Former Cougar football coach Price tops list of Hall of Fame inductees

Ex-Washington State football coach Mike Price, who took the Cougars to two Rose Bowls, headlines a class of seven which will be honored this year by the Inland Northwest Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1997, Price led WSU to its first Rose Bowl appearance in 67 years. Five years later, he did it again. In a 14-year career, Price produced a trio of 10-win seasons, five bowl appearances and an overall record of 83-78 that ranks second all-time at WSU.

Four others will be inducted into the Hall of Fame:

• Sports columnist John Blanchette, who in more than three decades at The Spokesman-Review has earned dozens of regional and national honors. Blanchette is a seven-time Washington Sports Writer of the Year. In 2009, he was named the top sports columnist in the nation for newspapers with circulations between 40,000 and 100,000.

• Wrestler Lanny Davidson, who won three straight NAIA national championships for Eastern Washington from 1975-1977. As a sophomore, Davidson went 44-0, two years later, he led the Eagles to a national team title by pinning four of his six opponents. He later went on to wrestle internationally.

• Distance runner Annette Hand Peters, a star at Central Valley who went on to help Oregon to an NCAA team title in 1987. She later won three national USATF championships in the 1,500- and 3,000-meter runs. Peters competed in the 1992 Olympics and in seven world championship meets.

• Volleyball coach Mitch Santos, who led St. Maries High School to 11 Idaho Class A-2 state titles, including 10 consecutively. An 11-time state coach of the year, Santos compiled a record of 527-62 and once won 145 straight matches.

Two others will be added to the Scroll of Honor:

• Maury Ray, who oversaw the growth of intercollegiate sports as athletic director at The Community Colleges of Spokane from 1974 to 2006; and Jim Stinson, a longtime educator who twice coached state championship girls basketball teams at Davenport and who wrote three books about the State B Basketball Championships.

The ceremony will be held Oct. 27 at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. Tickets are $30 each and can be purchased online at the Spokane Sports Commission website.