This day in history: LC’s legendary basketball coach retired. Chronicle found ‘best boy baseball pitcher of Spokane’

From 1975: The Spokane mayor declared the day to be “Elra L. ‘Squinty’ Hunter Day” in the city.

“Squinty” had been the Lewis and Clark High School basketball coach for 40 years. Mayor David Rodgers called him “the dean of high school basketball.” His teams won 22 City League championship and four state championships.

He had recently retired after “an illustrious career, during which he exerted a positive influence on the lives of hundreds of young men,” said the mayor.

Hunter would be honored at a banquet later in the day at the Davenport Hotel. At least one member of each of his 40 teams was expected to attend.

From 1925: The Spokane Chronicle held a pitching contest to find the “best boy baseball pitcher of Spokane.”

Finalists from every school converged on Gonzaga’s stadium. They each threw pitches toward a target the size of the strike zone. If they threw three strikes before throwing four balls, they were awarded a virtual strikeout.

Floyd Asbury, 13, of Adams School came home with the trophy after throwing 25 total strikes and only 15 balls. He was awarded a gold medal and a baseball signed by every member of the Chicago White Sox, along with a week’s outing at the Boy Scout camp on Diamond Lake.

Nave Lein, exalted ruler of the Elks Lodge, threw out the first pitch, but the Chronicle said his “form was bad” and the ball hit the ground halfway to the target. Yet the “eye” of the “umpire, police commissioner Charles Hedger, was worse. He called it a strike.”