Former Gonzaga star Adam Morrision, pole vaulter Brad Walker highlight 2020 Washington Sports Hall of Fame class
Adam Morrison and Brad Walker, who carried the Greater Spokane League banner to national acclaim, are having their achievements honored permanently in the state.
Morrison, the former Mead High School and Gonzaga University basketball star, and Walker, a former University High School and University of Washington pole vault standout, have been voted into the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame.
Also in the six-man Class of 2020 are former Washington State University and Seattle Mariners baseball pitcher Aaron Sele; Dick Cartmell, a Division I basketball referee for over 35 years from Richland; Don Zech, a championship high school and college basketball coach; and former UW athletic director Joe Kearney.
Morrison, a 6-foot-8 forward who set GSL single-season and career scoring records at Mead, went on to become a consensus first-team All-American at GU and shared the basketball writers’ national player of the year award with Duke’s J.J. Redick in 2006 when Morrison led the nation in scoring at 28.1 ppg.
After three years at GU, he was taken third in the first round of the NBA draft by the Charlotte Bobcats and played four years with Charlotte and the Los Angeles Lakers. In February, he was honored by GU and had his No. 3 jersey hung from the rafters in the McCarthey Athletic Center.
After graduating from U-Hi, where he earned All-GSL honors as a senior, Walker went to UW and twice won NCAA indoor pole vault championships and was a four-time NCAA All-American. He won the world indoor title in 2006 and world outdoor gold medals in 2007 and 2009 and was world silver medalist in 2005.
He set the since-broken American outdoor record in 2008 at 19 feet, 9 3/4 inches and was a member of two U.S. Olympic teams.
Sele, from Poulsbo, Washington, and North Kitsap High School, helped WSU win three straight conference championships and was 148-112 over 15 major league seasons. He was 38-27 in three seasons with the Mariners and was twice an American League All-Star, in 1998 with Texas and 2000 with the Mariners
Cartmell worked more than 1,500 games as one of the country’s top NCAA basketball officials.
He called NCAA Tournament games for 24 years and was a member of the NCAA title game crew three times in five Final Four appearances
Zech’s 1963 Blanchet High School team won the Washington 4A crown with a perfect 27-0 record, the first unbeaten champion in state history, and he twice took University of Puget Sound to the NCAA Division II Final Four, winning the title in 1976.
Kearney, a Shelton, Washington, native and Seattle Pacific grad, is noted for hiring Don James as UW football coach in 1975, and after becoming Michigan State athletic director, hiring State of Washington Hall of Famer Jud Heathcote as men’s basketball coach. That led to a national championship with Magic Johnson leading the way. Kearney finished his career as commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference.
Their addition brings the total to 228 men and women in the shrine that was founded in 1960. Dates for induction ceremonies are pending. Information on the hall of fame and its members is available at