| School: Roosevelt | Graduation Year: 1968 |
Year Inducted: 2018
Sports Played: Football, Basketball, Track and Field
High School Honors: 3 Football letters, 1st Team All-PIL on offense, 2nd Team on defense as a Senior.
2 Basketball letters. 1 Track & Field letter.
Post High School Career: 2 Football letters at Treasure Valley Community College. 1 Football letter at Southern Oregon College. Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science at SOSC; Master’s Degree at Northern Arizona University. 41-year career at the Portland Sheraton Airport Hotel as Banquet Manager.
Commentary:
Who inspired me? My oldest brother Byron, who is in the PIL Hall of Fame, was my mentor and my best roll model concerning sports. He always let me hang around when he was participating in different sports. It helped that he was also a QB.
Basketball coach Ralf Bergstrom and football assistant coach always took me to the side and talked to me about life and my future. They may think I was not listening, but I was. They taught me many things that turned out to help me later in life.
I could work after practice downtown at the Imperial Hotel because Mr. Bergstrom would drop me off every day after practice. We had many great conversations as he drove. Coach Nathan Jones would often take me out to dinner and other sporting events. We had many great talks as well. Also, head football coach Joe Gillis, who had faith in me, allowed me to participate and prepare the game plan as well as the strategy for each game. At game time he completely put me in control of running the offense allowing me to call my own plays. Even when he sent a play in and I didn’t call it, he still didn’t get mad at me. This allowed me to develop my leadership and group skills. I guess there is no surprise that I’ve always been a team leader and manager all my working career.