Northwest Sports Trivia: If you can ace 20 or more of these questions, you’re a true local sports fan

(From left to right) Courtney Vandersloot, Tony Gwynn, Domantas Sabonis and Morgan Weaver all factor into the questions and answers of today’s trivia game. ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS

The best of the best in sports cannot be determined by numbers alone. That said, statistics, rankings and standings help us appreciate our sports heroes even more.

Test your knowledge of Inland Northwest sports history with the following 25 true-or-false questions about the accomplishments of some of the greatest teams and athletes in our region.

Hang a gold medal around your neck if you nail 20 or more correct answers. A silver medal goes to those with 16-19 correct answers. If you solve 13-15, you’re a bronze medalist. Even if you go 0 for 25 … hey, everyone takes home a participation ribbon nowadays, right?

True or false

1. The two leading rushers in Canadian Football League history also lead all former Washington State Cougars in career rushing yards in pro football.

2. Basketball Hall of Famer John Stockton was a four-year starter at Gonzaga University.

3. Baseball Hall of Famers Tony Gwynn and Ozzie Smith were .300 hitters as first-year pros with Walla Walla in the Northwest League.

4. Former Spokane Flyers senior amateur star Art Jones, one of the leading scorers in minor league hockey history, is the all-time leading goal scorer in the defunct (pro) Western Hockey League.

5. Washington State’s Morgan Weaver was selected No. 1 overall in the National Women’s Soccer League draft after leading the Cougars to the 2019 NCAA Tournament semifinals.

6. Legendary minor league hitter Smead Jolley, a former Spokane Indians star, hit more home runs in the major leagues than any other ex-Indian.

7. Former North Central High School golf standout Rod Funseth, who finished in a three-way tie for second at the 1978 Masters – just one stroke behind Gary Player – never won a PGA Tour event.

8. Domantas Sabonis leads former Gonzaga players with three or more seasons of NBA experience with 13.6 points per game in the NBA.

9. Ex-Ferris High football coach Don Matthews holds the all-time wins record as a head coach in the Canadian Football League.

10. Don Kardong, the onetime Spokane grade school teacher who founded the Lilac Bloomsday Run in 1977, won a bronze medal in the marathon at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

11. Some Pacific Coast League baseball teams played more than 200 games a season for a number of years, but no PCL player hit more triples in one season than the 26 compiled by Spokane’s Willie Davis in 1960. Davis, considered to be the fastest player in baseball history by some observers, played in 147 games for the Indians in 1960.

12. Former Gonzaga point guard Courtney Vandersloot holds the career women’s basketball assists records in NCAA Division I and the Women’s NBA (WNBA).

13. Current Seattle Mariners pitcher Marco Gonzales won college baseball’s John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award at Gonzaga in 2013.

14. Eastern Washington University’s wrestling team won the school’s first national championship in any sport in 1977 in Cheney.

15. Mark Rypien, voted Most Valuable Player of the Super Bowl at the end of the 1991 season, did not take a regular-season snap in the NFL until 1988, two years after he was drafted out of Washington State.

16. Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Kenny Stabler played for the minor league pro Spokane Shockers (not the indoor football Shock) in 1968.

17. Baseball Hall of Famer Stan Coveleski won more games in the major leagues (215) than any other former Spokane Indians pitcher.

18. Former Washington State football player Pete Radebacher, who won the 1956 Olympics heavyweight boxing title, made his pro debut by fighting Floyd Patterson for the world heavyweight championship.

19. No former Gonzaga Bulldog has scored more than 50 goals in Major League Soccer.

20. Six PGA Tour or LPGA Tour tournaments have been held in Spokane.

21. The late Carl Maxey, a noted attorney and human rights activist in Spokane, won the 175-pound title to help Gonzaga tie Idaho for the 1950 NCAA boxing team championship.

22. Edgar Martinez holds the Seattle Mariners’ career home runs record.

23. Eastern Washington quarterback Eric Barriere, a redshirt senior, is the Eagles’ career passing leader.

24. Baseball Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg holds the major league record of nine consecutive Gold Gloves as the best defensive second baseman in his league.

25. Tyler Johnson has scored more goals in the National Hockey League than any other former Spokane Chiefs player.

Answers

1. True. Mike Pringle, who transferred to Cal State-Fullerton after his sophomore year at WSU, holds the all-time CFL record with 16,940 rushing yards. Ex-Cougar George Reed ranks second with 16,116 yards. Canada native Rueben Mayes, the career leader in NFL rushing yards among former Cougars, ran for 3,484 yards in six NFL seasons. 2. False. Senior point guard Don Baldwin started ahead of freshman Stockton in 1980-81. Baldwin led the Bulldogs (19-8) with 13.9 points per game. Stockton averaged 3.1 points. 3. True. Smith hit .303 and stole 30 bases in 68 games with Walla Walla in 1977. Gwynn batted .331 with 12 homers in 42 games with Walla Walla in 1981 before earning a late-season promotion to Class AA Amarillo (Texas), where he hit .462 in 23 games. 4. True. Jones scored 578 goals in 17 years in the pro WHL, mostly with the Portland Buckaroos. Jones turned pro after starring on Spokane’s first Allan Cup (Canadian senior amateur hockey championship) finals team in 1956-57. The Flyers lost to Whitby, Ontario, in the finals. 5. False. The Portland Thorns drafted Weaver second overall after she led WSU to the semifinals in the 2019 NCAA women’s soccer tournament.

6. False. Jolley slammed 306 home runs in 16 minor league seasons, but he hit only 46 homers in four seasons in the majors (1930-33). Carlos Beltran leads ex-Indians with 435 major league home runs. 7. False. Funseth won three PGA Tour events. 8. True. However, the Washington Wizards’ Rui Hachimura has averaged 13.7 points in two NBA seasons. (John Stockton averaged 13.1 points in 19 seasons.) 9. False. Matthews, a former Idaho linebacker and assistant coach, posted a 231-133-1 record in 22 seasons as a CFL head coach. Matthews ranks second in wins behind Wally Buono, a former Idaho State linebacker, who went 282-165-3 in 25 seasons. 10. False. Kardong came in fourth in the 1976 marathon.

11. True. Davis, the 1960 Minor League Player of the Year at 20 years of age, replaced Hall of Famer Duke Snider in center field after being called up by the Los Angeles Dodgers at the end of the PCL season. 12. False. Vandersloot ranks fifth in the WNBA and third in NCAA Division I in career assists. Vandersloot set the WNBA single-season record with 10.0 assists per game last season. 13. True. Gonzales pitched, played first base and served as a designated hitter at Gonzaga. He batted .311 and posted a 7-3 record and 2.80 earned run average as a junior at Gonzaga to win the Olerud Award, named in honor of the former Washington State pitcher, first baseman and DH. 14. True. National champions Mike Reed and Lanny Davidson led EWU to the 1977 NAIA wrestling title. The Eagles, who eventually became an NCAA Division I program, dropped wrestling after the 1989-90 season. 15. True. Rypien, the former Shadle Park High star, initially struggled to get playing time at Washington State and with the NFL’s Washington Redskins.

16. True. Stabler, on loan from the Oakland Raiders, played two games for the Shockers in the Continental Football League in 1968. 17. False. Hall of Famer Don Sutton, who pitched in two games with Spokane in 1968, is tied with the legendary Nolan Ryan for 14th in major league history with 324 wins. Knuckleballer Charlie Hough ranks second among ex-Indians with 216 major league wins. 18. True. Patterson dominated Radebacher before winning by knockout in the seventh round in 1957. The fight drew 16,961 fans to Sicks’ Stadium, home of the Seattle Rainiers minor league baseball team. 19. False. Former U.S. national team soccer player Brian Ching scored 56 goals in 13 seasons in the MLS. 20. True. The 1944 PGA Championship was held at the Manito Golf and Country Club. The 1946 U.S. Women’s Open was played at the Spokane Country Club (now the Kalispel Golf and Country Club). The LPGA Spokane Women’s Open was held at Esmeralda Golf Course in 1959 and 1961-63.

21. True. Maxey attended Gonzaga Prep before moving on to GU. 22. False. Ken Griffey Jr. hit 417 home runs for the Mariners. Martinez ranks second with 309. 23. False. Matt Nichols, now playing for Ottawa (Ontario) in the Canadian Football League, set EWU’s career passing yards record with 12,616 from 2006-09. Barriere ranks fifth heading into his redshirt senior season with 8,739 career yards. 24. True. Sandberg, a North Central High graduate, won all nine of his Gold Gloves from 1984-92 with the National League’s Chicago Cubs. 25. False. Ray Whitney scored 385 goals in 21 NHL seasons. Johnson, recently traded to Chicago by Tampa Bay, has scored 161 goals in nine NHL seasons.