Kim Eng, last woman to play in every Hoopfest, enshrined in Hooptown Hall of Fame

While she shrugs it off as merely a “perfect attendance record,” Kim Eng’s continued imprint on 36 years and counting at Hoopfest has stamped her a spot next to other renowned and influential figures in the Spokane basketball community.

Eng, the last woman to play in every Hoopfest, was inducted into the Hooptown Hall of Fame alongside several others at Riverfront Park on Wednesday.

“It was a mixture of shock and surprise and excitement,” Eng said about hearing the news about her induction. “I was honestly wondering if it was a mistake.”

Other inductees in the fourth annual Hooptown Hall of Fame included former Gonzaga coach Dan Fitzgerald, former Gonzaga player Jeff Brown, former Central Valley star Emily (Westerberg) Love and the 2006-2008 Ferris boys basketball teams.

Although not fully convinced of her name belonging next to Spokane basketball legends, Eng embodies an important piece of the local basketball scene that draws tens of thousands of hoopers once a year.

“I’m genuinely thankful to everyone who has been supporting me throughout the way,” Eng said during her induction speech. “I might not be as tall as Jeff (Brown) or as talented as Emily (Westerberg) … but I’m super proud and thrilled to represent all of the other non-elite athletes who just like to play ball.”

Eng has scored buckets in several different divisions over the years, including co-ed, recreational, elite and family brackets. This year, she will participate in a co-ed bracket with friends.

The Spokane native and Lewis and Clark graduate now lives in Seattle, but her friends and family know where she’ll be during the last weekend of June every year – lacing up her basketball shoes in the streets of downtown Spokane.

“She loves basketball, and she loves Hoopfest,” Greg Stern, a friend and former teammate of Eng, said in a video presentation during the event. “It’s the highlight of every summer. She’ll play until she’s 100.”

While she proudly maintains her streak of consecutive years played, her continuous participation is less about holding the record, and still about her passion for the sport and the event.

Hoopfest has become more than just a tradition for Eng and her family.

“Every year, we just kept coming back and playing in this tournament,” she said. “We played year after year. It ended up being a family reunion for us.”

Eng has enough Hoopfest stories to write her own book, such as getting a C-section just weeks before playing, witnessing an opponent losing a glass eyeball during a game and many more. But last year, she created her favorite memory of them all – getting to play with her son in the family co-ed bracket.

“Going from coaching him when he was a little kid to playing with him on the same team, it just melted my heart,” Eng said.

She credits the city for supporting the largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the world. Eng has played in other outdoor basketball tournaments around the country, but said others never had the same charm as Hoopfest.

“I had no idea how amazing Hoopfest was and then when I think back and ask why it is so much better than all of the tournaments – honestly it is the community. The entire city embraces basketball. They shut down the streets. It’s inclusive to everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re a boy, or girl, if you’re (short), if you’re really tall, if you’re elite, if you’re recreational and never play, if you want to play with your family, if you want to play co-ed.

“If you want to play basketball, there is a bracket for you. That is what makes Hoopfest just unbelievably amazing.”

Her ambitions for the weekend have evolved as she’s grown older, but Eng sees no end in sight for her streak.

“The plan is to play because it is still fun but the goals change a little,” Eng said. “When we were younger, hands down the goal was to win. I hated to lose more than I liked to win.

“Now that we’re old, it’s – OK, I just want to enjoy the moment.”

Wednesday’s event opened with the induction of Gonzaga coaching legend Dan Fitzgerald, who died in 2010. After a video introduction from former Spokesman Review columnist John Blanchette, Fitzgerald’s daughter Kelly Fitzgerald, accepted the award on behalf of his family.

“Dan Fitzgerald was not easily impressed,” she said of her father. “The respect he gave you was earned through blood, sweat and tears. He championed the underdog and he respected toughness as much as anyone. He knew toughness could lead to greatness in sports.”