have assumed she was a janitor or cook, even when she was dressed up for work.

“People have perceptions of what you’re capable of based on your color,” said Lead, whose son, omm’A Givens, was a heavily recruited basketball star out of Aberdeen. He is now a freshman at UCLA.

Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom