Ken Eilmes Keeps Memories In The Basement

Valley resident Ken Eilmes is not only a part of Spokane’s prep sports history, but also its curator as well.

Growing up he had an inordinate interest in sports in general and Spokane high school athletics in particular.

In his basement today is a comprehensive collection of newspaper clippings about high school athletes that dates back half a century. Much of it has to do with former Rogers High greats.

“I’ve done this since the 1940s,” said Eilmes. “I grew up by Rogers and a lot of the guys who played lived by me. Dick Butterfield, Terry Campbell, these guys were all in my neighborhood. I just kept the stuff.”

Copies of his articles grace the walls at Players and Spectators, a sports-themed eatery in the Valley.

One of them is about the small but fiery Eilmes, a 1956 graduate of Rogers. He was the subject of a column written in the mid-1960s by then Spokesman-Review sports editor Harry Missildine, who asked: “How long has it been since one guy made All-City in three sports?”

Rarely. But Eilmes did so as a football quarterback, baseball catcher and basketball guard where he twice earned all-state recognition.

Eilmes coached North Central baseball between 1975 and 1986, taking a Ryne Sandberg-led team to the state finals. He still teaches at the high school.

The latest project for Eilmes is a compilation of the total history of Spokane baseball, statistics and all.

“Right now my primary concern is from 1937 on up,” said Eilmes. “I’ve got almost everything.”

Another passion is baseball cards. His collection covers the decades of the 1970s, 80’s and 90’s. It would have been larger had he not told his mother to toss out the cards he had amassed before entering the Army in 1961.

“At the time nobody knew the value of the cards,” he said. “I keep them because I love baseball.”

Eilmes has almost as many opinions about the state of athletics then and now as he has memorabilia.

“Maybe I was lucky,” said Eilmes, who stood 5-foot-7 and weighed maybe 145 pounds in high school. “Our coaches expected you to work twice as hard as the average person. I probably got by more on determination than anything.

“Today, everybody’s bigger, faster and stronger now - I didn’t say they were better.”

Athletes, he believes, don’t understand the game like earlier athletes did, particularly in baseball. Eilmes said it carries over into professional sports.

“Athletes are self-centered today. They are about themselves and that is it,” said Eilmes.

He taught his son, Kenny, a former Central Valley High and collegiate player, the total game. If he had it to do over, he’d have stressed power hitting. Recruits are players who have terrible fundamentals, but can hit 400 feet.

“Kenny had good skills in baseball,” said Eilmes. “Now I’d tell him to stand up, dig in and swing from the end of the bat.”

When he played, athletes didn’t have the size to do that. Eilmes and Rogers won with their scrappiness. When he was in high school, Rogers beat Gonzaga Prep five straight times in football and won a pair of league championships.

Eilmes replaced injured Pirate QB Don Ellingsen and led Rogers to a memorable 14-10 win over Gonzaga in 1954.

“(Coach) Fred Brown was tough and got in your face,” said Eilmes, “but he cared.”

Coaches can’t do that now in an era with so many other areas to attract a youngster’s interest. Back then sports was the only recreation.

“I think the (sports) coverage was better, not because of the writers but because there are more sports and teams today,” said Eilmes.

Those days are gone, but in Eilmes’ Valley basement the memories remain in the articles he’s stored away for 50 years. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos