Born in 1976, Oregon Magazine originated from a purely political rag called The Oregon Times. Oregon Magazine’s Publisher and later Editor-in-Chief Win McCormack, along with founding Editor Tom Bates, expanded it to a standard city-regional publication with a strong political and social bent. The magazine became renowned for its monthly Rajneesh column, penned by McCormack, and appearing in its pages for more than three years.
“I was Idi Amin’s Basketball Czar”
Among the more notable stories published in Oregon Magazine featured a guy named Jay Mullins, an undercover CIA operative and former university history teacher from Oregon who was sent by the CIA to Uganda in 1972. [1, 2] While working undercover in Uganda, Mullens had become coach of Uganda’s national basketball team after the previous coach had fled. The strange assignment culminated in August 1972 when Mullen found himself courtside as the Ugandan team played a goodwill match against a visiting Soviet military all-star squad. [1, 2]
Back in the United States, Mullins approached Bates and McCormack with his unusual experience and the editors were keen to publish his story. Before its publication, however, the CIA got wind of it and told McCormack and Bates they were forbidden to publish the article.
“I called the CIA (point person) and said, ‘We are going to run the story, but we’ll take out anything that’s classified. Come out and we’ll go over it together,’” McCormack said, adding “The guy then claimed he couldn’t get a flight, so the Magazine bought him a ticket.” He came out, they combed through the story and cuts were made.
Mullen’s colorful 7,000-word article entitled “I Was Idi Amin’s Basketball Czar,” was published in Oregon Magazine in 1979. “We published it with all these redactions,” said McCormack. “I don’t even remember what kind of stuff they took out, but (a story about the story) became a big story nationally.” The public tug-of-war between Publisher McCormack and the censor-happy CIA [1, 2, 3 , 4] was covered in The New York Times (April 14, 1979) among other high-profile newspapers. “That really was a high point of Oregon Magazine history,” said McCormack. “That the CIA was bullying this little regional magazine. The CIA looked really stupid.”
Oregon Magazine ceased publication in 1988. Win McCormack went on to create TinHouse literary journal, Tin House Books, and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop(now called Oregon Writers Workshop). He is Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of The NewRepublic magazine. McCormack is also a renowned expert on the Rajneesh cult andhas published The Rajneesh Chronicles, a book featuring his Oregon Magazinecolumns on the subject. A new reprint of the book is forthcoming from Zando.