PORT ANGELES — It’s rare when a media member has the authority to ask high school football coaches to move out of a stadium press box and instead set up shop on the outside looking in while relaying tips and techniques to coaches down along the sidelines.
Coaches have encroached upon these press box spaces for years, more and more trying to cram in together to get the best view possible of the game below, high above the field.
But there’s rare, and there’s Howard “Scooter” Chapman, the dedicated voice of the Port Angeles Roughriders for nearly seven decades.
“I made a command decision early in the season and got the Port Angeles coaches to go outside the press box so their yelling would stop interrupting my broadcasts,” Chapman said only half-kidding this week.
He will be honored before Friday’s Port Angeles-Kingston football game when the Civic Field press is officially renamed in his honor as the Howard “Scooter” Chapman Press Box in a pregame ceremony that Chapman said will be broadcast live on KONP radio.
Chapman’s broadcasting bona fides began when he was still in high school. He began working for KONP in 1950 as a statistician and spotter. And he’s reported and announced thousands of Riders sporting events around the state ever since, minus two terms of service in the Army in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Chapman is proud to receive the accolade and appreciates that he’s around to enjoy it in person.
“Sure, especially when I’m still alive,” he said.
“All my honors have come with me still alive and I really appreciate it. It’s something you don’t expect in life, but it’s a big honor, I’m really proud of it and I’m glad to get the recognition for all of the many years with Roughrider athletics.”
Chapman, a Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (2011) and Peninsula College (2016) Hall of Famer, also has been honored with the Washington Football Coaches Association Silver Helmet Award and earned a Commendation Award from the Washington Secondary School Athletic Administrators Association.
He also served as sports and city editor for the Port Angeles Evening News and the Peninsula Daily News and was assigning secretary and a baseball and softball umpire for the Western Peninsula Umpires Association for 30-plus years.
He compared the honor to what he sees when he attends Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners games.
“I go around to the press boxes at the stadiums in Seattle and you see the Gary Wright Press Box at CenturyLink Field, and Gary was an early PIO [public information officer] with the Seahawks [and later vice president],” Chapman said. “Or at Safeco Field, when [longtime broadcaster] Dave Niehaus passed, they named the upper part of the press box where the radio and TV guys work, the Dave Niehaus Broadcast Center.
“So I feel honored to have an area named after me, and it’s a humbling honor as well.”
Sports fans have listened to him call their brother’s basketball game, or in his other sports-related job, umpire a sister’s softball contest for so long that those brothers and sisters are now hearing Chapman mention their grandchildren’s names during games.
Friday’s ceremony came about when Port Angeles’ Bruce Skinner called city of Port Angeles Parks and Recreation Director Corey Delikat.
“A bunch of us were talking about all the things that Scooter has done for sports in Port Angeles,” Skinner said.
“What started it was my 50th high school reunion was last summer and Bob Lovell, Rob Sorenson and George Hill and I we were talking about it and said this was something we needed to get done.”
Skinner himself is one who has been helped by Chapman.
“I was his statistician for four years, starting with my freshman year in high school,” Skinner said.
“He came in and talked to the freshman football coach and said he needed a statistician and that got me into and led to a career in sports.”
Skinner worked in the sports information office in the athletic department of his alma mater the University of Washington and went on to serve as longtime director of college football’s Fiesta Bowl.
“He’s really done a lot for a lot of people in Port Angeles, and certainly for me,” Skinner said.
Skinner submitted a naming application at last February’s meeting of the Port Angeles Parks, Recreation and Beautification Commission and commissioners unanimously approved sending a naming resolution to the City Council which also gave its unanimous support at a March meeting.
A bronze relief plaque of Chapman also will be installed at Civic Field. The plaque won’t be ready for Friday’s ceremony, but a temporary plaque will be placed.
“We would just like to get as many people as possible there for the ceremony and the game,” Skinner said.
“Scooter has maybe done more for Port Angeles sports than anybody else.”
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
