Banquet Of Champions Program
5:30pmNo-host social
Welcome and Introductions - Bill Ogden
Opening Remarks - Stan Naccarato
6:30pmDinner
National Anthem – Jocelyn McCurtain – Emerald Ridge High School Second Place, State Solo-2006
Invocation - Jay Halle - Chaplain, Seattle Mariners Baseball Club Member, 1980 PLU National Championship football team
7:30pmProgram
Announcer - Bill Ogden
Master of Ceremonies – Gary Justice
TAC Welcome - David Grisaffi (TAC president)
Entertainment - Michael Peterson
Country music’s top selling new male artist for 1997 and 1998. Member, 1980 PLU National Championship football team.
Presentation of Awards
Clay Huntington Sports Communication Scholarship - Clay Huntington
Dick Hannula Award – Amateur Athlete of the Year - Dick Hannula
Tacoma-P.C. High School Athlete of the Year (Female)
Presented by Sandy Snider, Columbia Bank
Tacoma-P.C. High School Athlete of the Year (Male) Presented by Dave Rosholm, Columbia Bank
Tacoma-Pierce County First Family of Sports Award - Doug McArthur Presented by Tony Anderson, Past TAC President
Featured Speaker - Lorenzo Romar, Men’s Basketball Coach, University of Washington
Marv Harshman, Former Basketball Coach-Pacific Lutheran College, Washington State University, and University of Washington
Entertainment - Michael Peterson
Surprise Awards – Presented by Pat Garlock, owner-MVP Physical Therapy and Amber McClain, Director of Marketing
TPC Sports Hall of Fame Video– Marc Blau, Banquet Chairman
Induction Ceremonies - Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame Presenters – Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, Deputy Mayor Mike Lonergan, Aaron Pointer, Morris “Mac” McCollum, and Terry Ziegler
Finale – Gary Justice/Bill Ogden
Tune in to TV Tacoma for the Banquet of Champions:
Monday, June 19 - 8pm
Tuesday, June 20 - Noon
Wednesday, June 21 - 9am
Thursday, June 22 - 9pm
Friday, June 23 - 4am & 10am Sunday, June 25 - 8pm
TV Tacoma is seen on the following channels in the following locations: Click!- Channel 12; everywhere other than University Place where we are carried on Channel 85
Comcast - Channel 12 in Tacoma and Channel 21 elsewhere in Pierce County. Not available in University Place on Comcast.
Copies of this program are available on VHS/$20 or DVD/$25. To order send your request, along with a check payable to the “Tacoma City Treasurer”, to: TV Tacoma
Attn: Sports Banquet PO Box 5768 Tacoma, WA 98415-0768
Tacoma Athletic Commission—64 Years And Counting
Now in its 64th year as a civic organization in Tacoma and Pierce County, the TAC originally was formed as the Tacoma War Athletic Commission. Its purpose was to raise funds for athletic opportunities at nearby Fort Lewis and McChord AFB during Word War II.
Clay Huntington, fresh out of Lincoln high school, was one of the founders and today he is the last living member of the original organizational committee. The TAC has generated nearly $4-million dollars to assist amateur athletic programs and athletes in Pierce County. Not bad for a group whose first venture was a basketball game between Fort Lewis and the Harlem Globetrotters, played in the Tacoma Armory. Admission was 85 cents.
Dedicated to sports and civic betterment, the TAC has been a leader in preserving the history of sports locally. With the unveiling of the book, “Playgrounds to the Pros,” last Spring, the Banquet of Champions is a continuation of the TAC’s commitment to honor individuals and recognize their athletic achievements.
The TAC supports the Shanaman Sports Museum in the Tacoma Dome, recognizes High School Athletes of the Month, donates to worthy schools, teams, boys and girls clubs, and produces special events in the community to raise funds for those programs and causes.
The annual Golden Gloves, now in its 59th year, is the second oldest amateur boxing event in the nation. The upcoming TAC Golf Tournament on July 14th, featuring Ken Still, will raise funds for student scholarships and equipment for area recreation facilities.
Yes, the TAC is there when it comes to youth athletic programs in our community. If you are interested in a TAC membership and in helping with any of our various activities, applications and information are available here tonight at a special TAC table near the entrance. Or check on-line at www.tacomaathletic.com.
TAC Golf Tournament With Ken Still, July 14
The annual Tacoma Athletic Commission/Puyallup Tribe of Indians Golf Classic will be held at the Allenmore Golf Course on Friday, July 14th and former PGA tour member and Tacoman Ken Still will join the field to stage a clinic and lead the cheers. The tournament will benefit the TAC’s youth scholarship program and enhance their ability to support other worthwhile programs in the community as well. With a 12:30pm shotgun start, a scramble format, and an awards dinner and auction afterward, the TAC tournament promises plenty of fun and excitement. For entry and sponsorship information contact TAC President David Grisaffi at 253-383-5370 or via email at flattenyourabs@aol.com. You may also send in your entry fee of $100 per person or $400 per foursome (includes green fees, power cart, lunch, dinner, and tee prizes) to TAC, PO Box 11304, Tacoma, WA 98411.
“Playgrounds To
The Pros:
An Illustrated History Of Sports In Tacoma-Pierce County”
From games played in schoolyards to professional championship teams, sports have occupied an important place in the cultural development of the Tacoma area. Playgrounds to the Pros provides an extensive overview of the sports played in the region during the last 150 years. It is not limited to such crowd favorites as baseball, football, and basketball; it also includes archery and auto racing, bowling and boxing, horseshoes and hydroplanes, marbles and mountaineering, soccer and swimming, and much more.
This history of more than 40 sports acknowledges the many men and women athletes who have contributed to their sports over the years, including Lois Secreto, who epitomized ice skating in the 1940s; pro golfer Ken Still, who competed in six Masters, 13 U.S. Opens, and seven PGA Championships; Ryan Moore, who won the 2004 U.S. Amateur Championship; Doug Stevenson, goalie of the riotous Tacoma Rockets in the late forties and fifties; and Gertrude Wilhelmsen, 1936 Olympic athlete and star shortstop of the Tacoma Tigerettes. It is also a tribute to the colleges, schools, organizations, owners, managers, coaches, referees, umpires, and fans who have helped make sports such a significant part of Tacoma and Pierce County’s community, a place where love of a game, any game, is honored and enjoyed.
HOW TO ORDER PLAYGROUNDS TO THE PROS
Books may be purchased directly through the Tacoma Athletic Commission for $46.00, which includes shipping.
Send payment to: TAC, PO Box 11304, Tacoma, WA 98444
For credit card payments or additional information contact us at marc@tacomaathletic.com or call 253-848-1360.
Lorenzo Romar
Mens Basketball Coach—University of Washington
Lorenzo Romar has taken the University of Washington men’s basketball program to an elite standing in college circles. The Huskies have advanced to the Sweet 16 of the March Madness tournament each of the past two seasons.
During the 2005 tournament the Huskies achieved a No. 1 bracket seed and finished the season with a 29-6 overall record, won the Pac-10 Conference postseason tournament, and tied the 1938 UW team for most wins in a season. He earned 2005 Pac-10 Coach of the Year and Black Coaches Association National Coach of the Year honors. In 2006, the Huskies finished 26-7 and beat national runner-up UCLA in two Pac-10 Conference meetings.
There is every reason to believe, given recent outstanding recruiting classes, that Romar will keep the Huskies in that company, and that UW will reach the NCAA national tournament for the fourth year in as five seasons under Romar. His four-season record as head coach at his college alma mater is 84-42.
His coaching success recently won him selection to coach the 2006 USA team that will compete in the FIBA (International Basketball Federation) Americas U18 Championships from June 28 to July 2 in San Antonio, Texas. He has previous international coaching experience, having served as an assistant coach for the 2003 USA Basketball Pan American Games team.
Romar has been a college men’s basketball head coach for 10 seasons, compiling a 177-130 overall record, a .577 winning percentage. Prior to coming to Washington, he served as head coach at Saint Louis and Pepperdine universities.
As a senior at UW, Romar averaged 9.3 points to help the 1979-80 Huskies finish with an 18-10 overall record and a spot in the National Invitation Tournament. Twice he was selected by his UW teammates as the Most Inspirational Player, and as a senior he was team captain.
Romar had a five-year career in the National Basketball Association, playing for Golden State, Milwaukee and Detroit. He also played a total of seven seasons for Athletes In Action, a non-denominational Christian ministry team, and served as player-coach three seasons. He holds AIA’s all-time record with 1,689 assists, ranks second in career scoring, and holds single-game record for points with 54 and assists with 21.
Michael Peterson
Country Music Singer, 1980 PLU Football Team Member
Country music fans know Michael Peterson best as an award-winning singer and songwriter for more than a decade and as country music’s top-selling new male artist in 1997 and 1998. He is that, and a speaker and author as well. What few of them may realize, however, is that he was the starting left offensive tackle for 2 seasons at Pacific Lutheran University, including his senior year when the Lutes won the 1980 NAIA national football championship Peterson, born in 1959 in Arizona, came to Pacific Lutheran out of Columbia High School in Richland, WA. He is perhaps best known now for topping the Billboard charts with “Drink, Swear, Steal and Lie,” and “From Here To Eternity.” In 1999, he was selected by country fans as Male Star of Tomorrow at the TNN Music City News Awards, before hitting the charts again with “Something ‘Bout A Sunday” and “Sure Feels Real Good,” from his second CD, “Being Human.”
In addition to earning a strong following in the United States, Peterson is a fan favorite in several European countries, including Germany, France and Switzerland. “Modern Man” released in 2002, producing six songs in the top 40 in the first week in Germany.
Michael has been spending much of his personal time mentoring aspiring young songwriters and teaching the craft to eager music students in several of Nashville’s premiere songwriting programs. His current compact disc, “Down On The Farm,” is initially being released exclusively through New Holland tractor dealers, the company that is sponsoring Michael’s upcoming tour. The new CD will be available at other retailers soon, but until then, it can be ordered via Michael’s fan club site: www.michaelpeterson.fanspace.com.
In addition to recording his new CD, Michael has spent most of the last year working with The New Holland Corporation and the U.S. Army around an initiative called “Harvesting Great Americans.” This exciting initiative is focused on building a growing sense of togetherness between civilian and military communities. He is delivering this dynamic, proactive message around the world, inviting Americans from every walk of life to “answer the call” to a purpose bigger than themselves.
2006 Tacoma-Pierce County High School Athletes Of The Year
Sponsored by Columbia Bank
The Pierce County High School Athlete of the Year Award is presented to an individual chosen from high school athletes honored by the TAC as Athletes of the Month during the school year. The award follows the TAC tradition of recognizing excellence. Participation and leadership are examples of young athletes learning the rewards of community service and responsibility.
Danika Lawson, Puyallup
Danika is a four-sport varsity athlete in Track, Cross Country, Fastpitch and Basketball. She is a three-time varsity letter winner in basketball and this past season was the 4A classification’s second leading scorer in the state with a 19.9 average. She also averaged 8.1 rebounds per game. She was nominated for league MVP, was chosen as a WIAA All-Star team member, and was also selected as The News Tribune’s Athlete of the Week. Danika also competed on her high school’s 4 x 400 relay team and was the number two runner on the Vikings’ Cross Country team. Danika serves as a volunteer youth basketball coach and is an elementary school teaching assistant. She earned a 3.9 grade point average and is still weighing her options for college next year where she plans to continue her basketball career.
Kyle Stanley, Bellarmine Prep
Past Recipients Of The TacomaPierce County High School Athlete Of The Year
2005Brie Felnagle, Bellarmine Brad Muri, Steilacoom
2004Megan Rains, Rogers Sean McNaughton, Curtis
2003Ashley Blake, Lakes Ben Shelton, Lincoln
2002Amy Frederick, Life Christian Shelton Sampson, Clover Park
2001Kim Butler, Bellarmine Prep
K.C. Walsh, Lincoln Cory Belser, Bethel
2000Shannon Forslund, Mt. Tahoma Mellanie Tipps, Sumner Drew Miller, Lakes.
1999Onnie Willis, Wilson Collin Henderson, Puyallup
1998Alexis Yeater, Steilacoom
Travis Brock, Bethel
1997Dori Christensen, Puyallup Scott Burcar, Bethel Evan Martinac, Wilson
1996Mary Boerner, Bellarmine Prep
Bryan Streleski, Bethel
1995Alcydia Ladd, Foss Tyce Nasinec, Rogers
Kyle has been recognized nationally by Golf Digest Magazine as the second ranked Junior Golfer in America. He holds the record for the 2006 Narrows League boys championship at Lake Spanaway Golf Course with a 9 under, 133. He led his team to the WIAA 4A State Championship team title in 2005 while earning runner-up honors in medalist play. He also earned honors as a 2005 AJGA Rolex Junior All-America first team selection. In 2004 he was selected as the Washington Junior Golf Assn. (WJGA) Player of the Year. He won three major tournaments in 2004 including the prestigious Junior World Qualifier shooting a 68 along the way. In 2003 he was Team Washington’s MVP in the Junior America’s Cup and is a four-year varsity letter winner for the Lions. Kyle has accepted an athletic scholarship to Clemson University where he will be playing golf for the Tigers
1994Sarna Renfro, Bellarmine Prep Chad Wright, Fife
1993Sarna Renfro, Bellarmine Prep Jake Guadnola, Bellarmine Prep
Athlete of the Year Nominees
MonthNameGradeGPASportSchool
SeptemberLyndsay Szybura123.7Cross CountryOrting
SeptemberNic Shadle123.6FootballPuyallup
SeptemberRoman Pula112.78FootballLincoln
OctoberAlita Fisher123.14VolleyballBellarmine
OctoberChase Dutcher123.33FootballSpanaway Lake
OctoberRyee Cline123.4FootballTacoma Baptist
November**Lindsey Marchand94.0SwimmingPeninsula
NovemberSeth Bridges103.8Cross CountryLakes
NovemberJoe Halahuni122.55FootballOrting
DecemberEliza Roisum123.99BasketballCurtis
DecemberAustin Kilpartick123.0BasketballPuyallup
JanuaryDanika Lawson123.9BasketballPuyallup
JanuaryAaron Hughes123.79SwimmingCurtis
JanuaryJason Marshall123.33WrestlingSpanaway
February**Jesse Stipek3.0SwimmingMt. Tahoma
FebruaryAlexis Montgomery113.57BasketballLincoln
February**Tony Farrington122.8WrestlingOrting
FebruaryWhitney Condor123.30WrestlingPuyallup
MarchJessica Snyder113.9FastpitchStadium
MarchTara Leaman123.8TrackTacoma Baptist
MarchRyan Langlois123.98SoccerSumner
AprilKyle Stanley123.2GolfBellarmine
AprilCheyoon Im123.9SoccerStadium
AprilAlisha Babbitt113.9FastpitchSpanaway Lake
AprilBrianne Carmichael123.2GolfBellarmine
MayAndrew Putnam113.9GolfLife Christian
MayCraig Graner123.14TrackLakes
MaySuzie Matzenauer123.86TennisBellarmine
MayAlyson McWherter123.77FastpitchLakes
MayHaley Carrol123.98Water poloPuyallup
State ChampPeter BrowneCross CountryCharles Wright
State ChampIsabelle FischerSwimmingFoss
SPORTS
Boys BasketballSteve Liptrap253-589-8519wwbua@aol.com
Girls BasketballAl Perez253-472-0484al.perez2@netzero.com
BaseballSteve Liptrap253-589-8519wwbua@aol.com
FootballJan Wolcott253-826-2460jswol@comcast.net
SoccerMike Schmitt253-638-2800schmittm2@comcast.net
SoftballKen Laase253-846-0067laasesd@cs.com
VolleyballMarc Blau253-848-1360blaumarc@qwest.net
WrestlingRon Isaacson253-584-4088ron.isaacson@weyerhaeuser.com
NOTE: Officiating can be a great parttime job for high school and college students as many assignments are in the afternoon. With proper training, you can officiate two afternoons a week and earn $100. Don't wait—call us now!!
2006 Dick Hannula Female Amateur Athlete of the Year
Christal Morrison Christal Morrison Christal Morrison Christal Morrison Morrison
Prior to the past several years, when you thought of National Collegiate Association of Athletics (NCAA) women’s volleyball powerhouses, you almost never thought of the University of Washington.
This year’s winner of the 2006 Dick Hannula Female Amateur Athlete of the Year Award has helped change that thinking.
Christal Morrison, a 6-2 sophomore outside hitter out of Puyallup High School, helped the Washington Huskies win the NCAA national championship this past season. Her part in the tournament run was no small thing as she was voted as the NCAA Championship Tournament Most Valuable Player after winning the same award at the regional tourney level. That capped a season in which she received American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) third-team All-America recognition and ranked among the conference leaders in several offensive categories.
A first team All-Pacific Region, All-Pac 10 Conference selection and Pac-10 AllAcademic honorable mention honoree, Christal started all 32 Huskies matches. She finished second in the league in service aces and her 55 for the season rank her second on the all-time UW single-season list. She ranked fifth in the conference with 5.29 points per game and 4.36 kills per game, and she finished sixth with a .337 hitting percentage. Christal had at least 10 kills in 26 matches and four times she had at least 20 kills in a match, including a season-high 26 against Stanford. She also averaged 2.30 digs and 0.77 blocks per match.
As a freshman, Christal earned AVCA second team AllAmerica honors, in addition to receiving All-Pacific Region and All-Pac 10 Conference first team accord. In addition, she was the Pacific Region and Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. In 30 matches, including 27 starts, she averaged 4.10 kills, 2.60 digs, 0.72 blocks and 4.67 points per game. She had at least 10 kills in 24 matches and 20 kills in six matches.
Christal earned 2003 Gatorade Player of the Year honors during her senior season at Puyallup High School. She was a three-time first team All-South Puget Sound League honoree and helped Puyallup to a state runner-up and third place finish in back-toback years. She also played on the U.S. Junior National Team that won a silver medal in the 2002 NORCECA Junior Continental Championships.
Born in Puyallup, Christal is the daughter of Mike and Dianne Morrison. She has two older brothers, Greg and Jerid.
Past Recipients
2005 —Ryan Moore, University of Nevada at Las Vegas/Cascade Christian 2004—Reggie Williams, University of Washington 2003—Ryan Moore, University of Nevada at Las Vegas/Cascade Christian 2002—Dana Boyle, Pacific Lutheran University 2001—Chad Johnson, Pacific Lutheran University/Rogers 2000—Meaghan Quann, Emerald Ridge
1999—Kirk White, Boise State/ Curtis
1998—Karl Lerum, Pacific Lutheran University
1997—Shannon Forslund, Mt. Tahoma
1996—Dusty Brett, Bellarmine Prep 1995—Brock Huard, Puyallup 1994—Marc Weekly, Pacific Lutheran University/Rogers 1993—Kate Starbird, Lakes 1992—Sonja Olejar, Bellarmine Prep/Stanford University 1991—Damon Huard, Puyallup 1990—Andy Maris, White River 1989—Sonya Brandt, Pacific Lutheran University 1988—Mike Oliphant, University of Puget Sound 1987 —Jim Martinson, Puyallup
2006 Dick Hannula Male Amateur Athlete of the Year
Joe Rubin Joe Rubin Joe Rubin Joe Rubin Rubin
Joe Rubin, the 2006 Dick Hannula Male Amateur Athlete of the Year Award, had the kind of senior season that most college and high school athletes dream about.
Playing his final year for the Portland State University football team, Joe earned Walter Camp (NCAA) I-AA first team honors after racking up 1,702 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns. The rushing total, the third highest among I-AA players during the 2005 season, ranks him second on the Portland State single-season list.
At a powerful 5-11 and 230 pounds, Joe led a Vikings running game that for the second straight season topped the Big Sky Conference in team rushing. In 11 games, only twice did he carry the ball less than 26 times, and only once was he held below 100 yards. His best game was a monster—47 carries for 356 yards and five touchdowns against Northern Colorado.
Joe came into the 2005 season with high expectations after gaining 825 yards and scoring seven touchdowns in a junior year in which he shared his position with two other players. That performance put him on a select list of 15 players to be considered for the Walter Payton Award, which goes to the player voted as the nation’s top NCAA I-AA player.
Joe finished his career as the Vikings’ fourth all-time leading rusher with 2,996 yards, and he ranks sixth in rushing touchdowns with 25. In 19 career starts spanning four seasons he rushed for 2,503 yards.
While at Foss, Joe earned All-Narrows League honors three times, and as a senior earned all-state accolades. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards as a junior and for 643 yards in just four games as a senior. Born on Nov. 23, 1982, Joe is the son of Lee and Bridgette Rubin.
The Clay Huntington Sports Communcation Scholarship Award
Clay Huntington may have been the youngest sportswriter and sportscaster in Tacoma’s history. He started while in Lincoln High School, working for the Tacoma Times and KMO radio, and he continued while attending the College of Puget Sound. He was one of the founders of the Tacoma Athletic Commission, the first voice of the Tacoma Tigers when professional baseball returned to Tacoma in 1946 and also broadcast Tacoma Rockets Hockey games from 1946-53.
A former Pierce County Commissioner and founder of the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame, Clay owns radio station KLAY, one of the last stations still covering Tacoma high school and college sports in addition to Tacoma’s professional teams.
The Clay Huntington Scholarship Award is a TAC effort, dedicated in Clay’s name, to assist worthy local high school students in their pursuit of broadcasting or journalism at the college of their choice.
Nick Kajca, Emerald Ridge High School
Nick Kajca, a senior at Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup, is the 2006 winner of the Clay Huntington Scholarship.
Kajca has excelled for three years as a writer for the school’s student newspaper, the JagWire, and this year he is a member of the paper’s editorial board.
Kajca received an excellence in sports writing at the 2006 National High School Journalism convention and earned first-place honors in sports writing in the Edward R. Murrow high school journalism awards. Murrow was a Washington State graduate, and that is Kajca’s plan as well. Next fall he will attend WSU, where he intends to pursue a career in journalism.
Kajca is a three-year varsity letter winner in football and has participated in track and field for three straight years. When he’s not in school, Kajca enjoys snowboarding, church youth group activities, and spending time with his family and friends.
Past Recipients:
2005—Spencer Drolette, Peninsula
2004—Brendon Kepner, Spanaway Lake
2003—Russell Houghtaling, Peninsula
2002—Chad Potter, Gig Harbor
2001—Spencer Snope, Peninsula
2000—Kara Rae Skagg, Peninsula
The Shanaman Sports Museum Of Tacoma-Pierce County
Through out the years, Tacoma-Pierce County has been fortunate to receive recognition and publicity thanks to its national and international caliber athletes, coaches and teams. There has never been one place in which their accomplishments at the high school, college, amateur and professional level could be recognized for the distinction they have brought or will bring to our community. Under the auspices of the Tacoma Athletic Commission, and thanks to a generous contribution by Fred Shanaman, Jr. the museum became a reality with the opening in October of 1994.
The primary focus is to recreate the history of sports through visual displays and complemented with a narrated video highlighting famous moments in our local history. The museum focuses not only on athletes, coaches, and teams, but also on administrators, sponsors, officials, sportswriters and broadcasters, all of whom have contributed to our rich sports heritage. The staff is currently working to create a web accessible database, which will serve as a comprehensive educational resource to the community.
Contributions Sought For Museum
The Shanaman Sports Museum appreciates those who are able to provide financial contributions to the organization to continually update and rotate displays, expand the interpretive section of the museum, and enhance the accessibility of the collections through use of the website and other interactive means. Financial support also will allow establishment of regular operating hours so that the public can more easily enjoy the displays.
Artifacts are always being sought which will foster continued preservation of our sports history. Whether it be an old family scrapbook, a uniform, glove, programs, photos, posters, or even an old baseball from the turn of the century, each artifact tells a story and contributes to the folklore that we strive to preserve for generations to come. We must understand the past in. order to appreciate the present and unique memorabilia will allow us to accomplish this objective.
The Shanaman Sports Museum of Tacoma-Pierce County is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit status. To make a financial or artifact contribution, discuss estate planning to benefit the museum or for further information, contact Marc Blau, President, Shanaman Sports Museum at 9908 – 63rd Ave. Ct E., Puyallup, WA 98373 or (253) 848-1360 or via email at blaumarc@qwest.net.
Banquet Volunteers
Our appreciation goes to these sports fans that have volunteered to serve on the banquet and museum committees
Tony Anderson
Colleen Barta
Mike Beers
Cheryl Blau
Nikki Blevins
Becca Boyle
LeRoy Booker
Diane Butler
Liz Colleran
Nick Dawson
Sarah Dorsch
Angie Eichholtz
Adria Farber
Matt French
Jon Grant
Megan Guenther
Lisa Harrison
Bernie Helm
Carolynn Howard
Bruce Ibsen
Doug McArthur
Lillian Morris
Eugene Morris
Diane Pittman
Earl Powell
Tim Waer
Darrell Watkins
Bruce Westeen
Karen Westeen
John & Jackie Wohn
Teri Wood
Terry Ziegler
Dick Zierman
Thanks To The Following Banquet Sponsors For Their Support!!
GOLD SPONSORS
•MVP Physical Therapy
•The News Tribune
•Thrivent Financial - Knut Olson, Managing Partner
•Puyallup Tribe of Indians
•Emerald Queen Casino
•Cascade Print Media
SILVER SPONSORS
•Columbia Bank
•Merit Company
•Joeseppi’s Italiano Ristorante
•Franciscan Health System
•Pierce Commercial Bank
•Anthony J. Milan, D.D.S.
•Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Commission
•Pete Lovely
•Mr. Mac Ltd.
•Kellie Ham Type & Graphics
BRONZE SPONSORS
•Earl Powell
•Lakes Cross Country Team
•John & Jackie Wohn
•Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound
•BN Credit Union
•CJ’s Bail Bonds
•South Tacoma Honda
•Dwyer Pemberton Coulsen
•Dr. Doug Knight
•Willie Stewart
•Pioneer Sports
TOUCHDOWN TIME III
Sept. 8-9, 2006 – Tacoma Dome
What is Touchdown Time? It is an opportunity for Tacoma area high school football teams and their fans to enjoy playing and cheering at a game where the state championships are played, in the comfort of the Tacoma Dome. For many, it is the thrill of a lifetime!
It also features a celebration honoring 100+ years of prep gridiron play in Tacoma and Pierce County.
This is the third year the event has been held, and each year it has grown in both interest and attendance. Last year we attracted 10,000 fans and families with four of the teams coming from out of the local area, including Hawaii and Alaska.
This year we expect attendance to grow even more, hopefully to 15,000, because all of our teams will be Tacoma area teams. That should interest many more local folks and fans.
We will have 10 teams playing five games on Friday night and all day Saturday. Here is the tentative schedule:
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8
5 P.M. KICKOFF - Clover Park vs. Franklin Pierce. Neighborhood skirmish.
8 P.M. KICKOFF - Lakes vs. South Kitsap. Both title contenders.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9
2 P.M. KICKOFF - South Bend vs.Chief Leschi. Good matchup.
5 P.M. KICKOFF - Stadium Tigers vs. Lincoln Abes. Tacoma’s oldest rivalry.
8 P.M. KICKOFF.- Eatonville vs. Cascade Christian (Puyallup) . Terrific game.
The Tacoma Athletic Commission is proud to present this early-season attraction and to be involved in supporting youth and sports in all of Pierce County. Won’t you join us?
MVP Physical Therapy To Announce Surprise Award
MVP PHYSICAL THERAPY is excited to come on board this year as a sponsor of the Banquet of Champions and as a sign of their commitment to local area athletes, they will unveil the establishment of a surprise award.
MVP PT is known for offering some of the best sports therapy programs in the community utilizing a team approach. This includes both therapists and certified athletic trainers that focus on your athletic injuries while designing sport specific as well as overall athletic programs to meet your goals.
FIRST FAMILY OF SPORTS AWARD
The First Family of Sports Award recognizes the contributions of parents, foster parents, or guardians who instill and help maintain athletes’ successes.
From the “Hi Mom” TV wave at a sports event to more formal acknowledgement of family interest in and encouragement of sports from generation to generation, athletic achievement, whether in team or individual sports, is fostered by and also can foster family life.
Selection Criteria
1. Parents or guardians must have supported the efforts of their children in school and community activities.
2. Child/children must have made significant contributions at the local, state, regional or national sports scene.
3. Child/children should be able to demonstrate achievements or contributions designed to help improve the quality of life in the community they lived in.
4. All family members should be in good standing as members of the community.
DO YOU KNOW A FAMILY DESERVING OF THIS AWARD? Send in your nomination with a detailed explanation of why you think the family deserves to receive this honor. Include background information on both the parents and their children and be specific as to their community and school involvement. Please elaborate on how the parents supported their children in their school, sports and extra-curricular endeavors and any additional information that will support this nomination.
Submit nominations to: Tacoma Athletic Commission:PO Box 11304, Tacoma, WA 98411 or Email to: marc@tacomaathletic.com
10506 Steele Street South Lakewood, WA 98499-8736
(253) 582-3585
Fax: (253) 582-2031 www.companycasuals.com
Sales Associates: Scott Logan, Kim Grant, Marc Blau, Theresa Spurr
TAC Recognizes Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Families
The Williams family is first to be so honored
The Tacoma Athletic Commission has come up with a new award to be presented annually to a Tacoma-Pierce County Family for their involvement and dedication to sports.
The Joe and Cleo Williams family of Tacoma will be our first recipient and their story is one of sports, sports and more sports. Truly they are The First Family of Sports. Elsewhere in our program you will find the criteria and a nomination form for future awards to be presented to deserving families.
Let’s talk about the parents first. Joe and Cleo married in 1936 and were married 68 years at Cleo’s death in July of 2004. They were Tacoma residents since 1950. Joe earned the nickname of Smokey when cooking over a woodstove at a CCC camp during the great depression.
The Williams had seven children, the final two arriving via Korea, and all graduated from Tacoma’s Lincoln High School. They also were foster parents to 169 foster children over a 15-year period. Talk about being parents!
In sports, the Williams brothers earned 47 varsity letters in high school and college. Talk about being athletes!
Let’s start with “Big Joe”. He graduated from Lincoln in 1955 but not before lettering in football, basketball, track and decathlon. At 6-6 and 245, he was the first “big man” in Tacoma high school football. Many considered him the best defensive end ever to play at Lincoln. As a UW freshman he played football and rowed for the Husky crew but he decided to join the Washington State Patrol where he spent his entire career before a recent retirement.
Jerry came next, graduating from high school in 1958. He followed Joe in lettering in every sport at Lincoln and was named a Prep All-America in football as a senior. He decided to become an Iowa Hawkeye and lettered in both football and track in college.
Jerry currently owns a real estate office with his wife in Florida.
Dave was next, leaving a legacy at Lincoln when he graduated in 1963. He lettered in the same four sports as his brothers but starred in football where he was recruited by the UW. As a Husky he was so outstanding that he was drafted in the NFL where he became one of the top receivers in the league for St. Louis, Pittsburgh and San Diego. He caught 435 passes in his career for 53 touchdowns but retired because of a knee injury after being the first player drafted by the Seattle Seahawks. Dave currently owns a corporate investment/financial counseling company in Arizona.
That wasn’t the end of the Williams at Lincoln high. John graduated from there in 1969
And, guess what, he also lettered in four sports. Yes, the same ones as his older brothers.
He went to college at Mission Viejo JC in California before enrolling at Iowa and he lettered in track & field at both. John retired from the Orange County Sheriff ’s Dept. and currently is an elected official there.
What about sister Susan, Lincoln class of 59? She took care of halftimes at LHS athletic events as a 3-year member of the Marcetta Ki Drill Team. She also made her mark on the Abe rifle team but she doesn’t consider that an athletic achievement regardless of what her brothers say.
A First Family in Sports? Indeed the Williams Family qualifies and then some!
Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall Of Fame
Hall of Fame inductees are recognized for their outstanding sports accomplishments and contributions that have brought significant local and regional acclaim to themselves and to the Tacoma-Pierce County area.
Additional criteria includes:
1. Athletes must be retired from active competition. Exception: Individuals in such categories as a coach, administrator, official, broadcaster or sportswriter still active at the age of 70 may be nominated for the HOF.
2. Coaches, administrators, broadcasters, sportswriters, officials and support personnel (photographer, trainer, scorekeeper, groundskeeper etc) must demonstrate significant accomplishments/ contributions in their field for an extended length of time.
3. Individuals to be considered must be born and raised in Tacoma-Pierce County or must have maintained significant long-term residence in the community. Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the TPCHOF committee.
4. Other categories not listed will be considered on an individual basis by the committee. Nominations for future considerations, which should include a detailed description of the individual’s athletic career, are encouraged from the general public.
To submit a nomination, you may submit your information to marc@tacomaathletic.com or write to the Tacoma Athletic Commission, Attn: TPCHOF Committee, P.O. Box 11304, Tacoma, WA 98411 or submit the nomination on-line by using the following directions:
1. Go to www.tacomasportsmuseum.com
2. Click on Sports Hall of Fames in the menu bar at the top of the page.
3. Click on Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame
4. Click on “On-Line Nomination Form” in red.
5. Complete information and click submit at bottom or form.
A committee of local sportswriters, Tacoma Athletic Commission members, and current HOF inductees will cast ballots to determine the new inductees who will be selected from an impressive list of candidates. Honorees will be recognized at an annual spring function.
2006 HONOREES
TACOMA-PIERCE COUNTY SPORTS HALL OF FAME
AUTO RACING
Tom Carstens
Leo Dobry
Pete Lovely
BASEBALL
Rick Austin
Earl Birnel
Dale Bloom
Dick Colombini
Mike Dillon
George Grant
Earl Hyder
Arley Kangas
Earl Kuper
Al Libke Jr.
Bob Lightfoot (Coach)
Bill Mullen (Coach)
Harry Nygard
Doug Sisk
BASKETBALL
Wayne Dalesky (Coach)
Bob Fincham (Athlete & Coach)
Jim McKean
Clarence Ramsey
BOWLING
Stella “Babe” Penowich
Jim Stevenson
BOXING
Joe Clough (Coach)
Mike McMurtry
Davey Ward
FOOTBALL
Gail Bruce
Phil Carter
Rod Giske
Robert Iverson Sr.
Tim McDonough
Tom Merritt
Jack Newhart
Billy Sewell
Paul Skansi
Jerry Thacker
Jim Vest
ArtViafore
Jerry Williams
1980 PLU National
Championship team
GOLF
Al Feldman
MOUNTAINEERING
Dee Molenaar
Lou Whittaker
OFFICIAL
Marty Erdahl
Merle Hagbo
Jerry Snarski
ROLLER SKATING
Lin Peterson
Tom Peterson
SOCCER
Dan Swain (Coach)
SOFTBALL-FASTPITCH
Jack Hermsen
Art Lewis
Vern Martineau
SOFTBALL-SLOWPITCH
Kathy Hemion
SWIMMING
Dan Hannula
Dick Hannula, Jr.
Dan Seelye
TENNIS
Sonja Olejar
TRACK & FIELD
Mitch Angelel (Coach)
Hal Berndt
Bob Ehrenheim (Coach)
Jack Fabulich
Erica Harris
Sam Ring
Darrell Robinson
Rob Webster
VOLLEYBALL
Lisa Beauchene
Lorrie Post Hodge
WRESTLING
Ron Ellis
Bill Stout (Athlete & Coach)
Previous Honorees
1957
Bob JohnsonBaseball
Gretchen Kunigk-Fraser Skiing
Freddie Steele Boxing
1958
Marv Harshman Basketball/Football
Marv Tommervik Football
Frank Wilson Basketball/Football
1959
John HeinrickBasketball/Football (coach)
Cliff Olson Football
Joe Salatino Baseball/Football
Wally ScottTennis
Frank Stojack Football/Wrestling
1960
Charles Congdon Golf
Charles D. Hunter Golf
Roy JohnsonBaseball
1961
Leo Artoe
Herman BrixTrack
Paul StrandBaseball
1962
Shirley Fopp Golf/Skiing
Jack FournierBaseball
John KennedyBasketball (coach & referee)
Phil SarboeFootball (coach)
Ted Tadich Bowling
1963
Jack Connor Boxing
Frank GillihanFootball (player & referee)
Marcus Nalley Hunting
Don Paul Baseball/Basketball/Football
Jack Walters Golf
George Wise Baseball/Golf
1964
Cy NeighborsBaseball
Marv RickertBaseball
Al RuffoFootball
Ernie Tanner Baseball/Football/Track
Frank TobinBaseball
1965
Myron “Chief” CarrFootball/Track (coach)
Pat McMurtry Boxing
1966
Dill HowellBaseball
Elliott MetcalfSports Writer
1967
Harold Bird
1968
Ben B. CheneyBaseball
Dan WaltonSports Writer
1969
Jesse BakerBaseball
Lou BalsanoBaseball
Tony Banaszak Sr.Baseball
Jimmy ClaxtonBaseball
Harry DeeganHorse Racing
Dick GrecoBaseball
Walt HagedornBaseball
Bob HagerAthletic Administrator
Frank HermsenBaseball
Joe HermsenBaseball
Chuck Horjes Football
Rick Johnson Baseball/Basketball
Harold “Wah” KellerAthletic Administrator
Lee KierstadBaseball
Bill LibkeBaseball
Cliff MarkerBaseball
Joey PetersonBaseball
Frank RuffoBaseball
Jack SonntagBaseball (coach)
Lou SpadaforeBaseball
Carl SparksFootball (coach)
Ole Swinland Baseball/Basketball
Mike Tucci Football
Bill VinsonBasketball/Football (coach)
Hal VotawBaseball
1970 NONE
1971
Jess Brooks Baseball/Football
Gordon Brunswick Baseball/Basketball/Football
Eddie CarlsonBaseball
Dug Dyckman Football
Jimmy Ennis Baseball/Football
Harold “Ox” Hansen Football
Vince Hanson Basketball
Ocky HauglandBaseball
Al HopkinsFootball (coach)
Wes Hudson Football
Everett Jensen Football
Neil MazzaBaseball
John McCallumSports Writer
Bobby McGuire Baseball/Basketball/Football
Max Mika Basketball/Football
Vern Morris Baseball/Basketball/Football
Jimmy MosolfBaseball
Andy NelsonBaseball
Harry ParkerArchery/Football
Harry Werbisky Baseball/Basketball/Football
Gertrude WilhelmsenTrack
Henry “Fat” WilliamsBaseball
1972
Art BergBaseball
Frankie “Chi-Chi” Britt Boxing
Ed HoneywellSports Writer
Floyd “Lefty” IsekiteBaseball
Vern Pedersen Football/Swimming
Roy SandbergFootball (coach)
Frank Spear Football
2005
Morry AbbottBaseball
Lanny Adams (Werner)Roller Skating
John AndersonFootball (Coach)
Neil Andrews Hockey
Earl Anthony Bowling
Davey Armstrong Boxing
Gerry AustinFootball (Coach)
Dan AyraultCrew
Sam Baker Football
Ronnie Barrios Gymnastics
Shirley Baty Golf
Ralph Bauman Football
Rod BelcherBroadcaster
Mike BensonTennis (Coach)
John BestSoccer (Administrator)
Ron BillingsFootball, Basketball (Coach)
Lloyd BlanusaFastpitch Softball
Dale BloomBaseball
Jack BoyleFigure Skating
Frank “Buster” Brouillet Football
Dick BrownFootball, Basketball
Doris Brown (Heritage)Track, Cross Country
Ole Brunstad Football
Janet Buchan (Elway) Swimming
Ruth Canale (Ward) Golf
Luther Carr Football
Andy Carrigan Football
Casey CarriganTrack
Ron CeyBaseball
Jerry ConineWrestling
Tom Cross Basketball, Official, Athletic Administrator
Chuck Curtis Basketball
Don D’Andrea Football
Jim DaulleyTrack (Coach)
Don DuncanSwimming (Coach)
Jeff DurganSoccer
Ockie Eliason Golf
Ed FallonFootball (Coach)
Jim FiferCrew
Pat Firth (Hanson)Figure Skating
Don FlyeTennis
Fred Forsberg Football
Jerry FotheringillFigure Skating
Judi Fotheringill (Fuller)Figure Skating
Vern FromFastpitch Softball
Nadine Fulton Bowling
Doug FunkFootball (Coach)
Pat GalbraithTennis
John GarneroFootball, Basketball, Track
Jerry GeehanBroadcaster
Tommy GilmerFootball, Track
Evalyn GoldbergBasketball, Volleyball, Fastpitch
Vince Goldsmith Football
Jeff GotcherWrestling
Larry GotcherWrestling
Cy GreenlawBaseball
Jimmy GroganFigure Skating
Kaye Hall-Greff Swimming
Patsy Hamm (Dillingham)Figure Skating
Dave Hannula Swimming
Dick Hannula Sr.Swimming (Coach)
John Harbottle Golf
Sterling HarshmanTrack, Football
George HenleyHydroplane Racing
Garry HerseyBaseball
Gordy HerseyBaseball
Don HillBroadcaster
Billy Joe Hobert Football
Mike HuardFootball (Coach)
Glenn HuffmanFootball, Basketball, Baseball
Bob HuntFootball, Wrestling, Track
George HuntCrew
Clay HuntingtonBroadcaster, Sportswriter
Earl HyderBaseball
Dan InveenBasketball, Administration
Norm Iverson Football
Roger Iverson Basketball
Bob JacksonSwimming, Football
Marjorie Jefferies (Shanaman) Golf
Lute JerstadMountaineering, Basketball
Joey JohnsHockey, Fastpitch Softball
Sonny JohnsArchery
John JohnsenFigure Skating (Coach)
Earl Johnson Bowling
Jack JohnsonBaseball, Official
Margie Junge (Oleole) Bowling
George KarpachFastpitch Softball
Dori Kovanen Soccer
Eldon Kyllo Football
Pat Lesser-Harbottle Golf
Bob LevinsonFootball, Track (Coach)
Earl LuebkerSports Writer
Gene Lundgaard Basketball
Bob MaguinezBaseball
Joan Mahon (Allard) Golf
Robert MartinCrew
Jeff Mattingly Bowling
Steve Matzen Basketball
Norm MayerFootball (Coach)
Tommy Mazza Football
Louise MazzucaFastpitch Softball
Doug McArthur Athletic Administration/Baseball (Coach)
Bertha McCormick Bowling
Harry McLaughlin Basketball
Don McLeod Motorcycle Racing, Auto Racing, Roller Skating
Ron Medved Football
Lornie Merkle Basketball, Baseball, Football (Official)
Jim MeyerhoffWrestling
Dick Milford Hockey
Bob Mitchell Football
Don Moore Football
Yumi Mordre Gymnastics
Don MoseidBasketball (Player & Coach)
Amy Lou Murray (Young) Golf
Stan Naccarato Baseball, Athletic Administrator
Clint NamesBasketball, Golf
George NordiFootball (Coach)
David OlmsteadWrestling
Dr. Dave OlsonAthletic Administrator
Carl Opolsky Football
Cap PetersonBaseball
Mark Peterson Soccer
Joe PeytonTrack. Football, Basketball
Gordy PfeiferHandball, Slowpitch Softball
Cindy Pitzinger (Willey)Volleyball
Earl PlattFootball, Basketball, Baseball
Leo Randolph Boxing
Ahmad Rashad Football
Jerry RedmondFootball (Coach)
Chuck RichardsSwimming, Pentathlon
Bob RobertsonBroadcaster
Jim Rondeau Boxing (Referee-Administrator)
Mark RossFootball (Coach)
Bob RyanFootball (Coach)
John SayreCrew
Marv ScottBaseball (Coach)
Sugar Ray Seales Boxing
Lois Secreto (Schoettler)Figure Skating
Sarah Silvernail (Elliot)Volleyball
Mark SmithTrack
Chuck SoperTrack
Bob Sprague Basketball
Ken Still Golf
Jeff Stock Soccer
Wes StockBaseball
Joe StortiniBaseball, Football, Slowpitch
Vince Strojan Basketball
Fred Swendsen Football
Dave TrageserTennis
Dave Tuell Jr. Bowling
Jim Van Beek Basketball
Gene Walters Football
Dan WatsonTrack (Coach)
Clyde Werner Football
Frosty WesteringFootball (Coach)
Laurie Wetzel (Hayward)
Basketball, Volleyball
Tom Whalen Basketball
Steve WhitakerBaseball
Mac WilkinsTrack
Charlie Williams Basketball
Dave Williams Football
Onnie Willis (Rogers) Gymnastics
Warren WoodFootball
Milt Woodard Athletic Administration-Football
Armand YapachinoHydroplane Racing
Robert A “RAB” YoungRace Walking
John Zamberlin Football
Don ZechBasketball (Coach)
1944 Lincoln High School football team backfield
Al Malanca, Dean Mellor, Len Kalapus, and Bob McGuire.
1956 Stanley Shoemen baseball team
Team includes Stan Naccarato, Morley Brotman, Doug McArthur, Tom Montgomery, Jack Johnson, Dale Bloom, Mike Dillon, Manly Mitchell, Max Braman, Dick Montgomery, Dick Schlosstein, Russ Wilkerson, Gordy Hersey, Jim Gallwas, Bob Maguinez, Earl Hyder, Ron Storaasli, Gordy Grubert. Pat Dillon, Ray Spalding, Monte Geiger, George Grant, and Jim Harney.
1976 University of Puget Sound basketball team
Team includes Don Zech, Mike Acres, Jim Schuldt, Doug McArthur, Brant Gibler, Rick Walker, Curt Peterson, Tim Evans, Rocky Botts, Mark Wells, A.T. Brown, Mike Hanson, Phil Hiam, Jimmy Stewart, Mike Strand, Matt McCully, Mike Kuntz, Steve Freimuth, and Bill Greenheck.
State Of Washington Sports Hall Of Fame
In recognition of the many fine individual contributions to athletics, the Tacoma Athletic Commission established the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame in 1960. Commissioned by then-governor Albert D. Rosellini and originated by Clay Huntington, longtime Northwest sportscaster and radio station owner, the State Hall of Fame inductions are held annually.
These Hall of Fame members are recognized for their outstanding sports accomplishments and contributions that have brought national acclaim to themselves and to the state of Washington. A committee of sportswriters and sportscasters from throughout the state cast ballots to determine the new inductees who are selected from an impressive list of candidates.
Guest speakers over the years read like a who’s who of celebrities and have included the likes of Arnold Palmer, Tom Harmon, Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch, Joe E. Brown, Joe Namath, Pat Boone, Lenny Wilkens, John Hadl, Hugh O’Brien, Leo Durocher, Andy Devine, Frank Leahy, Buddy Rogers, and Willie Mays.
Nominations for future considerations may be submitted in writing to: State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame, c/o Tacoma Athletic Commission, P.O. Box 11304, Tacoma, WA 98411.
Hall Of Fame Rings Now Available To Honorees
The Tacoma Athletic Commission and Jostens, the largest supplier of Honor Rings and Championship Rings in the industry, have teamed up to create an Honor Ring to commemorate induction into the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame.
The TAC has worked with Jostens to secure a promotional cost for these rings of only $150.00 for a White Lustrium Metal ring. These rings are the same quality as Super Bowl or World Series Championship rings.
Each inductee has the opportunity to order an Honor Ring and all past inductees will also have a chance to order one of these unique rings as well. For further information or a brochure contact Marc Blau at 253-848-1360 or at marc@tacomaathletic.oom. For orders, call Peter Bauernfeind at 509-468-1608 or at jostenspete@gmail.com.
Our Community Needs a TAC and
the TAC Needs You
If supporting youth and sports in Tacoma-Pierce County is appealing to you, joining the Tacoma Athletic Commission should be a “no-brainer”. No other sports-oriented organization in Pierce County ever has done more for our kids and their sports, and the TAC has been doing it for the last 64 years!
More than $4 million has been donated to schools, recreation departments, boys and girls clubs, deserving teams and individual athletes during that time thanks to TAC dues and special events staged by Commission members.
Among the events which the TAC supports or sponsors are this Banquet of Champions, the Shanaman Sports Museum of Tacoma-Pierce County, the annual Golden Gloves amateur boxing show, a TAC Golf Tournament, and Touchdown Time, a gathering of 12 local high school football teams each September in the Tacoma Dome.
In terms of honors and awards, the TAC conducts the High School Athlete of the Month Award ceremonies three times a year, selects both a male and female Athlete of the Year from those ranks (each receive TAC college scholarships) and awards the Clay Huntington Sports Communication Scholarship. The Dick Hannula Award is another TAC honor, given to the Amateur Athlete of the Year in Pierce County.
Tonight’s induction of more than 100 new members into the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame is another TAC tribute to sports in our community
If the TAC is destined to continue its efforts of support, it needs the help of civic-minded, sportsminded citizens like you. A TAC individual membership or a TAC Corporate/Business Membership is the ideal way to assist this worthwhile cause.
An application below will enable you to join now. Or you may locate an application form on line at www.tacomaathletic.com. For information, contact TAC membership chairman Doug McArthur at 253759-4621 or BigAR@worldnet.att.net.
Individual Membership - $100, Corporate Contributions - $250, $500, $1000, $2500, $5000. Enclose check. Mail to: Tacoma Athletic Commission, Box 11304, Tacoma, WA 98411
Morris McCullum Owner
Inductees Into The Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall Of Fame Class Of 2006
Mitch Angelel
Mitch Angelel was hard to miss in high school. When your graduating class numbers four, however, that’s hard to do. After leaving little Tenino, Wash., Mitch remained hard to miss, and his success as a track and field coach earns him a sport in the Tacoma-Pierce County Hall of Fame.
Mitch was born in Tenino in 1903 and died in Tacoma in 1992. As mentioned, he was one of four in the Tenino High graduating class of 1921. He was student body president and participated in football, basketball, baseball and track and field. His list of accomplishments at Washington State Normal (now Central Washington University) wasn’t much different: he played the same four sports, served as student body president and earned his degree. Mitch played football with Tacoma and University of Puget Sound coaching legend John Heinrick at Washington State Normal.
Later, Mitch would earn a post-graduate degree from the University of Washington.
He entered the education field as a teacher and coach, spending two years in Thorpe and two more in Cle Elum before coming to Tacoma. Starting in 1929 and for the next 40 years he taught and coached at Mason Junior High. One of his stars was sprinter Hal Berndt, who as a Lincoln Abe won the state 100- and 200-yards high school championships in 1936 and 1937. Mitch also produced top coaches in his son, Jim, a long-time mentor at Clover Park High, and Bob Ehrenheim, who led some top Mount Tacoma High teams in the 1960s.
Mitch also had two-year stints as head track coach at Stadium High and the College of Puget Sound, and as a football and basketball assistant at Stadium.
Mitch might best be known for starting the Pierce County Parks Department’s Junior Olympics program. He also initiated the Tacoma Track and Field Team, lining up regional high school and college stars to participate.
Rick Austin
A graduate of Lakes High School, Rick Austin was a three-sport star that went on to pitch in the majors for Cleveland and Milwaukee. Arguably, his most impressive outing as a major leaguer came in his second start when he tossed a five-hit shutout against Detroit while pitching for Cleveland.
Rick, born in 1946 in Seattle, was nearly untouchable as a high school senior. Playing for Ron Storaasli’s 1965 Puget Sound League champions, he was unbeaten and compiled a 0.21 earned run average. When he wasn’t pitching, Austin roamed centerfield and also hit .375 for the season.
Some of his top games came against the best competition. In a playoff game, Rick tossed a two-hitter, struck out 12 and allowed only two balls to be hit out of the infield as Lakes beat Tyee, 1-0. The following game, he drove in four runs as the team prevailed, 8-0. Selected to play in the West Central All-Star games at Cheney Stadium, Rick showed again that he could do it all. In a 6-2 first-game victory he tossed a two-hitter and struck out 10. In the second game, a 4-0 victory, he stroked a two-run double.
Rick won the Buck Bailey Award as Washington State University’s top pitcher in 1968 after sharing that award the previous season. He earned team MVP, All-Northern Division and second team All-America honors as the Cougars compiled a 29-9 record. His list of college accomplishments includes a no-hitter against Gonzaga.
Coming out of WSU, he signed a professional contract with Cleveland, working his way through the minor leagues until pitching for the Indians in 1970-71. He spent a year in the top Japanese league with the Hankyu Braves, and came back to the U.S. where he finished up his career in 1975-76 with the Milwaukee Brewers. In four Major League seasons he was 4-8 with a 4.63 earned run average and 106 strikeouts in 136 innings.
He joins his father, Gerry, who was also his football coach at Lakes, as the first father-son inductees into the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame.
Hal
Berndt
As a Lincoln High School track star, Hal Berndt was the high point scorer in both the 1936 and 1937 state championship meets, winning both the 100- and 200-yard dash titles.
Born in 1919 in Tacoma, Hal came out of Mitch Angelel’s track program at Mason Junior High. He established a 100-yard dash City League record that last 33 years, and his time in the 100 stood as a state record for 25 years. He also played football at Lincoln High, where he was sports editor of the Lincoln High School News in 1938. He won the coveted Richard Graff Memorial Award that same year. During the summer, Hal was a baseball centerfielder who could outrun long drives to the alleys.
Hal went to Central Washington State College, where he participated in both track and football. He graduated from Central in 1943 and jointed the U.S. Marine Corps, where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant. He later returned to school, earning a master’s from College of Puget Sound in 1957.
He worked in the Tacoma school system for 27 years and eventually returned to his high school alma mater in 1967 as its principal.
Hal continued his involvement in sports for many years as a softball and baseball umpire, earning numerous honors and top assignments in that role.
Active for many years as the local Soap Box Derby chairman and in the Central Washington Alumni Association, Hal passed away in 1973 from a chronic war disability.
Lisa Beauchene
Lisa Beauchene was not the only volleyball-playing Beauchene to come out of Fife High School, but even sisters Rene and Suzanne, both of whom played at Pacific Lutheran University, would agree that she was the best.
The third of the three girls and born in 1982, Lisa developed her game while playing six seasons for the Puget Sound Volleyball Club. That helped prepare her for an outstanding prep career. With Lisa handling the setting duties, Fife High School won three league titles, four district championships and state crowns in 1996 and 1999. Fife always challenged for the state title with Lisa running the show as the team placed third and fourth when not winning the championship. Twice she earned Pierce County League Most Valuable Player honors, and three times she was selected to the Pierce County League first team before graduating in 2000. Lisa continued her outstanding play at Sacramento State, where she earned unanimous All-Big Sky selection as a setter each of her final three seasons after earning second team all-conference honors as a freshman.
Her individual honors as a senior were amazing: Big Sky Conference Most Valuable Player; Big Sky Conference Tournament MVP (for the third straight time, the first volleyball player in conference history to accomplish that feat); fivetime conference Player of the Week; four-time all-tournament selection; and American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Pacific Region honorable mention honoree. That season she averaged 2.08 kills, 11.14 assists, 3.11 digs and 0.97 blocks per game. In the classroom she was equally as adept, winning Big Sky Scholar-Athlete of the Year recognition. During both her sophomore and junior seasons she earned Big Sky All-Academic honors in addition to twice being selected as the conference Player of the Week. As a junior she led the team with a .366 hitting percentage, one season removed from a new school record .369 mark set as a sophomore. Lisa started her freshman year with a bang when she was named the Big Sky Conference Tournament MVP.
In four years, Lisa never missed a Sacramento State match, starting in 131 consecutive contests, and the Hornets either won the Big Sky regular season or tournament championship during those four seasons. She ranks among the Hornet career leaders in digs, assists, hitting percentage and service aces. Her .348 hitting percentage is tops in school history. She graduated from Sac State in 2005.
Volleyball is by no means in Lisa’s past. Since 2005 she has been an assistant coach at the University of New Mexico after serving as an undergraduate assistant at her alma mater during the 2004 season.
Earl Birnel
Since 1990, Earl Birnel has flashed his outstanding talent in local senior slowpitch circles. Now, at 80 years of age, he is still going strong and looking forward to another season.
Earl comes by his ability from an outstanding career as a baseball player, including a five-year minor league journey through such Chicago Cubs minor league affiliate stops as Visalia, Calif., Sioux Falls, S.D., Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Des Moines, Iowa. He was team MVP at Visalia in 1951 and a year later at Cedar Rapids.
Born in Tacoma in 1926, Earl learned baseball as a youth at Tacoma’s Jefferson Park. He was an accomplished infielder at Stadium High School, graduating from the school in 1944. Later, he played four years of baseball, including two seasons as team captain, at College of Puget Sound. He earned graduate and post-graduate degrees from the school and went on to a career as a teacher, coach and administrator in the University Place School District.
During his college years, he played summer baseball for Kay Street in the City League and for Madigan in the Valley League, and from 1953-56 he participated in Alaska’s Midnight Sun League.
After a long break from the diamond and at the urging of Joe Stortini and Bob Maguinnez Earl starting playing slowpitch softball in 1991. Earl was 65 and just getting started as a senior player. In 2001, he helped Emerald City win the 70 & Over national championship, and in 2004, with Earl as player-manager, the team won the national and world titles in the 75 & Over category. Throughout his softball career he has earned numerous tournament all-star and MVP awards.
In 2004, the State Senate honored Earl and the Northwest 75s with an official resolution following their Triple Grand Slam—Western, National and World championships.
Lincoln High School produced its share of great pitchers during the middle of the 20th century, and there can be little argument that Dale Bloom was among the best
Born in 1931 in Tacoma, Dale was a tall right-handed pitcher for the powerhouse Lincoln teams of 1948 and 1949. Dale was one two players (fellow pitcher Rance Rolfe was the other) who signed professional baseball contracts, and a large handful of other players from those teams went on to star at the college level. Dale helped the Abes win two straight Cross-State League titles
Dale, fresh out of Lincoln High School in 1950, pitched for South Tacoma in the City League, helping lead the team to the league crown. He also refined his craft and drew the eye of professional scouts. As a result, he signed with Detroit and pitched in the Tigers’ farm system from 1951-53. After leaving the professional ranks, Dale played baseball for the Tri-City Braves of the Western International League in from 1953-55.
In 1956, Dale was a key cog on the Stanley Shoemen nine, the team that won their final 13 games to become the first Washington entry to win the amateur baseball national championship. Dale pitched the state, regional and national championship games during the Shoemen’s incredible trip to the trophy.
Dale pitched for the Cheney Studs from 1957-59, and in 1960 was player-manager for Criswell’s, which won the Tacoma League title. He kept his hand in local sports, officiating high school football and basketball and college basketball for 26 years.
Dale Bloom
Gail Bruce
Gail Bruce, a dominant football and basketball player in the early 1940s at Puyallup High School, went on to a professional football career with the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League.
Gail was born in 1923 in Puyallup, and the end of his high school career coincided with the arrival of Carl Sparks, who would go on to a long and successful coaching career at Puyallup High.
A 1942 PHS grad, Gail and longtime friend Bill Calligan were co-captains of both the football and basketball teams as a senior. On the gridiron, Gail helped the Vikings to an outstanding 9-1 record, the only loss coming to powerhouse Renton High. The Vikings closed out that season with a 26-7 Thanksgiving Day win over rival Sumner.
Gail’s basketball highlight came as a senior when he scored 247 points in 14 conference games, beating the former record by 51 points. He earned first team all-conference honors for the effort. While at Puyallup High, Gail was a three-year letter winner in football, basketball and baseball.
A right end, Gail earned three varsity letters for the University of Washington football team under Coach Ralph Welch, serving as team captain as a senior.
Coming out of the UW, the 6-1, 206-pounder was picked in the 1946 professional football draft by Pittsburgh. It took him a couple of years to stick in pro ball, however, as he played with San Francisco from 1948-51. A reserve, he had seven career catches for 68 yards.
Tom Carstens
Tom Carstens, born in Tacoma in 1913, enjoyed a long and successful career as a racing car owner and driver, though he got his start in racing in outboard motor boats. With partner Dalton Thorne, he was Pacific Coast Outboard Champion in the mid 1930s.
Carstens made his Midget car racing debut in the post-World War II years as an owner and sponsor of a Kurtis Kraft car driven by Allen Heath. He later became the first executive of the Northwest Region of the Sports Car Club of America (SSCA), and he was a successful car owner in that division. His No. 14 car, a CadAllard driven by Bill Pollack, won titles at Pebble Beach and Reno in 1951, and at Pebble Beach, Golden Gate and Madera in 1952.
As a driver, Carstens won the Maryhill Hill Climb five straight years starting in 1955. The first four wins came in an Allard owned by Dave Fogg, and those four victories were among the 27 he garnered in Fogg’s No. 15 car from 1955-58. Fogg, by the way, was an excellent mechanic who helped put Carstens in the winner’s circle so often. Cartsten’s last Maryhill Hill Climb win came in a Lister.
Carstens served on the pit crew of Tacoma’s first-ever entry in the Indianapolis 500, the “City of Tacoma Special” owned by Leo Dobry and built and driven by Lou Cole. The car placed sixth in the 1948 edition of what is arguably America’s best-known auto race. The following year, Carstens again served on the crew as “City of Tacoma” started the race on the front row, only to face early elimination due to mechanical problems.
Carstens was owner of Carstens Packing Company until 1954 and for 40 years was a Porsche-Audi dealer.
Phil Carter
Phil Carter was one of the state’s high school football greats that got away. Carter, a standout multisport athlete at Wilson High School, went on to great success at the University of Notre Dame.
Phil, born in Tacoma, was a three-year football letter winner at Wilson. As a junior he earned all-state honors as a running back and linebacker, and a year later he garnered all-state honors as a running back after leading the entire state in touchdowns. He earned three letters in track and field and two letters in wrestling, a sport in which he placed sixth in the 178-pound weight classification.
After graduating from Wilson in 1979, Phil went on to a solid football career at Notre Dame. By the time he graduated in 1983, he ranked fourth on the Fighting Irish career rushing list with 2500 yards. He set a record for most carries in a game with 40 and had a single-game best 254 yards.
Now a resident of Kalamazoo, Michigan, Phil serves as CEO of the Kalamazoo County Family YMCA.
Tom Carstens
Joe Henderson
Joe Clough
It is no mistake that the City of Tacoma produced so many national- and international-level boxers in the 1970s. That’s when Joe Clough was helping to develop the skill and heart of so many young boys at the Tacoma Boys Club. His success would earn him AAU Amateur Boxing Coach of the Year honors in 1972, 1976 and 1977.
Clough was credited with keeping amateur boxing alive in the area in the 1960s and 70s, and his hard work paid off in the form of numerous individual and team titles at Golden Gloves events along the West Coast. He also produced three young fighters who would go on to Olympic fame. Many boxing fans remember the names “Sugar Ray” Seales, Leo Randolph and Davey Armstrong—all three learned the sport at the Tacoma Boys Club under the watchful eye of Joe Clough.
Seales won the 1972 Olympic Gold Medal and went on to compile a 70-6-4 record as a professional. At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Randolph became the youngest American to win an Olympic Gold Medal. Clough hitchhiked across the country to watch his young protégé win the championship. Randolph went on to win the WBA featherweight crown before retiring from the sport. Armstrong fought in both the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and went on to a successful professional career.
Clough is fondly remembered by his boxers as a man who would stick up for the predominantly African-American fighters, and as someone who would cover their expenses or have them over to his house for a holiday meal.
Boxing has taken Clough around the world. He coached United States teams at the 1983 Pan American Games, in Poland, South America, the Soviet Union, Cuba and East Germany. In addition to conducting coaching clinics in such countries as Gabon, Bhutan and Burma, he served as team coordinator for the 1996 Thailand Olympic boxing team and has coached in the Philippines, Negal and Malaysia.
Born in 1952 in Shelton, Clough graduated from Wilson High School in 1960. He later graduated from Central Washington University in 1974, and currently teaches physical education at a small international school in Thailand.
Dick Colombini
Dick Colombini, born in Tacoma in 1930, attended Lincoln High School where he was a football and baseball standout. His friends called him “Scooter,” a tribute to the speed that served him so well in athletics. Dick was the Abes’ starting centerfielder for three years, and starting for Lincoln High coaching legend Bill Mullen as a sophomore was a rarity. Colombini earned All-City, All-Cross State League and All-State honors and also played in two All-State games. In football, he was a running back who earned All-City, AllCross State League and All-State honors.
From 1944-56, Dick played semi-professional baseball in various Tacoma leagues, and as it was in high school, consistently was in the .300-and-above range. He played for Sportsman Club All-Stars, Edgewood and Madigan as a comparative youngster among the best veteran players in the area. He also played with Busch’s Drive-In, Sixth Avenue and the Stanley Shoemen.
He was equally adept on the gridiron as an All-City, All-Cross State and All-State football halfback at Lincoln. Colombini’s athletic talent earned him the opportunity to attend Santa Clara University from 1948-50, where he played both football and baseball. On the diamond, he led the freshman team with a .371 average, and in football he played on Santa Clara’s 1950 Orange Bowl team.
After two years in California, Colombini returned to this area where he attended and graduated from the University of Puget Sound. At UPS he played football, setting a single-game scoring record of 25 points in a 1951 contest. That record stood until broken by Mike Oliphant in 1986. Colombini remained at the school as a football assistant coach until joining the Air Force in 1953.
Colombini coached football in the European Air Force League, then returned stateside where he coached North Kitsap High School from 1956-63. His NKHS teams never had a losing season, compiling a 37-14-1 overall record and winning three Olympic League titles. His 1960 team is the only one in school history to go undefeated.
To top it all off, on July 28, 2005, at the youthful age of 75, he matched his age in a round of golf at Rolling Hills Golf Course in East Bremerton.
1972 Tacoma Boxing Club coached by Joe Clough included Frankie Armstrong, Leo Randolph, Larry Smith, Davey Armstrong, Rocky Lockridge, Eugene White, Roger McCane, Robert Boyd, and Johnny Bumphus among others.
Wayne Dalesky
Wayne Dalesky, born in 1938 in Tacoma and raised in Puyallup, went on to a stellar career as a high school boys basketball coach before passing away on Dec. 4, 2002.
As a Puyallup High School senior, Wayne earned honorable mention all-state honors as a basketball player. After graduating in 1956, he entered the military, and following his service time he attended Central Washington State College, graduating in 1960. While at Central he played basketball and tennis.
Wayne spent 36 years teaching and coaching in the Tacoma School District. His first coaching job came as boys varsity basketball coach at Baker Junior High School, and he accumulated a 41-20 record in five seasons at Baker. In 1965, Wayne moved to Lincoln High School, compiling an enviable 120-23 record as junior varsity coach and assisting head coach Ron Billings. In 1973, Wayne was named boys varsity basketball coach at newly opened Henry Foss High School.
With the able assistance of junior varsity coach Ken Hotsko, Wayne accumulated a record of 352 wins and 172 losses during his 22-year stint at Foss. In those 22 seasons, the Falcons claimed 10 league championships and made eight state tournament appearances. Foss earned state hardware on six of those occasions.
Affectionately known as “The Duke,” Wayne was selected 1995-96 Narrows League Co-Coach of the Year.
Mike Dillon
Mike Dillon was one of the finest prep baseball pitchers to play in Tacoma, throwing a pair of high school no-hitters while at Stadium High School.
Mike, born in 1931 in Yakima, was a dominant pitcher at Stadium High from 1947-49. In addition to throwing the two no-no’s, he was the starting pitcher against Seattle in the 1949 all-state game.
After high school, Mike pitched for the 6th Avenue club in Tacoma’s City League before signing a professional contract with the old St. Louis Browns. In his first season of pro ball at Redding (Calif.) of the Class D Rookie League, Mike compiled nine consecutive victories
After an injury ended his pro career after four seasons, Mike pitched two years while in military service. He came back to Tacoma and joined up with Stanley’s Shoemen, playing a big role in helping the team win the 1956 amateur baseball national championship with a couple of pitching wins. Dillon, along with teammate Dale Bloom, had played minor league ball but had their amateur status reinstated.
In the national tournament opener, Dillon threw a complete-game three-hitter, striking out 10 and walking none in the 4-1 win against host Battle Creek, Mich. He had another three-hitter against a team from California.
Two years later he pitched for the Woodworth Contractors team that finished second at the amateur baseball national tournament.
Leo Dobry
Leo Dobry, a Russian immigrant born in Pinsk, Russia in 1902, put the City of Tacoma center stage at the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
Leo was a successful sprint car owner in the Puget Sound area before World War II, his cars well known throughout West Coast racing circles. When wartime restrictions ended, Leo continued with the sprint cars, but he harbored a bigger dream—to qualify a car for the Indianapolis 500.
Leo purchased the first of Frank Kurtis’ 2000 Series Championship Cars and prepared to fulfill that dream by entering the 1948 Indianapolis 500.
While the car was built in the California shop of driver Hal Cole, the crew consisted of Tacomans— crew chief Ralph Taylor was assisted by Tom Carstens and Joe Henderson. After qualifying in the 14th starting spot, the unheralded “City of Tacoma Special” moved through the field, cracking the top 10 at the 350-mile mark and posting a solid sixth-place finish. Leo had become a credible Indy car owner.
The following year, a Spokane group offered Leo a $5,000 sponsorship for the race, but a Tacoma group led by Dave Fogg pulled together enough support to maintain the car’s Tacoma ties. Driver Jack McGrath qualified the car on the outside of the front row, but mechanical problems ended Leo’s dreams of Indy glory on the 39th lap.
In 1952, George Hammond, a part-time racer and full-time tour bus driver, drove that same car to victory in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, which was part of the national championship at the time. The car continued to campaign regionally in championship events until Leo sold it in the late 1950’s,
Leo operated Standard Auto Parts on Pacific Avenue in Tacoma for many years.
Bob Ehrenheim
Bob Ehrenheim, born in 1934 in Tacoma, was a multi-sport athlete at Stadium High School from 1949-52. After graduating from Stadium and the College of Puget Sound, he went on to a Hall of Fame career as a high school track and field coach.
At Stadium High, Bob earned all-league and All-Cross State first team honors in 1950-51 as a football center and linebacker. He was selected to the All-State team as a senior and played for the Tri-City team (Tacoma, Seattle and Spokane) in the 1952 All-State Classic. At CPS, Bob was a four-year starter on the football team coached by John Heinrick.
His understanding of top-level high school and college athletic competition prepared him well for a 39-year career in coaching. He coached grade school sports for several years before succeeding Mitch Angelel as the track coach at Mason Junior High, where he led his teams to three city championships. He moved up the ladder to Mt. Tahoma High School in 1961, and in 15 years at the school he led the Thunderbirds to a trio of state runnerup finishes as well as more than 30 team titles at invitational, city and district meets.
Among the state champions that Bob coached at Mt. Tahoma was Tacoma-Pierce County Hall of Fame member Vince Goldsmith, a three-time state champion (1975-77) in the shot put. At one time, Goldsmith held the 5-kilo shot put world record at 64-9.
Bob also coached the Jr. Champ team (a Jaycees summer program) from 1967-70, leading the team from fourth place to a national championship in 1970. Casey Carrigan, another TPC Hall of Fame member, vaulted for that team.
He served as Star Track I co-meet director with Angie Eichholtz in 1982. From 1984-86 he came back to Mt. Tahoma to assist a former athlete turned head coach, Sam Ring, who is another 2006 TPC Hall of Fame inductee.
Before retiring, Bob coached several other sports in this country and abroad, and he also served as a basketball, football and swimming official. Three of his sons were outstanding college swimmers including Dean, recently inducted into the Washington State Swim Hall of Fame.
Ron Ellis
Ron Ellis earned acclaim in the high school and college wrestling ranks and now gives back to the sport and its participants as head coach at Foss High School.
It would only make sense that Ron would be a wrestler because he was born in Oklahoma, a state known for its high school and college wrestling. Born in Ft. Sill, Ron came to Tacoma, attended Gault Junior High and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1976.
Wrestling for coach Walt Fitzpatrick at Lincoln, Ron was a three-time state tournament placer. After placing fifth at 101 pounds as a sophomore, he finished second at 108 pounds as a junior before winning the 115-pound title as a senior in 1976. He also was a three time regional champion in the high school ranks.
At Central Washington University, Ron earned NAIA All-America status three times, including runner-up finishes in his weight class in 1979 and 1980. He earned induction into the Central Washington University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997.
Following his graduation from CWU, Ron started teaching and coaching in the Tacoma School District. He served as Mt. Tahoma High School’s wrestling head coach during the 1983-84 season, as assistant coach from 1984-91 at Foss High School, and since 1991 has been that school’s head coach.
Athlete of the Year Table Sponsors
A big TAC thank you goes to the following who generously sponsored a table at the Banquet of Champions for the schools shown below:
BellarmineSouth Tacoma Honda
CurtisDr. Doug Knight
FossWillie Stewart
Gig HarborEarl Powell
LakesLakes Cross Country Team
LincolnBurlington Northern Credit Union
RogersDwyer, Pemberton, & Coulson, P.C.
StadiumJohn & Jackie Wohn
Marty Erdahl
Marty Erdahl started officiating basketball games back in 1957 at the insistence of one of the area’s most beloved officials and sports administrators, Tom Cross.
Marty was born in Tacoma in 1936 and attended Stadium High School, graduating from there in 1954. At Stadium, Marty was a three-year basketball letterman, and as a senior he played a major role in his team reaching the state tournament. Marty scored several baskets in the final two minutes, including a 20-footer at the buzzer, as Stadium defeated cross-town rival Lincoln for the league title and a trip to state. There, the Tigers placed third, scoring a state tournament scoring record 96 points against Highline in the third-place contest.
Marty joined the officiating ranks in 1957, and he would go on to spend 27 years in the Western Washington Officials Association (WWOA). He started with basketball then figured he might as well handle football contests as well. Working his way up from youth league games, Marty continued his rise as an outstanding official. Eventually, he would work numerous football and basketball state high school tournament games.
While the majority of his officiating came at the local high school level, Marty also handled junior college and four-year college sporting events. He worked Pac-10 football games for 14 seasons. Jack Johnson, Dan Inveen, Marv Tommervik and Cross, all Tacoma-Pierce County Hall of Fame members, worked alongside Erdahl in some of these contests. As a member of the Washington Association of Collegiate Officials, he was among an elite group of local officials who called in-state college games for the likes of such schools as Pacific Lutheran, Puget Sound, Central Washington and Eastern Washington.
For eight years Marty served as assigning secretary for the WWOA, making sure that officials covered football, basketball and wrestling events at levels ranging from high school all the way down to youth leagues.
The Commissioner of Metro Parks Athletics from 1975-85, Marty is a member of the Washington Officials Hall of Fame.
By the way, Marty’s sports involvement didn’t stop in high school or with officiating. He played City of Tacoma Rec. basketball for 48th Street Tavern and in the 1970s with the Cheney Stud Oldtimers. In addition, he was player-manager of the Tucci & Sons men’s slowpitch softball team that was Tacoma’s first-ever club to reach the national tournament, that in 1965.
Jack Fabulich
One of the most versatile athletes in Puyallup High School history, Jack Fabulich excelled in track and field and starred in football while lettering as a basketball starter.
In his Viking track career, Jack consistently won four events per meet and accounted for 628 points in four different events, the most points by an athlete in Puyallup High history. In 1946, when Puyallup won its first-ever state championship, he was second in the state in the broad jump and anchored the state champion 880-yard relay team with a record time of 1:34.0. In 1947, Jack won Puget Sound League titles in the pole vault, broad jump and 220-yard dash while also anchoring the winning 880-yard relay team. In the 220 he set a new record at the conference meet with a time of 22.9.
At the College of Puget Sound, his multi-event winning ways continued. In one Evergreen Conference championship meet he won the 440 and 880 and placed second in the long jump, in addition to running on the secondplace 880-yard relay unit. He tied the conference record in the 440 with a time of 49.5.
Jack also starred in football at CPS. As a senior in 1951, he returned 18 kickoffs for 292 yards and a touchdown, caught seven passes for 176 yards and four scores, and carried the ball 22 carries for 125 yards.
After college he played on a star-studded Naval Training Center football team, and later he was a basketball and fastpitch softball standout in various Pierce County recreation leagues. He also refereed high school and college basketball games.
Most recently, Jack has served the community as a Port Commissioner for the Port of Tacoma for the past 31 years, and in 1995 was named the Pierce County Maritime Man of the Year.
Long before there was Tiger Woods, there was Alfred “Tiger” Feldman, an outstanding golfer and teaching professional in the Puget Sound area.
Al Feldman, known to his friends as “Tiger” and raised in South Tacoma, was a professional for 57 years until his death in 1990. He turned professional at Westmoreland Fairways Range in Portland, and his career included stints at Meadow Park and Capitol City before finishing as the teaching professional at Auburn Golf Course.
Al started playing competitive golf in 1954 and captured his first Northwest major by winning the 1957 Northwest Open played at Fircrest Golf Club. His greatest accomplishment was holding four tournament titles at the same time—British Columbia, Montana, Oregon and Washington Open championships—and all gained during the 1966-67 season.
For a late starter, Al compiled an impressive record, including three senior titles and appearances on nine Hudson Cup teams. On the national scene, Al finished second in the 1962 Senior Open and played in the 1963 U.S. Open.
Al “Tiger” Feldman is a member of the Pacific Northwest Golfers Hall of Fame.
Al Feldman
Bob Fincham
Born in Chehalis in 1925, Bob Fincham played his prep basketball at Stadium High School, graduating in 1943. He went on to play at College of Puget Sound, leading the Loggers to a stunning upset of the University of Washington during the 1948-49 season.
Bob was a four-year starter and eventual team captain at CPS, where he played from 1945-49. An excellent shooter, Bob led the Loggers with 15 points in that stunning 48-41 win over the Huskies. His ability to shoot the basketball was never in doubt as the former Stadium High star had been the Northwest Conference’s leading scorer during his freshman season. In 1946 he had back-to-back scoring outbursts of 41 and 33 points against College of Idaho. His 74 total points was an astounding total in an era generally know for low scores, and it outpaced the Idaho school’s 73 total points in the two games. In addition, the 41 points stood as a school single-game record for 22 years.
After graduating from Puget Sound in 1949, Bob taught and coached boys basketball at Bethel High School in the 1950s. He came back to coach Bethel in the 1960s and led the Braves to the 1970 State AA championship, a 53-51 win over Bothell. The star player for that team was Bob Niehl, who would go on to become head coach at UPS.
In 1966, Bob was a charter inductee in to the University of Puget Sound Athletic Hall of Fame. He passed away in June 2002.
Rod Giske
Rod Giske, born in 1922 in Tacoma, was an undersized lineman and team co-captain (along with quarterback Wes Hudson) for Stadium High School’s 1939 Cross-State League championship football team. The squad was coached by John Heinrick and did battle with cross-city rival Lincoln High School, and Bremerton, Poulsbo, Everett, Enumclaw, Bellingham, Yakima, and Walla Walla high schools.
Rod also played baseball at Stadium and was a member of that school’s City League championship squad.
After graduating from Stadium in 1939, Giske attended Washington State College where he played football in 1941-42 under coach Babe Hollingberry. Following military service, Rod returned to WSC and played during the 1946-47 season under coach Phil Sarboe. He earned three varsity letters as a guard and tackle.
Rod served as captain of the team his last season and received National Lineman of the Week honors, was selected unanimous first team All-Coast, and was a second team All-America tackle. He played in the East-West game on New Year’s Day in 1947. In addition, Rod received the prestigious Bohler Award, presented to the most inspirational player as voted by his teammates.
Upon his graduation Rod served as the line coach at the College of Puget Sound from 1947-49 under coach John Heinrick, and then moved to W.F. West High School in Chehalis where he coached football, basketball and track. In all, Rod coached at the college and high school levels for 33 years.
George Grant
Born in Everett in 1938, George Grant was an outstanding baseball and basketball player at Stadium High School and the University of Washington.
At Stadium High, George was an all-state shortstop for coach Marv Scott and turned down a professional contract with Philadelphia to play at the UW. He played shortstop for the Huskies from 1957-60, serving as the team captain in both his junior and senior seasons and earning all-conference honors. During the summer months, George played shortstop for the Cheney Studs, one of the semi-pro baseball regional powerhouses. In 1956, the Studs were eliminated from post-season play, and the Stanley Shoemen picked up George for their run to the amateur baseball national championship.
As a member of the Studs, George played in three more amateur baseball national title games, winning in 1960 and finishing as runner-up in 1955 and 1959. In all, he played in six national amateur baseball tournaments.
George stuck with baseball in his post-college years, spending three seasons in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization before going back to semi-pro ball with the Cheney Studs, for whom he played from 1963-73.
As a basketball player, George earned all-state honors at Stadium High and was a team captain for two seasons at the University of Washington. Later, he was MVP of the Cheney Studs national championship amateur basketball team.
George, a three-time MVP on five-time master’s slowpitch national champion Emerald City, was selected among the Top 100 Athletes of the Century in Pierce County and as one of the century’s top baseball players at the UW.
1940 Stadium HS football team coached by John Heinrick (far right) included Rod Giske (#60).
Merle Hagbo
Merle Hagbo, born and raised in Tacoma, established himself in his hometown as a baseball coach and football official.
Hagbo was born in 1934 in Tacoma and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1952.
As a high school and amateur ballplayer, Hagbo played second base, third base and outfield on numerous city and Pierce County teams, including the American Legion Post 138 team in 1950 and 1951. As a high school athlete, Hagbo made his biggest mark as a football player. He went on to play quarterback at Humboldt State in 1954 and 1955.
Hagbo came back to the area to teach, and in 1963 started his successful career coaching baseball at Clover Park High School. He retired from the position in 1996, but not before his teams won three South Puget Sound League championships. His 1973 squad, featuring Ron Gee, placed second at the state tournament. Hagbo was named District 8 Coach of the Year in 1972 and 1973 and the Washington State High School Coach of the Year in 1973.
In addition to coaching high school baseball, Hagbo coached the Lakewood Rotary Connie Mack team from 197174 and the Lakewood Legion from 1974-77.
Hagbo was inducted into the Washington State High School Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988.
Hagbo also has a long history as a football official, wearing the striped shirt on the gridiron for 46 years, including 37 at the Division II, III and NAIA college level. He has been selected to work in 15 high school state championship games, in addition to numerous semifinal contests, and in 10 college playoff games, including the 1995 NAIA title contest.
He received the Outstanding Official Award for District 8 from the National Federation of Interscholastic Officials Association in 1998.
Dan Hannula
Depending on when he first jumped into the pool, Dan Hannula was no more than five or six years old when he got his start in 1958 with the Tacoma Swim Club. That small splash turned into a surge of swimming records and honors for Hannula.
Dan was born in 1952 in Tacoma, the first of the three swimming Hannula brothers, and he graduated in 1970 from Wilson High School. There, and with the Tacoma Swim Club, he competed for his father and coach, Dick Hannula.
A high school All-American in both 1969 and 1970, Dan won state titles in the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly in 1969 and in the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay in 1970. He ranked among the world’s top 20 swimmers in the long course 200-meter freestyle in 1969, 1970 and 1972. His highest rankings came in 1971 when he was seventh in the world in the 200-meter freestyle and ninth in the 400-meter freestyle. In 1970, he was the Canadian National Short Course champion in the 100-meter freestyle.
A swimmer at the University of Washington, Dan earned All-America honors from 1971-73, and was a member of the 800-meter freestyle relay team that set a national club record in 1974.
Dan helped lead Wilson High to the 1969 and 1970 state water polo championships, and he earned MVP honors at the 1970 state tournament.
The winner of Pierce County Decathlete Open Division in 1979, Dan is now a partner in a local law firm.
Dick Hannula Jr.
The Hannula name is well-known in Tacoma sports circles—swimming in particular—because of the great programs led by Dick Hannula, Sr. One of the country’s most successful high school swim coaches, Hannula coached 24 consecutive state championship teams at Wilson High School and put together a recordsetting streak of 323 consecutive meet victories.
But this bio isn’t about the elder Dick Hannula, it’s about his son, Dick Jr., himself a record setter and All-American in both high school and college.
Dick Hannula Jr. was born in Tacoma in 1956, graduated from Wilson High in 1975 and from the University of Southern California in 1979.
Competing for his father at Wilson High from 1973-75, Dick Hannula Jr. was the 1975 state champion and national high school record holder in both the 200 and 500 freestyles. He was adept at both the sprint and distance freestyles, earning high school All-America honors in the 50, 100, 200 and 500 freestyles in both 1974 and 1975.
One of three Hannula brothers, Dick joined Dan and Dave and Mark Smith to set an American Club record for the 800-meter freestyle relay at the 1974 U.S. National Championship meet. The record held up only 20 minutes, however, as it was broken by a quartet from Long Beach, Calif.
While a high school senior, Dick was a distance-freestyle event winner for the U.S. national team at the 1975 Hapoel Games in Israel.
Dick went on to earn NCAA All-America honors all four years that he swam at USC. He was a member of the 1976 USC team that established a new American record in the 800 freestyle relay.
One year later at the World University Games in Bulgaria, Dick won the 400 freestyle gold medal and swam a leg on the Gold Medal-winning 800-meter freestyle relay team.
Dick is now principal at Covenant High School in Tacoma.
Ericka Harris
It has been more than two decades since Ericka Harris blazed around the track, but she still remains the state’s all-time high school leader at 400 meters with a time of 51.45 seconds, which she ran while winning the 1981 U.S. Junior Olympics championship in Lincoln, Nebraska. Ericka also holds the 3A state meet record for 400 meters at 54.39 seconds. That was the fastest 400-meter time in the United States for all women that year.
Ericka spent her freshman year at Peninsula High School and then moved to Gig Harbor High School when it opened in the fall of 1978. While at Gig Harbor, she won three consecutive Class 2A state titles in the 220-yard or 200-meter dashes and the 440-yard or 400-meter dashes from 1979-81. She also won a pair of state titles in the 100-meter dash in 1980 and 1981. In addition, she was a member of the school’s 1981 state championship mile relay team. In three state meets Ericka scored 84 points by herself, and Gig Harbor High benefited with a state championship in 1981. Her 1982 state meet was cut short by a hamstring injury in the preliminaries of the 200 meters.
She lost only one quarter-mile race in her high school career, that coming in the first 440-yard race of her freshman year in 1979. More than 20 years later, she still holds the 440-yard/400-meter school record at Peninsula High and the 100, 200 and 400 records at Gig Harbor High. She also continues to hold the West-Central District 3A and Pierce County League records for all three sprints.
Kathy Hemion
One of the best female athletes in Tacoma history, Kathy Hemion graduated from Lakes High School and from Western Washington University. She went on to a successful coaching career at Pacific Lutheran University. Kathy, born in Seattle in 1952, attended Lakes High School when girls sports were not as well accepted as boys sports. That has changed for the better since 1970, when Kathy graduated, but the lack of opportunities didn’t stop her from becoming a successful athlete.
She competed in basketball, volleyball, field hockey, synchronized swimming and tennis at Western, but it was in basketball where she made her biggest mark. During her four seasons as a Viking, the team twice advanced to the AIAW national tournament, and as a result she is now a member of the WWU Athletic Hall of Fame.
After graduating in 1974, Kathy returned to her hometown where she picked up slowpitch softball, playing leftcenterfield for numerous league and tournament championship teams during the summer months. Among that group were Spud’s Pizza, McKnight’s Foods, and B&I Sports. In 1994, she was inducted into the USSSA Slowpitch Softball Hall of Fame in the state of Washington.
She continued to play slowpitch softball until retiring from the sport in 2000. Besides softball, Kathy was an active participant in local volleyball and basketball leagues.
Kathy led the PLU women’s basketball program from 1975-85, coaching the team to a national tournament berth in 1980 and to an 18-win season in 1982. She also coached Lute volleyball for 10 years and slowpitch softball from 1975-76, an era in which the game was of the slowpitch variety.
Kathy, who served as a collegiate basketball official for several seasons, is currently a special education teacher in the Tacoma School District.
Jack Hermsen
Jack Hermsen was a Tacoma area men’s fastpitch standout in the 1940s and 1950s.
Born in 1926 in Tacoma, Hermsen played football and basketball in high school, graduating from Bellarmine in 1944. He went on to a career as a longshoreman working for Pacific Maritime.
Jack organized the Tacoma Fire Department basketball team and became a seven handicap golf but it was on the softball diamond that his talent was most evident.
Hermsen was an outstanding player for several different teams, including the Elks, Red Spot, Amvets, Irwin Jones, Wood Realty, Spring Air, and Nalley’s Tangmen. A second baseman and centerfielder, Jack was a member of the Irwin-Jones Dodgers team that traveled back to Bridgeport, CT in 1952 where they finished second in the national championships under the guidance of manager Doug Adam, a former Tacoma Rockets hockey player, and standout pitcher Lloyd Blanusa.
Hermsen earned all-regional honors 10 years and had a lifetime .347 batting average in the area Traveling League. He was inducted into the Northwest Region Softball Hall of Fame in 1986.
Earl Hyder
Earl Hyder started making headlines as an all-city and all-state football player and an all-state baseball player at Lincoln High School.
He continued playing amateur baseball in the area’s City, Sunset and Valley leagues for more than a dozen years. Earl was a key component on two teams that won American Amateur Baseball Congress national championships, and on another that finished second.
Earl played centerfield on the 1956 Stanley Shoemen team that became the first club west of the Mississippi River to take the title. He was joined in that outfield by current TPC Hall of Fame members Bob Maguinez and Ron Storaasli, the trio arguably one of the greatest “homegrown” outfields to play baseball in Tacoma. Hyder and Storaasli played at Lincoln High, while Maguinez prepped at Stadium.
In 1960, his two-run homer against Detroit in the title game helped the Cheney Studs take home the trophy. He had 11 hits in 20 at-bats during the series, a .550 average, and he earned All-America honors that year. Sandwiched in between the title years was a second-place finish with the Woodworth Contractor’s in 1958.
Robert Iverson
Robert Iverson, born in Puyallup in 1933, graduated from Puyallup High School in 1952, but not before starring in football, basketball and track.
In football, he was a three-year standout at halfback, defensive back and safety. As a sophomore he helped the Vikings win the league title, but a year later they fell to Renton in the title game when a knee injury kept Robert out of the contest. Nonetheless, he earned all-conference honors that season.
As a senior halfback, Robert scored 74 points by himself, including an 82-yard touchdown gallop against Sumner on Thanksgiving Day, to earn all-conference and all-state accolades. He also received an invitation to participate for the State squad in the Sixth Annual State vs. Tri-City All-Star Football Game at the University of Washington. Surprisingly, he played quarterback in the game, and that’s where he would continue to play when he went to Washington State College.
He played basketball at Puyallup High for Dean Nicholson, who would go on to a Hall of Fame coaching career at Central Washington University. Though only 6-0, Robert could dunk the basketball, though the dunk wasn’t allowed in those days. As a senior captain he helped the Vikings advance to the state tournament where they lost a couple of close games.
Robert’s high school track and field coach was Sterling Harshman, himself a Pacific Lutheran track standout and Hall of Fame member. His best event was the 120-yard hurdles, though he also participated in the 440, 880 relay, discus and shot put. He earned two track letters, missing his junior year because of a knee injury.
After leaving Puyallup High he played defensive back and quarterback for the Washington State College Cougars, who at the time completed in the Pacific Coast League. He earned honorable mention All-America honors as a senior quarterback and scored WSC’s two touchdowns in a 26-14 loss to the Oregon Ducks.
The NFL’s Green Bay Packers drafted Robert following his 1956 graduation from WSC, but he was unable to play because of his problem knee.
Arley Kangas
A three-sport star at Stadium High School, Arley Kangas was a baseball standout for Coach Marv Scott and became one of Washington State University’s finest catchers
Arley, born in 1938 in Tacoma, played football, basketball and baseball at Stadium High, but he excelled in baseball and won all-state recognition. Arley also was a member of the Post #138 team that won the 1956 American Legion state championship.
At Washington State, Arley earned All-Northern Division first team honors from 1958-60, and twice he received All-Pacific 8 recognition. In 1959 he led Northern Division of the Pac 8 in batting average and runs batted in, and that same year was member of the United States team that placed third at the Pan-American Games. Arley served as captain of coach Bobo Brayton’s 1960 WSU baseball team.
During the summer months, Arley kept busy on the baseball diamond as a catcher for several of the region’s top amateur baseball clubs. He was behind the plate for Tacoma’s Woodworth Contractors when they finished second at the American Amateur Baseball Congress championships in 1958, and he starred for two seasons in the Tacoma City League.
Arley signed a professional baseball contract and played in the San Francisco minor league system with the Fresno Giants and Eugene Emeralds in 1961 and 1962, respectively.
Arley turned to coaching following his two-year professional career, and his Tigard (Ore.) High School teams were successful. The 1964 squad took third place in the Oregon State baseball playoffs.
Now a real estate broker in Beaverton, Ore., Arley is remembered well by those who played with him and against him in the mid-50s in Tacoma. Tacoma may not have produced a better catcher pound-for-pound than Arley Kangas.
Earl Kuper
In the mid to late 1940s, the Tacoma Tigers of the Western International League provided a number of homegrown players with the opportunity to get back into baseball after the war years. Catcher Earl Kuper was one of those players and took advantage of his opportunity, leading the WIL with a .389 batting average.
Born in Tacoma in 1920, Earl was a football, basketball and baseball standout at Kapowsin High School. He continued to play baseball after graduating in 1938, breaking into professional baseball in 1941 with Twin Falls, Idaho, of the Pioneer League.
After the war years, Earl played for the Tigers in 1946 and 1947, and then had a go with the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League in 1948. In August of 1948, he came back to the Tacoma Tigers as a player-manager.
Art Lewis
Arthur Lewis was a transplanted New Yorker who was one of the areas top fastpitch softball players in the mid to late 1940s.
Born in Tonawanda, N.Y., in 1922, Art graduated from Tonawanda High School in 1940. He played baseball and basketball in high school and was known for his skills as a defender, usually guarding the other team’s top scorer in basketball. In 1942 and while still living in New York, he played baseball for Remington Rand. He came to the Puget Sound when he was stationed here with the U.S. Coast Guard.
Art played for the Coast Guard in 1943-45, for Irwin Jones in 1946-47 and for Tacoma Elks in 194849. He had been a pitcher in baseball but played third base on the softball diamond. He was no ordinary defensive player, however, and generally was regarded as the best third sacker in the state, committing just three errors in 50 games. Art and slugging catcher Vern From were two of the key components on a couple of championship fastpitch teams.
Al Libke Jr.
Al Libke Jr., born in Tacoma in 1918, was one of the first high school baseball stars in the city, helping lead the 1936 Stadium High School team to the unofficial state championship. He pitched and won the series-clinching second game, striking out eight Pomeroy batters. Among Al’s teammates were shortstop Marv Scott, who would go on to a stellar coaching career in Pierce County, and centerfielder Jack Tanner, who became a Superior Court Judge.
A pitcher and first baseman in high school, Al played with Johnson Paint in the City League in 1938 and in 1941 signed a professional contract with the Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League. In 1941 he was optioned to Wenatchee where he played for the Chiefs of the Western International League. He played for the Seattle Rainiers in 1942 and 1944 and the Hollywood Stars during the 1947-48 seasons. Al made it to the Major Leagues with Cincinnati and as a rookie outfielder he led the Reds in hitting, was second on the team in runs batted in, had a 20-game hitting streak, and led all National League outfielders with six double plays. Libke played City League basketball in Tacoma and was a member of the All-Star team that played in the AAU National Tournament in Denver in 1938. His father, Al, and uncle, Bill, were one of Tacoma’s well-known baseballplaying brother acts that participated in the City, Valley, and Timber Leagues during the 1920s and 30s.
Bob Lightfoot
One of the most successful high school baseball coaches in Pierce County annals, Bob Lightfoot led the Wilson High Rams to a 327-147 record and to nine state tournament appearances from 1977-97.
Three of Bob’s Wilson High teams placed at state, including the 1977 team that won the 3A championship. That team is one of only two Tacoma public high school teams to win a WIAA state baseball title, and it marked the final time that a state high school championship game was played at Sicks Stadium in Seattle. The 1981 Wilson squad was State 3A runner-up and the 1988 team placed third in the 4A tournament. In addition, five other Rams teams under his direction went deep into regional tournament play, while two others qualified for district tournament action
From 1992-97 Bob served as pitching coach and three times as head coach of the Tacoma-Pierce County team in the Sister City High School Baseball Exchange Series with Japan. A six-time Narrows League Coach of the Year, Bob’s success led to his induction into the Washington State Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2000.
Bob, who has taught for 34 years, remains active in prep sports as the Narrows League Baseball Commissioner and President of the Tacoma High School Coaches Union.
Bob was born in 1950 in Auburn and graduated from Fife High School in 1968 and from Western Washington State College in 1972. At Fife, he was a three-sport letter winner, earning all-league honors as a linebacker on the 1967 state championship football team, and at Western he played center and lettered.
Pete Lovely
Pete Lovely is Tacoma’s link to the exotic world of Formula One racing.
Pete, born in Livingston, Mont., in 1926, started his racing career in 1947 in the “roaring roadsters” that flourished on short oval tracks throughout the country immediately after World War II. By 1951 he became one of the pioneers in the sports car racing world. His early career highlights included national SCCA class championship at the wheel of a Porsche-powered Cooper streamliner known at the “Pooper,” and a win in the first feature event at California’s Laguna Seca Raceway driving a Ferrari.
While in England to pick up his new Lotus 11 racer, Pete began what developed into a long association with Colin Chapman and his Lotus factory. As a result of this meeting, the Lotus team entered Pete in the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix, but he did not qualify. Pete made his first Formula 1 start in 1960 at Riverside, Calif., driving an independently entered Cooper and finishing 11th after starting in the 20th position. The big story was that Pete bought the car without an engine or gearbox and installed a 2.5-liter Ferrari four-cylinder engine.
During the same 1960 season, Pete hit the national racing headlines when he drove Jack Nethercutt’s privately entered Ferrari from 12th place through the night to a third place finish in Sebring’s 12-hour event. The points the car scored were the difference as Ferrari edged arch-rival Maserati for the world sports car championship.
In 1969, Pete purchased a used Formula One Lotus and entered the three North and Central America events. He did not finish the U.S. event but posted a 7th place finish in Canada and a 9th in Mexico. In a sport dominated by factory teams, Pete’s performance as one of the last true “privateers” in Formula One is nothing short of amazing. Pete entered a total of six more Formula One events over the next two years before returning to local and national sports car racing where he continued to be a major force.
Pete also recognized the potential of the Volkswagen before most, obtained a franchise and was one of the first dealers to move to I-5 at Fife with his Pete Lovely VW, running the business from 1954-88.
Vern Martineau
Vern Martineau began his fastpitch softball career in 1951 with the Irwin-Jones Dodgers, and his offensive and defensive prowess as a catcher would lead to his 1986 induction into the Northwest Region Softball Hall of Fame.
Born in Yakima in 1926, Vern was a center in football, guard in basketball and catcher in baseball while at Bellarmine Prep. He earned All-City honors in football and did the same on two occasions in basketball. In baseball, he and brother, Vic, formed the Bellarmine battery. He went on to attend College of Puget Sound where he played football for four seasons. Vern picked up Northwest College all-star honors as a center and also served as captain on the 1949 league championship team.
While attending college and during the late 1940s summers, Vern hooked up with his brother while playing City League baseball for K Street.
Vern played fastpitch softball through the late 1950s with the Dodgers and Wood Realty and three times was named to the all-regional team. The Dodgers won consecutive regional titles in the early 50s, and the 1952 team qualified for the World ASA Championships held in Bridgeport, Conn. The following year, Vern took over as manager late in the year and directed the team to the regional crown in Pendleton, Ore. It was here that Vern had the highlight of his career, slugging a home run off the legendary Bob Fesler to win the game, 1-0. The ball carried to dead center field and landed in Chute #6 of the adjacent rodeo grounds.
Pete Lovely was a long-time participant in Formula One racing and later operated Pete Lovely Volkswagen from 1954-88.
Tim McDonough
Tim McDonough was an exceptional athlete in Tacoma’s fine sports history, and beyond any doubt he was an all-around athlete in football, basketball and baseball at Lincoln High School and later at the University of Puget Sound. His teammates held him in such high esteem that he was selected as captain of each respective sport.
Tim, born in Tacoma in 1952, died of cancer at the young age of 22 before he could graduate from college. South End Boys Club, Lincoln High School and the University of Puget Sound present annual awards in Tim’s honor.
He grew up playing all of the sports at the South End Boys Club and later at Stewart Junior High. In the mid 1960s, he also performed with the Cheney Studs Courteers, a group of youngsters who performed ballhandling skills and trick shots during halftime at college and professional games.
At Lincoln High, Tim participated in football, basketball, baseball and track from 1969 until his graduation in 1971. A defensive back, halfback and quarterback in football, he was the team’s captain and MVP and an All-City performer in both 1970 and 1971, and capped it all off when he was named to the Shrine All-Star football team.
He was an All-City guard and team co-captain in basketball, a second baseman and shortstop in baseball, and he ran the sprints and relays in track. By the way, he also participated in Golden Glove Boxing.
Tim came out of Lincoln High with the 1971 Ben B. Cheney Scholarship and a desire to continue his athletic accomplishments at the University of Puget Sound despite being an undersized 5-9 and 165 pounds. Twice he earned all-conference honors at UPS, and in 1972 he was selected to the All-Little Northwest team. Tim, a Logger co-captain for the second time, was diagnosed with cancer in September of 1974. He died on April 11, 1975.
Tim lost his biggest battle to cancer, but through his ordeal never complained about the pain and suffering. John Wooden, former basketball coach of UCLA, stated that it would have been an honor to coach such an outstanding young man.
Jim McKean
Playing college basketball for Hall of Fame coaching legends Marv Harshman and Jud Heathcote will have a certain affect on an athlete, and for Jim McKean it meant an award-winning and record-setting career at Washington State University.
Born in Seattle in 1946, Jim played two years of varsity basketball for coach Dan Inveen at Wilson High School. He earned first team All-Capital League and All-City honors in 1964 after averaging 19.9 points and leading the league in rebounding.
After one season in which he averaged 12.6 points and nine rebounds on the 22-0 freshman team, Jim went on to star in his final three seasons at Washington State. He started the final three years at center and improved his scoring average each season while keeping his rebounding average in double figures.
As a sophomore he averaged 16.9 points and 10.6 rebounds, including a conference-best 11.1 in PAC-8 contests. In his junior season, the 6-9 center earned All-PAC-8 first team, UPI All-Coast second team and LOOK magazine District 8 All-America honors after averaging 18.5 points and 11.7 rebounds per game. At the Far West Classic in Portland, he earned all-tournament and MVP honors after setting a tournament and school record with 27 rebounds against Princeton.
As a senior he garnered nearly the same awards (except the Far West Classic MVP) by averaging 19.6 points and 10.6 rebounds per contest.
By the time he was finished at WSU, Jim had established school career records for points (1,411), rebounds (844), scoring average (18.4), conference scoring average (18.3), and conference rebounds (452). He also held the Cougar season record for scoring average (19.6) and the single-game record for rebounding (27). His career point total, coming in just three seasons, still ranks sixth on the all-time Cougar scoring list, and his average of 11.0 rebounds per game still tops that category.
Jim served as a basketball assistant coach from 1969-73 at Columbia Basin College, and then earned his master’s from Washington State. He is now an English professor at Mount Mercy College in Iowa.
He recently wrote and published his book, Home Stand: Growing Up Sports. The book is a collection of essays about growing up in the Pacific Northwest during the early 1950s and late 1960s, coming to terms with his father and family, his experiences playing basketball at WSU, and the political and cultural changes occurring across the United States during that time.
Mike McMurtry
Mike McMurtry and his brother, Pat, were two of the greatest fighters to come out of Tacoma, and certainly the best brother duo to enter the ring. Pat is a Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame member, and fittingly, is now joined by his brother.
Mike fought an incredible 214 amateur bouts, and more impressively lost only seven of those. While an amateur, Mike boxed for Gonzaga and Idaho State, winning the 1954 NCAA boxing heavyweight title while at Idaho State.
After college, Mike joined the Marines and continued to add to his staggering amateur numbers. When his professional career finally started in 1959, however, it was over after one fight. Boxing against Ken Kass at Sick’s Stadium in Seattle as a preliminary to Pat’s bout, Mike suffered a head injury. Three days later, doctors found a blood clot in Mike’s brain and performed surgery, ending his boxing career.
Mike and Pat, the older of the two, got their boxing start at the Starlight Athletic Club on Market Street in Tacoma. The gym was on the top floor of the building situated over a butcher shop, grocery story, and a bakery. Homer Amundson managed the brothers. “A lot of credit for our success can be traced right back to Homer,” Pat McMurtry said of Amundson. “He was one of the best teachers I’ve ever known.”
Amundson owned the building along with Kelley’s Gym at 9th and Commerce. “Kelley’s was dingy, lighting was poor, the wood was rotten, and there was always the smell of wintergreen from the rub downs the guys got,” said Mike McMurtry.
“That was when boxing was boxing, not like the carnival it is today,” Pat McMurtry said. “I started when I was six years old. Dad put gloves on us. Every Christmas we got a pair of boxing gloves. That was the known package under the tree. When my parents were married, my dad told my mother that they were going to have two sons and they both were going to fight.”
That’s exactly what happened, and now both are in the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame.
Tom Merritt
In today’s football world, fullbacks do little more than serve as blocking backs. Tom Merritt, born in Puyallup in 1950, played high school and college football during a time that fullbacks took a much more active role carrying the ball. With Tom earning all-state honors as a fullback in his third-and-final season, the 1967 Fife High school team went undefeated in 10 games and was ranked No. 1 in Class A football.
After a junior season in which he gained 1,298 yards and scored 13 touchdowns, Tom rushed for 1,612 yards, averaging 7.7 yards per carry, and scored 128 points (including 19 touchdowns) during his memorable senior season. Fife won the Seamount League title, including a big 21-6 victory over a talented Peninsula High squad. Tom gained 240 yards on 25 carries in that decisive contest, and it was that kind of impressive performance turned in week after week, that earned him a football scholarship to the University of Notre Dame. Tom played for the Fighting Irish from 1968-1971, and was on two Notre Dame teams that played in the Cotton Bowl.
Tom combined strength and speed on the football field. His speed was evident on the track when he finished sixth in the 100-yard dash and second in the 180-yard low hurdles to help Fife win the 1968 state Class A track title. He earned two letters in track and one more in baseball. Tom also participated in basketball two years, helping Fife win a co-league championship and earn a trip to the 1968 state tournament.
Dee Molenaar
Born to Dutch immigrant parents in Los Angeles in 1918, Dee Molenaar spent much of his youth exploring the seashores, deserts and mountains of Southern California. Later, he extended his climbing horizons to snow-capped Pacific Northwest peaks. In the summers of 1940-41 and again in 1947 he served as a Mount Rainier summit guide, and from 1948-52 he was a Mount Rainier park ranger involved in mountain search and rescue operations.
After climbing Mt. Rainier some 50 times via 15 different routes and traveling the park’s high country for many years, Molenaar wrote “The Challenge of Rainier,” an award-winning book on the mountain’s climbing history.
Dee has climbed mountains throughout the western U.S. and Canada, Alaska, the Alps, Himalayas, New Zealand and Antarctica. He helped rescue slightly injured climbers Jim and Lou Whittaker from the 16,400-foot level of Mount McKinley, and in 1965 made the first ascent of Mount Kennedy in the Yukon Territory with the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Jim Whittaker, the first American to climb Mt. Everest. He also participated in a climbing expedition to 28,250-foot K2 in the Karakoram Himalayas, and a geology-oriented trek to Everest.
Not only is Dee an excellent climber, he is also an accomplished watercolor painter. His climbing pack holds a small box of watercolors, and Dee has painted landscapes while below sea level in Death Valley to more than 25,000 feet above sea level on K2. Many of his paintings are in private collections around the world, and his maps and artwork also appear in state park and U.S. Forest Service and Park Service exhibits, brochures and climbers’ guidebooks.
A two-year letter winner in the pole vault at the University of Washington, Dee earned gold medals in the standing long jump and discus at the Washington State Senior Track and Field Championships. He was 86 at the time.
Bill Mullen
Bill Mullen, born March 28, 1902, in Tacoma, was not only a coaching legend at Lincoln High School, he was one of the most beloved coaches in the city.
Bill played basketball for three years and baseball for two years before graduating from Lincoln High in 1920. He also played baseball and basketball for a number teams in the City and Timber leagues, ranking as one of the league’s best catchers despite never weighing more than 155 pounds. After moving on to Washington State, where he graduated from in 1930, Mullen played catcher for three seasons for Buck Bailey. He also had the distinction of playing in an exhibition game against barnstorming Yankee greats Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel at Stadium Bowl.
After leaving Washington State College, he spent the next 40 years of his life as a teacher and coach. He started in the little community of Thorp, and then coached all three major sports in Buckley and Sedro-Woolley. After coming to Lincoln, where he taught from 1945-67, he directed the baseball program for 16 seasons. Mullen, at one time a pretty good amateur boxer, also coached boxing while at Washington State and later Sedro-Woolley and Lincoln.
The great 1948 and 1949 Cross-State League baseball championship teams highlighted Mullen’s years at Lincoln, and many of those players went on to star locally at Pacific Lutheran College and College of Puget Sound.
Mullen talked for years about his so-called “Italian Team.” Mullen had a strict rule against using profanity, but he long suspected that when certain players began conversing in Italian, they were getting away with something. Even though they didn’t all actually play on the same team, he grouped them together in his memory: Giovanni Tomasi, Dick Colombini, Art Viafore, Dick Palamadessi, Jimmy Tallariti, and Joe Stortini.
Among the top players Mullen helped produce during his tenure at Lincoln High School was Steve Whitaker, who went on to play professional baseball. Beyond that, many of the boys who played for him went on to coaching careers of their own, including Stortini, Ron Billings, Ken Jones and Ken Schulz. Mullen’s own son, Mike, coached boys basketball at Bethel High School, and now Mike’s son, Pat, is the coach at Bethel, which won the 2005 Class 4A state title in March.
Mullen died in 1992 at the age of 90.
Jack Newhart
Jack Newhart, born in 1930 in Hammond, Ind., was a football standout in high school and college before coaching the sport from 1967-88 at his alma mater, Lincoln High.
Jack played various positions including defensive back, quarterback, end and fullback at Lincoln from 1947-49. Winner of the team’s inspirational award, Jack earned All-City, All-State and Cross-State League second team honors. He also played varsity basketball for the Abes for three seasons. His coach for both teams, Norm Mayer, called Jack “one of the better all-around athletes in the history of Lincoln High.”
Jack attended College of Puget Sound in1949 and 1950, earning all-conference honors as a defensive back. After a break for the Korean War, Jack finished his education at Pacific Lutheran College, where he was the team’s inspirational award winner. Jack went on to earn his master ’s degree from Oregon State University.
Harry Nygard
When the 1946 Stadium High School Tigers went to Walla Walla to play for the state championship, they carried with them a hard-throwing righthander who would lead them to the title.
Harry Nygard was born in 1928 in Rochester, Wash., and started turning heads while playing baseball for Sportsman Club as a Jason Lee Junior High School student. A two-year baseball team captain at Stadium High, Nygard was a one-man pitching crew in leading the Tigers to the state title as a junior.
In a four-game period over eight days, Nygard threw 37 innings to win all four contests. He threw nine innings to beat Bellarmine on a Friday and 10 more innings in a state-qualifying win over Renton on the Tuesday prior to the state tournament. There, he one-upped himself. In a Friday night state semifinal game he fanned 14 batters in nine innings as Stadium topped Bellingham, 4-0. The following evening in the title game, he struck out 16 more in nine innings of Stadium’s 14-0 whitewash of Spokane’s Rogers High School.
While the pitching performance was remarkable, throwing between 500 and 600 pitches over an eight-day period took a toll on Nygard’s arm and perhaps led to a premature end to a promising baseball career.
Nygard finished high school early to begin his pro career, signing first with the Tacoma Tigers in January of 1947 and then with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization. He played four professionally four seasons with El Centro, the Medford Dodgers, Boise Pilots, Idaho Falls Russets, and finally with the Vancouver Capilanos in the Western International League. The highlight of his pro career came when he was named the starting pitcher in the 1949 Pioneer League All-Star Game played in Salt Lake City.
Nygard is retired from a successful career one he credits to his competitive spirit in sports as a Kirby Vacuum Cleaner distributor.
Sonya Olejar
While playing for Bellarmine Prep, Sonya Olejar became the first tennis player to win four consecutive state high school tennis titles.
Born in Seattle in 1974, Sonya was unbeatable in prep tennis play, losing only one set in four years while compiling a perfect 92-0 singles record. She won the KOMO-TV Female Prep Athlete Award and the Dick Hannula/Pierce County Amateur Athlete of the Year Award in 1992.
At the age of 15, she was ranked No. 1 in the Pacific Northwest in the Women’s Open Division in Singles, Double and Mixed Doubles. In 1989, she was ranked No. 34 in the nation for girls 16-and-under, and a couple of years later had climbed to a No. 20 ranking for girls 18-and-under.
After graduating from Bellarmine in 1992, she played at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., where she compiled a 42-37 singles record, including a 5-2 record at the No. 1 spot during her freshman season. The Waves won 66 matches and lost only 29 and were consistently ranked in the NCAA’s top 15 during Sonya’s four years at the school.
She is now the tennis pro at Mercer Island Country Club.
Stella “Babe” Penowich
Babe Penowich first started bowling at the old Broadway Lanes, and during her outstanding career was on the women’s all-star team 18 times, won the singles, doubles, and all-events titles in the Tacoma City tournament and the Northwest tournament. She was also a member of the state tournament winning team.
In 1946, she and partner Ann Lucchesi bowled a 1,238 series, one of the highest sets in the nation that year.
In 1953, 1956, and 1957 she maintained the highest average in the state. Her highest individual effort was a 278 in 1951 and her best series was rolled in open play at the old Midway Lanes when she threw a 689, missing a 700 series by a single spare.
Babe was inducted into the TWBA Hall of Fame in April of 1967 and died on February 18, 1973.
Tom Peterson
Tom Peterson started speed racing at the age of three, and just two years later he won his first national championship.
Tom, the elder of the two skating Peterson siblings, was born in Everett in 1959 and graduated from Clover Park High School in 1977. Tom’s mother, Skip Adams Peterson, was also his coach. Her primary focus at the Tacoma Roller Bowl was coaching speed skaters, and son Tom and daughter Lin were among her prize pupils. Tom represented the Tacoma Roller Bowl speed skating team from 1963-85.
In 1967, the eight-year-old Tom won the Juvenile D speed competition at nationals. He would go on to win eight world championships in events that took him to locations around the world.
Tom won four gold medals at the U.S. Amateur Roller Skating Championship to qualify for the 1979 Pan American Games in Puerto Rico. There, he won four gold medals two in track events, one in cross country and one in track relay. That same year he took a silver medal and two bronzes at the World Championships in Italy. He improved that year at the Worlds in New Zealand, winning three golds, two silvers and a bronze, and at the 1981 Worlds in Belgium he grabbed four gold medals.
Tom also skated with his sister in national mixed relay races, winning six U.S. championships.
Lin Peterson was one of the top women speed skaters in the country in the 1970s and 1980s, winning two U.S Sports Festival gold medals and competing at two world championships.
Lin, born in Tacoma in 1960, graduated from Clover Park High School in 1978 and from Cypress Junior College in 1984. Coached by her mother, Skip Adams Peterson, Lin represented the Tacoma Roller Bowl speed skating team at various competitions from 1965-91.
From 1973-91, she placed 16 times in U.S. speed skating competitions. In 1979, Lin set three new records to win the Junior Ladies Overall Division at the U.S. Amateur Roller Skating Championships. She also won the Senior Two Mixed 3,000-meter relay with older brother Tom. That performance earned her a spot on the U.S. team competing at the Pan American Games in Puerto Rico, and there she won silver and bronze medals.
Later that year, she repeated with silver and bronze medals at the World Championships in Italy. Her final World Championship appearance came at the 1981 event in Belgium.
Competing in two separate National Sports Festivals, she won two gold medals, a silver and two bronzes.
Lin is now a police officer for the city of Tacoma.
Lin Peterson
Lorrie Post Hodge
Lorrie Post Hodge started her Western Washington University volleyball career as a defensive specialist. When given the chance to play outside hitter, she went on to become the WWU Volleyball Player of the Century (1900-99).
Lorrie, born in Chicago, played her prep volleyball at Wilson High School where she earned all-state and Narrows League MVP honors as a senior. Twice she was named the Rams’ volleyball MVP, and she also earned all-league recognition in basketball.
She shined in volleyball at the collegiate level, earning Western Female Athlete of the Year honors in both 1990 and 1991 in addition to receiving NAIA first team All-America status in 1990. That same year, she earned NAIA All-Tournament recognition in leading the Vikings to a third-place finish at nationals. In addition, Lorrie was voted District 1 Player of the Year in 1989 and 1990
Lorrie established Western Washington career records for kills with 1,174 and for digs with 1,274. Her season records include kills with 530 and digs with 530, and she holds the single-match kills record with 37.
She earned induction into the WWU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.
Clarence Ramsey
In a long line of Lincoln High School basketball greats, 1972 graduate Clarence Ramsey certainly ranks among the best.
Clarence was born in 1952 in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, and started playing organized basketball in ninth grade. He came to Tacoma prior to his junior year at Lincoln, and in the next two seasons made his mark as one of the top high school players in the state, and even in the nation.
As a junior, Clarence averaged 22.1 points, and the following season he did even better with 23.2 points-per-game average. He earned all-state and high school All-America honors as a senior. During those two seasons the Abes compiled an impressive 42-6 overall record. At the 1970 state tournament, Clarence led all players with 40 rebounds, amazingly coming in just two games.
His outstanding play during those two seasons at Lincoln earned Clarence a scholarship to the University of Washington where he was a three-year starter and letter winner. He finished his UW career with 1,323 points, at the time ranked among the top 10 scorers in Husky hoop history. His point total now ranks him 15th on that list. He ranks eighth on the Husky career list with an average of 16.5 points per game in his career. His best collegiate season came in 197475 when he averaged 17.8 points and 4.5 rebounds per contest. A career 48.6 percent shooter from the field, Ramsey helped the 1975-76 Huskies to a 23-5 record and to the school’s first NCAA tournament appearance since 1953. Ramsey, the 1976 team captain, ranks a 23-point win over the UCLA Bruins and Coach John Wooden as one of the highlights of his career.
The Kansas City Kings drafted Clarence in the second round of the National Basketball Association draft, but his career was cut short by an injury.
A 1976 graduate of the University of Washington, Clarence runs his own lawn service and lives in Lakewood.
Sam Ring
Sam Ring has had a major impact on track and field and cross country in Pierce County as first an athlete, and then as a high school and college coach.
Sam, born in Tacoma in 1948, was the league two-mile champion at Mt. Tahoma High School, but had his greatest individual success during his collegiate years at Central Washington University. While competing for the Wildcats, he won eight league and regional championships in the two sports and set three school records. Sam qualified for seven national meets and earned NAIA All-America honors in 1968 and 1969. While still at Central, he participated in the 3000-meter steeplechase at the 1968 Olympic Trials. He continued to compete following his graduation in 1970 and won the Sound to Narrows race in 1973.
Sam returned to his hometown to become a successful track and field and cross country coach at two high schools and at the University of Puget Sound.
As Bellarmine Prep cross country coach from 1976-80, Sam produced girls teams that won three consecutive state championships. One of his boys teams finished third in state. The Washington state cross country Coach of the Year in 1978, Sam led Bellarmine to a total of nine league championships.
During the spring months Ring helped Jim Daulley guide the Wilson High boys track team to four state titles, then took over in 1982 and led the Rams to two more state championships and four league crowns. In 1982 he coached Darrell Robinson, who ran 44.69 in the 400 meters to set the national high school record, also at the time the world junior record.
In 1986, Sam started a 15-year run at Puget Sound where four of his women’s cross country teams won national championships and three more placed in the top three. The nine-time regional cross country coach of the year and the 1993 NAIA Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year, Sam coached 31 cross country All-Americans, 36 track AllAmericans, and four individual event national champions.
He returned to Wilson High in 2001 and is the boys cross country and track coach.
Darrell Robinson
As a senior at Wilson High School, Darrell Robinson finished second in the 1982 U.S. national meet in the 400-meter dash, clocking 44.69 to establish a national high school record that still is on the books. At the time it was also a junior world record, and it still ranks as the sixth-fastest time ever run in non-altitude conditions.
Darrell ran in four events at the 1982 state meet, setting state records while winning all four events. Three of those records still stand. But despite helping the Rams win three consecutive state championships from 1980-82, Darrell had not won a state title in his specialty, the 400 meters, until his senior year. That’s because his Wilson High teammate, Calvin Kennon, ran a 47.33 to win the 1981 state title. Darrell wasn’t without his successes, however, winning the 1980 national Junior Olympics title in the 400 and the 1981 state championship in the 200.
At Star Track, the state meet, Darrell shattered the state record, winning the 400 in a time of 45.74. After running his national high school record time during the summer, he made the national team and soon was defeating the Russians in the U.S. versus Soviet dual meet.
Following his high school graduation, Darrell remained among the world’s 400-meter elite for six years, winning a national title and competing for the United States in Europe, Asia and Australia.
Dan Seelye
Dan Seelye was a two-time NCAA Division II champion while at the University of Puget Sound, winning the 100 and 200 backstrokes at the 1976 national meet. He established a meet record in both events, and his time in the 100 backstroke remained a Division II national record for the next 15 years. Seelye successfully defended his short race title in 1977, and his three national titles were among the eight times that he earned NCAA Division All-America honors.
During his three seasons as a college swimmer, Seelye established school records in the 50 and 100 freestyles, 100 and 200 backstrokes, and the 200 individual medley. He also swam on three school recordsetting relay teams. He also was the first UPS swimmer to qualify for and compete in the NCAA Division I championship meet.
A 1978 University of Puget Sound graduate, Seelye was inducted into his school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988.
Seelye, born in 1955 in Tacoma, came to Puget Sound out of Dick Hannula’s powerhouse swimming program at Wilson High School. Seelye, the 1973 state champion in the 100 backstroke, was a four-time prep All-American.
Billy Sewell
As a youth, Billy Sewell was a football standout in the country of his birth. Over the next 15 years, he would become a star in another kind of football game in his new country, the United States of America.
Billy was born in County Cumberland in England, near the Scottish border. He learned to play football soccer to us Yanks as a boy, and when he came to the States at the age of nine this grade school whiz kid could dribble circles around even the bigger boys at Willard Elementary and Stewart Junior High.
Too light for football and too short for basketball at Lincoln High, Billy took his athletic skills to the tennis court where he played two seasons for the Abes.
As he grew physically, however, he participated in sandlot football, eventually playing halfback for the McKinley Hills Athletic Club and the Tacoma Wolves. In 1936, he joined the Heidelbergs of the Tacoma Northwest League, and there learned the art of throwing a football from coach Eddie Schwartz.
Billy went to Washington State in 1937, but dropped out of school. He played one more season with the Heidelbergs, and at the urging of friends returned to WSC in 1939. His ability to kick the football, learned in the game we call “soccer,” and a 30-yard pass leading to the game’s only score, were crucial in a big WSC upset of the Washington Huskies that same year. A year later, according to the American Football Statistical Bureau, he was the leading passer in college football, completing 86-of-176 passes for 1,023 yards.
Billy, known as a triple-threat halfback, was the top passer during “Babe” Hollingbery’s coaching tenure at Washington State. He lettered from 1939-41 and is a member of the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame.
Doug Sisk
Doug Sisk is a Stadium High School and Washington State University graduate who went on to a successful Major League baseball career with three different clubs. He still holds the modern day record for fewest home runs given up per innings pitched.
Doug, born in Renton in 1957, was a Stadium Tiger standout who first went to Green River College, then on to Washington State. Much could be said about his successes in amateur baseball, but there is plenty more that Doug accomplished in the professional game.
Doug signed with the New York Mets, playing three seasons in the organization’s minor league system. After leading the Mets’ Class AA Jackson team in wins in 1982, he made the jump past AAA ball. He broke into the Major Leagues later that season as a reliever, compiling a 0-1 record and a stingy 1.04 earned run average in 8 2/3 innings over eight appearances. In 1983 with the Mets he set a career high in appearances (67), innings pitched (104 1/3), wins (5) and strikeouts (33). He had a 5-4 record, 11 saves and an impressive 2.24 earned run average. In 1984, a season in which he was an All-Star Game alternate, Doug notched a 1-3 record, a career-best 15 saves and a 2.09 earned run average in 1984.
Doug played with the Mets through the 1987 season, never appearing in less than 41 games and pitching less than 70 2/3 innings. He was a member of the 1986 Mets team that beat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.
Playing for the Baltimore Orioles in 1988, Doug made 52 appearances and threw 94 1/3 innings, the second highest number in his career. He had two more seasons (1990-91) with the Atlanta Braves before retiring from the sport.
His Major League career numbers were solid: 332 appearances, 523 1/3 innings, 22-20 record, 33 saves and a combined 3.27 earned run average.
Paul Skansi
Paul Skansi’s story is one of the local boy who made good on the college and professional football stage.
Paul, born in Tacoma in 1961, was a talented multi-sport athlete at Peninsula High School. He participated football, basketball, soccer, track and water polo at PHS, but it was in football that he made his biggest mark. Paul, a wide receiver in only his second year of football, helped lead Peninsula High’s passhappy “run and shoot” offense to a 13-0 record and a 35-34 win over Pullman in the 1978 state championship game. Paul returned a kickoff 88 yards for the game-winning touchdown. That season he compiled 85 receptions for 1,506 yards and 14 touchdowns, drawing the interest of the University of Washington and head football coach Don James.
As a collegian, Skansi was an all-conference performer and an honorable mention All-American for the Huskies. He played in two Rose Bowls, a Sun Bowl and an Aloha Bowl during his UW playing career. When he had finished with the purple-and-gold, he was the Huskies’ all-time leading receiver with 138 receptions for 1,723 yards.
After graduating from Washington in 1983 with a degree in sociology, Paul enjoyed a nine-year career in the National Football League before finishing his career in the Canadian Football League. The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted him in the fifth round of the 1983 draft, and in limited action that year he had three catches for 39 yards.
In 1984, Paul joined the Seattle Seahawks, and during the next eight seasons he would make 166 receptions for 1,950 yards and 10 touchdowns. His best year came in 1989 when he had 39 catches for 488 yards and five touchdowns. He left Seattle following the 1991 season and ended his playing career in 1992 with the CFL’s Ottawa Rough Riders.
Jerry Snarski
Jerry has a long connection to Tacoma. He was born here in 1934, graduated from Bellarmine in 1952 and later attended Gonzaga and the College of Puget Sound.
Jerry Snarski joined the basketball officials association in Spokane back in 1956, and until his retirement following the 1988-89 season he was one of the top officials in the Pacific Northwest.After moving back to Tacoma, he joined the Western Washington Officials Association (WWOA) in 1958. He handled high school varsity and college basketball games for more than 25 years, and he estimates that he worked somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,500 total games. He was selected to officiate in four high school state championship games and three community college title contests. He also worked approximately 20 district and regional championship games.
Jerry served several terms as a board member of the WWOA and the Washington Association of Collegiate Officials (WACO), and was president of both organizations.
Jim Stevenson
Jim Stevenson is one of the best things that ever happened to bowling in Pierce County.
Born in 1928 in Montesano, Jim attended Lincoln High School, and it was immediately following World War II that he and some of his friends formed the so-called Lincoln High “Whiz Kids.” Earl Johnson, Frank Dal Santo, Gary Walton, Urban Schmidt, Howie Pagel and Jim were high school students talented enough to defeat most of the adult teams in Tacoma and throughout the Northwest.
While Johnson, a Tacoma-Pierce County Hall of Fame member, went on to national acclaim, Jim became a star in Tacoma, the Northwest and along the west coast. He also bowled on the Professional Bowlers Association national tour for a number of years. Jim, who rolled nine 300 games and had a high series score of 792, had numerous west coast tournament titles to his credit
Jim was owner of three local bowling alleys Pacific, Chalet and Lincoln Lanes, for more than 44 years. A member of the Tacoma and NIBC Halls of Fame, Jim started a number of bowling-related groups including Junior Travel League, Tacoma Masters, Northwest Bowlers Association and WHBA.
His individual accomplishments rank with some of the best bowlers to come out of Pierce County. Jim was named to the Tacoma all-star team nine times and to the Seattle all-star team twice, and his high single-season average of 219 is the best ever in Washington state. He is a member of the Tacoma and NIBC Halls of Fame.
Born in Seattle in 1954, Bill Stout lived up to his last name as a football offensive lineman and a heavyweight wrestler. As a senior at Clover Park, he won the 1973 wrestling state championship in the heavyweight division.
Following his high school graduation, Bill attended the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he participated in both sports. He finished his college education at the University of Puget Sound, where he again was a football player and wrestler.
His ability on the football field earned him the attention of professional scouts, and the Kansas City Chiefs signed him in 1978 before releasing him after three weeks of preseason camp.
Bill came back to the areas as a teacher and coach, first at Peninsula High School from 1978-95. There, he was either an assistant or head coach in football, wrestling, track and fastpitch. He was Peninsula’s football head coach for four years in the early 1990s, and his 1987 PHS wrestling team won the AA state championship. He coached the same sports at Bellarmine Prep from 1996-2002.
A devoted math teacher, Bill received a Distinguished Teacher Award from President Bush.
Dan Swain
Soccer has always been enjoyed and supported in the Pacific Northwest, and few people have exercised the kind of influence for the sport in the state, as has Dan Swain.
Born in Toledo, Ore. (hardly a soccer hotbed) in 1941, Dan graduated from Clarkston (Wash.) High school in 1960 and from Washington State University in 1965. He competed in the usual sports in high school football, basketball and baseball.
So where does soccer fit in? Dan coached various youth soccer teams from 1969-95, but his greatest impact was as co-founder (with Jim Lane) of FC Royals, a girls soccer club that promotes soccer, education and community involvement. Dan and Jim started the club in 1984, and there are teams ranging from Under11 to Under-18 age levels. Several hundred young women have “graduated” from the FC Royals soccer program and attended universities all over the nation.
It’s one thing to offer soccer as a sport, but it is quite another to have the kind of success that FC Royals enjoyed. For the better part of 25 years, FC Royals were either state champion or runner-up. The Royals played in the first-ever girls national championship, and in several more since. FC Royals players have won national championships and have played on the World Cup team, including current national team member Hope Solo.
Dan has received numerous honors, including 1980 NOTAC coach of the year, 1985 YSYSA National Coach of the Year, 1991 Texas Cup recognition award for contributions to women’s soccer, and the 1994 TPCJSA award for contributions to youth Soccer. In 2000, he was inducted into the Washington State Youth Soccer Association Hall of Fame.
Dan is an architect and general contractor and lives in Edgewood.
Bill Stout
Jerry Thacker
When Jerry Thacker first arrived in Tacoma in 1956 as a college freshman at the College of Puget Sound, he instantly became one of the area’s top athletes. Though Jerry has grown older, he remains one of the area’s top athletes in his age group.
Thacker was born in 1937 in Portsmouth, Ohio, and graduated in 1956 from Port Townsend (Wash.) High School. At Port Townsend, he earned all-state honors in football, basketball and baseball, helping his basketball team finish second at state.
Jerry was a standout in all three sports at Puget Sound, graduating from the school in 1961. On the gridiron, he earned All-Evergreen Conference honors three straight years as a quarterback, and as a senior was named to three All-America teams. When he left UPS, he held a total of 10 career records for rushing and passing. He topped the Logger career charts with 3,027 total yards, 1,922 passing yards, 121 pass completions, 250 attempts and 17 touchdowns. He still holds the school record with a 96-yard touchdown pass to Ed Tingstad. Jerry also played defensive back, twice earning all-conference honors.
In baseball, Jerry received all-conference honors three straight years as a shortstop, finishing with a career average topping .300. He also earned four letters in basketball between 1957-60.
Jerry continued playing semi-pro football until 1972, seeing action with the Seattle Ramblers, Seattle Rangers, Tacoma Tyees, and Vancouver, B.C. He helped lead the Tyees to three Northwest championships and to the 1970 West Coast title.
After playing amateur baseball for Woodworth Construction from 1961-64, Jerry turned his attention to slowpitch softball. From 1965-72 he was an outstanding offensive and defensive presence for Heidelberg, a national tournament participant for seven straight seasons after winning as many consecutive regional crowns. The 1966 Heidelberg team had the top finish among those seven teams, placing fifth in the tournament played in Long Island, N.Y.
Jerry has continued to play softball throughout the years, starting in Master ’s level play with Ruth Realty (55 & over) from 1992-94. He has also played with the Sea-Tac Giants (60 & over) from 1995-2000, with the Renton Classics (60 & over) from 2001-04, and with First American Title (65 & over) in 2005 and again this year. Last year, he helped First American Title to a 66-19 overall record and to the USA and Winter World championships in the 65 & over division.
Throughout his softball career he has been a .700-plus hitter and earned numerous tournament all star and MVP awards.
He is now retired from a career as a teacher and coach, including the 1976 season when he led Orting High to the Class A state title. He also coached Orting baseball and basketball teams to state runner-up finishes.
Jim Vest
He is not the only one, but he might have been the first.
Jim Vest, who played strong end for Puyallup High School, was selected to the 1964 Parade Magazine high school All-America first team. Vest was one of 33 players chosen to the three All-America teams.
In an article written about Vest, author Walt Tupper wrote: “Probably one of Vest’s finest efforts came in this year ’s tussle with Franklin Pierce. It was a ‘must’ game for the Vikings . The game, as everyone expected, turned out to be one of those ding-dong cliff-hangers that leaves you limp. Big Jim, playing under the handicap of a pesky flu virus, made two unbelievable catches that memorable night, both resulting in (touchdowns in a 21-20 win). True, it was a team effort that won, but Vest’s individual performance will never be forgotten.”
Puyallup head coach Bob Ryan called Vest a “blue chip player who combined size, speed, desire and fingers left in a glue pot.” Another article described Vest as a defensive player who was “almost impossible to block or run through. His defensive charge, hard and aggressive, played havoc with Puget Sound League quarterbacks all season.”
During the three seasons that Vest roamed the gridiron for Puyallup High, the Vikings won or shared all three Puget Sound League titles. He earned all-state honors twice. He also participated in basketball and track and field.
After graduating from Puyallup High in 1965, Vest played at Grays Harbor Community and at Washington State University. The New Orleans Saints selected him in the 1965 National Football League draft, though he didn’t play for the Saints. He ended his playing career with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League.
Vest, born in 1946 in Portland, passed away in 2004.
Art Viafore
When Lincoln High School won the Cross-State League in consecutive seasons at the end of the 1940s, the Abes had talent at every position and a pitching lineup that stopped most teams cold. Art Viafore, a righthanded ace, was on that list of standout hurlers. Also an outfielder, Art earned All-City and All-Cross-State League recognition for his baseball exploits.
In both the 1948 and 1949 seasons, Lincoln lost to Yakima in the state championship game. The 1949 game in particular stands out to Art because it was played in front of more than 6,000 spectators.
Art was a member of a Lincoln High state championship team, by the way, as he played for the 1948 state-winning football squad. He earned All-City and All-Cross-State League honors as a quarterback
Art, born in Tacoma in 1930, later went on to play football and baseball at the College of Puget Sound, from where he graduated in 1953. He also played baseball during the summer months for K Street in Tacoma’s City League.
After his playing career ended, Art turned to officiating. He umpired baseball games for 20 years, also serving as president of the Western Washington Umpires Association in 1976-77, and officiated football for 22 seasons.
Davey Ward
Davey Ward was born in 1919 to a boxing family, attended Lincoln High School and became a professional boxer at the age of 17. According to a 1943 Tacoma News Tribune article, Davey’s father had been light heavyweight champion in Britain. In a pro career spanning 36 fights, Davey had 32 wins, 18 by knockout, to go along with just one loss and three draws.
Davey, a welterweight, was a protégé of Freddie Steele, the former world middleweight champion. Steele had seen real talent in Davey and worked with him over a six-year period prior to his professional debut. That debut came in Tacoma on April 28, 1937, when he knocked out Santos Gaudes. Six of Davey’s first seven fights ended by knockout.
With Steele as trainer and Jack Connor as manager, Davey fought 17 of his first 18 fights in Tacoma. In fact, all but five of his bouts occurred in this state.
Davey’s only professional loss came in his 31st bout, a fourth-round technical knockout against Lige Drew in Portland, Ore. After that, he finished his career with five straight wins, ending with a Feb. 27, 1947 decision against Johnny Scott in Tacoma.
After getting a temporary deferment from World War II service, Davey worked in the Tacoma shipyards. After marrying Ruth Canale, a Tacoma-Pierce County Hall of Member as a golfer, Davey enlisted in the Army in 1943.
From 1943 until his retirement in 1947, Davey fought a limited seven-fight schedule.
Rob Webster
It is not unusual to see an athlete succeed in sports where there may be some natural crossover in talent, such as cross country and track. Rob Webster was an outstanding athlete in what would seem to be two disparate sports track and swimming.
Rob was born in Tacoma in 1960 and attended Wilson High School, where he swam for Hall of Fame coach Dick Hannula, Sr. As a three-year letter winner, he earned 1977 high school All-America swimming honors after anchoring the Rams to the state title in the 200 medley relay. Competing for the Wilson High track team, he placed second in the 800 meters and anchored the winning mile relay team as the Rams won the 1978 state meet. A year earlier, Rob placed third in the 800 and ran the last leg of the second-place mile relay unit.
He went on to the University of Washington, lettering one year in cross country and all four years in track, and becoming one of the nation’s top 800 meter runners.
In 1982, Rob set the UW school record in the 800 at 1:47.21, and that record still holds. That same year he placed second in the 800 at the Pac-10 Championships and earned NCAA All-America honors, recording the fastest 800 meters at the NCAA national meet. In 1983 and 1984 he won the T.A.C. West Region championship in his specialty, and in 1984 he set his personal best in the event, 1:46.35, in a meet at San Diego State University.
Following his graduation, he competed for the select Nike Track team in 1983-84, placing sixth in the U.S Championships in 1983 and competing in the Olympic Trials in 1984.
Rob spent a couple of years in the mid 1980s as a college assistant track coach, and he currently is a middle distance and distance coach for the Puyallup High School boys and girls track teams.
Sam Ring (far left) gets set to time himself in the Sound-to-Narrows Race. Ring was the inaugural winner in 1973.
Lou Whittaker
Lou Whittaker began climbing mountains with twin brother Jim as a way for the pair to battle asthma. With more than 250 ascents of Mount Rainier, plus numerous successful climbs of some of the world’s toughest peaks among his accomplishments, Lou is unquestionably one of the world’s greatest mountaineers.
His list of climbing accomplishments is impressive, starting in 1963 with a three-day ascent of Mount McKinley in Alaska and including a 1965 winter climb of Mt. Fuji. In 1975 he was a member of an American team attempting to climb K2, the world’s second tallest peak. In 1984, two years after an unsuccessful attempt, Lou led the first American team to summit Mt. Everest by climbing the mountain’s north wall. One year later, his climbing expertise was crucial in reaching many intact burial sites on a 1,000-foot cliff face in the Peruvian Andes.
In the spring of 1989 and going by way of the treacherous North Wall, Lou led the first successful ascent by an American team to the top of Mt. Kangchenjunga in Nepal, the world’s third-tallest mountain. Six Americans reached the summit that day.
Lou was born in Seattle in 1929, graduated from West Seattle High School in 1947 and from Seattle University in 1952. He started Mt. Rainier Guide Service in Ashford, WA for the Rainier National Park Company in 1951, but in 1952 was drafted into the Army following his college graduation. With the Army, Lou was an instructor at the Mountain and Cold Weather Training Command. He is now an honorary member of the 10th Mountain Division, an elite mountaineering corps of the U.S. Army.
Lou, a charter member of the Mountain Rescue Council and a member of the National Ski Patrol, incorporated his company, Rainier Mountaineering Inc., in 1968. It is the oldest and largest guide service and climbing school in the United States.
Jerry Williams
At Lincoln High, Jerry Williams was a three-year letter winner in both football and track, and he was team captain of both teams.
Jerry, who played wide receiver and linebacker for the Abes, earned just about every honor that there was to receive all-city, all-conference, all-state and first team All-America. In track, he anchored the 880yard relay team to an undefeated season, a state record and the state championship. As a senior, he was unbeaten until the state meet in the 120 high hurdles, the 180 low hurdles and the long jump.
After graduating from Lincoln, Jerry returned to the state of his birth where he excelled in both football and track at the University of Iowa. On the football field he played linebacker on a Hawkeyes team that was the Big Ten co-champion and ranked No. 2 in the country. As a track athlete, he was an NCAA finalist in the 440 hurdles and in the national AAU meet in the 220 low hurdles
Born in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1939, Jerry was as outstanding in the classroom as he was in athletics. In 1961 as an Iowa football player he received a scholastic achievement award, and he graduated in 1962 with an accounting major and business law and literature minors.
Jerry’s track career came to an interesting close in 1962. His younger brother, Dave, had broken almost every one of Jerry’s Lincoln High track records, but Jerry came out on top when the two raced in the 120-yard hurdles at an open meet at the University of Washington. Jerry “retired from running on the spot and gave (his) track shoes to baby brother John Scott.”
Proud Sponsors of the Banquet of Champions
1980 Pacific Lutheran University Football Team
Pacific Lutheran was ranked No. 1 in the 1980 preseason NAIA Division II poll, and the Lutes made the prognosticators look good in winning the university’s first-ever national sports title. The title was the first of four garnered by the Lutes and Hall of Fame head coach Frosty Westering.
The ’80 Lutes finished with an 11-1 record, the only loss coming by one point to Northwest rival Linfield in the season opener. PLU rolled past Wilmington College (Ohio), 38-10, at Tacoma’s Lincoln Bowl in the national championship game.
PLU seniors Scott Westering (Frosty’s son) and Scott Kessler earned first team NAIA All-America honors following the season. Westering, who caught 48 passes for 615 yards and nine touchdowns, was also named to the Associated Press Little All-America second team. Kessler was voted the Most Valuable Player in the playoff quarterfinal and championship games. He had eight interceptions in PLU’s three playoff victories, including a record-tying four in the championship game.
Quarterback Eric Carlson passed for 1,478 yards, at the time the second highest single-season total in Lute history, and 17 touchdown passes. Mike Westmiller gained 830 yards to lead a balanced running game that accumulated 2,136 net yards during the season. Chris Utt gained 553 yards and Guy Ellison added an even 500 to help the Lutes. Ellison was a multi-purpose threat with 48 pass receptions for 704 yards.
Kessler, a safety, spearheaded a tough Lute defense that limited opponents to an average of 11.0 points and 221.6 yards per game, including playoff contests. Defensive tackle Greg Rohr and linebacker Scott McKay were the cornerstones of the front seven.
Ellison, offensive tackle John Bley and McKay were named second team NAIA All-Americans, while Carlson and Rohr were honorable mention picks.
AMOS, TOM—TACKLE—FRESHMAN, 6-4, 195, Seattle, WA
Engineering major Also lettered in basketball for two years at Seattle’s Shorecrest High School.
ANDERSON, ERIC—LINEBACKER—SOPHOMORE, 6-1, 195, Sumner, VA
Business admin. major… Frosh MVP Last year. Played for his father, PLU graduate John Anderson, at Sumner High School. Brother of Brian Anderson, a starter for PLU at cornerback in 1978. One letter.
BERGHUIS, PAUL—END/PUNTER —SENIOR, 6-0, 185, Auburn, WA
A graduate of Auburn High School, Paul played offensive end for the Lutes. He is a physician and anesthesiologist and lives in Mount Vernon. Comment: “It was a privilege for me to be on this team. I did not contribute a great deal, but took away many lessons that helped me to succeed in later endeavors.”
BLEY, JOHN —TACKLE/GUARD—SENIOR, 6-2, 240, White Pine, MI
Out of White Pine (Mich.) High School in 1975, John played offensive line and served as a co-captain of the 1980 championship team. He earned all-conference honors several times and was a second team NAIA All-American. He is now a lawyer working for Foster Pepper, and he lives in Olympia
BUSH, KEN—JUNIOR, Tacoma, WA
After stints at Eastern Washington and Northwest Nazarene, Ken came back to the neighborhood. You see, he graduated from nearby Washington High School in 1978. A knee injury sidelined him early in the season, and he never fully recovered. Comment: “Frosty was a coach that I admire so much. He brought a team to a oneness that teams can only dream for and strive for. I thank Frosty and (my) teammates for changing my life. He is now a finance manager for Capitol Toyota and lives in Salem, Ore.
CARLSON, ERIC—QUARTERBACK—SENIOR, 6-1, 192, Corvallis. OR
History education major. A backup quarterback for three years, charted seven .gamest this year. Set a school record with a 362 yard passing show against Whitworth; also established a PLU total offense mark in the same game Completed a school record 25 passes against Linfield.. ,Both his brother Ted and sister Judy were tennis standouts at PLU... Three letters. ‘Broke index finger on passing hand in game seven.
CHANDLER, JEFF—DEFENSIVE BACK—SOPHOMORE, 6-0, 180, Kirkland, WA
Physical education major. Prepped at Lake Washington High School. A transfer, played at Spokane Falls CC last year.
DAVIS, SCOTT—CENTER—SENIOR, 6-3, 205, Tacoma, WA
PLU football has always been known as a program that draws brothers, and Scott and Todd Davis fit that bill. Scott, who came to PLU after earning all-city honors on a state championship Foss High School team, was an all-district center on the PLU title squad. He is now a financial planner for World Group Securities and lives in Jamul, Calif.
DAVIS, TODD—CENTER—FRESHMAN, 6-3, 200, Tacoma, WA
The younger of the Davis brothers and a 1979 Foss High grad, Todd was a freshman reserve lineman who would become a first team All-America center as a senior. A guidance counselor in the North Mason School District, he now lives in Gig Harbor.
DEMULLING, DEAN—LINEBACKER—FRESHMAN, 6-2, 210, Kent, WA
Biology major. All-conference linebacker at Thomas Jefferson High School. Holds school record in shot and discus.
DURRETT, MIKE—LINEBACKER—SENIOR, 6-1, 210 Tacoma, WA
Physical education major… Played for Foss High School’s state championship team. Most valuable freshman in 1977. Three letters.
ELLISON, GUY—RUNNING BACK—SENIOR, 5-9, 170, Auburn, WA
Education major All-Northwest Conference first team selection last year, honorable mention UPI All-Coast PLU’s third leading rusher in 1979 (4.9 ypc), was the Lutes’ top pass receiver (39 catches, 472 yards) Co-captain. Three letters.
ERICKSON, JIM—GUARD—SOPHOMORE, 5-9, 190, Tacoma, WA
Education major… Red-shirted last year… Scholar athlete award winner at Wilson High School, where he was team captain. No previous letters.
FALCONER, DONN—DEFENSIVE TACKLE—FRESHMAN, 6-2, 220, Gig Harbor, WA
Pre-med… Second team All-Seamount at Peninsula High School Listed in ‘Who’s Who in American High Schools.
FELDMANN, JOHN—DEFENSIVE END—JUNIOR, 6-0, 205, Mount Vernon, WA
Business admin. major… Transferred after his freshman year at Mount Hood CC, played as a linebacker last year. One letter.
FREISHEIM, JAY—DEFENSIVE TACKLE—SENIOR, 6-7, 275, Cincinnati, OH
After playing for two seasons at the University of Cincinnati, Jay transferred to PLU and was an all-conference defensive tackle for the national championship team. He is owner of his own insurance agency and lives in Tacoma. Comment: “Frosty Westering and PLU football had a positive influence on my life. I learned that it’s not what you do, but how you do things and treat people.”
FRITSCH, CHRIS—LINEBACKER—SOPHOMORE, 6-2, 197, Longview, WA
Chris came out of R.A. Long High School in 1977 to play for the Lutes. Chris states that he “set the team record for consecutive wins in the “crazy hat” competition. That kind of humor probably comes in handy in his job as principal at Mark Morris High School in Longview.
GALE, DON—DEFENSIVE END—SENIOR, 6-3, 210, East Wenatchee, WA
Education major... Saw considerable action last year as an offensive end. Two letters.
HALLE, JAY—SAFETY—JUNIOR, 6-1, 180, Seattle, WA
Jay played his high school ball at Ingraham in Seattle, and was a safety and special teams player for the Lutes. In his three years as a starter he played on PLU teams that were first, second and third in the nation. He was twice all-conference and as a senior earned honorable mention All-America honors. Jay now lives in Edmonds, works for Campbell Nelson VW & Nissan, and also serves as chaplain for the Seattle Mariners. Comment: “It was a privilege and a joy playing at PLU for Coach Frosty and (defensive coordinator) Paul Hoseth. It was a bonus being able to play for a national championship team.”
HARKINS, DAN—END—SOPHOMORE, 6-2, 205, Puyallup, WA
Dan graduated from Puyallup’s Rogers High School in 1978 and was a freshman receiver at PLU when the Lutes won the national title. He is Regional Manager for the Western U.S. for the NEFF Corporation and lives in Las Vegas.
HOLLAND, DALE—TACKLE—FRESHMAN, 6-1, 205, Wenatchee, WA
Undecided on Major… Was a guard and defensive end as a prepster.
JERDE, PHIL—RUNNING BACK—SOPHOMORE, 6-0, 165, Hillsboro, OR
Business admin. major Younger brother of Dwight Jerde, former PLU center. No previous letters.
JOHNSON, JOEL—RUNNING BACK—FRESHMAN, 6-0, 187, Spokane, WA
Business admin major... Red-shirted last-year Younger brother of Dan Johnson, former PLU linebacker.
KESSLER, SCOTT—SAFETY—SENIOR, 6-0, 189, Lodi, CA
One of the most decorated defensive players in PLU football history, Scotty Kessler came to Pacific Lutheran after two seasons at University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif. Scotty earned second team NAIA All-America honors in 1979 and first team NAIA All-America honors in 1980. A co-captain of the 1980 team, he was named the championship game’s MVP after tying a national playoff record with four interceptions. He had eight interceptions during PLU’s three national playoff contests. The former football head coach at Greenville College in Illinois, Scotty is involved in Christian ministry and lives in Elk River, Minn.
KIRK, STEVE—DEFENSIVE-TACKLE—SENIOR, 5-11, 220, Buckley, WA
History education major… Prep all-state offensive guard. Was pressed into service as a pat kicker last year. Two letters.
LESTER, MARK—DEFENSIVE BACK—JUNIOR, 5-10, 180, Renton, WA
Mark played defensive back at PLU from 1978-81 after graduating from Renton High School in 1978. He works in financing for REI and lives in Edmonds.
McDONOUGH, DENNIS—DEFENSIVE BACK—JUNIOR, 5-9, 168, Tacoma, WA
Political science major Second year as a cornerback starter. One letter.
McKAY, SC0TT LINEBACKER JUNIOR, 6-1, 226, Everett, WA
History major… swept first teem all conference, all-district, and Little AlL-Northwest honors as a sophomore… had a hand in 105 tackles last year. Made his debut as a kicker this season and has handled all placement duties. Two letters.
MILLER, CHRIS DEFENSIVE BACK JUNIOR, 5-10, 171, Seattle, WA
Elementary education major Brother of Dan Miller, onetime PLU basketball and baseball player. One letter.
MONSON, ERIC END JUNIOR, 6-1, 200, Ephrata, WA
Education major... Set three reception records as prepster… A standout third baseman in baseball, broke PLU record for average, hits, runs, and RBIs last year. One letter.
NIGHT, DAVID TACKLE JUNIOR, 6-3, 245, Olympia, WA
Education major… Transfer from Idaho State, where he was a varsity starter as a frosh. Little North-West honorable mention in 1979. One letter.
OTTO, NEAL TACKLE JUNIOR, 6-1, 200, Troutdale, OR
Neal played for the Lutes during the 1978-1981 seasons. He graduated from Reynolds HS in Troutdale, OR and from PLU in 1982 and now owns a small business in Oregon called Jumpstart Computer Training Inc.
PARKHURST, MARTY CENTER SOPHOMORE, Puyallup, WA
A center for the 1980 PLU Lutes, Marty Parkhurst has gone on to a successful football coaching career at Orting High School, where he also serves as the school’s athletic director. Several outstanding players have come out of Orting in recent years and gone on to star at PLU. Marty graduated from Puyallup’s Rogers High in 1978 and from PLU in 1982.
PETERSON, MIKE TACKLE SENIOR, 6-4, 227, RichIand, WA
Best known now as a country music writer and performer, Michael Peterson was a starting offensive tackle for the national championship team. He has maintained close contact with the school and the football program, and when the 1999 PLU team won the NCAA Division III national title Michael was there and performed at the post-game “Afterglow.”
REEP, DAVE GUARD JUNIOR, 6-2, 225, Mount Vernon, WA
Business admin major… Transferred to PLU after his freshman year at Spokane Falls CC… Moved into starting lineup this season. One letter.
RODIN, CURT END SOPHOMORE, 6-6, 215, Milwaukie, OR
PRE-MED Also plays basketball and maintains a 4.0 gpa. Caught two TD passes in the season opener Averaged 15.5 ppg for the Lute jayvee hoop squad last year… His father (Dennis) also played football and basketball at PLU. One letter.
ROHR, GLENN LINEBACKER SENIOR, 6-1, 224, Tacoma, WA
Glenn was one of three Rohr brothers Greg and Jeff were the other two on the 1980 national championship team. He graduated from Bethel High School in 1974 and from PLU in 1981. He is the commercial sales manager at Parkland Chevrolet. Comment: “(My career highlight was) the opportunity to participate with my two younger brothers on a championship team led by one of the most incredible coaches of our time, Frosty Westering.”
ROHR, GREG DEFENSIVE TACKLE JUNIOR, 6-1, 235, Tacoma, WA
Greg was the heart of the defensive line, stuffing opposing running games and wreaking havoc in their backfields. An NAIA first team All-American pick in 1981, he is a member of the PLU Athletic Hall of Fame.
ROHR, JEFF FULLBACK FRESHMAN, 6-0, 198, Tacoma, WA
The youngest of the three Rohr brothers, Jeff may have been the best athlete of the bunch. A two-time state wrestling champion at Washington High School and a national champion softball player with People’s Church, Jeff was a freshman running back for the 1980 Lutes. Over the next three years he would earn all-conference honors three times and NAIA first team All-America recognition in 1983. When he graduated he held PLU season and career rushing records. His season and career records for rushing attempts still stand.
RUDDY, ROCKY DEFENSIVE TACKLE SENIOR, 6-2, 220, Sumner, WA
Physical education major… Occasional starter for the Lutes, works for a fireworks company in the summer. Two letters.
SKOGEN, KEVIN QUARTERBACK FRESHMAN, 6-3, 187, Othello, WA
Communication arts major Holder of several passing records at Othello High School led his team to the state semifinals in 1978 red-shirted last year.
SPEER, ROB RUNNING BACK FRESHMAN, Spanaway, WA
Rob was a freshman running back on the PLU team after graduating from Bethel High School the previous spring. A salesman for Athletic Supply, Rob now lives in Vaughn, Wash. He lists as his athletic highlight being involved in PLU football for four years with Frosty Westering as the coach.
SPOMER, BARRY GUARD SENIOR, 5-11, 210, Corvallis, OR
Physical education major A product of PLU’s “Bomber” jayvee program, was a high school teammate of quarterback Eric Carlson. One letter.
UTT, CHRIS RUNNING BACK JUNIOR, 6-0, 180, Snohomish, WA
Physical education major... Transferred to PLU after playing at Washington State his freshman year... All-State and prep All-American as a two-way back... Led PLU with eight interceptions in 1979 and earned Little All-Northwest first team honors as a defensive back… Now carries the ball and is among the elite runners in the NWC. One letter.
VRANJES, RICH DEFENSIVE BACK FRESHMAN, 6-1, 185, St. Charles, MO
Political science major Attended Yakima CC last fall, but did not play Transferred to PLU and had an outstanding year as a baseball second baseman, hitting .370.
WAHL, TIM LINEBACKER FRESHMAN, 5-9, 175, Hoquiam, WA
Physical education major... Attended Fort Steilacoom CC last year and lettered in baseball, playing second base… younger brother of Lute starting guard Tom Wahl.
WAHL, TOM GUARD SENIOR, 5-10, 206, Hoquiam, WA
PHYSICAL EDUCATION major… Has twice participated in NAIA wrestling nationals at 177 pounds… NAIA bidistrict match runner up last year First team all-conference pick last year in football Played for his father (Jon) at Raymond High School. Three letters.
WALKER, KIRK DEFENSIVE BACK FRESHMAN, 5-10, 154, Reedsport, OR
Pre-med (Biology)… Brother of former Lute cornerback Jim Walker… National merit scholar.
WALTON, JEFF DEFENSIVE END JUNIOR, 6-0, 218, Salem, OR
Jeff played his high school football at South Salem High School, graduating in 1976. A senior defensive end on the national title team, he lists the championship season and playing for Frosty Westering and Paul Hoseth as the highlights of his career. He now lives in Salem, Oregon, and is manager for SierraPine Companies.
WARREN, GARTH DEFENSIVE END JUNIOR, 6-4, 218 Burien, WA
Religion and social science double major Prepped at Highline High School, where he was the tackle leader. One letter.
WESTERING, SCOTT TIGHT END SENIOR, 6-5, 227, Tacoma, WA
Scott was a co-captain, an NAIA first team All-America tight end and a second team AP Little All-American for his dad’s 1980 national championship PLU football team. Scott was an outstanding three-sport athlete at Washington High School, winning all-state honors in football, playing for three state tournament basketball teams, and winning a state hurdles title. He earned a full-ride scholarship to UCLA but came back to play football for the Lutes. He signed free agent contracts with Buffalo and San Francisco, but injuries ended both attempts at an NFL career. He stayed on at PLU as a football assistant coach, for many years coordinating the offense, and became head coach after his father ’s retirement following the 1993 season.
WESTMILLER, MIKE FULLBACK JUNIOR, 6-1, 200, Yakima, WA
Business admin, major… Washington state prep back of the year in 1977… Named PLU’s frosh MVP in a backup role, gained 517 yards as a sophomore… Two letters.
WRIGHT, CRAIG DEFENSIVE BACK JUNIOR, 6-0, 175, Vancouver, WA
Pre med (Biology) Transfer from Olympic CC where he played two years Student body president at Olympic.
Frosty Westering
Lutes football has not been the same since Frosty Westering came to the school in 1972. Over a 32-year career at PLU, Frosty’s teams won four national championships (three in the NAIA and one in NCAA Division III) in eight title game appearances. The 1980 squad was the first Pacific Lutheran sports team to win a national championship. After losing their first game to Linfield, the Lutes won 11 straight and beating Wilmington (Ohio) by a 38-10 score for the title.
Paul Hoseth
While most people think of offense when they think of Pacific Lutheran football, the Lutes’ championship seasons have always been marked by an outstanding defense. The 1980 team set the standard, limiting opponents to 11 points and 221 yards of offense per game. Paul Hoseth was the mastermind behind that and other Lutes defenses for 28 years as defensive coordinator. Paul coached 12 PLU players that earned first team All-America honors, and he was a member of the coaching staff on seven teams that played in national championship games. He has been inducted into the Two Harbors (Minn.) High School Athletic Hall of Fame and the Concordia College Athletic Hall of Fame as a member of the 1964 NAIA national championship football team. Paul retired in 2005 after a 38-year career in teaching, coaching and administration at PLU.
Larry Green
Larry, a defensive lineman, was Frosty Westering’s first NAIA All-American football player in 1975. After coaching at Rocky Mountain College in Montana, he came back to PLU as an assistant coach for two seasons, including the national championship season of 1980. He now lives in Puyallup and is a partner in Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
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Lawrence F. Green CLU, FIC
CA Insurance ID No. 0D89644
Tacoma, WA 253-537-8061
Knut A. Olson CLU, FIC
CA Insurance ID No. 0831657 Tacoma, WA 866-824-7941
