CARVER MEMORIES – Summer 1968
 
Australasia Tour taken by Western men's basketball team
 
Vikings celebrate 50th anniversary of historic trip


1968 WWU Australasia Team (L-R): Ron Caderette, Mike Clayton, Jimmy Jones, Whit Hemion, Gary Reiersgard, John Reed, Ed Monk, Paul Hallgrimson, Dave Hemion, Neal Larson, Ben Smith. Kneeling (L-R): Assistant Coach Marv Ainsworth, Head Coach Chuck Randall.


By Blaine Johnson


Fifty years ago this past August, the men's basketball team representing what was then known as Western Washington State College (now Western Washington University) embarked on a six-week tour of the Far East and Australia. While providing memories of a lifetime for the participants, a recollection of that time and those places can provide us intriguing perspectives on the context in which the tour was experienced in 1968.
   
The tour was sponsored as a People-to-People Program International to promote international cross-culture relations. It was rare that a smaller school would be selected for such a high-profile venture, but Western had gained credibility with victories when it hosted national teams from Japan and Korea the previous winter.  
 
The program was attaining NAIA stature under Chuck Randall, who achieved a win-loss record of 275-186 during his 1963-1981 coaching career at Western. Randall, who is regarded as one of the inventors of the breakaway basketball rim, was deeply religious, passionate about personal commitment and duty, and, as would be expected from a WWII paratrooper, an advocate of a disciplined style of play on the court. His teams were known for their defensive intensity and a patterned style offense. (Randall passed away in 2016 at the age of 89.)
 
The traveling troupe was comprised of 11 players, Chuck's wife, Doris; Spokane high school coach and Randall's friend from childhood Marv Ainsworth, and myself. I was a senior at Western and a reporter for the Bellingham Herald when selected to serve in roles that included publicity coordination in each city, statistician, photographer and sending back stories to Northwest media.
 
It is interesting to consider how much technology impacted communication in 1968. We were half way around the world and it felt like it. Phone calls were far too expensive and dispatches sent to newspapers back home were delayed or never arrived. The same trip today would have instant social media posts, a blog and face time smiles all around. Perhaps it's my age talking, but I believe the sense of adventure was enhanced by the non-Americanized distinctiveness of each foreign environment and culture and the inability to be instantly connected to the home front.
 
It is worth taking measure of the state of the world as this tour took place. Martin Luther King had been assassinated in April, followed by the assassination of Bobby Kennedy in June. Protests and rebellions were breaking out in Prague, Mexico City, Poland. Civil Rights and Vietnam anti-war protests were filling American streets. The Cultural Revolution was rampaging in the People's Republic of China, not to be confused with the Republic of China (Taiwan), where the tour would start. Riots would break out at the Democratic Convention in Chicago while we toured thousands of miles away.
 
It was indeed a time for People-to-People diplomacy.
 
As the player's personal reflections note, there were many positive social connections throughout the six-week trek. There were also tests of diplomatic discipline on the court, particularly in the three games played against the Philippines national team in Manila. At the original Araneta Arena, the court was encircled by a floor-to-rafters wire mesh cage to protect the players from the fans. Inside the cage the Vikings played well in three games against the national team, but were unable to overcome the not-very-subtle home cooking by the officials. All three games were carried on national TV in the Philippines and that squad participated in the Olympic Games the following month in Mexico City.
 
 
The Manila games came on the heels of four wins in Taiwan and set up a month-long journey across Australia, highlighted by winning two out of the three games against the Australian Olympic team. Despite injuries and illness, playing in a wide variety of venues from an outdoor court in a little Australian town to big arenas, as well as navigating a wide variety of cuisines, cultural and language barriers, varied accommodations and climate conditions, Western earned a commendable 15-6 win-loss record.
 
Mike Clayton, who Randall once proclaimed "was the best guard I ever coached," led the Vikings in scoring. He recalled: "Being able to visit all those countries was tremendous. But to do so from the perspective of playing basketball with their best players made it even better." Even great trips must eventually turn for home. Of the effort to cover the last legs of the 22,000-mile journey, Clayton commented: "My final memory was the flight from Australia to San Francisco. It seemed like it would never end."
 

 
 Personal trip reflections by Blaine Johnson
 
It is a curious exercise to see what memories are resurrected when calling them back from a journey taken 50 years ago in places that have so significantly changed. As a journalist, I traveled with the Western Washington State College basketball team on its six-week Australasia People-to-People tour in 1968.
 
The personal experiences of each person who participated in the trip produced unique memories, as revealed in the accompanying reflections provided by four of the players – Neal Larson, Gary Reiersgard, Ed Monk and Paul Hallgrimson.
 
One of my primary roles was to work with local media in each location, providing advance material for radio, TV and newspaper coverage. One of several powerful experiences I had in Manila happened when I was invited to a press club by an older local reporter. As the evening wore on and a number of us had consumed bottles of San Miguel beer, the reporter suddenly hugged me and started sobbing. He had fought alongside the Americans in the retaking of the Philippines from the Japanese in World War II and told me an American soldier jumped on top of him during an attack and was killed protecting him. He said he had never before told his story to an American. 
 
It had only been 23 years to the month since the Japanese surrendered and that was not even a generation removed from such horrific impacts on the lives and countries of Asia. The fact the Vietnam war was raging a few hundred miles away from our travels in the Far East and Mao's Cultural Revolution was tearing apart the People's Republic of China a mere hundred miles across the Formosa Strait from Taiwan, cast shadows of those horrific events just beyond what we experienced during our tour.
 
Taipei, Taiwan –
 
In 1949, Mao Zedong's Communist forces had finally taken control of China after a long civil war against the Kuomintang (KMT), led by Chiang Kai-shek. It was at that time that the KMT retreated to Taiwan, with large amounts of China's national gold reserves and other treasures. When the Western Washington team arrived for a week-long visit in 1968, the KMT ruled Taiwan under Chiang Kai-shek, who had been embraced by the United States in the fight against Japan in WWII and as a beacon of capitalism on Taiwan against the Mainland Chinese Communist.
 
Thus, he conveyed prominence as a global personality and the rumor that we were to have a barbecue with him and his wife, Soong Mei-ling, on the rooftop terrace of the Grand Hotel – rated that year by Fortune Magazine as one of the world's top 10 hotels – was exciting. We showed up at the barbecue, but neither Chiang nor his wife made an appearance. Their absence probably saved a social faux pas, since the mix of delicacies that were prepared in huge steaming woks, were of no interest to almost all of the players. Their cries for hamburgers would grow louder as the Far Eastern aspect of the trip unfolded. 
 
While the Grand Hotel was world class, our accommodations at the Mandarin Hotel were plush enough, and the best we would experience for the remainder of the trip. Taipei has become one of the most dynamic cities in Asia, but the images of its third world conditions when we visited provide a striking contrast – a man plowing the field immediately adjacent to the hotel with a water buffalo; dozens of workers on their hands and knees cutting the expansive lawn in front of the hotel with long-bladed scissors; swarms of construction workers hauling building materials on their shoulders up bamboo scaffolding on a new building; blocks of two-story structures with families living above their open-faced stores, raw sewage running in trenches down the street.
 
Manila, The Philippines –
 
First impressions that last to this day: I was directly behind a man in line going through customs at the airport. Suddenly a policeman whipped out a knife and sliced open the man's pants legs, revealing packets of contraband taped to his legs. We drove through neighborhoods where every house had a stone wall in front of it with broken glass set in the top. We arrived at the Araneta Coliseum, where the Vikings would play three games and be housed in pretty crummy rooms in the bowels of the big arena for the week. (The accompanying player reflections expand on this situation.) A number of us went to see a movie to escape the heat and discovered patrons had to check in their weapons when entering. We went to an outdoor museum where a dozen or so vehicles were lined up, all pockmarked with bullet holes or shredded by bomb blasts. We were told these vehicles had been involved in various political assassinations. We visited a prison where, in WWII, the Japanese had filled a cavern with captured soldiers and let them drown when the tide came in twice a day.
 
At the time of our arrival in 1968, Ferdinand Marcos was three years into a presidency that was marked with corruption, brutality and extravagance. When he was thrown out of power in 1986, he is said to have taken as much as $10 billion with him into exile in Hawaii – and his wife, Imelda, left behind her infamous collection of 2,700 designer shoes.
 
This chaotic political climate fostered a number of para-military factions. Several of us met representatives of one of those factions one evening when we were being driven to a restaurant. As we headed across the large and vacant arena parking lot, bright headlights came bearing down at us. We stopped, blinded by the lights, out of which stepped a man with an automatic weapon. Another man appeared and confronted our driver. I thought, they wouldn't shoot Americans, would they? Apparently our driver convinced them we not worth killing and they let us proceed – badly in need of drink.
 
As if there needed to be any further convincing that Manila was not a place to linger, Doris Randall and I were in a taxi, stuck in traffic during a pouring rainstorm, having picked up the group's visas for Singapore. Suddenly a guy wearing nothing but his pants ran past us between cars and, seconds later, two policemen ran past shooting – at him or in the air we were too busy ducking to see.
 
Considering the cruel culture that permeated the country, we might forgive the clearly prejudiced behavior of the referees in the three games against the Philippines Olympic team (see main story.) The wrong team wins and the referee might be running for his life in a rainstorm.
   
Singapore –
 
Arrangements for the game Western was to play in Singapore did not develop, but the players took advantage of the layover to shop for electronics – some of which worked when plugged in at home. While this aspect of history was not evident to us at the time, 1968 marked the first general elections since Singapore was expelled from Malaysia in 1965. As with the evolution of Taiwan, the dramatic contrast between the place we experienced and what Singapore would become under Lee Kuan Yew is hard to grasp, even in retrospect.
 
Australia –
 
The shift from the Far East to Australia was stark. We arrived at 4 a.m. and the winter temperature was barely above freezing, in contrast to the steamy 80s and 90s we had sweated through the previous two weeks. We would be billeted with families most of the journey across Australia and the first hosts greeted us at the airport with car robes to cushion against the cold. The familiarity of the English language and cuisine was enthusiastically embraced by the players as they set off on a month-long trek across Australia.
 
While not as striking as the emergence of Taipei and Singapore into world class cities, the major cities of Australia have also grown since our visit 50 years ago. But, there was an aspect of the cultural/political environment that I recall poignantly.
 
This involved the practice of forcible removal of Aboriginal children from their families by the federal government to "bring the children up white." This practice, referred to as the "Stolen Generation", was not discontinued until the 1970s.
 
Jim Jones, the lone black on the team and described as "a Negro" in one program player profile, was regarded as exotic among some Australia fans.
 
It was indeed a time of transition and global turmoil. Just weeks after we returned home, I was hired as a sports writer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. One of my first memories there was pulling the image off the AP photo wire of United States sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos in their iconic raised-fist protest pose on the medals platform at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. I wondered if the Philippines basketball team was in the stands.

Personal trip reflections by Paul Hallgrimson
 
I was one of the few guys on the team who had traveled internationally before the trip to Asia and Australia. What the trip did for me was to reinforce in me how important travel is and basically help me make the choice to leave my dream coaching and teaching job five years later to go abroad (and spend 31 years in Germany). Now, I have two sons and seven grandchildren living in Germany. And a second home!
 
Before attending Western from 1966-68, I had been to Europe traveling for six months and playing basketball. But I had never been to Asia and Australia and this was an opportunity for me to continue to play basketball. Not going to Central Washington and winning a national championship, this was an excellent 'substitution.' I chose to attend Western after 'almost' attending Central. Central went to nationals both years and won a national title. I didn't go to nationals with Western, but what I did do was just as good, if not better – I went with Western on a phenomenal six-week tour of Asia and Australia.
 
I can remember getting off the plane in Tokyo. The plane door opened for us to walk out and get on the bus and I just remember it was so hot and humid and it just hit us like a blast of heat I'd never felt before. We got to our hotel and we all took the underground into the 'big' city of Tokyo. Of course, we were the tallest people wherever we went, and everything was written in Japanese, a real cultural experience for all of us. The next day we flew to Taiwan and stayed at the Mandarin Hotel in Taipei. Being into languages, I learned some phrases in Mandarin to help get us around. I even use those phrases today that I learned back then.
 
My most memorable experience in Taiwan was visiting the Zhinan Temple of a Thousand Steps. We were taken on a very long bus tour to this beautiful Chinese temple, but it was a 1,000 steps up to the temple and a 1,000 steps down. We played the Taiwanese Army team that night and I remember somebody got a steal and I was out front on the fast break. They passed me the ball, I went to lay it in, went to jump and I couldn't get off the ground even an inch. There was nothing left in my legs, and I realized that after going up all those steps, which was quite smart for the organizers, none of us had anything left in our legs. Fortunately, we won the game in spite of that. Our outing to the Temple of a Thousand Steps was most memorable!
 
We were treated like VIP guests, something new for all of us. However, I still kick myself to this day. One afternoon, we visited an orphanage. They sat us down and served us tea and cookies. These kids were so young and cute and probably hungry as well. But we all sat there and drank our tea and ate the cookies instead of offering them to these little kids. I regret to this day, not offering my cookies to these kids, who of course spoke no English. I would do things differently today.
 
The next leg of our trip was to The Philippines. I remember seeing my first Geckos running on the walls of the stadium hotel they put us in. This wasn't luxury, but it was all right. There was a shopping mall nearby, and it was so hot during the day that we all went to the movie theatre to get air conditioning because we had no AC in our rooms.
We could have been the best NBA team from the states and we wouldn't have won a game in The Philippines due to the referees. They weren't just bad, they homered us like you couldn't believe. There were times when Mike (Clayton) would be bringing the ball up the floor, and they would come and push him, steal the ball, no foul called, and lay it in. There was no way that we were going to win. And, of course, the sellout crowd was loving every minute of it.
 
On the entire trip, everywhere we went, we were looked up to, like we were the best team the USA had to offer. People knew we were the team from America representing the U.S. State Department, so we got great publicity wherever we went, crowds of people and little kids wanting our autographs. So there are a lot of kids (adults now) over there who have an autograph from (Los Angeles Lakers Hall of Fame guard) Jerry West. Paul Hallgrimson. Who the heck is Paul Hallgrimson? Jerry West was my idol, so I always signed my name as Jerry West. It was much shorter than my name and a lot easier to sign.
 
We were all a bit down after The Philippines, especially after losing all our games there. We flew on Singapore Airlines, the nicest airline I'd ever flown on at that time. We flew to Singapore and spent an unforgettable weekend in one of the most fascinating cities of the world. Electronics was not what it is today, but I wanted to buy a camera. My brother had been to Malaysia with the Peace Corps and he had been to Singapore several times. He told me where to go and we found a great camera store with amazing prices. I bought two cameras, which I still have today.
 
After having a great time in Singapore, we flew a few hours south to Perth, Australia. It was unique in that everyone was speaking English, so we were finally able to understand people. We then flew to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and other great cities on the east coast. We even flew once in two very small eight passenger planes, which was unusual but exciting. It was in Adelaide where I tore the tendons in my foot and was put on crutches for a few days. This was my only bad experience during the entire trip. And we stayed with host families instead of in hotels, which was also a lot of fun and very interesting.
 
We were offered to go play games in New Zealand, but Coach Randall turned down the offer. He wanted to stay and play the Australian Olympic team again. They were getting ready for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. So, we stayed in Sydney and we beat their Olympic team, a highlight of our trip.
 
Shortly before returning to the USA, we're at the airport in Newcastle ready to fly to Sydney and then back to the USA. Coach Randall had been out the night before with the local farmers looking for kangeroos. Just before getting on the plane, Randall handed me a baby kangaroo and told me to hide it under my jacket. He said that we were going to take him back to Western and have as a team mascot. So, I walk onto the plane with this baby kangaroo in my Western letterman's jacket (no security back then). I'm sitting there in this small plane with the kangaroo in my letterman's jacket. The kangaroo was a baby, but pretty good size with a very strong tail. Just as the stewardess is walking by me, the kangeroo's tail came flying out of my jacket. The stewardess is shocked to see this and says, 'You can't have a kangaroo on the airplane.' She immediately took the kangaroo off the plane and Western did not get a new mascot, unfortunately. Coach Randall always had great and, at times, unusual ideas.
 
For me, our trip to Asia and Australia was one of the highlights of my young life and my basketball career. It also had a profound effect on my life later on as well. I've had the good fortune to return to many of the beautiful cities we visited (Tokyo, Singapore, Melbourne, and Sydney to name a few). But nothing can be better than traveling with a great group of guys and outstanding coaches, taking daily tours, seeing wonderful sights, and at the end of the day, you get to play a basketball game. Win or lose, an unforgettable experience! Thank you Western Washington University for making this possible so many years ago!

Personal trip reflections by Neal Larson
 
We had a long flight from SeaTac to Osaka and then on to Tokyo. Playing cards helped pass the time. When we got off the plane it was so hot and humid it was hard to breathe. Upon arriving in Tokyo we had the night to check out the town. Coach Randall had told us we may never see Tokyo again so just make sure not to miss the next morning's flight to Taiwan. There was a lot of celebrating going on downtown with parades, colorful dragons, and fireworks. There were also a lot of peddlers looking to sell us almost anything! Some of us got on a monorail and we weren't sure where we were but we managed to get back to our hotel somehow. It was a short night and an early flight but we all made it.
 
I really enjoyed my time in Taipei, Taiwan. We stayed in a nice hotel and as we looked out from our room high above we saw workers with coolie hats plowing the rice fields with water buffalo. It was such a contrast between old and new. We played four games and won them all. The National Team had a player that was 6-foot-8 and was the tallest Asian I had ever seen. We did a lot of shopping and I remember Whit (Hemion) bought 19 albums for eight dollars (pirated copies). He thought he had them concealed but when he went through customs they found them. He was a little worried but they let him keep them with no penalty. Crazy taxi drivers going every different direction with continual honking, it was quite a way to travel through the city. Everyone was so friendly, definitely one of my favorite places I've ever visited.
 
Then it was off to Manila, Philippines. We stayed in a rather run down stadium called the Araneta Coliseum. It held 35,000 people and was the largest covered stadium in the world until the Astrodome was built. The rooms were really bad and Coach Randall had us toss pennies toward the wall to see which three players would get a smaller room. All the others would get a larger bunkhouse type of room. It was unlovingly referred to as Cell Block 32! The three that could throw their penny closest to the wall without hitting it would be the winners. Fortunately, I was one of the winners but I don't recall who the other two guys were. There were cockroaches everywhere but the larger room seemed to get the majority of them. I believe I heard a rumor that some of the chairs, and then pieces of chairs were used to try to hit the little varmints. We lost all three games that were played here. I do honestly believe the refs were paid off as the officiating was so blatantly one sided.
   
There were screens around the court so fans could not throw things at us and they could not come down on the floor to express their displeasure! Spectators had to check their weapons in before entering the playing area. Quite an atmosphere. We went to a couple of movies and people also had to check in their weapons before entering. We were told that if they didn't like a character on the screen they would just shoot at him! The screen did have several bullet holes in it.
 
This was one place I had no desire to see again. One more thing, one of our players threw a large string of firecrackers out the window of Cell Block 32 and it caused quite a commotion. They must have thought it was gunfire by the reaction of building security staff. Maybe some others have more to add about that. The next stop was Singapore and we were ready to go.
 
Singapore was the cleanest city I have ever been to. Not one scrap of paper or garbage could be seen anywhere along the roads or in the city. They drove on the left side of the road which took some getting used to. No games were scheduled but a three-day stop before heading to Australia. We did a lot of shopping and I bought a six-band transistor radio, which I used for many years. Definitely a nice place to visit.
 
Perth, Australia was next. When we left Singapore it was quite warm and humid and when we landed it was a cold 37 degrees! We stayed with different host families and John Reed and I were paired up. They only had one small heater in their living room because it rarely got so cold and we all sat near it and tried to stay warm. Then it was time for bed and I was huddled under the covers with a hot-water bottle and my new radio. It was here I heard the song "Harper Valley PTA" for the first time. Amazing what one remembers. We won a game in a cold gym and then after a day off we were heading to Adelaide.
 
Wish I could remember more but we moved from city to city and would play a game or a couple of games. We stayed with host families that were all really nice. I went to an Australian football game which was quite different than our football. They called our football "gridiron" and thought it was boring because after every play the whistle would blow and teams would reset. The next city was Mildura where Ben Smith, Jimmy Jones, and I stayed with a host family. It was here that according to my notes even Coach Randall and Blaine Johnson our PR person got into a game. Somewhere during this time a bunch of our guys went out spotlighting (shooting at night out of the back of a pickup) with some locals and acquired a baby kangaroo through the evening's activity. It was the cutest little thing, only about a foot tall, and it went with us until we left Australia.
 
The next big city was Melbourne by bus. It was there that we got our first shot at the Australian Olympic Team. We won 61-55 which was pretty memorable and it was broadcast on national TV. Another memorable thing was early on in the game I had to throw up. I had taken a pain pill for a wisdom tooth, and that and my fish dinner were not mixing. I ran off the court and into the locker room and I guess they were wondering where the fifth player had gone! After a few minutes I returned to the bench and Coach asked me if I'd thrown up my cookies and if I was feeling better. I nodded yes, and he said, "Go back in for (Ron) Caderette,  he just picked up his third foul." With the win I think our record stood at 11-5. Then we flew to Canberra and won a game there for win number 12. After some sightseeing and a night's stay we flew to Newcastle in a couple of little eight-seater prop planes. When we landed we were told we had to hurry to the stadium because the people were already there expecting us. We put on our uniforms in the van while heading to the game. We won by five points, and finally got to our much-desired  hotel. It was a long day! We had a road trip the next day to a smaller town, but did not play until the next night. We won that game against a pretty good all-star squad and that made us 14-5. Ed Monk, where were you and Whit (Hemion) that night?! We left for Sydney the next morning where we were to play our remaining two games versus the Australian Olympic team.

Sydney was our last stop. We stayed at the Olympic compound where their athletes trained. It was quite a distance outside of the city so we rode the bus into town to see the sights. We won the first game by two in a very tight contest and lost the last game to complete our schedule.
 
I believe that left us at 15-6 which was pretty good considering we had lost three of three in the Philippines. Most of the teams were national teams preparing for the upcoming Olympics or a combination of Olympians and area all-stars. International rules took some getting used to and the play was a lot rougher than at home. I brought $200 with me and returned with a dime for a phone call and a bunch of souvenirs and gifts. A six-week tour of Asia/Australia was quite an adventure for this 19-year-old! It was probably more than I could fathom at the time. I hope to meet up again with many of you who made the trip. I'm so sorry that several are no longer with us. It's just hard to believe it's been 50 years!
 
Personal trip reflections by Gary Reiersgard
 
During the summer of 1968 the Western basketball team was selected by the People to People organization (U.S. State Department) to represent the USA on a far-east (Australasia) tour. We were the first small college to be selected for this annual tour. The tour lasted about six weeks and included most of the month of July. Unfortunately, the school didn't have enough funds to totally sponsor the trip. It was decided that we would sell raffle tickets for $1.00 each throughout the Bellingham area to raise money for the trip. The raffle's winning prize was a ticket for the individual to go with us on the tour. I don't recall how many thousands of dollars of tickets we sold, but we did sell enough to fund the trip for a team of 10 players. 
 
I believe the winner of the raffle was the uncle of one of the players. He decided he did not want to take the trip, and he donated his trip back to the school. This allowed us to take one more player on the trip.
   
We first traveled to Japan for an overnight stay in Tokyo before moving on to Taipei, Taiwan. Tokyo was clearly the busiest city I had ever seen. We stayed at a hotel where the rooms opened with the typical Japanese decorated sliding doors, and where the bed mattresses were placed directly on the floor. 
 
Our next stop was Taipei, Taiwan. We played our first four games in Taipei against the Chinese National team. I believe we were the first U.S. team to ever win all four games in Taipei. The games were played in an arena that was open to the outdoors, except for the ceiling area. The games were played in the evening with a temperature of about 85 degrees and very high humidity. I recall not even wanting to warm up for the games. The Chinese fans were very interesting in that they all wore white silk shirts and used little hand-held fans. I also recall, that instead of booing something they didn't like, they hissed. There was also no applause from the fans for either team.
 
While in Taipei we stayed in a large hotel that catered to tourists and served American style food (which I believe was important to all of us).  One day several of us ventured downtown (a city of about 2 million in population at the time) where intense traffic consisted of almost all red taxi cabs. Most of the common folk could not afford to own a car. Only a few Volkswagen bugs were noticed as being privately owned vehicles by the few persons with money. We were looking for interesting restaurants, record stores and a place to buy fireworks. We found knock-off record albums for sale in stores for about 35 cents each and purchased quite a few. They were made of either red or orange vinyl.
 
Somewhere in the middle of the city on a main roadway (eight lanes) we found a little fireworks shop. We were fascinated with the thousands of different fireworks for sale. These were clearly unsafe fireworks you couldn't find in the U.S. As we examined different things, the owner of the shop kept watching us and saying: "work good." This apparently was the only English he knew and he kept saying it over and over again. We just smiled. Finally, someone pointed to some very large skyrockets. They were at least 4 feet long. The owner again said "work good" and grabbed a couple and motioned for us to follow him outside. He walked out onto the sidewalk and then right into the busy eight-lane road where traffic was bumper to bumper, and then stopped in the middle of the street. He stood up both rockets in a large bucket between taxi cabs and lit them. Now this was quite a sight; watching the rockets take off, and go up several hundred feet and explode above the 10 to 15 story buildings in downtown Taipei. The owner ran back to the sidewalk where we waited, and with a big smile said "work good." We all agreed. 
 
We bought as many fireworks as we thought we could hide in our luggage when returning to the U.S. They hardly cost anything. Even the skyrockets were less than 25 cents. I bought a box of assorted firecrackers and one large firecracker about 8 inches long. We did give the owner extra for his unique demonstration. I put my fireworks in cigar box and taped the box to a clothes hanger in the suit bag that I carried.
 
Our next stop was Manila in the Philippines. We were there to play three games against the Philippine National team. Instead of staying in a hotel, in an effort to save money, we stayed in the basement of the arena where we were to play. It was pretty sad and bad; a real dump. Seven of us stayed in one room with a concrete floor and walls, each with a small bed and just sheets. The weird part of that accommodation was that there was no door on the little bathroom off of the sleeping area. You can imagine the interesting noises, and response to the noises with that arrangement. At night, the walls of the room were covered with small geckos and other lizards.
 
Manila was a very dirty city, with trash and dirt everywhere in the streets. We noticed that a lot of people actually lived in large cardboard boxes, or really ugly, small wooden shacks. But right next to these hovels were large, ornate, well-maintained Catholic churches. I guess all their money went to supporting the Catholic Church. There were a lot of shops in town to visit, but nothing in them that I really wanted. There were also armed police or military on every street corner. 
 
It was difficult to get any rest, even at night because of the high humidity and heat. We didn't even have fans in our room. One afternoon in the heat of the day several of us decided to go see a movie since the theater was one of very few buildings in the city that was air-conditioned. There were very few people at the theater and we sat together on the main floor. After the lights went out I thought I noticed movement in the aisle, and as I looked down the aisle I saw rats scurrying across the aisle every couple of seconds. A couple guys got freaked out, so we all ended up in the balcony in the first row so we could keep our feet up on the railing. I think most of us fell asleep since it was so cool in the theater.
 
The basketball arena was interesting in that on the outside walls near the entrances were giant wall-sized signs requiring people to check their weapons in wire cages at the door. Inside, the entire court was surrounded by a wire net from floor to ceiling that separated the fans from the players. This was apparently to stop any flying bottles, cans, etc. thrown by the fans at visiting players. During the games we found that the net was in fact needed. The fans would protest referee calls by throwing anything they had at the court. We lost all three games in Manila, mainly because the referees were the worst we had ever seen, and they clearly favored the home team and they weren't very subtle about it.
 
For our next stop, we stayed a couple of nights in Singapore, but didn't have any games to play. This was a very interesting city. Most of the guys didn't feel like wandering around, and chose to stay near the hotel where we were staying. Paul Hallgrimson and I decided to see the not so pretty parts of town. Paul wanted to take about several hundred pictures with a new camera he bought in a store earlier. We found some interesting shops where most of the goods were from mainland China, and illegal to bring back to the U.S. at that time. We also bought a lot of small play balls and when we saw the very poor kids on the street, we would give them the balls as they swarmed over us. It was quite an eye-opener to see first-hand the extensive poverty in Singapore. It was very similar to some of the areas in the Philippines. I recall actually being fairly emotional and feeling embarrassed when interacting with these poor children, in that they had nothing, and we Americans had so much more.    
 
Paul and I paused at one little shop off the beaten tourist path that looked interesting and went in. Usually, the employees came running when they saw westerners, but here we just wandered around on our own in the shop. We noticed two men way in the back sitting behind the counter and basically ignoring us. Paul was interested in what they were doing so we went to the back and found them playing a board game. It looked like Mahjong. Paul asked what they were playing and one of the guys just pointed at his side of the board and said: "China" then pointed at the other side and said "U.S."; and then he said "China always win." We decided it was time to quickly leave the store.
 
After Singapore, we visited Australia. We started at Perth on the west coast and ended at Sydney on the east coast. We played several club teams in Ballarat, Swan Hill, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Canberra, and finished with the Australian Olympic team in Sydney after playing them first in Melbourne. During the entire trip we stayed with the families of the players of the teams that we were playing. We had a great time in Australia, won most of our games, and won one game against the Australian Olympic team. It is somewhat strange that I don't recall many real specific game memories. The games were pretty routine.   
 
However, during one of our games against a not so good club team in a small town north of Sydney, we had a very large lead and Coach Randall decided he wanted to play in the game. So, he asked me to go to the locker room with him during a time out late in the game. Of course, I had no idea at the time why we were heading for the locker room. I then found out he wanted my shorts and jersey. Fortunately, I still had warm-up pants and a top that I could wear back to the court. Coach looked like a small clown on the court wearing my very large shorts. He wanted to get in the game and try some of his weird tricks. He got the ball near the baseline and faked a pass by putting the ball all the way around the defenders back. The defender turned to look back for a second and Randall then pulled the ball back and put it between his legs, making it look like he had passed the ball. The defender then again turned to find the ball, and Coach took the ball from between his legs, shot it, and made the basket. We couldn't believe it.  We sort of went crazy on the bench, and the crowd also went wild. It's a shame that wasn't caught on tape.
 
The day before we were to leave Australia, several of us took a cab to a local beach near Sydney. It was mid-winter there, but the temperature was about 75 degrees, and the sky clear. The beach was great as we ran around in our swimming suits. There were even some nice shells lying around in the sand. We thought it was really weird that absolutely no one else was at the beach. We found out later that it was just too cold for the locals, and way too dangerous to go into the water due to the winter rip tides.
 
Jimmy Jones was a real hit Australia. Since Jimmy was black, he stood out quite nicely. There were very few black people in the developed areas of Australia at that time. Only the aborigines in the outback areas, and very few of them would be seen in the larger Australian cities. Jimmy was gawked at continuously, and with his American accent, he was the target of a lot of girls. Since he liked to ham it up anyway, he became the center of attention, and loved every minute of it.
 
As we wound down to our last couple of days in Australia, Coach Randall decided that it would be cool to take home a small kangaroo for a Western mascot. He had somehow gotten a hold of a Joey (baby kangaroo) and wanted Paul Hallgrimson to hide it, and take it on our plane back to the U.S. Paul had actually hidden the Joey under his jacket and was seated on the plane when a wild tail suddenly emerged from his jacket. A stewardess saw the animal and it was taken off the plane. I'm surprised someone wasn't arrested. Coach never could understand why it was illegal to take the animals out of Australia.
 
 
Overall, the tour was a success. We had fared as well as some of the major universities that had previously taken the same tour. For me personally, it brought a new perspective on what really existed out there in the big world. First-hand experiences with different cultures were amazing compared to the brief snippets of far off countries seen on television at that time, or even what you were able to read in magazines or books. Even though there was a great big world to be seen out there, the true value of the tour was the day-to-day interaction with teammates and coaches. 
 
Personal trip reflections by Ed Monk
 
In Taiwan we beat the Taiwanese Olympic team four times and we were so well cared for that we felt like rock stars. I remember one day after practice walking back to our five-star hotel and hearing the sound of a basketball bouncing coming from one of the homes along the path. Four of us tall guys just walked up to the back fence and looked over. There were some young boys playing ball and when they saw our brown and white faces peering down at them over their six-foot high fence, they went bananas. A few minutes later we were all playing a pickup game with a bunch of kiddos whom we couldn't talk with but could easily share the knowledge and joy of this American game that had become the world's game. The kids' eyes went wide open as we slam-dunked on their hoop and lifted them up to do the same. What a rush for these Chinese children and what a warm memory for us! The family managed to find a cousin who spoke English and the next day they held a huge barbecued chicken feast for the four of us. They couldn't believe how much food we put away and thinking back it must have been very expensive for this poor family. However, we got their entire extended family seats to the games, right behind one of the baskets and now we had our own private and very enthusiastic rooting section of maybe 20 devoted fans. You can't buy memories like these!
 
Oh, and there was Coach (Randall) getting on a uniform and bringing the ball down (the court) against a Taiwanese Olympic player. As he approached the top of our key, very closely guarded, he stopped and instantly hid the ball between his knees and pretended to snap pass the ball past this poor young man's right ear. The guy turned around to see where the ball went while Coach grabbed the ball and threw it to an open player and we scored. This was possibly Taiwan's first introduction to Harlem Globetrotter-type exhibition ball. The crowd went into hysterics and Chuck just ran back down on defense patting the poor guy on the back and finally getting a smile out of him.
 
 
How do you convey in a few inches the felling and exhilaration of the greatest experience of a lifetime? How do you thank a coach, a school and a town for giving you the most exciting memories of 21 years?
 
Tokyo was a midnight dream of faces, smells and action. Girls dance with girls, boys with boys in a underground discotheque.
 
China was a warm Chinese family that cheered just for you at a fall game and offered you their home and food to share. It was a fabulous hotel where you didn't want to stay because there were smiling children in the slum next door, who couldn't believe a guy 6-foot-5 sitting on a curb learning Chinese.
 
Manila, in the Philippines, was an earthquake-shocked city with curious and untrusting eyes where you always walked with your buddy after dark. It was the humiliation of three defeats, and five Vikings standing five Filipinos and two referees. It was a cool coach having to lose ball games, but winning friends in a country where America needs friends.
 
Singapore was two days of buying in the cleanest city in Asia. It was hundreds of dollars spent by 15 money-bucks Americans attempting to "Keep Singapore Green." It was eight hours from Aussie-land and 95 degrees.
 
Perth, Australia: Four o'clock a.m., standing in customs, approximate temperature 35 degrees. Fifteen cold Americans wondering how much duty they'd have to pay to get all their treasures home. "You say $70 for my tape recorder, sir?"
 
Wintertime and cold unheated gyms … warm people and huge steaks for only a dollar … "Where are the kangeroos?" … listen to those funny birds … sounds like Tarzan land … pub? … what's that?
 
Melborne. We beat the Olympic team! Wait 'till they hear this in Bellingham. Wow! Happiness is a warm family 15,000 miles from home.
 
Australia was super, miniskirts and healthy girls. Tall basketball players who you'll watch in Mexico (and we beat them two out of three).
Australia was huge surf and football, warm hearts and boomerangs and kangeroos and parrots. It was being a diplomat, signing autographs and hunting for a baby kangaroo for coach. It was the last stop on a 22,000-mile tour that you couldn't believe you were making.
 
The whole trip was sharing all these things with 10 cool guys, and depending upon them like brothers. It was winning ball games and making a good name for a great school. It was 15 games to the good and six bummers. Twenty-one games helping a team line up its sights on a national championship.
 
 

 Within weeks of returning from the Australasia tour, Blaine Johnson left his reporting position with the Bellingham Herald and was hired as a sports writer for the Seattle Post-     Intelligencer. After a role as publicity director for Longacres Race Track, he returned to the PI to cover the Seattle Sonics and then served as sports editor. He held roles as       Director of Port Relations for the Port of Tacoma, Executive Director of the Washington State Horse Racing Commission and then Assistant Managing Editor at the Tacoma News   Tribune. Author of several non-fiction books, Blaine had an extensive career restoring historic properties. He recently completed a position as CEO of a law firm in Los Angeles   and now lives with his wife, Catherine, in downtown Tacoma.
 
Presented by Paul Madison who served 48 years as sports information director at WWU from 1966 to 2015. He is now beginning his fourth year as the school's Athletics Historian.