Locally: WSU grad and boxing champion Pete Rademacher highlights State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame inductees

Four with Eastern Washington ties are among the seven men and two women who will be inducted into the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame, eight with the Class of 2022 and one holdover from 2020.

From the East will be late former Olympic heavyweight boxing champion Pete Rademacher, a 1951 Washington State University grad; former major league baseball players Bill North (born in Seattle but drafted out of Central Washington University) and the late Bruce Kison (Pasco); and the holdover, longtime former NCAA Division I basketball official Dick Cartmell (Richland).

The others are former Seattle Sounders coach Alan Hinton, who made his way from England to gain fame on the Sound; former University of Washington women’s volleyball great Courtney Thompson (Bellevue); National Soccer Hall of Famer and former U.S. women’s national team standout Shannon (Higgins) Cirovski of Kent; six-time state high school football championship coach Steve Gervais; and the late former UW national champion rower Ted Garhart (Seattle).

The inductees, who bring to 232 the number in the shrine since it was formed in 1960, will be recognized in a brief on-field ceremony at T-Mobile Park in Seattle on July 25 prior to a Mariners-Texas Rangers game. There was no induction in 2021 because of COVID restrictions.

Rademacher, who died in 2020, came from tiny Tieton in Yakima County to letter two years in football for the Cougars (1950-51) as a lineman. He was unable to box for the school’s national powerhouse because of numerous Golden Glove victories prior to entering college.

He won the Olympic Gold Medal in 1956 when he knocked out Russian Lev Mouhkine in the first round in Melbourne, Australia.

A year later, he became the first man to fight for the World Heavyweight Championship in his first professional fight. Although he lost to Floyd Patterson at Seattle’s Sick’s Stadium, he knocked down the champion in the second round. It was the first time Patterson had been floored by a contender.

Rademacher compiled a record of 17 wins, six loses and one draw in 24 professional fights.

North was a speedy outfielder and base-stealer in an 11-year major league career. He won two World Series rings with Oakland. Kison, who died in 2018, pitched 15 big-league seasons, won two World Series rings with Pittsburgh, then was a coach and scout.

Cartmell, whose schedule brought him to Spokane often for college and high school games, especially early in his career, was one of the top men’s basketball officials in the country. He refereed Division I games for more than 35 years, working five Final Fours. He was honored in 2016 as the Naismith Men’s College Official of the Year.

Hinton coached the Sounders and Tacoma Stars, earning coach of the year honors and berths in championship games. Thompson was the setter on the national championship 2005 UW volleyball team and helped win two Olympic medals and a world championship for the U.S.

Higgins was on teams that won four NCAA championships at North Carolina, where she was national player of the year, and was a key member of the 1991 U.S. World Cup championship team. Gervais won six state football championships – three at 1A Eatonville and three at 4A Skyline of Issaquah.

Garhart, a legendary rower who died in 1980, never lost a race in the stroke seat and won 1940 and 1941 Intercollegiate Rowing Association national championships with the Huskies. He is in the National Rowing Hall of Fame.

Basketball

Louise Forsyth, who had a career grad season at the University of Idaho in 2021-22 after transferring from Gonzaga to complete her eligibility, has signed her first professional contract. She’ll play for Esperance Sportive Pully, a first-division team in Switzerland.

The Vandals’ sixth player from Langley, British Columbia, came off the bench in 22 of the 32 games in which she played. She was named the Big Sky Conference’s Top Reserve and honorable mention all-conference after posting career highs in nearly every statistical category. The 6-foot-1 guard averaged 25 minutes a game and 12.9 ppg .

• Sam Dowd, formerly from Seattle who was a football and basketball standout at Gonzaga Prep, has been named a graduate assistant for the men’s basketball team at Division I University of Evansville, the Purple Aces announced.

Dowd had two standout seasons at both North Idaho College and Idaho State and played at the University of the Philippines in 2020. He was an assistant women’s coach at NIC when he accepted the Evansville position, following George Swanson, briefly the women’s head coach at NIC, to the Indiana school where Swanson is a men’s assistant.

Golf

Three boys played sub-par golf for 36 holes to lead their divisions in the Idaho Junior Golf Northern District Championship last week at StoneRidge Golf Course in Blanchard.

Justin Krasselt of Spokane and Cameron Kuchar of Hayden matched 6-under-par scores of 136 to lead Boys 13-14. Krasselt shot 69-67, Kuchar 71-65 to charge from behind in the second round.

Grant Potter from Hayden shot 71-69 for a 2-under 140 to lead Boys 15-18.

Braylyn Bayer of Pinehurst led Girls 15-18 with a 3-over 149 (75-74) and Melia Cerenzia of Spokane led Girls 13-14 with a 9-over 151 (77-74).

The 8-9 and 10-12 divisions played two 9-hole rounds with tight finishes in the boys’ divisions.

Hudson Ebel of Spokane Valley and Emmett Asmus of Liberty Lake tied for first in Boys 8-9 at 82. Boyd Belzer of Spokane led Boys 10-12 with a 4-over 76, but just two strokes back in a tie for second were Jack Bafus, Liberty Lake; Hunter Paquin, Hayden; and Patrick Young, Bonners Ferry.

The Wilson sisters, Elia (72) and Avery (97) of Hayden, went 1-2, respectively, in Girls 10-12, and Nora Haggerty of Liberty Lake led Girls 8-9 at 114.

Next for those who qualified in season-long and district competition in ages 10-18 is the Idaho Junior Amateur Aug. 8-10 at Redhawk Golf Course in Nampa.

Northern District leaders (those in state-qualifying positions or the top-5 in divisions that had five or more):

Boys 15-18 (36 holes): 1, Potter, 140; 2, Stephen Paul (Osburn), 146; 3, Luke West (Coeur d’Alene), 147; 4, Seth Swallows (St. Maries), 149; 5, Luke Butler (Priest River), 150; 6, Henry Staples (Spokane), 153.

Girls 15-18 (36): 1, Bayer, 149; 2, Brooke Bloom (Spokane), 162; 3, Spencer Cerenzia (Spokane), 164; 4, Parker Welling (Harrison), 167; 5, Mollie Seibly (Lewiston), 168.

Boys 13-14 (36): 1t, Krasselt, Kuchar, both 136; 3, Ben Barrett (Spokane), 143; 4, Johnny Doree (Hayden), 145; 5, Trey Lambert (CdA), 150.

Girls 13-14 (36): 1, Cerenzia, 151; 2, Chloe Penwell (Harrison), 197; 3, Sophia Penwell (Harrison), 211.

Boys 10-12 (18): 1, Belzer, 76; 2t, Bafus, Paquin, Young, all 78; 5, Cole Paquin (Hayden), 81.

Girls 10-12 (18): 1, E. Wilson, 72; 2, A. Wilson, 97; 3, Josetta Williams (Hayden), 99; 4, Emily Stillert (CdA), 116.

Boys 8-9 (18): 1t, Ebel, Asmus, both 82; 3, Callahan Jones, 95; 4, Brody Williams (Hayden), 102.

Girls 8-9 (18): 1, Haggerty, 114; 2, Avyn Nordhagen (CdA), 125.