(Oct. 9, 1925 – Jul. 9, 1979) Betty Evans Grayson reached the highest level of competitive softball while still in high school and had a Hall of Fame career that included pitching for a national champion team and even spending time in a professional league. Although Evans, who took the name Grayson after marriage to..Read More
(Oct. 10, 1935 – May 3, 2014) Carolyn Fitzwater played her way into the state’s sports landscape as an infield with the Erv Lind Florists, and continued to a memorable teaching and coaching career. Born in 1935, Fitzwater graduated from Portland’s Washington High School in 1953, but had already reached the top of the softball..Read More
(1906 – 1964) Born in Chicago, in 1906, Erv Lind made a name for himself in the sports world as a sponsor and coach of one of the state’s great amateur teams: softball’s Erv Lind Florists. A rec-league baseball player into middle age, Lind moved into sponsorship of a softball team in 1937 and quickly..Read More
Teri Mariani (b. Aug. 16, 1952) has spent more than half her lifetime at Portland State University, as a student, an athlete, an administrator, and as coach. Now in her 31st year on the PSU campus, 27 of those years as softball coach during which time her teams have won 608 games, she is one..Read More
Jackie Rice pitched for elite-level softball teams for two decades, including the 1964 Erv Lind Florists national champions, before beginning a long career as coach and administrator at Western Oregon University. As a player, Rice is best known as the star pitcher for the Erv Lind Florists in 1963 and ’64. She took over the..Read More
There really is a man who “wrote the book” on how to be a public address announcer at a sporting event. His name is Don Essig (b. Nov 18, 1938) and he has truly been the “voice” of University of Oregon sporting events since 1967. The book itself is a nifty bit of self-publishing from..Read More
(Nov. 21, 1943 – May 7, 2023) No one in Rodeo won ever won six would all around championships before Larry Mahan did it. Nor had anyone won five consecutive world all-around titles. The fact is Salem’s Mahan pulled off firsts all the way through a career that included more than 1,200 rodeos , rides..Read More
Tom “Shakey” Levak (b. Nov 8, 1938), a native Oregonian, began studying karate in 1964 at the Oregon Karate Association at the age of 25 and began to compete in sparring in 1972, at which time the only adult age division was 18-and-over. From 1972 through 1974, he was undefeated in major tournament Pacific Northwest..Read More
Dr. Ed Grossenbacher has won 26 U.S. handball masters titles, five world handball masters championships and numerous Northwest, Canadian and YMCA handball titles. He also made the All-State basketball team in 1956 as a standout player for Milwaukie High School. Grossenbacher went on to be an NAIA basketball All-American at Willamette in 1960 after breaking..Read More
Ryan Grossenbacher didn’t begin playing handball until he was 27. He thrives on competition. He currently goes against open division handball players ten years his junior, and beats them mentally and physically. He was featured in a 2003 issue of Sports Illustrated as the oldest competitor to win a USHA National Open Title. In 2003..Read More