100 Years Ago

Nov. 9, 1921

Spectators at the Pendleton-Baker high school football game on Armistice Day are to be kept in the grandstand, as the field has been wired off to keep the crowds off the grounds. For the fans who must see the play at close range, additional bleachers have been provided near the bleachers reserved for high school rooters, on the north side of the field. Dick Hanley, high school coach, says that the matter of patrolling the wires will be in the hand of members of the American Legion Post. Officials for the game will be Homer Angel, of Baker, former University of Oregon football player, referee; and Tracey Baker, of Pendleton, former University of Washington captain, umpire.

50 Years Ago

Nov. 9, 1971

The new marina in Umatilla will be known in the future as the Umatilla Marina. The Port of Umatilla commission Monday voted to rename the facility after the name Wanahla Marina apparently presented several problems. The vote brought unanimous approval in favor of the change. In 1968, when the Wanahla name was adopted, Commissioner Randy Dorran was the lone dissenter. The name change came after the Umatilla City Council and the Umatilla Chamber of Commerce were critical of the name Wanahla in meetings last week. The organizations plus some residents of the area said the name is difficult to pronounce, spell and remember, and that Umatilla Marina is the name that gives its location and is representative of the Umatilla Indian Tribe.

25 Years Ago

Nov. 9, 1996

Fulfilling a boyhood dream, Republican Gordon Smith won his race Friday to succeed GOP Sen. Mark Hatfield and became the first Oregon senator elected from east of the Cascades since the 1920s. A count of absentee ballots from Tuesday’s election gave Smith the victory over Democrat Tom Bruggere, a computer software company founder making his first bid for office. Smith, 44, a frozen-food tycoon whose father worked for President Dwight D. Eisenhower as assistant agriculture secretary, grew up in a household where politics was a main topic of conversation at the dinner table. Smith’s long-standing ambition to serve in the Senate, coupled with his narrow loss in a January special election to replace the disgraced Bob Packwood, made Friday’s victory all the more sweet. The last U.S. senator from Eastern Oregon was Robert Stanfield of Umatilla, who was elected in 1920.