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PARTLY SUNNY 57 • 46 | TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2020 | theworldlink.com
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Famed Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager dies Associated Press Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles “Chuck” Yeager, the World War II fighter pilot ace and quintessential test pilot who showed he had the “right stuff” when in 1947 he became the first person to fly faster than sound, has died. He was 97. Yeager died Monday, his wife, Victoria Yeager, said on his Twitter account. “It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET. An incredible life well lived, America’s greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever.” Yeager’s death is “a tremendous loss to our nation,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
U.S. fully restores DACA
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Trump administration said Monday that it fully restored the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that shields hundreds of thousands of young people from deportation, complying with a federal judge’s order. The Department of Homeland Security posted on its website that it is accepting new applications, petitions for twoyear renewals and requests for permission to temporarily leave the U.S. The department said it “may seek relief from the order,” signaling that its concession to the court order may be short-lived if its legal efforts succeed. The announcement is still a major victory for young people who have been unable to apply since Trump ended DACA in September 2017. His administration has long argued that DACA is unconstitutional. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that Trump violated federal law in how he ended the program, Chad Wolf, the acting Homeland Security secretary, said the administration would study its options and, until then, wouldn’t accept new applications and would grant renewals for one year instead two. DACA shields about 650,000 people from deportation and makes them eligible for work permits. Monday’s announcement came hours before a deadline set by District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in the Eastern District of New York for the administration to post public notice that it would accept applications under terms before Trump ended DACA in 2017. The judge ruled Friday that Wolf was unlawfully serving in his position. DACA was started in 2012 during the Obama administration. It allows certain immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children to work and be exempt from deportation, though it does not confer legal status on recipients. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to reinstate DACA when he takes office in January but permanent legal status and a path to citizenship would require congressional approval. DACA recipients and their supporters greeted the news with a mix of elation and awareness that their futures are precarious, even with Biden’s support. Maria Garcia, 18, an aerospace engineering student at Arizona State University, said she will apply for the program as soon as she can. She and her parents and two brothers arrived in Phoenix in 2006 Mexico. Her older brother, now 23, is already a DACA recipient and has a job. Her Please see DACA, Page 2
said in a statement. “Gen. Yeager’s pioneering and innovative spirit advanced America’s abilities in the sky and set our nation’s dreams soaring into the jet age and the space age. He said, ‘You don’t concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done,’” Bridenstine said. “In an age of media-made heroes, he is the real deal,” Edwards Air Force Base historian Jim Young said in August 2006 at the unveiling of a bronze statue of Yeager. He was “the most righteous of all those with the right stuff,” said Maj. Gen. Curtis Bedke, commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards. Yeager, from a small town in
the hills of West Virginia, flew for more than 60 years, including piloting an X-15 to near 1,000 mph (1,609 kph) at Edwards in October 2002 at age 79. “Living to a ripe old age is not an end in itself. The trick is to enjoy the years remaining,” he said in “Yeager: An Autobiography.” “I haven’t yet done everything, but by the time I’m finished, I won’t have missed much,” he wrote. “If I auger in (crash) tomorrow, it won’t be with a frown on my face. I’ve had a ball.” On Oct. 14, 1947, Yeager, then a 24-year-old captain, pushed an orange, bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket plane past 660 mph to break the sound barrier, at the time a daunting aviation milestone.
“Sure, I was apprehensive,” he said in 1968. “When you’re fooling around with something you don’t know much about, there has to be apprehension. But you don’t let that affect your job.” The modest Yeager said in 1947 he could have gone even faster had the plane carried more fuel. He said the ride “was nice, just like riding fast in a car.” Yeager nicknamed the rocket plane, and all his other aircraft, “Glamorous Glennis” for his wife, who died in 1990. Yeager’s feat was kept top secret for about a year when the world thought the British had broken the sound barrier first. “It wasn’t a matter of not having airplanes that would fly at speeds like this. It was a matter of keeping them from falling
apart,” Yeager said. Sixty-five years later to the minute, on Oct. 14, 2012, Yeager commemorated the feat, flying in the back seat of an F-15 Eagle as it broke the sound barrier at more than 30,000 feet (9,144 meters) above California’s Mojave Desert. His exploits were told in Tom Wolfe’s book “The Right Stuff,” and the 1983 film it inspired. Yeager was born Feb. 23, 1923, in Myra, a tiny community on the Mud River deep in an Appalachian hollow about 40 miles southwest of Charleston. The family later moved to Hamlin, the county seat. His father was an oil and gas driller and a farmer. Please see Yeager, Page 2
John Gunther, The World
Bandon’s Isaac Cutler leads the field up the hill near the start of the 2019 district meet at Lane Community College. Practice for the cross country season and other fall sports for the 2020-21 school year is now slated to begin in late February.
OSAA again delays start of 2020-21 sports year The World The Oregon School Activities Association has pushed its 202021 sports calendar back again, and switched around the seasons one more time, in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The plan announced Monday by the OSAA Executive Board now calls for fall sports practices to begin in February and the winter sports season, which had been scheduled to begin with practice on Dec. 28, to be the final season of the sports year, running from mid-May to near the end of June. In addition, the three seasons were each shortened and now will be six weeks in length with the sixth week an “OSAA culmination week.” In August, the executive board approved a plan with winter sports practices for basketball, wrestling and swimming starting at the end of December and the fall sports season of football, vol-
leyball, cross country and soccer following that season. But the state is seeing an increase in virus cases, with 25 of Oregon’s 36 counties currently in the “extreme-risk” category. Coos and Curry counties are not in that list, but Coos County is trending that direction. All but 42 of OSAA’s member schools are in the counties currently classified as “extreme risk.” Board members made it clear Monday the OSAA and its member schools are bound by rules, regulations and guidance set forth by the governor’s office and Oregon Health Authority. A press release from OSAA said the organization remains in contact with the governor’s office, OHA and the Oregon Department of Education to advocate for a safe return to in-person learning and high school activities. The board extended the current Season 1 period through
Feb. 21. Marshfield and North Bend High Schools have conducted a series of sports during the current season, with Myrtle Point, Reedsport, Brookings-Harbor and Bandon joining in some of the sports. OSAA Executive Director Peter Weber said in a story for OSAAtoday that altering the calendar is a “moving target.” “We needed to make a decision,” Weber said. “I think the board made the right decision.” Under the new plan, practice for the fall sports would begin Feb. 22 for cross country, soccer and volleyball and Feb. 8 for football, with contests starting March 1 for all those sports. Full-contact football is not currently allowed by the state of Oregon and indoor volleyball is not currently allowed in extreme-risk counties. Cross country and soccer are allowed in all counties. The executive board hopes
that delaying the start of the season will allow COVID-19 case counts to decrease in counties so they can move out of the extreme-risk category. “All of our conversations with the Oregon Health Authority, and following the news, it appears that the models are showing that things are going to get worse before they get better,” Weber said in the OSAAtoday story. “As we’re looking to provide as much time as possible to lower case counts — and get counties out of the extreme-risk level, if possible — we thought that this timeline made sense.” With the new plan, the traditional spring sports of baseball, softball, golf, tennis and track and field would have practice begin on April 5, with the six-week competition season starting April 12. All of the spring sports currently are allowed in all counties. Please see OSAA, Page 2
Source: Biden picks Lloyd Austin as defense secretary WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden will nominate retired four-star Army general Lloyd J. Austin to be secretary of defense, according to four people familiar with the decision. If confirmed by the Senate, Austin would be the first Black leader of the Pentagon. Biden selected Austin over the longtime front-runner candidate, Michele Flournoy, a former senior Pentagon official and Biden supporter who would have been the first woman to serve as defense secretary. Biden also had considered Jeh Johnson, a former Pentagon general counsel and former secretary of homeland defense.
The impending nomination of Austin was confirmed by four people with knowledge of the pick who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the selection hadn’t been formally announced. Biden offered and Austin accepted the post on Sunday, according to a person familiar with the process. As a career military officer, the 67-year-old Austin is likely to face opposition from some in Congress and in the defense establishment who believe in drawing a clear line between civilian and military leadership of the Pentagon. Although many
previous defense secretaries have served briefly in the military, only two — George C. Marshall and James Mattis — have been career officers. Marshall also served as secretary of state. Like Mattis, Austin would need to obtain a congressional waiver to serve as defense secretary. Congress intended civilian control of the military when it created the position of secretary of defense in 1947 and prohibited a recently retired military officer from holding the position. One of the people who confirmed the pick said Austin’s selection was about choosing the best possible person but
acknowledged that pressure had built to name a candidate of color and that Austin’s stock had risen in recent days. Austin is a 1975 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served 41 years in uniform. Biden has known Austin at least since the general’s years leading U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq while Biden was vice president. Austin was commander in Baghdad of the Multinational Corps-Iraq in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected president, and he returned to lead U.S. troops from 2010 through 2011.
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Oregon goes over 85,000 total COVID-19 cases The World Oregon has claimed 12 more lives in Oregon and the state’s total number of cases is over 85,000, the Oregon Health Authority reported Monday. As of 12:01 a.m. Monday, the state had 1,045 deaths and 85,788 total confirmed and presumptive cases. New and presumed cases reported Monday were in the following counties: Baker (5), Benton (19), Clackamas (134), Columbia (7), Coos (9), Crook (6), Curry (8), Deschutes (66), Douglas (11), Grant (1), Harney (3), Hood River (3), Jackson (21), Jefferson (44), Josephine (21), Lane (78), Lincoln (17), Linn (50), Malheur (11), Marion (165), Multnomah (330), Polk (24), Umatilla (15), Union (7), Wasco (16), Washington (225), Yamhill (35). Oregon’s 1034th COVID-19 death is a 71-year-old woman in Gilliam County who tested positive on Dec. 1 and died on Dec. 6 at Mid-Columbia Memorial Hospital. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1035th COVID-19 death is a 50-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on Dec. 2 and died on Dec. 5 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center Riverbend. He had underlying conditions.
Yeager From Page 1
“What really strikes me looking over all those years is how lucky I was, how lucky, for example, to have been born in 1923 and not 1963 so that I came of age just as aviation itself was entering the modern era,” Yeager said in a December 1985 speech at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. “I was just a lucky kid who caught the right ride,” he said. Yeager enlisted in the Army Air Corps after graduating from high school in 1941. He later regretted that his lack of a college education prevented him from becoming an astronaut. He started off as an aircraft mechanic and, despite becoming severely airsick during his first airplane ride, signed up for a program that allowed enlisted men to become pilots. Yeager shot down 13 German planes on 64 missions during World War II, including five on a single
Oregon’s 1036th COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old woman in Linn County who tested positive on Nov. 20 and died on Nov. 25 at her residence. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregon’s 1037th COVID-19 death is a 93-year-old woman in Linn County who tested positive on Nov. 17 and died on Nov. 27 at her residence. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregon’s 1038th COVID-19 death is a 64-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 29 and died on Dec. 5 at Salem Hospital. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1039th COVID-19 death is a 50-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 29 and died on Dec. 4 at her residence. She had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1040th COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 17 and died on Nov. 25. Place of death is being confirmed. He had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1041st COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 30 and
died on Nov. 30 at providence Portland Medical Center. He had underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1042nd COVID-19 death is a 37-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 27 and died on Nov. 29 at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center. He had no underlying conditions. Oregon’s 1043rd COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 3 and died on Dec. 3 at his residence. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregon’s 1044th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old woman in Washington County who tested positive on Nov. 21 and died on Nov. 25 at her residence. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregon’s 1045th COVID-19 death is an 86-year-old man in Benton County who tested positive on Dec. 1 and died on Dec. 4 at his residence. He had underlying conditions.
mission. He was once shot down over German-held France but escaped with the help of French partisans. After World War II, he became a test pilot beginning at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Among the flights he made after breaking the sound barrier was one on Dec. 12. 1953, when he flew an X-1A to a record of more than 1,600 mph. He said he had gotten up at dawn that day and went hunting, bagging a goose before his flight. That night, he said, his family ate the goose for dinner. He returned to combat during the Vietnam War, flying several missions a month in twin-engine B-57 Canberras making bombing and strafing runs over South Vietnam. Yeager also commanded Air Force fighter squadrons and wings, and the Aerospace Research Pilot School for military astronauts. “I’ve flown 341 types of military planes in every country in the world and
logged about 18,000 hours,” he said in an interview in the January 2009 issue of Men’s Journal. “It might sound funny, but I’ve never owned an airplane in my life. If you’re willing to bleed, Uncle Sam will give you all the planes you want.” When Yeager left Hamlin, he was already known as a daredevil. On later visits, he often buzzed the town. “I live just down the street from his mother,” said Gene Brewer, retired publisher of the weekly Lincoln Journal. “One day I climbed up on my roof with my 8 mm camera when he flew overhead. I thought he was going to take me off the roof. You can see the treetops in the bottom of the pictures.” Yeager flew an F-80 under a Charleston bridge at 450 mph on Oct. 10, 1948, according to newspaper accounts. When he was asked to repeat the feat for photographers, Yeager replied: “You should never strafe the same place twice ’cause the gunners will be waiting for you.”
COVID-19 hospitalizations The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients across Oregon increased to 565, 19 more than Sunday. There are 120 COVID-19 patients in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, seven more than Sunday.
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Safe harbor law locks Congress into accepting Biden victory WASHINGTON (AP) — Happy Safe Harbor Day, America. Other than Wisconsin, every state appears to have met a deadline in federal law that essentially means Congress has to accept the electoral votes that will be cast next week and sent to the Capitol for counting on Jan. 6. Those votes will elect Joe Biden as the country’s next president. It’s called a safe harbor provision because it’s a kind of insurance policy by which a state can lock in its electoral votes by finishing up certification of the results and any state court legal challenges by a congressionally imposed deadline, which this year is Tuesday. “What federal law requires is that if a state has completed its post-election certification by Dec. 8, Congress is required to accept those results,” said Rebecca Green, an election law professor at the William & Mary law school in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Electoral College is a creation of the Constitution, but Congress sets the date for federal elections and, in the case of the presidency, determines when presidential electors gather in state capitals to vote. In 2020, that date is Dec. 14. But Congress also set another deadline, six days before electors meet,
to insulate state results from being challenged in Congress. By the end of the day, every state is expected to have made its election results official, awarding 306 electoral votes to Biden and 232 to President Donald Trump. The attention paid to the normally obscure safe harbor provision is a function of Trump’s unrelenting efforts to challenge the legitimacy of the election. He has refused to concede, made unsupported claims of fraud and called on Republican lawmakers in key states to appoint electors who would vote for him even after those states have certified a Biden win. But Trump’s arguments have gone nowhere in court in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Most of his campaign’s lawsuits in state courts challenging those Biden victories have been dismissed, with the exception of Wisconsin, where a hearing is scheduled for later this week. Like the others, the lawsuit does not appear to have much chance of succeeding, but because it was filed in accordance with state law procedures for challenging election results, “it’s looking to me like Wisconsin is going to
miss the safe harbor deadline because of that,” said Edward Foley, a professor of election law at Ohio State University’s Moritz School of Law. Judge Stephen Simanek, appointed to hear the case, has acknowledged that the case would push the state outside the electoral vote safe harbor. Missing the deadline won’t deprive Wisconsin of its 10 electoral votes. Biden electors still will meet in Madison on Monday to cast their votes and there’s no reason to expect that Congress won’t accept them. In any case, Biden would still have more than the 270 votes he needs even without Wisconsin’s. But lawmakers in Washington could theoretically second-guess the slate of electors from any state that misses the Dec. 8 deadline, Foley said. Already one member of the House of Representatives, Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., has said he will challenge electoral votes for Biden on Jan. 6. Brooks would need to object in writing and be joined by at least one senator. If that were to happen, both chambers would debate the objections and vote on whether to sustain them. But unless both houses agreed to the objections, they would fail.
DACA
for DACA. They have to find a permanent solution,” she said. Michelle Celleri, an attorney at advocacy group Alliance San Diego, was preparing an application for a client who was putting the final touches on her petition when Trump canceled DACA in 2017. “Her feeling is, ‘I’ll do anything. I’m sick of being in the dark and I want to
move forward,’” Celleri said. Celleiri said she is advising clients to submit applications before Dec. 22, when there is a key hearing in Texas in a lawsuit by several states challenging DACA’s legality. “There’s just way too much happening right now,” she said. “I don’t want people caught in the crossfire.”
seasons and continue an opportunity for all kids to be involved, hopefully,” Weber said. “It’s shorter than we would like, and not as soon as we would like, but we feel like it’s realistic and it’s something that we can put into place.” The schedule for activities sponsored by OSAA also was revised to allow more time for school buildings to be accessible to their programs. The new schedule for culminating week for the activities includes April 19-25 for speech, April 26-May 2 for solo music, May 3-9 for dance and drill, May 10-16 for cheerleading and May 24-30 for both choir and band/ orchestra. The executive board
considered other possible schedules, including a two-season plan with nine-week seasons. Golf and swimming would have been included with the fall sports in that proposal and basketball and wrestling included with the spring sports. Ultimately, the board decided stacking sports would have created too much difficulty for smaller schools, Weber said. The board also considered moving football to later in the year, but did not support that idea due to concerns from the OSAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee that a later contact football season would require modifications to the fall 2021 football season, OSAA said in its news release.
From Page 1
younger brother, now 16, is in high school and plans to eventually seek DACA protection as well. Garcia said the court’s decision last week “was wonderful news.” “There are a lot of other students who are undocumented who don’t qualify
OSAA From Page 1
Practice for the traditional winter sports would begin May 10, with competition starting May 17. Starting that season at the end of the year provides the best opportunity for those sports to be held — basketball and wrestling currently are not allowed and swimming is only allowed outside. The plan approved in August had called for each of the three seasons to have seven weeks of competition plus the culmination week, but now those seasons will be six total weeks. “Obviously, they’re shorter seasons, but they also provide three distinct
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SUNSHINE AND CLOUDS 55 • 38 | TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2020 | theworldlink.com
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Washington spoils Steelers’ unbeaten run PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Steelers spent three months shaking off whatever 2020 threw at them. Schedule changes. Injuries to a handful of impact players. The ever-present threat of COVID-19. Through the chaos, they kept winning. Sometimes pretty. Sometimes ugly. Sometimes a little of both in the same game. Through it all, they insisted they were well aware of their flaws. pointing out time and again the only thing perfect about them was their record. So much for that. Pittsburgh’s bid for an unbeaten season is over. Washington’s — yes, Washington’s — quest for an unlikely division title may just be starting. Alex Smith threw for 296 yards and a touchdown, Dustin Hopkins kicked a tiebreaking 45-yard field goal with 2:04 remaining, and
Washington rallied for a 23-17 victory on Monday in one of the biggest surprises of the NFL season. “We’ve been down for such a long time and we’re trying to rebuild ourselves and build up,” firstyear coach Ron Rivera said. “This is something we can build off of.” The Steelers (11-1) missed a chance to clinch a playoff berth and dropped into a tie with defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City for the best record in the AFC with four weeks remaining. They squandered a 14-point lead. “It stinks,” Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. “Been a while since we lost a game. It’s not a good feeling.” The Steelers were 10-point favorites while facing a team that hadn’t won three straight since 2018 and hadn’t won in Pittsburgh since 1991. Washington won the
Super Bowl that season. The club’s expectations this year are far more modest. Yet a day after the New York Giants won at Seattle, Washington (5-7) kept pace while giving the lowly NFC East its second marquee victory in 25ish hours. “We’re on a roll,” said defensive end Montez Sweat, who knocked down three Roethlisberger passes. “This is the kind of football we’ve been wanting to play since Game 1.” It’s the kind of football the Steelers had played since Game 1. The best start in the franchise’s 87-year history came to an abrupt halt on a rare Monday late afternoon game. The NFL pushed the contest back a day as part of the fallout from a COVID-19 outbreak in Baltimore that forced the league to postpone the Ravens’ visit to Heinz Field three times. Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin in-
sisted his club would not use the disruption as an excuse. But the weight of what the Steelers have been dealing with, combined with second-half injuries to inside linebacker Robert Spillane and cornerback Joe Haden, made for a tough day. Roethlisberger passed for 305 yards and two touchdowns, but was picked off by Jon Bostic — a former Steeler — with 1:59 remaining. Hopkins added another 45-yard field goal and Pittsburgh’s last-gasp drive ended with the ball near midfield and Washington’s players sprinting off in celebration while the Steelers trudged to the locker room. “We’re getting to that point of the season when you’ve got to be sharp in all areas, your whole team, both sides of the ball,” Roethlisberger said. “There can be all kinds of distractions, changes of this, that and the other. At the
end of the day, we’ve got to go play good football.” For the first time in a long time, the Steelers didn’t. At least not enough of it. Still, even after Smith hit Logan Thomas for a 15-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 17, the Steelers had a chance. They drove into field goal range but rather than have fill-in Matthew Wright — promoted from the practice squad due to an injury to Chris Boswell — attempt a 45-yard field goal into the open end at Heinz, the Steelers went for it. Roethlisberger’s heave to rookie running back Anthony McFarland Jr. fell incomplete and Smith calmly drove Washington 45 yards in nine plays to set up the winning score. “I didn’t feel good about putting that (kick) on him,” Tomlin said of Wright.
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — The passes zipped through the air one by one, almost always finding their intended target right on the hands and in stride. By the time Josh Allen was done, the quarterback had finished one of the best games of his young NFL career, and the Buffalo Bills once again looked like one of the league’s elite teams. Allen threw for 375 yards and tied a career high with four touchdown passes as the Bills stayed in sole possession of first place in the AFC East with a thoroughly impressive 34-24 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night. “That’s our quarterback. He’s a baller,” Bills safety Jordan Poyer said. “I don’t know what answer you want me to say. It’s no surprise to us what he does every week. I’m happy he’s on our team.” Buffalo (9-3) moved a step closer to winning its division for
the first time since 1995 thanks to a nearly flawless performance from Allen. The 24-year-old completed 32 of 40 passes with no interceptions. He threw touchdown passes to Cole Beasley, Dawson Knox, Isaiah McKenzie and Gabriel Davis as the Bills built a 17-7 halftime lead and controlled the majority of the second half. “We were clicking,” Allen said. “It just seemed like our guys were getting open and the ball was coming out of my hand really well.” The Bills are one game ahead of the Miami Dolphins with four games left for both teams. San Francisco (5-7) lost in its first game at its adopted home in Arizona. The 49ers will be based in Glendale for at least the next three weeks after Santa Clara County issued strict new coronavirus protocols that forced the team to find a temporary new home. It was Allen’s fourth game of the
season with at least 300 yards passing and three touchdowns, which set a franchise record. Jim Kelly did it three times in 1991 and Drew Bledsoe three times in 2002. “As long as it correlates to team success, it means we’re doing the right thing, making the right decisions and we’re winning football games,” Allen said. “That’s all that matters to me.” The Bills had a much more pleasant trip to the desert than three weeks ago, when they lost a 32-30 heartbreaker to the Arizona Cardinals. That was the game when DeAndre Hopkins made a stunning catch over three Buffalo defenders with 2 seconds left for the game-winning score. San Francisco has had several recent injuries at its slot cornerback position and struggled to cover Beasley, who had a career-high 130 yards receiving on nine catches. “We knew exactly what they were running. We just came up
short,” 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw said. “It was kind of a weird feeling.” State Farm Stadium — which is home to the division-rival Arizona Cardinals — was dressed up to make the 49ers feel slightly more at home. There were San Francisco banners hanging on the walls along the sidelines and the videoboard showed Niners highlights and flashed messages like “Faithful to the Bay.” The teams traded goal-line stands in the first quarter. The Bills opened the game with a 74-yard drive that was stopped at the Niners 1 after Allen’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete. San Francisco responded with a 97-yard drive that ended at the Buffalo 2 when Jeff Wilson Jr. was stuffed for no gain on fourth down. It was just the second game since 2000 that featured two turnovers on downs to start a game. But San Francisco got the
ball back one play later on a fumble by Allen and the 49ers took advantage. Nick Mullens hit Brandon Aiyuk in the middle of the end zone for a 2-yard touchdown. It was all Buffalo for the rest of the first half and much of the game. Allen hit Beasley for a 5-yard touchdown and later found tight end Knox for a 4-yard score as the Bills pushed ahead 17-7 by halftime. Mullens finished 26-of-39 passing for 316 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. The 49ers weren’t bad on offense, but couldn’t keep pace with Allen and the Bills. “We needed to play our best and I think we were very close to doing it,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “We just had a few things that didn’t keep us out on the field. When you do that versus an offense and quarterback like that and you don’t get it back for a while, the game gets away from you.”
Bills beat San Francisco in game moved to Arizona
Oregon men beat Eastern Washington Seven-time all-star Dick Allen dies at 78 Associated Press Dick Allen hit the ball so hard, fans in Philadelphia started showing up in batting practice during his rookie season just to watch him hammer shots over the Coca-Cola sign atop the left-center field roof at Connie Mack Stadium. The rousing attention, he got that early. The rightful acclaim, sadly, he had to wait much longer. Allen, a seven-time All-Star slugger whose fight against racism during a tumultuous time with the Phillies in the 1960s cost him on and off the field, died Monday. He was 78. The 1964 NL Rookie of Year and 1972 AL MVP had a lengthy illness while at home in Wampum, Pennsylvania. “Dick will be remembered as not just one of the greatest and most popular players in our franchise’s history, but also as a courageous warrior who had to overcome far too many obstacles to reach the level he did,” the Phillies said in a statement. Allen’s No. 15 was retired by the Phillies in September, an honor that was considered way overdue by many for one of the franchise’s greatest players. Phillies managing partner John Middleton broke from the team’s longstanding “unwritten” policy of only retiring the number of players who are in the Hall of Fame to honor Allen. In 2014, Allen fell one vote short of Cooperstown in a Hall committee election. “I thank the city of Philadelphia. Even though it was rough, I’ve made some friends along the way,” Allen said in an emotional ceremony on a warm, sunny afternoon. Middleton said he was “bereft to learn of Dick’s passing today.”
“Our community’s powerful connection to, and pride in, Dick leaves all of us in a state of mourning. He will be remembered not only for his extraordinary baseball skills and accomplishments, but equally for his strength of character. His humility, gratitude and compassion were so evident when we retired Dick’s number just three months ago. I am grateful he was able to participate in the ceremony and experience the outpouring of affection and respect we have for him,” Middleton said. Mike Schmidt, a Hall of Fame third baseman who helped lure Allen out of retirement to return to Philadelphia for a second stint with the team in 1975, was among the former players who attended the ceremony. They wore masks and sat several feet apart during the coronavirus pandemic that shortened the major league season to 60 games. The Phillies planned to honor Allen again in 2021 with fans in attendance. Schmidt called Allen “an amazing mentor” who was wrongly labeled a “bad teammate” and “troublemaker.” “Dick was a sensitive Black man who refused to be treated as a second-class citizen,” Schmidt said in a speech. “He played in front of home fans that were products of that racist era (with) racist teammates and different rules for whites and Blacks. Fans threw stuff at him and thus Dick wore a batting helmet throughout the whole game. They yelled degrading racial slurs. They dumped trash in his front yard at his home. In general, he was tormented and it came from all directions. And Dick rebelled.”
EUGENE (AP) — Eugene Omoruyi scored 18 points to help Oregon beat Eastern Washington 69-52 in the Ducks’ home opener on Monday. Eric Williams Jr., had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Ducks (2-1), who led by as many as 17 points in the second half. Oregon extended its winning streak at Matthew Knight Arena to 23 games. Jacob Davison had 15 points for Eastern Washington (0-3), which challenged the Ducks early but ultimately couldn’t keep up. The Eagles went 5 for 26 from 3-point range. Omoruyi was named Pac-12
Player of the Week on Monday after averaging 26.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in a pair of games last week. Oregon opened the season in Nebraska with an 83-75 loss to Missouri, with Omoruyi scoring a career-high 31 points. The Ducks defeated Seton Hall 83-70 on Friday. The Ducks were set to open the season at home against Eastern Washington on Nov. 25, but that game was postponed. The Eagles nearly upset Arizona on Saturday but the Wildcats rallied for a 70-67 victory. Eastern Washington also gave Washington State trouble but fell 71-68 in the season opener.
Oregon was ranked No. 21 in the AP Top 25 last week, but then fell out of the poll on Monday. The Ducks once again were without guard Will Richardson, who is expected to miss the first six weeks of the season with a thumb injury. Freshman Jaylen Terry’s layup at the buzzer gave Oregon a 36-32 lead going into halftime. The Ducks began to pull away in the second half. LJ Figueroa’s layup with 13:04 left pushed Oregon’s lead to 47-36. Figueroa finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Sounders stun Minnesota to reach MLS Cup SEATTLE (AP) — As the confetti flew and the fireworks popped before an empty stadium, the Seattle Sounders were handed the Western Conference championship trophy for the fourth time in five years. Only a few minutes earlier, the Sounders appeared on the verge of relinquishing their claim of being defending MLS Cup champions. “I don’t know how we did
it. I’m just telling you, I don’t know how we did it,” Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer said. The Sounders capped one of the more unlikely comebacks in MLS playoff history on Gustav Svensson’s header off a corner kick in the final moments of second-half stoppage time to give Seattle a 3-2 win over Minnesota United on Monday night to advance to the MLS Cup final. Seattle scored three times in
the final 15 minutes of regulation and stoppage time to stun Minnesota and claim a spot in the league championship game for the fourth time in five seasons. Seattle will travel to Columbus to face the Crew in the MLS Cup final on Saturday. Seattle is just the second team in MLS history to reach the final four times in five seasons, joining DC United in the first seasons of the league.
Trump honors legendary wrestler Gable WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump presented the nation’s highest civilian honor to Dan Gable, a renowned wrestler and coach from Iowa who won a gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics. “He’s the greatest wrestler, probably ever,” Trump said. “He’s made our country very proud and he’s a true GOAT.” Trump used an October campaign rally to announce
the selection of Gable for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, bringing him on stage to the delight of the crowd as he sought to win over Iowa voters. The ceremony on Monday at the White House fulfills that commitment. Gable is one of several sports figures to be presented the award during Trump’s time in office. Gable was a champion wrestler at Iowa State Univer-
sity, compiling a 117-1 record and winning two NCAA titles. During his six matches at the Munich Olympics, he went unscored upon. Gable would go on to an incredibly successful coaching career at the University of Iowa, where his teams won 15 NCAA titles. “No one has done more to promote wrestling in America than Dan Gable,” Trump said.