By Tom Bennett. Edited by George Edmonston Jr.

Editor’s note: Affectionately referred to by everyone who knew her as “OSU’s First Lady of Basketball,” Helen Boyer Gill passed away in her flower garden at her Corvallis home on the morning of July 22, 2003. The following story first appeared in the September 1996 issue of The Oregon Stater and remains one of the best features ever to appear in our alumni publication profiling the life and contributions of this amazing and historic woman. Helen was 98 at the time of death.

Helen Gill wears her 91 years lightly, with a winning smile and a vital interest in what’s going on today. She looks back fondly on a life that was interwoven with Oregon State basketball for 35 years—the time during which her husband, the legendary Amory T. “Slats” Gill guided the fortunes of OSU basketball and served as athletic director.

“I went to every game,” she said proudly. “At least all the home games.” She didn’t travel with Slats until their children were grown but kept up with game reports and the performance of players. And, of course, those were the years of glory for Oregon State basketball. Five of Slats’ teams won Pacific Coast championships, and only nine teams in 36 years had losing records. His statistics are basketball history—his 599 career victories still make him OSU’s all-time winningest basketball coach. When he died in 1966, the Coliseum was officially named Gill Coliseum.

Helen still lives in the same house she and Slats moved into soon after they were married in 1932. “It’s a bungalow-type that could be on the Historic Register,” she said. Two of her deep interests are antiques and the preservation of older houses.

But Helen doesn’t live in the past. She treasures tending her garden and enjoys playing bridge with a circle of friends she has known for years. She has been a member of the Corvallis Country Club since Slats presented her with a membership and a set of golf clubs as a wedding gift. She admits, however, that she has never taken to golf. “I never had time to learn,” she said.

When she turned 90, she took a trip to Santa Fe “to avoid people making a fuss over it (her birthday).” But friends wouldn’t be denied and all the basketball wives Helen had known in the past got together for a celebration. She loved it.

Helen and Slats met on a blind date arranged by one of her Gamma Phi Beta sorority sisters. He had graduated three years earlier and was returning to Oregon State as freshman basketball coach, after coaching two years in Oakland, Calif., at the YMCA and at Oakland High School. He had been an outstanding player in his senior year on the 1924 Beaver squad and was an All-American selection.

Helen had come to Oregon State in 1925 to get a degree in home economics after two years at St. Mary’s Junior College in downtown Portland. Her mother, widowed when Helen was in high school, had brought her family of four from Tampico, Ill., to be near a sister.

“Tampico is where Ronald Reagan comes from,” she shared with a twinkle in her eye. “He used to come to my childhood parties.” She doesn’t remember many details about him and remembered him to be “a bit younger, of course.” But it is a fact they were children together in that prairie farm community in the early part of the century.

In 1927, the year she met Slats, she was a “sophisticated” college co-ed in her senior year. The blind date, unlike the stereotypical disaster many have experienced, turned out to be a happy success. The two liked each other at once and soon became a familiar couple on campus—the tall, lanky basketball player towering over the vivacious brunette with the stylish ’20s “bob.”

From then on she could be seen cheering in the front row at every game. Even though she wasn’t especially athletic, she always enjoyed watching sports. And since Slats’ teams won more often than not, she found watching could be a lot of fun.

After they were married in 1932 and Slats’ career was in full gear, Helen happily assumed the role of homemaker for which her home economics training so well prepared her. Daughter Jane Gill Stephenson, ’56, recalls that she was also a devoted wife. “She was a wonderful helpmate to my father,” she said, “always friendly and outgoing, and above all, very supportive of his goals. They were a team, and she added a great deal to the success and tradition of Oregon State basketball.

She was careful, however, not to get too close to the players as a kind of housemother figure. “Slats was very strict with his players and felt you shouldn’t hobnob with them,” Helen said. “Of course, at the end of the season they were always invited to our home for a celebration.”

Once the children—Jane and John—came along, Helen became a strong nurturing mother as well as a coach’s wife. Now the whole family attended home games and became sports fans. As a boy, John remembers being proud of Slats’ ability to attract good players to OSU. “It was an interesting time for me to follow my father’s career,” he said. “I saw a lot of great players and teams. They liked to win and were good competitors.”

Helen and John Gill, photo from Sept. '96 Oregon Stater.

He also remembers his mother’s strength and support during a difficult childhood after he was born deaf. She was determined to help him live a productive and fulfilled life, enrolling him early in a school in which he learned to read and communicate. After graduating from Corvallis High, where he played basketball and other sports, he attended OSU as a Phi Delt (like his father) and graduated with a business degree in 1960.

Jane followed her mother in home economics and married the catcher on the Beaver baseball team, Jack Stephenson, ’56. One of their four children is an OSU alumnus, Mark Stephenson, ’85.

Besides her devotion to family and church, Helen Gill always had been active in community affairs—on the Red Cross Board for many years and a charter member of the Assistance League for needy children. Over the years, she has also been a valued member of her sorority and enjoys the opportunity to keep in touch with the interests and concerns of younger women.

Now the great-grandmother of eight, Helen continues to impress others with her zest for life and to teach by example one of her maxims…“You have to have many experiences to live a full life.”

Tom Bennett, who for many years was a Corvallis free-lance writer, is now retired and living in St. Louis. GeorgeP. Edmonston Jr. is editor of the Oregon Stater and E-Clips.