March 22, 2017

BELLINGHAM, Wash. -

Two weeks remained in the 1994-95 regular-season basketball schedule and both the Western Washington University men's and women's teams were in contention for No.1 seeds in their respective Pacific Northwest Athletic Conference (PNWAC) playoffs.

A top seed would guarantee home court advantage throughout the playoffs, greatly enhancing chances of advancing to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Division I National Tournament.

Excitement over Viking hoops was mounting on campus and in the surrounding community. Large crowds were anticipated for the final four home games, three men's and one women's, and the playoff contests expected to follow.

Then on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 1995, Valentine's Day, it was learned that a WWU student had contracted measles. That set off a series of events that rocked the campus over the next 20 days.

"Measles is a highly communicable disease," said Dr. Emily Gibson, WWU Associate Director for Medical Services (now Director of the WWU Student Health Center) in a press release later that week. "A person can be exposed by simply breathing the air within a two-hour period in a room where the affected person has been."

She went on to explain that measles can result in hearing loss, brain damage and approximately three in 1,000 cases die. And that the disease is contagious for seven days before a rash develops and seven days after the onset of the rash.

"I think the potential is very great for it spreading," said Dr. John Kobayashi, senior epidemiologist for the state Department of Health. "It can spread very, very quickly."

The WWU men's basketball contest with BYU-Hawaii, scheduled for Carver Gym on Saturday, Feb. 18, was canceled as BYU-Hawaii officials felt it was not worth the risk to play the non-conference game.

The Whatcom County Public Health Department was ultimately responsible for determining which campus events took place and the protocol to follow for that to happen.

"The result was we were given the choice of either canceling all campus events or developing a system the health department would approve for screening audiences to ensure minimal risk," said WWU President Karen Morse in a letter that appeared in The Western Front. "Until we were able to develop an immunization clearance system, the health department required all events to be cleared through them."

Meetings took place between public health officials and WWU administrators regarding the three home basketball games scheduled for the upcoming week as well as other events taking place on campus.

From those discussions it was determined that all students, faculty and staff born on or after Jan. 1, 1957, be required to prove that they had received two doses of measles vaccine.

A WWU policy implemented in 1991 had required just one measles immunization. A single dose is 95 percent effective for preventing measles, while two doses are virtually 100 percent effective.

WWU immediately set up a free immunization clinic in the Viking Union building with the goal of inoculating 11,000 people over a four-day period. The school's enrollment at the time was 10,598.

Hoops games go on with restrictions

The three remaining home basketball games were allowed to proceed, but a screening policy was instituted to gain admittance. All attendees, including players, coaches, staff, cheerleaders, game-day officials, referees and fans, had to provide photo identification showing they were born before Jan. 1, 1957, or be a WWU student with certified clearance from a measles immunization center. These criteria were strictly enforced, which meant that most of those younger than 38, unless certified by having had two doses of vaccine, would not be admitted.

Opposing teams also had to be immunized before participating.

In one instance, the family of a player on the Viking men's team did not want their son inoculated as they believed in naturopathy. But ultimately he did get a shot because it was either that or not compete.

"This is a tough situation especially with the ramifications each game has on the playoffs," said WWU Director of Athletics Lynda Goodrich in a Bellingham Herald article. "But the safety of everyone concerned has to be our first priority."

"This was going to be our big week. Hopefully, more of the mature people of our community will turn out (for the games)."

WWU men's coach Brad Jackson shared his sentiments in that same piece.

"There are a lot of situations in basketball that develop which you don't have control over, whether it be a bad call or injuries or the other team. In many ways, this fits into that category."

"There's nothing you can do about it. You can cry about it and whine and moan, or you can accept it and go on. We'd like to have a packed house, but our main focus is playing the game."

On Tuesday, Feb. 21, the Viking women played host to Central Washington, and won 98-51 with just 121 people in attendance. That Thursday, Feb. 23, the men, who had been averaging 1,100 fans, drew 267 in a 79-68 loss to Lewis-Clark State that ended their chances of a No.1 playoff seed, and on Saturday, Feb. 25, the men had 973 on hand as they defeated arch-rival Central, 91-82. The WWU-Central game normally drew a standing-room only crowd of 3,100.

Prior to the men's games with L-C State and Central, Bellingham Herald sports editor Jim Carberry wrote a humorous column, entitled, "`Old Fans' can give Vikings a shot in the arm." It talked of ways to entice older people, those born before Jan. 1, 1957, to the contests.

Though the process for getting people to games was frustrating, there was a lighter side.

During the Central game, Coach Jackson's wife, Debbie, was standing along the wall near a baseline with four cheerleaders. They were trying to think of ways to get the small crowd enthused.

Debbie, who was just days short of her 40th birthday, recalled, "One of them (cheerleaders) goes, `Man, we need to fire this place up.' And another one goes, `Debbie, you could tumble." And the other one said, `Dare yah.' Having three brothers, those words pushed buttons for me. So, I said, `Okay."

"So, here I go and do a tumbling run with jeans on and a floppy sweatshirt. It was such a really weird game and the things you do. Prior to the game, I'd heard people saying, `Hey, come to the Western-Central game, it won't be sold out and they'll be selling Geritol at halftime.' So, that was my contribution. I was older, but I felt that I could do this. After the game was over, the first person to run up to me was President Morse, who said `That was awesome!' I looked at her and shaking my head said, `No, that was stupid!'"

It should be noted that Debbie was a four-time All-America gymnast during her collegiate days at Seattle Pacific.

Prior to the L-C State contest, WWU center Brett Lundeen warmed up in a T-shirt that said, "Kiss me, I'm immunized" on the front, and "I survived the measles epidemic, Western 95," on the back.

"We hope there's a rash of baskets for Western," P.A. Announcer Bill Palmer joked before a game.

Both Viking basketball teams reached the PNWAC playoffs played the following week. They were each lower seeds and would just host opening-round contests. The women, who had lost a crucial road game, 84-82 at Saint Martin's with 2,148 attending, during the last week of the regular season, won 100-57 over Puget Sound on Feb. 28 with a crowd of 217, and the men had their season end in a 99-84 loss on March 1 to Saint Martin's with 353 looking on.

Those who got to watch the WWU women versus Puget Sound saw the best statistical performance in school history as junior center Gina Sampson grabbed a school-record 25 rebounds, breaking a standard that had stood for 21 years, and scored 33 points, two shy of the Viking standard.

Sampson scored the last of her 25 second-half points with 4:29 left, but could not convert on front ends of two one-and-one foul shots that might have given her the record. She shot 13 of 19 from the field.

The record at that time was 35 held jointly by WWU head coach Carmen Dolfo (1986) and Cim Hanson (1989).

"I knew she was going for my record," Dolfo said after the game. "I heard the crowd. I wanted her to break it, so that I could get it off my back. She did great, almost broke it, broke the rebound record and had an outstanding game."

The Western women finished 21-8, reaching the PNWAC playoff semifinals. Their No.22 national ranking fell two spots below that needed to earn an at-large berth to nationals. They were led by Sampson, a third-team NAIA All-American who averaged 16.5 points and 11.0 rebounds a game, and junior forward Shannon Anderson (15.9 ppg), who received All-America honorable mention.

Sampson's main memory of the measles outbreak was playing at Saint Martin's where many of the opposing fans showed up wearing band-aids.

The Viking men finished 16-12, their season ending with the setback to Saint Martin's. But the loss to L-C State was probably the most frustrating because there was so much on the line. WWU was paced by four seniors -- forward Harold Doyal (17.8 ppg, 7.1 rpg), forward/guard Derric Croft (15.9 ppg), a starter at NCAA I San Diego State the year before; center Brett Lundeen (13.8 ppg, 8.3 rpg) and guard Tim Caviezel (13.0 ppg), a transfer from NCAA I Long Beach State.

During that two-week stretch, WWU immunized and cleared over 8,500 students and went over 3,000 records for past immunization history. The cost of the vaccine, estimated at $156,000, was covered by the state. About 300 WWU students and staff participated in the university's efforts to thwart the outbreak. WWU paid approximately $25,000 for its preventive measures.


Immunized WWU students received card and T-shirt

On March 6, officials announced the end of WWU's measles outbreak after no new cases were reported for two weeks. All campus events once again became open to students, faculty and staff, and the public.

"I recognize as well as anyone the inconvenience, frustration and irritation that this situation caused," said President Morse in summation. "My goal was to protect the students, who were the most susceptible, faculty and staff."

First test of WWU's Emergency Plan

The WWU Emergency Plan used to deal with the measles outbreak had just been adopted the year before. It identified an emergency team consisting of representatives from academic affairs, student affairs, business affairs, telecommunications and public information (now communications). Depending upon the type of emergency, other members were added.

"We couldn't be more pleased in terms of the response, recognizing that from a public health perspective and for the sake of our community, everyone was mobilized quickly and (the measles spread) was held to 11 cases," said Dr. Eileen Coughlin, WWU Vice President for Student Affairs (now Senior Vice President). During the outbreak, over 130 individuals (staff and students) suffering from fever and having rashes were screened.

Coughlin's assistant, Connie Copeland, was head of the emergency team.

"You find the best possible combination of minimizing people being exposed to other people that they haven't already been exposed to and limiting exposure to anybody living in the external community," Copeland said of the response.

A computer program was developed to allow the University to generate a database for recording immunizations and a list of event clearance card holders. Additional effort produced a computer program that would allow cross-matching the list of immunized persons with every class list. Faculty then alerted students of their eligibility to attend class.

After only eight class days, 95 percent of the WWU students had been immunized and 96 percent cleared to attend class.

Comparative data from a 1990 outbreak at Colorado State showed that in two weeks only 15 percent of the student population had been immunized. In 1994, Rutgers did not start immunizations until 20 cases were reported, and ran five clinics for three weeks and protected 86 percent of the student population.

By Paul Madison who served 48 years as sports information director at WWU from 1966 to 2015