“Chief” played baseball, basketball, and football for Benson High School in Portland in 1930-31-32. He made All City in baseball 1931-32 and High School All State in basketball the same years adding MVP Award his senior year 1932. In the middle 30s he played basketball and football at Southern Oregon Normal and while attending the University of Oregon he was on the basketball and baseball team. During the 1946-47 season, Chief played pro-basketball in Salt Lake City, Utah. His participation in semi-pro baseball in Southern Oregon and his basketball at Southern Oregon Normal labeled him as one of the best.

Chief taught and coached all sports 31 years in Medford, 28 years at the Roosevelt Elementary School. He also coached Medford Legion baseball for 15 years and helped run the old city youth baseball summer program.

Quotes from a John Lowry interview in the Mail Tribune, “In the old days the grade schools were just as competitive as the junior highs. It was fun and the kids learned a lot. “…”ln the old Medford system everyone took winning seriously at every level,” says Ron Weatherford, McLean’s last principal at Roosevelt. “Cliff was out to win. “…”Chief was just great with kids. I remem­ber about 10 years ago going back to see Chief at Roosevelt. I drove up and he had a little girl in his arms who had fallen and hurt her knee. That really brought back memories—Danny Miles”…Jerry Anderson said, “Whenever I was struggling with apart of my basketball game Chief was the guy I’d go to even in high school. He’d always get me straightened out. “…”it was like having a real good high school coach,” says Russ Brown, whose sons Tim, Rob and Jeff all played for McLean at Roosevelt…Chief was twice offered contracts with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. “He was quite a player,” says Darrell Leavens, a Medford resident who played both basketball and baseball with McLean. “I think he could have made it.”…But if he had chosen pro baseball there are a lot of Medford youngsters who might not have become such good fundamental athletes.