Interview by Lily Shaver. Edited for clarity.

Dick Stiles, 88, coached track, basketball, football, and a bit of wrestling for Estacada High School between 1965-1991. I talked with him at Wade Creek Park in Estacada, Oregon on June 21, 2024 about his coaching career, his life growing up, and the athletes whose lives he touched.

1. How long have you been in Estacada?

1965 I came here. My wife and I were both teachers, she (Marjorie Stiles) taught grade school there for almost 30 years. So I coached here for 26 years–football, basketball, track. I started the girls track, they didn’t have a track team. And I started the girls track, and three years later we won the State Championship. So then I got to be “Coach of the Year” for the state of Oregon. I also had a kid on my boys team named Tom Woods that went seven feet in a high jump. He was the first one to ever do that in Oregon. That was with that “Fosbury flop” where you go over backwards. 

2. How did you start coaching?

We wanted to leave North Dakota because of all the snow and cold there. When we first came from North Dakota, we were at Richland, Oregon, which is over by Baker. They don’t even have a school anymore. And I didn’t know anything about it other than the fact that they were going to pay me $5,000 to coach all the sports, and my wife for $4,500. We thought “man, that’s a lot of money.” So she taught second, third, and fourth grade over there, and then first and second grade. And, I don’t know if you want to hear this or not, but I didn’t realize that they hadn’t won a football game in five years. And they only had 20 boys in high school, freshman, sophomore, it was a small school. Anyway, they showed me the football field and it wasn’t the right size. And then they showed me the high school, and the gymnasium was the size of half a gymnasium. There was no place for anybody to sit, hardly. Everything was negative, negative, negative. So I went home and I told Marj, don’t unpack, we’re not going to stay here. This is the worst place in the world, everything’s screwed up. 

I said, “They’re playing eight man football–I’ve never seen an eight man game.” She said, “Well, if you’re any kind of coach at all, turn the program around!” I thought, “what a gut shot.” Well, we ended up winning our first ball game of the year. I think it was 94 to 6. The rest is history. 

We won all our ball games except one, and the team that beat us went on to the State, and won the State championship. In my second year it was the same thing, and I couldn’t beat them again, and then in the third year we won it all and went all the way to the State. Thinking about that, we had to drive all the way from Richland, 600, I think it was 640 miles to Portland and down to Myrtle Creek. That’s where they played the game, and they only had to drive 30 miles. And then it was muddy down there, and we never played in the mud. And the guy I met out there who was coaching with me, got the head job at Estacada, and so he called me up and wanted to know if I’d be his assistant in football. We wanted to get out of Roseburg because it was so smoky, in those days you had those big burners, in the morning the smoke just hung in the town. I’m really against smoke and everything. So we took the job at Estacada, Marj and I drove up here with the kids and they really liked the town, nice little State football stadium and whatever. So anyway, we’ve been there since 1965, and I didn’t start coaching basketball until 1968. I was JV basketball coach, and part of that a referee in Portland. Football wise, the head coach was Chuck Stapleton, and he had gone to a military school when he was little, so he was really strict. And if you skipped practice, he’d kick you off the team, you know, that kind of stuff. He started out with 65 kids and we ended up with 20 some. So that was kind of hard to handle. 

I coached a couple years of wrestling, freshman and JV wrestling, and both years we won. I’d never wrestled before, but from North Dakota, I remember there was the school of the blind there, they couldn’t see, so you start out by tying up and then they wrestled blindfolded. So I thought, “these guys will learn these moves a lot quicker if they just shut their eyes,” so my wife made blindfolds. Just put them on and they couldn’t see and we’d tie up, and, it’s amazing. Steve Woods was the head coach, and he was amazed at how fast that teaches you to use your instincts, I guess is the word. But my JV team won the conference two years in a row, we played Molalla, the Dalles, and all around, Silverton. And then I got a chance to be a JV basketball coach, so I took that, and Bob Perkins was the head coach, so when he left I took the head program over. And then one year we were on our way to the State, we had one more ball game to win over Hood River, and some kids went and and got to drinking and smoking, and I had to kick them off. So we played that game at Hood River, and we got beat by one point. They went to the State, we didn’t get to go.

3. How did you get involved in the Building Construction Program?

I was assistant football coach and my superintendent was Jack Lyles, and he and I were both huntin’ friends, so he waited for me until football was over with, and we left here about 11 o’clock at night, and we’re going to the freeway heading to Baker, Oregon, where I used to coach, and where there’s a lot of deer and stuff. And as we’re going down the road he’s telling me about some guy down in Myrtle Creek or some place in Southern Oregon who was the woodshop teacher. And I was teaching woodshop up here. And he went to the school board, and asked the school board if he could take seven or eight, nine maybe, of his senior woodshop students and build his house. He paid for all the materials, but he would teach them framing and all the terminologies, electrical, plumbing, and all that kind of stuff. And then when they graduated, if they liked it, they were job ready high school graduates–they could go out into the world of work. I said, “That’s a hell of a good program.” And he said, “Well I’m glad you feel that way–I want you to run it.” And I said, “Well, I’ve never built a house in my life.” And he said, “Well we got guys in the community that are house builders, and they’d be more than happy to be your counselors, guides, whatever.” So I said “Alright, if that’s what you want.” So we started out on a lot down here by the sawmill. I said, “So what do you do first?” He said, “You got house plans?” and I said, “No”. So we bought house plans, and I broke the class up into two guys to a group, and they gave them books, and they picked out the house they liked, and “Now you tell the class why you liked this house,” and so on, and that’s how we started. 

We had the program 10 years and we build 10 houses here, and every one of them sold like hot cakes, you know, up Ginseng Drive, we’ve got six or seven, and then what the hell they call it, over by the cemetery, there’s about four or five houses we build over there. And they were really neat, every one of them got a little better. So then the program got really popular so rather than me teaching just three hours a day, we started another, a guy by the name of Walt Bever came from California, he was a house builder, and he would teach woodshop, while I was at the building construction and vice versa. And I had a pre-construction class made up of sophomores, and they did the whole interior of the bus garage, the bus garage they just tilted up the walls and put a roof on it. And then my sophomores went in there and built the whole interior, stairways, offices up above and all that. And we also built buildings out back for the Ag classes, barns and classrooms and stuff like that. 

I got two letters the third year of teaching the building construction program. I got two letters 1973, I think it was and ‘74 from Governor Tom McCall at the time. And he was complimenting me on our program and that all schools ought to turnout job ready high school graduates. You know, instead of just kids walkin’ out and seniors, they don’t know what the hell they’re gonna do now. But in our program, the whole vocational department changed to prepare a kid to walk out the door, in auto mechanics, metal shop, Ag, and everything, how to start raising Christmas tree farms. And we were turning out kids that got their diploma and, hell, they’re ready to get to work. 

When I was doing this, the whole state of Oregon started hearing about it. And superintendents, principals, shop teachers, department heads, whatever would come to our school and visit and they were always really impressed and I told them “talk to the kids, ask them how they feel about the program.” And of course the kids were all pumped about it. And home economics was teaching you the different types of appliances (which is the best to buy if you’re gonna go out and buy a stove or a refrigerator or whatever dishwashers or whatever.) Different departments were teaching things that you really need when you get out. And so I got I think it was 15 letters from superintendents saying “call me, I want to hire you, whatever you want to coach here, whatever we want you to start this program at our school.”

4. How were you involved with Nike and Phil Knight?

I was coaching track, and at that time, he had what was called blue ribbons for us. He was just getting started. And I’m out there on the track during track practice and his guy comes walking down past the tennis courts. Long haired hippie looking guy. [I thought] “What the hell does he want?” So anyway, [I said] “Can I help you?” And he said “Yeah, my name is Phil Knight, I have Blue Ribbon Sports. We’re developing a shoe company. I’d like to have you–” he said “I’m gonna give you–[I think was] eight pairs of shoes for the girls and the boys and for you.” Just regular walking shoes. And he said “I’d like to have you try ‘em out and then I’ll be back in a month to see what you have to say.” Okay, I gave out the shoes he gave me to the guys that they fit. And so then he comes back a month later. “What do you think, coach?” And I said, “First of all the heels are too narrow.” The shoes today have a wide heel. They used to have a real narrow heel. Okay, and I roll my ankle. So he wrote that down. And I said “have you done any experimenting with threading that you sew the shoes together with?” I said that when I was doing graduate work at Colorado State, we studied shoes and found out that Converse were the best shoes on the market, and that they had the threads that they sewed the shoes together with that were resistant to the chemicals in sweat and rainwater, where other shoes the thread would…And he wrote that down. The soles were too tight, they fit lengthwise but..

So anyway, he wrote all that down. 

The heel, the one he came up with, was really narrow. And distance runners, (because he was a distance runner for the University of Oregon), they just put more emphasis on the balls of your foot, instead of that heel in the back ‘cause they’re running on their toes. But he changed, all their heels now have wider heels on them. Yeah, and then they changed from Blue Ribbons ‘course to Nike. And that coach from Estacada never got a dime for it.

5. How did you teach the coaching strategy “Energy Follows Thought”?

Bill Walton came out here to Estacada when he was playing for the Trail Blazers, and he wanted to know if he could work out in my gym and he comes out all by himself and works out in the gym. He just died the other day, Bill Walton (May 27, 2024). But, I’d throw him the ball, and he’d turn and pivot and shoot. And I said, “Have you ever heard of the principle ‘Energy Follows Thought’?” He played at UCLA for John Wooden. And I said, “Well, Bill, if you’re putting a golf ball, or if you’re gonna shoot a free throw, if you picture yourself making it, your body automatically computes itself, you make it. But if you’re out there thinking “oh my God, I’m gonna fall or my girlfriend’s watching or, you know, whatever.” So I taught him that energy follows thought, but I said “You got your back to the basket now, and I throw you the pass over here, that means the defense is over here, and you already started. When you turn, you picture that spot up on the board where you’re gonna lay them all up there. And he said, Well, John Wooden used to teach the same thing. But he didn’t tell me to do it until I was ready to shoot. John Wooden was at a clinic in Portland and I asked him if he’d teach me the keys to the one two two zone defense. And he was the first coach to use that in college football or soccer. Ten times he won a national championship. 

6. Did you ever hear back from former athletes you coached over the years?

You know, they all went out into the world of work. I got a couple of calls. I was gonna tell you this, I forgot, my first job in Richland, over there, their small school. I got a letter from one of my athletes who played football, basketball, baseball. It said “Coach I want to tell you, I love you.” He said “I’m over here in Vietnam and the helicopters have been dropping us into some really bad situations. And I’m a platoon leader. I’ve got 13 guys under me. I’m trying to save their lives.” He said “You coached me and taught me that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And I teach that to my men,” and he said “I don’t think I’m gonna make it home. So I wanted to write you and tell you, thank you and I love you.” Gee, that really got me. Yeah. In 1968 he got shot and killed, but he got the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Wow, talk about kids getting back to you. I’ve had a kid who grew up here in Estacada. Al Mitchell, and he was in my building construction program for two years. And he became an electrician. He really liked that. And it was about six, seven years after he got out of school, I got a phone call and he said “Coach, I want to thank you for having that Building Construction Program. He said “I’m up here now, just south of Seattle, and he named the town. And he said “I’ve got three sons and a wonderful wife and I’ve got a commercial and residential electric company where we do wiring for both commercial buildings and stuff. I never would have this right now, if it wasn’t for you.” I got letters like that. 

This is a fifth grade basketball team (pictured below). They never played basketball before. And I was a sophomore in college. And the principal at the school called me up and he said “The athletic director suggested I get a hold of you.” He said that I would make a good coach. And he said “I’d like to have you come over and coach my fifth grade basketball team.” And so he said “could you meet me at the school tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon?” And I said, “I really want to do it.” Yeah. Anyway, I was in a situation in my life where I didn’t know whether I should. I was in the National Guard, and they called me in the office the day before this happened. They called me to the office and they said “We want to send you to OCS school which is Officers Candidate School. We think you’re gonna really make a good officer.” And I got ranked really fast. I joined when I was a junior, junior or senior year, and that helped me because I got kicked out of my house, my junior year of high school, so that gave me some money to go to school. So anyway, I’m trying to decide should I drop out of school, or join and go become an officer? Join the army for 20 years. You get a retirement and everything. Or should I stay in school, where we’re gonna have a good football program, basketball program, track program, which we had, and we became inducted into the Hall of Fame on those three teams.

So before I made the decision, this guy, the superintendent called me up from the grade school. And so we got together. So I took the job. I’d practice with the kids for an hour and a half at grade school. And then we played Saturday ball games and the first two ball games we played we never scored a point and I told the players, “Hey, you’re getting better and better. This is going to change. Well, in the third game we played, a little guy on the team intercepted a pass, because I was emphasizing defense. He intercepted the ball, dribbled it around the floor, shot the basket, used the backboard like I was teaching him to do, made the basket, and he come running over to me and gave me a hug. “Did you see that coach? Did you see that? Well, we ended up after he had done that, we never lost the ball game. And we won the city championship. And the principal came to me and he said, “God, you’re gonna be a hell of a coach.” He said “You really know how to teach, you’ve got a lot of patience. He said “Those kids just love you.” Well, then the mothers got together and we had a little cake and ice cream thing, you know. And I was working at nights at a trophy company in town, and so I got each one little trophy and well, seven years later,..Oh, I told him if you guys stay together, you got a team that’s gonna be really good and you’ll be able to take this high school to the state tournament. 

Seven years later, I’m sitting here watching TV, phone rings, “Is this Coach Stiles that used to coach and live in Valley City, North Dakota and coach a fifth grade basketball team?” And I said “yeah,” and he said well, Coach,” he said “This is Jackie Piercy, (the second kid after the boy with the ball) He said “we’re sitting here now at the state tournament and we’re gonna play our first game tomorrow at 10 o’clock in the morning and we were just talking about how you told us if we stay together and stuff we’ll make it to the state tournament. And so we just thought we’d give you a call and tell you we made it.” That really got to me, you know, that was the reason why I got into coaching was working with these kids and taking ‘em, they were terrible. They didn’t know what a layup was. Line up on a 10 second line. So they lined up half and half. And I threw this big kid the ball, and I said, “Lets see you shoot a right hand layup. Go ahead.” And he said, “What’s a layup?” That’s where they were. They didn’t win the State title, but they went there.

7. What was it like having a paper route when you were a boy?

[I had to deliver] 68 or 69 papers. I was in the sixth grade when I got the paper route, and I could hardly carry that bag with that many papers. My dad lived in the same town I was living in. When I was in about fifth grade I think it was, he gave me a wagon that he picked up out of somebody’s farm. And he said come on down to the John Deere implement where he worked. He gave me some yellow paint, and some green paint, and I painted it that John Deere color. So then I took my wagon and I put those newspapers in there, and they pulled a hell of a lot easier. And my paper route was three and half miles long. Up a hill and around the town a little bit. I’d get my sister to help me once and a while when the snow was pretty deep. When it came time for the seventh grade, I told my mother I’m going to quit the paper route, because I wanted to play basketball and stuff. And she was all upset. But I sold it to a buddy of mine. 

8. What was it like for you growing up?

Well, when I grew up, my mother was crippled with polio. When I was five years old, my dad divorced her. And I had a sister younger than me. And so things were really really tough and the depression was going on and all the farmers in North Dakota and through the Midwest it was a big drought and there was no rain for like two or three years. You know, things were really poor and all that. When we had a high school coach, my football coach in high school taught PE in junior high. And he says–well, I’ll start from the beginning. He lined us all up and he walked down behind us and then in front, inspecting if we had a dirty uniform in any way, dirty shoes or anything. He’d make us run. So then said, “How many of you guys are going out for football?” And three fourths of class raise your hand whether they’re going or not. “Okay, you guys go inside.” And I had to stay outside. I was the last one and I wasn’t gonna lie to him because I couldn’t go out [for football] because I had a paper route. And my mother needed help. You know, money wise, she only got $40 a month from welfare. I don’t know how the hell we ever made it.

But he said, “I could run you all day, Stiles, and you wouldn’t lie to me.” He said, “I really appreciate that.” And he put his arm around me and I thought he was gonna slug me. I flinched, you know. And he said, “You got all the makings of being a really, really good athlete.” And he said, “You sold your paper route to a buddy of yours, so that you could play basketball and football when you were in junior high, seventh grade. And so anyway, to make the story short, he was in high school the same high school I went to Athlete of the half century, from 1900 to 1950. And he had a full scholarship to Notre Dame and he couldn’t go because his dad got killed in a war. And so he had to take care of his mother. So we went to the same college that’s in my hometown and I was going to and he told me that these stories are similar. He said I turned down Notre Dame you know, whatever. And so the story goes on where I’d never run the  hurdles before and my buddies came to me and said, Hey, we’re giving away 40 points every track meet and you’re the best all around athlete on a track team, you play varsity football, varsity basketball, varsity track. Why don’t you give the hurdles a try? Well, I ended up being the fastest hurdler in the state of North Dakota. 

And I picked up 30, I think it was 32 and a half points or so. And so my college team won the conference. And that particular year we got five teams in college that won the conference championships and I was on three of them–the football team won, the basketball team won, and the track team won. I broke the low hurdle record. And my high school coach had retired and moved to California. When he got the local paper, he sent me a clipping where I had broken his record. He was telling me how it made him happy ‘if anybody broke my record, it was somebody in Valley City’ and whatever, well he was kind of a tutor for me when I was growing up in high school. My mother married another guy, and he got into a pissing match with me and vice versa. I came home from the ballgame when it was 20 below zero and a big blizzard out. And I came in and I stopped my feet to get the snow off. And I woke him up. One thing led to another, and they kicked me out of the house. I was in junior high school.

So I had a buddy who was in a similar situation, but his folks moved to California. And he wanted to stay in Valley City. He said, “Let’s go down to the college and tell them we’re college students.” So we got a place to stay down there for $12.50 a month. I had a bedroom, he had a bedroom. I had this coach and he just kind of–it’d be wintertime and I’d be in a theater when the theater got out. He’d be sitting there in his police car and “get in.” I thought he was going to arrest me for something. And so he gave me a ride home. And he really took care of me and told me what made the world go round, all that kind of stuff. But then as I go to college and get all these awards in college and as you know, four years in a row of basketball. We won the conference in basketball and football. I had never played defensive end before and our defensive end got hurt early in the first quarter. So coach said, “Stiles, you come here, you’ve been bugging me all year about wanting to play some defense. I wasn’t starter or tight end offensively. So I go in there…because in track you come out of the blocks real quick, I was across the line of scrimmage, I made a whole bunch of tackles in the backfield, caused four fumbles, recovered two or three. That was for when we won the conference championship. And the coach said “You gotta have the game ball, you played an outstanding game.” They never made a yard around my hand.

VCSU Coaches Hall of Fame : Vikings Hall of Fame : Awards & Recognition : Valley City State University Foundation

My View: Dick Stiles | Opinion | estacadanews.com