In 1963, Oregon state Rep. Berkeley Lent thrust himself into the sports world by publicizing a controversy that now has ramifications more than five decades later.
The Democrat from Portland tabled a bill he introduced prohibiting to the state's flagship universities from participating athletically against the University of Mississippi. He instead turned his attention to Oregon State men's basketball coach Slats Gill and the "situations in our own backyard."
Lent said the legendary coach "never has had a Negro member of the varsity team," according to a report Oregon State University released this week as part of a multi-month analysis weighing the potential renaming of four on-campus buildings, including Gill Coliseum, the longtime OSU basketball arena.