EWU to honor new inductees

Kevin Sargent and Gary Lindeblad, two former student athletes who made it professionally in their respective sports, are among the four persons who will be inducted into the Eastern Washington University Athletics Hall of Fame on Sept. 27.

Sargent, a former All-America offensive tackle at Eastern, who also spent seven productive seasons in the NFL, and Lindeblad, a four-time Eagles participant in the NAIA golf championships and longtime head professional at Indian Canyon Golf Course, will be joined in this year’s induction ceremonies by Jack Benson and Maxine Davis.

Benson was a gymnast at EWU in the early 1960s before coaching the Eagles for 13 seasons and leading them to nine top-10 finishes in the NAIA Championships. In 1962, he competed in the NCAA Championships in the horizontal bar and rope climb.

Davis coached gymnastics at Eastern for nine seasons (1970-79) and took team members to the national championship all nine years. In 1978, she was named Coach of the Year by the Northwest Collegiate Women’s Sports Association.

Sargent, a two-time NCAA Division I-AA football All-American, started 63 of 73 games in his injury shortened NFL career and, in 1998, became the highest-paid offensive lineman in Cincinnati Bengals history when he signed a four-year contract worth $12 million, including a $3.5 million signing bonus. He started all 16 games that season but retired the following year because of numbness and tingling in his back, arms and hands.

Lindeblad, who helped the Eagles golf team win three-consecutive Evergreen Conference titles and four NAIA District I championships, has spent more than 35 years as the head pro at the Spokane-area course and last year was inducted into the Pacific Northwest PGA Hall of Fame.

Induction ceremonies will take place Sept. 27 during Eastern’s Big Sky Conference football game against Idaho State, and the inductees will also be honored at the Eagles’ volleyball match against Montana later that evening.

Steve Bergum