Posts published in “Day: October 18, 2022”

In a long life, a person can have many memorable experiences and, for most of us, some mysteries. Questions we can’t answer but they linger in the mind.

I have one such. I could use your help.

The time was the late ‘60's. Locale was Boise, capital city of Idaho.

A fella came to town. I don’t remember his name but he was being hustled around by local bigwigs for “selected” unsolicited interviews.

Now, I’ve always had negative feelings about such people. And of the product or person being hustled. As someone trained to be a reporter - a viewer of people and happenings - it’s always seemed to me a matter of professionalism that the reporter should be the one searching out what is - and isn’t - the news of the day.

When the aforementioned fella was brought to the radio station where I was news director, we sat in the lobby and chatted a bit about the visitor and I was asked to interview him. “Now.”

To this day - nearly 60 years on - I can’t tell you why. But, there was something about the man - and the local businessman’s intense push to get me to do an interview - that was off-putting. Both men seemed a little intense about the subject matter of the interview. I got one of those feelings you get when something just doesn’t seem right.

Not wishing to put the station and its ownership in a bad light, I took both men to a vacant studio and did a quick interview. They were soon on their way, satisfied their “story” would be broadcast on Idaho’s only 50,000 watt AM radio station.

Well, I listened to the taped conversation. Again, something just didn’t feel right. I erased the tape. It seemed - at the time and now - it was the right thing to do.

But, other media folks apparently didn’t feel the same or had more pressure applied. The guy and his subject matter were all over town and on the next day’s front page of the local bird-cage liner.

At this point, I should identify the local guy escorting the visitor around town. His name was Skip Hall. For a couple of years in the mid to late ‘60's,’ he was head coach of the Boise State football program. During his tenure - and for a couple of decades later - the BSU Broncho’s were just another small town varsity team with a so-so record on the field.

But, Skip was a talker and a bit of a show-boater. A so-so coach who talked a good game. His style of talking was probably the reason a group of local business leaders gave him the job of promoting the out-of-town visitor. And his program.

The next day, there was a gathering at the largest meeting room in town. All the prominent local names were in attendance. All. And some not so prominent. All male.

The visitor was introduced and he, in turn, held forth for over an hour about his program. It was simple enough. With only a bit of religious overtones befitting today’s “born again” churches. There was a heavy emphasis on brotherhood and small group forming. Under a so-called “Captain.”

If a group wanted to include the Bible, that would be good. It seemed innocuous enough. Rather uplifting. But, with peer pressure. And a degree of expressed urgency.

Basic idea was to forge new friendships with like folks, get to know your neighbor or something like that. And, in fact, some small groups of men - only men - were formed. We now might call similar groupings “networking.” Of a sort.

Coach Hall held forth about the program at the drop of a hat. Although participants slowly drifted away in a couple of years, it was Skip’s constant voice that made things last as long as it did.

But, eventually, as happens with such loosely-organized endeavors, end it did. Skip got a bigger and better coaching job and left town. Local “captains” went separate ways. Or lost interest. And the program disappeared.

Or did it?

And, therein lies the mystery. For me.

You see, the visitor that came to town was pushing a program called “Oath Keepers.” Yep. The same name as the group now on trial for seditious conspiracy in Washington D.C.. “Oath Keepers.”

Today’s felonious “Oath Keepers” also believe in organizing small, local groups. Under a “Captain.” The Bible is mentioned openly in their materials. Each group conducts paramilitary exercises and stands ready to join forces as we saw on that January day. Leadership in all groups is male.

If you spend enough time scouring the I-net, you can find sources of material about “Oath Keepers” in the ‘60's and from the ‘90's to the present day. But, there are lapsed periods where the name doesn’t seem to exist.

So, the question is, can a straight line be drawn from the today’s seditious “Oath Keepers” to the days of Skip Hall in Boise, Idaho, and the very real pressures brought to bear on local leaders to join, sponsor and maintain a religion-based group called “Oath Keepers?”

I just don’t know. But, I’ve got that feeling. Again.