PORT ANGELES — Seventeen Port Angeles athletes or their surrogates traveled home from around the country to be part of the historic inaugural class of the Port Angeles High School Hall of Fame.
In a gala attended by 570 people, athletes who graduated as long ago as the 1950s were feted for their accomplishments, not only in Port Angeles, but in college and professional sports after they left the community. All 17 of the inaugural inductees are still living and 14 of them were able to attend Saturday’s ceremonies at the Vern Burton auditorium.
The event also netted more than $51,000 for Port Angeles High School sports programs.
In the words of inductee Sherry Felton (a 1977 graduate who went on to hold the University of Washington high jump record and the single game scoring record — 36 — in basketball), “Wow, there’s a lot of people here.”
Art Sandison, a 1966 Port Angeles graduate and track athlete who once held the second-fastest 800-meter time in American track history, had already been inducted into the Washington State University Hall of Fame.
But, he said, “this ceremony is by far the best one I’ve ever seen,” he said.
“You didn’t realize we have that much history athletically,” said fellow inductee Scott Jones, who went on from Clallam Bay and Port Angeles to play football at the University of Washington and for the New York Jets, Green Bay Packers and Cincinnati Bengals.
“It really is an honor, I wasn’t aware of the history here,” said Joel Thomas, a 1993 graduate and football player and wrestler who is now the running backs coach for the New Orleans Saints.
“Tonight for me this isn’t about this game or that game. It’s celebrating everyone who had a hand” in my success, Thomas said.
Scooter Chapman, a 1952 Port Angeles graduate, has announced thousands of Port Angeles football and basketball games and continues working to this day at KONP. The press box at Civic Field was recently named after him. He covered most of the other athletes being inducted and related a number of stories about several of them.
Henry Wyborney, a 1958 graduate and track star who specialized in the high jump, setting the WSU high jump record of 6 feet, 11 inches, said, “there’s no way I could be here today without a lot of people in Port Angeles who encouraged me and supported me. Thanks for inviting me and go Roughriders.”
Kelli Antolock (1980 graduate, golf, All-American at Brigham Young and member of the LPGA) told a story of playing a crucial high school tournament. She was behind the leader and her father was caddying and she said her father’s nervousness drove her so crazy, she finally fired him and played on her own the rest of the tournament.
“As nervous as I am now speaking, I know my dad was way more nervous than I am right now,” she said.
At one time in the 1950s and 60s, badminton, coached by Vern Burton, was a dominant sport in Port Angeles and one of the best badminton players in local history, Tyna Barinaga (Class of ‘64), won the U.S. women’s doubles title at the U.S. Open Championship. She couldn’t attend, but accepting on her behalf was badminton player and coach Hester Hill. One of the more stirring parts of the ceremony was when Hill asked how many people at the event played badminton competitively, and a good third of the people in the crowd stood up.
Hill also said Chapman was one of the biggest boosters for the badminton program. “Scooter put badminton on the map,” she said.
Perhaps the biggest name of the inaugural class was Bernie Fryer, a football and basketball star at Port Angeles who later went on to become a basketball star at BYU, then played in the NBA for the Portland Trailblazers and New Orleans Jazz. Then, he went on to become a referee in the NBA, then he became head of officials for the NBA. He couldn’t attend because he was busy working at a Oklahoma City-Utah playoff game, but his high school football and basketball coach, Pete Hohman, accepted in his place.
“How do you talk about someone with too many skills?” Hohman asked.
Two members of Port Angeles’ 1966 basketball team that played for the state championship were inducted — Mike Clayton and Lee Sinnes (Sinnes was also a longtime Port Angeles basketball coach).
“We didn’t get here on our own, oh no, we had a lot of help,” said Sinnes. He wished the coach of that 1966 team, Bob Klock, could have attended. Klock passed away a few months ago.
“He’s probably wishing he was here. We wish he was here, too,” Sinnes said.
Pitcher Jeff Ridgway, who played for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Atlanta Braves, underwent several arm and shoulder injuries in his career.
“I guess I’m a testament to never giving up. Baseball is all I ever wanted to do,” he said.
He related a story of when, after a very brief stint with Tampa, he was in the minors the next year and was hearing the phone ring over and over. He finally decided to answer it, worried that perhaps someone in his or his wife’s family had died.
“They told me you need to get on a plane, you’re going to the Major Leagues,” he said. He got on the plane to Chicago, was listening to the game in the taxi on the way to the game, showed up during the fourth inning and was in the game in the sixth inning. The first batter he faced? Perennial all-star Jim Edmonds.
“Jim Edmonds was the first guy I faced and my first strikeout was Jim Edmonds,” he said.
Jim Michalczik (Class of 1984, football) is the associate head coach for Oregon State football. He got on a plane in Corvallis, Ore., after practice finished Saturday morning and flew directly to Port Angeles to attend the event.
Leigh Morgan (Class of 1986, basketball and tennis) had an impressive career after Port Angeles. She went on to play basketball at Duke and was named of the top 20 Duke players in the first 20 years of the program. She later became COO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and was the associate chancellor at the University of San Francisco.
She said that in her work with the Gates Foundation, she’s traveled the world. But, the lessons she learned living and playing sports in Port Angeles stayed with her.
“One of the things I’ve learned in Africa and China is the importance of community. Community is the one thing that binds of all us together,” she said.
The 17 inaugural inductees were:
Kelli Antolock, 1980, golf
Tyna Barinaga, 1964, badminton
Michael Briggs, 1960, football
Scooter Chapman, 1952, radio and newspapers
Mike Clayton, 1966, basketball
Sherri Felton, 1977, track and basketball
Scott Jones, 1984, football
Jim Michalczik, 1984, football
Leigh Morgan, 1986, basketball and tennis
Jeff Ridgway, 1999, baseball
Art Sandison, 1966, track
Lee Sinnes, 1966, basketball
Joel Thomas, 1993, football
Henry Wyborney, 1958, track
Bernie Fryer, 1968, football and basketball
Ken Fuhrer, 1952, basketball
Penn Graves, 1984, track and field
