Know your Inland Northwest sports history? Here’s a chance to test your knowledge

Few spectators have been able to attend sporting events during the pandemic. Since you can’t go to the games, we’ve decided to bring a game to you. An Inland Northwest sports trivia game, to be precise.

Take your best shot at answering the following 25 questions about some of the greatest teams and individuals in Inland Northwest history. The answers are printed below.

Give yourself 10 points for each correct answer. If you total 200 points (20 correct answers), consider yourself the John Stockton of local sports trivia. For 150 points (15 correct answers), we’ll grant you Ryne Sandberg status. Pile up 100 points (10 correct answers) and you’re a regular Mark Rypien.

We think you’ll find some questions relatively easy and others quite challenging. Either way, we hope you find the trivia test entertaining, informative and perhaps educational.

1. Rod Funseth tied for second at the 1978 Masters golf tournament, one shot behind Gary Player. What Spokane high school did Funseth attend?

2. The 1970 and 1960 Spokane Indians may be the greatest baseball teams in Spokane history. Each club produced the Minor League Player of the Year. Can you name those players?

3. True or false: Washington State has not won a conference football title outright since 1930.

4. True or false: Former Gonzaga University standout Courtney Vandersloot holds WNBA records for assists per game in a season and career.

5. Dan O’Brien, a track and field standout at Community Colleges of Spokane and Idaho, won a gold medal in what event at the 1996 Summer Olympics?

6. Tom Sneva, a graduate of Lewis and Clark High and Eastern Washington University, finished second three times at the Indianapolis 500 before finally winning in what year?

7. This baseball pitcher led the Whitworth Pirates to the 1960 NAIA championship and threw a no-hitter for the 1968 St. Louis Cardinals. What’s his name?

8. Mark Rypien, who starred at Shadle Park High and Washington State, led the 1991 Washington Redskins to a Super Bowl victory over Buffalo. Rypien passed for 292 yards and two touchdowns, but was he named the Super Bowl’s Most Valuable Player?

9. True or false: Albert Johnson, who began his career as a jockey at Spokane’s Playfair Race Course, twice rode winners at the Kentucky Derby.

10. Almost two decades have passed since former Gonzaga Prep and Gonzaga University star John Stockton retired from the NBA, but he still holds two major NBA career records by a wide margin. What are those stats?

11. Eastern Washington erased a 19-0 deficit in the final 17 minutes to beat Delaware 20-19 in the 2010 NCAA Football Championship Subdivision national title game. Who threw passes for all three Eastern touchdowns?

12. True of false: Goaltender Eddie Johnston played all 86 regular-season and playoff games for the 1961-62 Spokane Comets minor league hockey team without using a backup goalie or wearing a mask or helmet.

13. In 1989, a Spokane Indians third baseman became the first player in Northwest League history to win a Triple Crown as the league leader in batting, homers and runs batted in. Name the player.

14. True or false: John Olerud skipped the minor leagues and went directly to the majors in 1988 after winning the national College Baseball Player of the Year award.

15. Two Spokane pro hockey players have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Name them.

16. This wrestling coach guided North Idaho College to eight national junior college championships and 17 top-three finishes in 20 years as Cardinals head coach. Who is he?

17. True or false: Washington State has not won a conference championship in men’s basketball since 1940-41.

18. Name the only former Spokane Indians manager who has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager.

19. Name the only Spokane native who has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

20. True or false: Gonzaga has as many players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as Washington State.

21. Tyler Johnson, who grew up in Liberty Lake and attended Central Valley High, won hockey championships with the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning (2019-20 Stanley Cup), the United States national 19-and-under team (2010 World Junior Championships) and the Western Hockey League’s Spokane Chiefs (2008 Memorial Cup as the 20-and-under junior champions of North America). After Johnson scored 53 goals and 115 points in his final season with the Chiefs in 2010-11, who selected Johnson in the NHL draft?

22. The LPGA held the Spokane Women’s Open in 1959 and 1961-63 at what golf course?

23. True or false: John Wooden, who won a record 10 NCAA men’s basketball championships as UCLA’s coach, has a worse career winning percentage than current Gonzaga coach Mark Few.

24. Gerry Lindgren, a premier distance runner at Rogers High and WSU in the 1960s, set eight national prep records and won 11 NCAA track or cross country championships. How many Olympic medals did Lindgren win?

25. True or false: Idaho is undefeated in college football bowl games.

Answers

1. North Central. 2. Shortstop Bobby Valentine (1970) and center fielder Willie Davis (1960). 3. True (the Cougars tied USC for first in the Pacific-10 Conference in 2002, and the Cougars tied UCLA for first in the Pac-10 in 1997). 4. True (10.0 assists per game in 2020, 6.5 assists per game in 10 WNBA seasons, all with Chicago). 5. Decathlon. 6. 1983. 7. Ray Washburn no-hit the San Francisco Giants. 8. Yes. 9. True (1922 and 1926). 10. Assists (15,806) and steals (3,265), all with the Utah Jazz. 11. Bo Levi Mitchell. 12. True. 13. Dave Staton hit .362 with 17 home runs and 72 RBIs in 70 games. 14. False. Olerud was college baseball’s Player of the Year in 1988, but he spent one more season at WSU (his junior season) before bypassing the minors to play six games with the Toronto Blue Jays late in the 1989 season. 15. Defenseman Lester Patrick played for Spokane in 1916-17, and Emile Francis played for Spokane in 1958-59 and 1959-60. 16. John Owen. 17. True. The 1940-41 Cougars wno the Pacific Coast Conference (now the Pac-12), then lost to Wisconsin the NCAA title game. 18. Tommy Lasorda, who managed the Indians from 1969-71 and the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1976-1996. 19. Ryne Sandberg, a North Central High graduate, batted .285 with 282 home runs in 16 seasons in the majors. He also won nine Gold Gloves as the National League’s best defensive second baseman with the Chicago Cubs. 20. True. Gonzaga sent Hall of Famers Tony Canadeo and Ray Flaherty to the NFL before the Bulldogs dropped football after the 1941 season. Mel Hein and Turk Edwards represent WSU in the Hall of Fame. 21. No one. Tampa Bay signed Johnson as an undrafted free agent. 22. Esmeralda. 23. True. Wooden posted an .804 winning percentage (664-162) in two years at Indiana State and 27 years at UCLA. Few, still seeking his first NCAA title in his 22nd season as a college head coach (all at Gonzaga), came into the season with an .828 winning percentage (599-124) that led Division I active coaches. 24. None. 25. True. Idaho is 3-0 in bowl games, all played at Boise’s Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (originally the Humanitarian Bowl) from 1998 to 2016.