Washington 100
From the preps to the pros, the State of Washington has produced a long list of outstanding athletes and teams. Read along to learn a thing or two – 100 things, to be exact – about our state’s sports history.
1 – Gene Conley, a baseball and basketball standout at Richland High School and Washington State, is the only player to win World Series and NBA championships. Conley won rings as a pitcher on the 1957 Milwaukee Braves and as a forward-center on the Boston Celtics from 1959-61.
2 – Cy Young Awards won by former Washington Huskies star Tim Lincecum as the most outstanding pitcher in the National League. Lincecum, a graduate of Renton’s Liberty High, won his Cy Youngs with the San Francisco Giants in 2008-09.
3 – U.S. figure skating championships won by Rosalynn Sumners (1982-84). The Edmonds native, who attended Meadowdale High, also won a world championship in 1983 and captured a silver medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics.
4 – Seasons with 100-plus points for longtime Seattle Totems center Guyle Fielder, minor league hockey’s all-time scoring leader. Fielder scored 1,929 points in 22 minor league seasons ending in 1972-73. He went scoreless in his only 15 NHL games (six in the playoffs) with Chicago and Detroit.
5 – Years that Seattle Mariners star Edgar Martinez won the Outstanding Designated Hitter Award, which has since been re-named the Edgar Martinez Award.
6 – Pro Bowl selections for ex-Huskies running back Hugh McElhenny, a member of the Pro and College Football Halls of Fame.
7 – Rose Bowls won by the Huskies.
8 – The Huskies’ eight-man rowing team won a gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics.
9 – Holding penalties called against Seattle Seahawks offensive tackle Walter Jones during his 12-year career in the NFL.
10 – Consecutive seasons Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki won a Gold Glove for outstanding defensive play in the American League.
11 – NCAA track and cross country titles won by Gerry Lindgren. Prior to his time at Washington State, Lindgren set national high school records as a distance runner at Rogers.
12 – Victories for Washington’s unbeaten football team in 1991. The Huskies shared the national championship with Miami, coached by Everett native and former WSU and Seahawks coach Dennis Erickson.
13 – NBA career points per game (13.1) for John Stockton. The all-time NBA assists and steals leader, a standout at Gonzaga Prep and Gonzaga University, is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
14 – Major college record for interceptions in a season, set by Washington’s Al Worley in 1968.
15 – Victories for unbeaten Washington State pitcher John Olerud in 1988. The sophomore hit .464 with 23 home runs to earn College Baseball Player of the Year honors. Olerud, who starred at Interlake High in Bellevue, played first base for 17 years in the majors, including five seasons in Seattle.
16 – Points (including 14 goals) scored by Seattle’s Bernie Morris in four games when the Metropolitans downed the Montreal Canadiens in the 1916-17 Stanley Cup finals. The Metropolitans were the first U.S. team to win the Stanley Cup.
17 – Consecutive seasons the Gonzaga men’s basketball team has gone to the NCAA tournament with head coach Mark Few. GU’s 18-year string of NCAA tournament appearances includes Few’s final year as an assistant coach.
18 – U.S. Davis Cup record for tennis matches won as captain, set by Tom Gorman (1986-93). Gorman starred at Seattle’s O’Dea High and Seattle University, then became a top-10 player on the pro tour.
19 – NASCAR Sprint Cup wins for Vancouver’s Greg Biffle, the most for any Washington driver.
20 – Seattle Sounders club record for Major League Soccer wins (20-10-4 in 2014).
21 – Major league seasons played by Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson after he was cut by the Tacoma Tigers when he attempted to turn pro with the Pacific Coast League club in 1906. The following year, Johnson joined the American League’s Washington Senators and began piling up 110 shutouts (first all-time) and 417 wins (second).
22 – Career high for carries per game (21.5) for Marshawn Lynch, set in 2007 when Lynch turned pro with Buffalo. Prior to last year’s injury-riddled season, Lynch averaged 18.7 carries per game in his four full seasons of action with Seattle.
23 – Points per game (22.9) scored by Eastern Washington guard Tyler Harvey to lead NCAA Division I basketball in 2014-15.
24 – Pac-12 Conference record for career interceptions, set by WSU’s Lamont Thompson (1997-2001).
25 – Victories for Seattle teenager Fred Hutchinson with the PCL’s Seattle Rainiers in 1938. Hutchinson, who attended nearby Franklin High, finished 25-7 as a rookie pro and drew overflow crowds.
26 – Innings pitched by former Gonzaga Bulldog Leon Cadore in a 1920 game between the Brooklyn Robins (now the Los Angeles Dodgers) and the Boston (now Atlanta) Braves. Incredibly, Boston pitcher Joe Oeschger also threw all 26 innings. The game was called due to darkness with the score tied at 1-1, so neither man earned a victory despite setting a major league record for innings pitched. Cadore attended Sandpoint High.
27 – Scoring average for Seattle University’s Elgin Baylor in the 1957-58 NCAA basketball tournament. Baylor was named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, but Seattle lost to Kentucky in the championship game. Baylor, a longtime NBA star, has been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
28 – Career high for NFL touchdown passes in a season by former Washington State quarterbacks Mark Rypien (1991 with Washington) and Drew Bledsoe (1997 with New England). Rypien attended Shadle Park High. Bledsoe is a Walla Walla High alum.
29 – Seattle SuperSonics record for points per game in a season (29.2), set by Hall of Famer Spencer Haywood in 1972-73.
30 – Shortstop Alex Rodriguez produced the only 30-30 season (30 or more home runs and stolen bases) in Mariners history when he hit 42 homers and stole 46 bases in 1998.
31 – Millions of dollars won by Fred Couples on the PGA and Champions Tours. Couples, a Golf Hall of Famer who won the 1992 Masters, attended O’Dea High in Seattle.
32 – Victories for Washington’s 2005 NCAA volleyball champions. The Huskies finished 32-1.
33 – Years Bobo Brayton coached baseball at Washington State (1962-94). Brayton, a native of Birdsview (Skagit County) and an All-America shortstop for the Cougars, guided WSU to 21 conference titles.
34 – Gonzaga women’s basketball record for points by one player in a NCAA tournament game. Courtney Vandersloot, who starred at Kentwood High in Kent, scored a career-high 34 points in an opening-round win over Iowa in 2011.
35 – Average yards per punt return (34.8) for Tyler Lockett when the rookie set a Seahawks single-game record with 139 yards on four punt returns at Arizona in the final game of the 2015 regular season.
36 – World Cup skiing victories for the Mahre twins of White Pass. Phil won 27 races and Steve won nine. Phil captured three World Cup overall titles from 1981-83. Phil and Steve finished 1-2 in the slalom at the 1984 Winter Olympics.
37 – Seahawks uniform number of Shaun Alexander, who led NFL rushers with 1,880 yards and 27 touchdowns in 2005. Both marks remain team records.
38 – In 1938, former Burlington (now Burlington-Edison) High and WSU star Mel Hein became the only center to win the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award. Hein is a member of the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame.
39 – PCL record for pitching victories in one season, held by Rube Vickers (1906) of Seattle and Doc Newton (1904) of Los Angeles. Vickers set two other remarkable PCL records in ’06 with 411 strikeouts and 518 2/3 innings pitched.
40 – Career high for home runs by Ryne Sandberg with the 1990 Chicago Cubs. The Hall of Fame second baseman turned down a football scholarship at WSU after starring at quarterback for North Central.
41 – Age of longtime Seattle Rainiers pitcher Dick “Kewpie” Barrett when he threw a perfect game against the PCL’s Sacramento Solons in 1948.
42 – Record wins for a Huskies softball pitcher in one season, set by Danielle Lawrie during Washington’s national championship season of 2009. Lawrie, the national player of the year, finished 42-8.
43 – Professional Bowling Association (PBA) tournaments won by Tacoma’s Earl Anthony, a record that stood for more than 30 years. Anthony now ranks second behind Walter Ray Williams Jr.
44 – Consecutive years Bob Robertson has broadcast Washington State football games (since 1972). Robertson also called WSU games from 1964-68, then took a three-year break to broadcast Huskies games due to a contractual obligation with a Seattle radio station. Robertson, who played football at Western Washington, graduated from Blaine High.
45 – WSU record for points in one basketball game, set by former Cheney High standout Brian Quinnett against Loyola Marymount in 1986.
46 – Regular-season games won by the Seahawks (46-18) the past four years. Only Denver (50-14) and New England (48-16) have more wins.
47 – Career-high games played in a major league season by Paul Strand, who played in 194 PCL games when he set the professional baseball record of 325 hits in a season in 1923. Strand batted .398 that season for the Salt Lake City Bees. The following year, he hit .228 for the Philadelphia (now Oakland) Athletics, when he played in the final 47 of his 96 major league games. Strand, who attended Buckley High, pitched and played in the field earlier in his career with Spokane and Seattle.
48 – Seconds (47.52) swam by Bremerton High graduate Nathan Adrian to win the 100-meter freestyle at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
49 – Huskies basketball record for points in a game, set by Bob Houbregs in 1952-53. Houbregs averaged a school-record 25.6 points that season, led the Huskies to their lone Final Four appearance in the NCAA tournament and became the only Husky to earn national player of the year honors in basketball. The Hall of Famer played high school ball at Queen Anne in Seattle.
50 – Seahawks record for career interceptions, set by Dave Brown from 1976-86.
51 – Base hits Hollywood actor Kurt Russell collected in 51 games as a pro baseball rookie in the Northwest League in 1971. Russell hit .285 that year as the league’s all-star second baseman for Bend (Ore.), then batted .325 in 29 games with rival Walla Walla in 1972. Injuries and acting conflicts soon brought an end to Russell’s baseball career.
52 – Regular-season wins for the 1978-79 Seattle SuperSonics, who won the NBA’s Pacific Division with a 52-30 record en route to their only league championship.
53 – Goals scored by Spokane Chiefs center Tyler Johnson in 2010-11, when he led the Western Hockey League. Johnson grew up in Liberty Lake and attended Central Valley High.
54 – Victories for the 1946 Spokane Indians baseball team (54-78), which lost nine players in a fatal bus crash on Snoqualmie Pass. The death toll remains the highest in one incident in U.S. professional sports.
55 – Conference wins for Marv Harshman in 13 seasons as Washington State’s basketball coach. Unfazed by Harshman’s 55-76 conference record and 155-181 overall record at WSU, the Huskies wooed Harshman from Pullman in 1971. He went 245-147 in 14 seasons at Washington and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Harshman, a Lake Stevens High alum, starred in basketball and football at Pacific Lutheran and later coached both teams.
56 – Ken Griffey Jr.’s club record for home runs in a single season for the Mariners (1997, 1998).
57 – Games needed for Jeanne Eggart to score 1,000 points, the fastest the feat has been accomplished in WSU women’s basketball history. Eggart, a Walla Walla High graduate, holds numerous WSU records more than three decades after her career ended in 1981-82. She also starred in track and field.
58 – Age of Hall of Fame jockey Russell Baze come Aug. 7. Baze, still active on the California racing circuit, has won and rode in more horse races than any jockey in North American history. Baze grew up in Yakima, where he won the first race of his career.
59 – Huskies softball record for stolen bases in a season, set by Angie Marzetta – now sportscaster Angie Mentink of ROOT Sports – in 1993.
60 – Mariners record for stolen bases in a season, set by Harold Reynolds in 1987.
61 – Consecutive-games hitting streak – the longest in PCL history – that 18-year-old Joe DiMaggio was building when he went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts against Spokane semipro pitcher Eddie Gesselman in a 1933 exhibition game in Spokane. DiMaggio was playing with the San Francisco Seals prior to his Hall of Fame career with the New York Yankees. In 1941, DiMaggio set the major league record of 56 consecutive games with a hit.
62 – Length in yards of the longest field goal in Pac-12 history, kicked by WSU’s Jason Hanson in 1991. Hanson, who attended Mead High, played 21 years with Detroit in the NFL.
63 –All-time rank in base on balls yielded (1,155) by Mariners career wins leader Jamie Moyer. The soft-tossing lefty, who pitched in the majors for 25 years until age 49, ranks 35th in victories (269, 37th in losses (209) and, alas, first in home runs allowed (522).
64 –Consecutive games without a loss (60-0-4) for the Washington football team from 1907-17. The streak is a major college record. Coach Gil Dobie went undefeated (59-0-3) during his entire stay at Washington, from 1908-16.
65 – Sounders record for goals in an MLS season (in 34 games in 2014).
66 – Minimum number of passes Washington State quarterbacks have thrown in 14 of 32 games since midway through the 2013 season. Drew Bledsoe, drafted No. 1 overall by the NFL’s New England Patriots in 1993, threw a career-high 66 passes once in his three seasons at WSU.
67 – Consecutive football games won by Bellevue High before Eastside Catholic of Sammamish defeated the Wolverines, 35-13, in the 2014 State 3A title game. The winning streak was the nation’s longest active one in prep football, and it remains the longest in Washington high school football history.
68 – Minor league games played by Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith, all with Walla Walla in the Northwest League in 1977. The following year, the Cal Poly product made the huge jump from short-season Class A to the majors and started all season for the San Diego Padres.
69 – Seconds swam by Seattle’s Helene Madison to set an Olympic record in the 100-meter freestyle at Los Angeles in 1932. Madison’s official time of 1:08.8 bettered the previous record by 5 seconds. The Lincoln High graduate also won gold medals in the 400 freestyle (setting a world record of 5:28.5) and the 400 relay.
70 – Games above .500 the Mariners finished in 2001. Manager Lou Piniella’s ball club went 116-46 to tie the major league record for wins in a season, set by the 1906 Chicago Cubs (116-36).
71 – Average number of extra-base hits produced by Earl Averill during his 10 full seasons with the Cleveland Indians (1929-38). The Hall of Fame center fielder came out of Snohomish High.
72 – NHL games played by former Gonzaga goaltender Frank McCool before he was forced to retire after two seasons due to ulcers. McCool won the 1944-45 Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year and helped the Toronto Maple Leafs capture the Stanley Cup. McCool played at Gonzaga during the school’s brief run in major college hockey.
73 – Stolen bases in 1969 for Tommy Harper, who led the American League while playing for the short-lived Seattle Pilots.
74 – Players selected before Seahawks star Russell Wilson went in the third round of the 2012 NFL draft.
75 – Years since Washington State won a conference championship in men’s basketball. The 1940-41 Cougars won the Pacific Coast (now Pac-12) Conference and made it to the NCAA title game before losing to Wisconsin. If you think 75 years is a long time for WSU fans to wait for another conference basketball title, it’s been 100 years since the Cougars produced their only Rose Bowl win (14-0 over Brown in 1916).
76 – Glen Goodall’s club record for goals in one season for the Seattle Breakers/Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League (1989-90).
77 – Strikes thrown by Felix Hernandez (along with 36 balls) during his 2012 perfect game against Tampa Bay. It was the 23rd perfect game in major league history, and the only one in Mariners history.
78 – Games played by Mark McGwire with the Tacoma Tigers in his final minor league season in 1986. McGwire, who hit .318 with 13 homers at Tacoma, ranks 10th in major league history with 583 home runs.
79 – Amateur bouts Pete Rademacher fought (winning 72, including the 1956 Olympics heavyweight gold medal match) before the Tieton High graduate made his pro debut against Floyd Patterson in a world heavyweight title fight in 1957 in Seattle. Patterson knocked out Rademacher, who played football at WSU, in the sixth round at Sicks’ Stadium.
80 – Victories for Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Ray Flaherty (80-37-5 in 11 seasons). Flaherty, a standout two-way end in the NFL after playing at Gonzaga Prep and Gonzaga University, guided the Washington Redskins to NFL championships in 1937 and ’42.
81 – Span of days in 1978 when Washington State track star Henry Rono broke world records in the 10,000 meters, the 5,000, the 3,000 and the 3,000 steeplechase.
82 – Consecutive games won by the Class B Brewster High boys basketball team from 1974-77. The win streak remains the longest in Washington prep basketball history.
83 – In 1983, Spokane’s Tom Sneva won the Indianapolis 500 after three runner-up finishes. Sneva attended Lewis and Clark High and Eastern Washington University.
84 – Games played by Spokane Comets goaltender Eddie Johnston – every minute of the regular season and playoffs, all without wearing a mask – in the original (pro) Western Hockey League in 1961-62. The Comets, unquestionably the greatest hockey team in Spokane history, lost to Edmonton in seven games in the WHL finals.
85 – Percentage of games won (.854, counting the playoffs) by the 2010 Seattle Storm. The winning percentage is the highest in Seattle professional sports history. The Storm finished 35-6, including 7-0 in the playoffs, to claim the Women’s NBA championship.
86 – Seahawks career record for coaching wins, held by Mike Holmgren (86-74 from 1999-2008).
87 – Victories in 91 college wrestling matches for Washington’s Larry Owings, whose 1969-70 NCAA championship resulted in the only college loss suffered by the legendary Dan Gable. The loss, in Gable’s final match at Iowa State, left the wrestling legend with a 181-1 record in high school and college.
88 – NFL games (counting the playoffs) played by Turk Edwards, a Pro and College Football Hall of Famer out of Clarkston High and Washington State. A two-way tackle, Edwards’ playing career ended in 1940 when his knee collapsed as he turned to head back to the sideline after the pregame coin toss.
89 – Major college record for pass attempts in a game, set by WSU’s Connor Halliday at Oregon in 2013. Halliday, who starred at Ferris High, also tied the completions record of 58. He passed for 557 yards in a 62-38 loss.
90 – Touchdown passes thrown by Vernon Adams Jr. in his two full seasons as a starter at Eastern Washington (2013-14). Adams threw 26 TD passes during an injury-plagued senior season at Oregon last year.
91 – Games played by the 1990-91 Spokane Chiefs hockey team en route to the Memorial Cup title. The Memorial Cup tournament determines the major junior (20-and-under) champions of North America.
92 – Major league wins recorded by Vean Gregg, who won 20 or more games in each of his first three seasons in the majors. Gregg spent much of his youth in the Chehalis and Clarkston areas. After his impressive start with the Cleveland Indians, arm problems shortened his career. He had a 92-63 record.
93 – Largest margin of victory for a Huskies men’s basketball team. Washington laid the wood to Puget Sound, 100-7, in 1921.
94 – Wins for the 1970 Spokane Indians, led by future Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda. Spokane finished 94-52 and won the PCL title. Key players included longtime major leaguers Steve Garvey, Bill Buckner, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, Doyle Alexander and Charlie Hough.
95 – Career hits in the big leagues for the Mariners’ five first-round draft picks (all position players) in the five amateur drafts held from January 1978 to January 1980. Only Jim Maler (.226 career batting average, five home runs) and Al Chambers (.208, two HRs) reached the majors.
96 – Points scored by Spokane Flyers scoring leader Roy McBride in 54 regular-season games in 1948-49, when the Flyers won the first of two consecutive U.S. senior amateur hockey championships. Spokane teams later won four Allan Cups as the first U.S.-based senior amateur champions of North America.
97 – Seahawks career record for quarterback sacks (97 1/2), held by Jacob Green.
98 – Total yards produced by Eastern Washington in the first 2 1/2 quarters of the 2010 Football Championship Subdivision (formerly NCAA Division I-AA) title game. The Eagles rallied from a 19-0 deficit in the final 17 minutes to beat Delaware, 20-19.
99 – Uniform number worn by Seahawks defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy in 1992 as a tribute to Philadelphia Eagles star Jerome Brown, who died in a car accident that year. Kennedy and Brown had been friends since their college days at Miami. Kennedy, who wore No. 96 during his 10 other NFL seasons (all with the Seahawks), won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award wearing No. 99.
100 – Seahawks record for career touchdown catches, set by Hall of Famer Steve Largent from 1976-89.