Hometown History II-2 New Jims For Wa-Hi Gym

Apparently, the Walla Walla school board took the petition circulated by a group of local citizens very seriously, as the fall of 1975 saw Wa-Hi with a full slate of new coaches.  Jim Thacker, who had incredible success coaching at smaller high schools in the Northwest,  was hired as head boys basketball coach, along with Jim Meredith, a well known WSU basketball standout who would be Thacker's assistant.  

Thacker and Meredith were emblematic of a new era of young, upwardly mobile coaches that would be hired at high schools and colleges.  There ranks would include, Dennis Erickson, Pete Carroll, etc.  Thacker got off to a rocky start in his first, but did get the team into the playoffs (with a regular season record under .500) where they placed number 8 in the state. 

Home Town History--Handfull Of Local Sports Fans Grow Impatient With Local Coaches.

In the mid 70s, while I was a student at Wa-Hi, a group of local fans decided that our high school athletic teams were not competitive in it's conference, which consisted of schools in Yakima, Tri Cities, Wenatchee, and Moses Lake and made headlines in the Walla WAlla UB by circulating a petition to replace the current coaches.
  This inspired another petition by supporters of the program and coaches to continue as it is
Before my Senior year, in the fall of 1975 (I was class of '76), three  new head coaches and one assistant coach were hired. All from other Washington cities.
We will present more on this topic soon.