Schlereth will wear two hats during North Idaho Sports Banquet

Mark Schlereth is pulling double duty Saturday at the 43rd annual North Idaho Sports Banquet at the Coeur d’Alene Inn.

Schlereth will be one of five new inductees into the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame and he’s also the guest speaker for the banquet, which honors the top college and prep athletes, teams and coaches.

The banquet begins with a 5:30 p.m. social hour. The dinner and awards program follows at 6:30.

Joining Schlereth in the Hall of Fame class are Ron Heller, a former Clark Fork High standout who played in the NFL; John Owen, who coached North Idaho College wrestling to eight national championships; C.W. Totten, former Post Falls boys basketball coach whose teams captured two state titles; and the late Jim DeMers, a Sandpoint High multisport star in the 1920s who became the first prep athlete to throw the javelin 200 feet.

Schlereth, an analyst for ESPN’s coverage of the NFL, took an unlikely path to Idaho’s Hall of Fame. He was born and raised in Anchorage, eventually becoming the first Alaskan-born player in the NFL.

At the University of Idaho in the late 1980s, Schlereth played on two Big-Sky Conference championship teams under coach Keith Gilbertson and started compiling his long list of surgical procedures.

In the NFL, Schlereth’s name became synonymous with toughness during his 12-year career.

A 10th-round draft pick in 1989, Schlereth developed into a starting guard for three Super Bowl championship teams.

Along the way he endured 28 surgeries – not counting a kidney stone procedure – including 15 on his left knee alone and picked up the nickname “Stink.” According to Schlereth’s bio on the Nashville Speakers Bureau Web site, Washington Redskins teammates gave him the nickname in reference to stinkheads, an Eskimo delicacy made from rotting fish heads.

Contemplating retirement in April 2000, Schlereth told The Spokesman-Review: “Not many have got more out of their bodies than I have mine. I played with integrity, I played hard and I know I gave everything I had.”

He added that he lives with pain every day, but “it’s not bad. My back, my knee hurt, but it’s not where I can’t function on a daily basis. But I’m not going to beat anybody in the 40.”