PORT ANGELES — Title IX and the opening of the door for women to play sports took center stage Saturday night along with 10 individuals and two legendary teams in the fifth Port Angeles Roughriders Hall of Fame induction ceremony held at Civic Field.
The Roughriders Hall of Fame has inducted a number of women badminton players over the years, some of whom who won national championships. Because before 1970, it was literally the only sports high school-age girls could play as Washington didn’t have prep girls sports.
Title IX changed all of that, prohibiting sex-based discrimination by schools and requiring schools to offer an equal opportunity for girls to play sports.
Marcia Isenberger got many of the loudest cheers of the night before several hundred people attending the dinner. She was all-league in basketball at Port Angeles, going on to become an all Big Sky Conference tennis player at Eastern Washington.
She said the 37 words of Title IX — “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” — made all the difference for girls.
“It was such an amazing game-changer for women. We’re so proud of the women who came before us and the young women who have come after us,” she said.
She said playing sports gave her a purpose when she was young as it does for many young women.
“And isn’t that a beautiful thing to have purpose in life,” she said.
Judy Brodhun Vose, who described herself as a tomboy growing up, didn’t have a chance to play school sports growing up in Port Angeles in the 1950s and 1960s, so she took up badminton coached by legendary Vern Burton, already inducted into the Roughriders Hall of Fame. She won junior national championships in Port Angeles with Hall of Famer Hester Hill, and the duo went on to become national collegiate badminton champions at Western Washington. She is already a member of the WWU Hall of Fame.
“Thank you to Port Angeles for everything you do to give kids opportunities in sports,” she said. “Port Angeles is a very special place.”
Julia Cheney played softball and soccer for the Roughriders, and she went on to play softball at Penn. She now leads the sports and entertainment division for Google devices.
She thanked her father for fighting to get the girls a playing field in Port Angeles. She also said that, in her work, she has seen how wildly successful women’s sports such as the women’s World Cup, the Euro Cup and the WNBA have become.
“Women’s sports are not a charity. They are good business,” she said.
Other inductees
Longtime track and field coach Bruce Webster, who died in 2019, was inducted. One of his assistant coaches, Bob Sheedy, a Hall of Famer himself, spoke on his behalf. Webster’s cross-country teams finished third and fourth at state in consecutive years.
“He was an absolutely unique person. A bit of a rebel. He personified Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’,” Sheedy said. “He was way ahead of his time with his positive imagery and goal-setting.”
Swimmer Greg Galles died in 2008. He won the state championship in the 100-yard freestyle twice and set a state record in the event in 1968.
His brother Gary spoke, saying he really didn’t remember much about his brother’s swimming accomplishments. He said the two of them learned to swim at an outdoor pool in Port Angeles in the early ’60s.
“I have almost no memories of him swimming. I remember he and I shivering more than learning how to swim,” he said.
Gary Galles said his brother was 13 when he learned to swim.
“He went from learning how to swim to the fastest swimmer in the state in four years,” he said. “He didn’t talk about it much. He didn’t brag. I wish he would’ve bragged about it more.”
Eric Lane was one of the younger inductees. He played baseball, football and basketball at Port Angeles in the 2000s, winning Olympic League MVP in baseball and basketball and setting school passing yardage records in football.
He was an NWAC MVP playing baseball for Lower Community College, played baseball at Gonzaga and then coached LCC to NWAC championships in 2018 and 2019. He also recruited a number of Port Angeles grads to play at LCC.
Lane said it was because of the support of his family and coaches that he became successful. He choked up while talking about his grandfather, who would urge him to play better at games.
“And then he would slip me a $20 when he shook my hand,” he said.
Ron Suslick was a football star for the Roughriders in the 1950s, averaging 152 yards a game rushing his senior year. He remembered that Scooter Chapman, one of the event’s emcees, gave him three nicknames — Ramblin’ Ron, Loose Hips Speedster and The Green Phantom.
He went to play football for the University of Puget Sound and later ran track at Monterey Community College in Northern California. “I made the San Francisco Chronicle sports section twice,” he said.
Jerry Payne played on a 1973 Roughriders team that went 9-1 and had seven shutouts. He went on to play at Washington State for Jack Elway
“We were tough kids, we were big kids and we had a lot of speed,” Payne said of that team. He said the players didn’t always hang out together, “but we were definitely on tune at game time.”
Jack Estes played football, basketball and baseball for the Roughriders. He went on to play football at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. The football team was coached by NFL Hall of Famer Otto Graham. Estes said he learned a lot of valuable lessons from Graham.
He said Graham had opportunities to coach at major colleges and the NFL but chose the USCG Academy because none of the players had athletic scholarships.
“The reason you’re here is you love to play. It’s a burden for you to play. I want you to have fun. I don’t give a damn if you lose 100-0,” Estes said.
Estes said he brought that same mentality to coaching when he took over the Peninsula College men’s basketball program. He coached the team to a Washington state championship in 1970.
“The joy of sport is what he [Graham] was emphasizing. You should never take sports for granted,” he said.
Also inducted was diver Robin Allen, who went on to win the National Native American basketball championship with the La Push Braves. His brother Ron, chairman, CEO of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, spoke and said no matter the sport, Robin was successful.
“Robin was amazing. As an athlete, he could do anything,” he said.
The 1967 Roughriders football team that went 9-0 was also inducted. Howard Priest, a member of that team, said his favorite memory was beating a team from Stadium High School in Tacoma that had been bad-mouthing Port Angeles as a cow town in Tacoma newspapers.
“We said, ‘Find someone to hit as hard as you can,’ ” Priest said. “We beat them 28-0. Their kids were taking their cleats off and saying, ‘We’re not going back in against those guys.’ ”
The 1983 women’s gymnastics team was also inducted. The team finished third in the state and followed by finishing sixth, fifth and fourth.
Coach Rich Smith said what made his team special was its depth. He said a lot of teams had one or two girls who would place high, but the 1983 was unique in that it had five or six girls or more who could scores 7s and 8s in events, piling up team points.
Port Angeles Roughrider Jack Estes, who led the Peninsula College men’s basketball team to a state championship, speaks at the Roughrider Hall of Fame dinner Saturday night at Civic Field. (Dave Logan/for Peninsula Daily News)
