Got back to town this week in time to attend the Kitsap Sports Hall of Fame Banquet.
The Kitsap Athletic Roundtable put on a first-class event and I’m not saying that because I’m a board member. I didn’t have anything to do with the banquet.
Dan Haas did a great job as the MC and the banquet room at the Baymont Inn was perfect for the size of the crowd. I didn’t get an exact number, but would guess there were about 200-225 people in attendance.
Terry Mosher’s writing the mainbar, concentrating on the two teams that were inducted — the 1983 South Kitsap state championship baseball team and the 1921 Suquamish baseball team that featured Louie George, the pitcher who made the “clam ball” famous.
Here’s a few odds and ends that I picked up:
Rill: Surrounded by good people
BREMERTON — The 24th annual Kitsap Sports Hall of Fame banquet was
nearing closure when one of the last inductees, former South Kitsap
and University of Washington football star David Rill, delivered a
message to his daughters, McKenzie, 14, and Elle, 11, who were
seated in the back of the room at the Baymont Inn on Saturday.
“When you guys look back, don’t remember me being up here,” said
Rill, an inside linebacker who became the No. 2 all-time leading
tackler in Husky history during his career. “Remember all the
people in this room who chose to be surrounded by good people.”
The class of 2011 — the induction ceremony was pushed back from its
orginal date in October by the sponsoring Kitsap Athletic
Roundtable — will be remembered as a classy group.
Helen Sturdivant said her late husband, the outgoing and friendly
E.L. “Sturdi” Sturdivant — a four-year football starter at
Washington State in the 1940s, a coach, educator, administrator,
community activist — would have enjoyed chatting it up with fellow
inductees.
“He was a man of high integrity as a husband, a father, a
grandfather and as a friend,” she said, summing up her feeling for
the man who was previously inducted into Hall of Fames in his
hometown of Montesano and at Humboldt State College, where he was
an assistant coach on an NAIA national championship team.
Sturdivant passed away in November of 2010. He was 85.
Carlson toughened Murphy up
Former Bremerton High and University of Washington basketball
player Al Murphy said you knew you were in good with coach Ken
Wills (he referred to Wills as “The Man”) when Wills let you borrow
his car to go to dances or events. “He let me use it three times,”
said the former director of payrolls for Boeing. “(Wills) treated
me so, so good. He prepared me for the University of
Washington.”
Murphy also paid homage to former classmate Jim Carlson, who was in
the crowd. He said Carlson was “very influencial,” in toughening
him up. Murphy said he kept getting knocked to the floor
during practices.
“Carlson told me to stick up for myself,” he said. “You don’t have
to hurt ‘em; just be firm.”
Motorsports a team sport, too
John Flesher, one of the original founders of the Handlers Car Club
who went on to become one of the Northwest’s top drag racers in the
1960s, said “motorsports back in those days wasn’t really thought
of as a sport — it was just something kids played around with. My
father changed his mind once I started bringing home a lot of
money.”
Like other sports, it took a team to succeed, he said, and the late
Frank Cooper and Larry Cain, who was in attendance, were his
team.
“They were very instrumental in any success I had,” he said before
personally thanking Cain from the podium.
Flesher said Connie (Cornelius, also known as Con) Fox, the father
of the Fox boys — Leon, Tom, Jim and Bob — “taught me more about
cars than just about anybody I can think of.”
Harry Penor, 79, was another inductee from the motorsports
world.
“I think was born with a wrench in my hand,” said the man who made
a deal with the Kitsap County Airport to use an old runway as a
dragstrip. He later bulldozed an entry to the strip at the end of
the Old Clifton Road and it continues to serve as the main entrance
to what is now Bremerton Raceway.
Penor still belongs to the Saints Car Club in Port Orchard.
Establishing a program
Ed Amick, the father of wrestling at North Mason, remembers the
Bulldogs practicing in the school cafeteria when it formed its
first team in 1964. They had to remove the chairs and tables, go
get the mats, tape them together, then put everything back together
after practice.
The Bulldogs were later banished to a small stage in the gymnasium.
He couldn’t blow his whistle, because it would stop the basketball
team from whatever it was doing. Coaches and wrestlers often rolled
off the narrow stage on to the gym floor, said Amick, a Hall of
Fame wrestling coach who is still involved the sport, assisting his
son, Ed, at North Kitsap. Amick left early to get back to the
Bainbridge Invitational, where NK was competing.
Also
Gary Eaton, recipient of the Dick Todd Officials
Award, is being inducted into the Kitsap County Bowling Hall of
Fame next Saturday. Eaton, 74, still carries a 200 average and
plays on a Portland-based 70s and older slowpitch team. “I’m not
going to be able to live with him,” joked his wife Debbie. …
Jan Hauschel thanked her longtime friends and
bowling teammates — Alison Eoff and Kristy Whitcher — for attending
Saturday’s festivities. Those three were part of a squad that won
seven consecutive state team titles in a row and a national team
championship. … The talented June Griebel (Fike)
earned 10 varsity letters during her high school career at South
Kitsap, lettering in volleyball, basketball, track and field,
tennis and cheerleading. In addition, she was a standout fastpitch
player for the Bremerton Legionettes in the summer. … Former South
Kitsap coach and athletic director Steve Reischman accepted on
behalf of former SK heavyweight wrestling champion Jim
Cutchall, who lives in Oklahoma, where he wrestled
collegiately before a neck injury ended his career at the end of
his sophomore season. “If I had to compare him to someone, it would
be Yogi Bear,” said Reischman. “He was a ho-ho (happy go-lucky kind
of guy).” … Former South Kitsap and Major League Baseball player
Jason Ellison, now living in Issaquah, was in
Arizona and unable to attend. One of a select few players to start
as a sophomore for Elton Goodwin, a lot of people
forget that the ultra-tough and athletic Ellison — 20-0 in three
years as a pitcher at South — placed seventh, third and third in
three state wrestling tournaments. .
