| School: Washington | Graduation Year: 1959 |
Year Inducted: 2015
Sports Played: Football, Basketball, Baseball
High School Honors: 3-year Football Letterman, off. guard and linebacker, 1st team All-PIL, senior; 1st team All-State. Team MVP 2 years; Shrine All-star. 2-year Basketball and 2-year Baseball Letterman. Student Body President.
Post High School Career: Oregon State University, Bachelor’s degree 1964; 4-year Rugby letterman. Long Beach, CA Rugby team, 4 years. Founded Cascade Insulation Co., 1976, sold to son, 2011, “continue to work in semi-retirement.”
Commentary:
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the PIL, in general, and to the 1956 Wa-Hi freshman basketball coach, Doug Vickery, in particular.
Like for so many high school freshmen, the PIL electorate-sponsored athletic programs were a spring-board for this 125lb, clueless undergraduate to start building a personal identity. Without those early activities in organized sport, personal success in my lifetime would have been problematic. And Mr.Vickery’s chiding to turn out for his following year’s varsity football team presented the chance to vent the sometimes insane, rough-and-tumble, never give up personality that was mine. I vividly remember his unkindly exhortations every time I sent an opponent flying on the basketball court.
A kudo is also owed to the ’06 HOF inductee Warren Bolin, who was a Wa-Hi assistant football coach but “defected” to Madison HS. It is with great respect that I can say that Mr. Bolin was the “Mister T” of my youth. (I wonder if he remembers our cataclysmic confrontation outside his classroom the first day of my sophomore year — it certainly is an indelible part of my memory banks).
In a very large part, the above factors conspired to bring to me all of the good things that have been mine.