OSU release – Former Marshfield great Mel Counts’ illustrious basketball resume includes an Olympic gold medal, two National Basketball Association championships, three more NBA Finals appearances and being a two-time All-American. He’s in the State of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and the Oregon State University Sports Hall of Fame; a banner honoring his retired jersey number 21 hangs in the rafters of Gill Coliseum. So where does Oregon State’s trip to the 1963 Final Four rank among those accomplishments? “It’s right up there,” Counts said during a gathering of those 1963 Beavers on January 27 in Corvallis. That team’s reunion was just one highlight of a fantastic basketball weekend from January 25-28 at Gill Coliseum as the Oregon State men’s and women’s teams combined to go 4-0 with three of the wins coming over nationally ranked opponents; it also included OSU men’s basketball alums from across several decades returned to honor longtime program secretary Anne Harper. The 1963 Beavers on hand for the weekend were Counts, Steve Pauly, Jim Kraus, Rex Benner, Jim Jarvis and Frank Peters; they also reunited with Jimmy Anderson, who coached them on Rook teams when they were freshmen. “It’s just fun to get together and see some of these guys maybe you haven’t seen in decades,” Benner said. And the group had a chance to share memories of a very special season.
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