Four to be enshrined
Four acclaimed athletes of local, national and international stature will be the latest additions into the Inland Northwest Sports Hall of Fame.
World record setting decathlete Dan O’Brien, much honored collegiate football lineman Steve Emtman, star athlete (and later state championship coach) Jeanne Helfer and mountain-climbing legend John Roskelley will be inducted in ceremonies in the Spokane Arena on Oct. 16.
“Two out of our four inductees at the time they were doing their thing were the best in world,” said committee chairman Jon Heimbigner. “How often do you get to say that?”
Additions to this year’s Scroll of Honor, recognizing people who have made significant contributions to sports, are retired Superior Court judge Jim Murphy for his work in track and field and former Spokesman-Review sports editor Jeff Jordan.
This will be the third time the induction and luncheon ceremonies have been hosted entirely in the Arena, the work of the Hall of Fame committee, Spokane Regional Sports Commission and Public Facilities District, said Heimbigner.
Rosauer’s Super Market is in its 12th year as major sponsor.
The day, open to the public, will begin with a 10:30 a.m. ceremony at the Arena’s Hall of Fame area. A no-host social hour follows and the induction lunch is at 11:45. Bud Nameck is master of ceremonies.
Tickets to the event are $30 and reservations can be made by calling Deana McClenny at the SRSC, 742-9379.
O’Brien, who competed for Spokane Community College and the University of Idaho, was the 1996 Olympic decathlon champion, set the world points record in 1992 and won three world championships.
Emtman, from Cheney, who played for the 1991 national champion University of Washington Huskies, won two trophies as the nation’s top lineman and was a Heisman finalist.
Helfer was a standout athlete in four sports at Walla Walla, a record-setting basketball scorer and javelin thrower at Washington State and coached Mead to three state girls basketball titles.
Roskelley is considered one of the world’s great mountain climbers, scaling the world’s highest and most difficult peaks.
Scroll of Honor addition Murphy has long been involved at various levels with USA Track and Field. Jordan, the longest tenured sports editor at The Spokesman-Review from 1983-2003, guided it to numerous national awards.
“Every year we do this our list of potential candidates gets bigger,” said Heimbigner, “and the decision-making gets tougher and tougher to select four people into the Hall of Fame.”