Just what the Doc ordered

In 1999, Dr. James Lynn was a retired dentist who moved to Coeur d'Alene from Wallace.

About that time, the Idaho Sports Banquet still sunk its teeth into the region's sports landscape, but was in serious need of some dental work.

"Doc Lynn," as he is more commonly known, was recommended to take over the banquet from Carl Kiilsgaard following the 2000 edition. He said up until that time, he'd only attended a few of the banquets over the years.

“At that last banquet we went to” before he took charge of the event, “they estimated less than 100 people at the banquet,” Doc Lynn said. “I said, ‘We’ve got to do something to stimulate attendance, so why don’t we make it into a North Idaho Sports Banquet, and nominate kids from every sport, from Grangeville to Bonners Ferry.’”

Lynn ran most of the youth programs in Wallace through the Wallace Elks, and started the Wallace High Hall of Fame in 1990. When he took over the North Idaho Sports Banquet, he and his committee worked hard to try to get nominees from each school, big and small.

“We really tried to be representative of all the high schools in North Idaho,” said Lynn, who turned 80 on Saturday. “And I think three years ago we tried to see how many we could get on Saturday night. I think we had over 500, that was our high mark, we decided that was too many. The way the room was shaped, we opened up these bays, and some people couldn’t see the head table.”

Now, they keep it right around 400 at the banquet every year.

“I thought that (adding the awards for high school sports) was a good change,” said Joe Dobson, who has been on the committee for the banquet and the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame since 1968. He played football at Idaho in the mid-1960s, and was inducted into the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989. Now nearly 68 years old, he’s in his 40th year selling real estate locally. “There’s more of an emphasis on kids now.”

The banquet used to be held at the North Shore Convention Center, which evolved into The Coeur d’Alene Resort. These days, the banquet is held at the Best Western Coeur d’Alene Inn. This year’s banquet is next Saturday.

THIS YEAR, the banquet which honors the top high school and college athletes, coaches and teams in North Idaho celebrates the 50th anniversary of its humble beginnings.

It started, the story goes, in 1962, when Duane Hagadone, at the time publisher of the Coeur d’Alene Press, instructed his sports editor, Bob Maker, to start an awards dinner for athletes of North Idaho.

Ron McDonald, a member of the Athletic Round Table, a support group for University of Idaho and local athletics, also was credited with playing a big role in getting the banquet ball rolling.

In 1970, the first class of members of the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame was inducted and included Jerry Kramer, the former Sandpoint High, Idaho Vandal and Green Bay Packers standout, and Walter “Big Train” Johnson, who moved to Idaho from California after high school, pitched for a Weiser-based team in something called the Idaho State League, where he was spotted by a Washington Senators scout. He signed with the Senators in 1907, and went on to win 417 games in 21 seasons.

Records from the early years are a little sketchy, and the list of previous winners in the program only dates back to the early 1980s.

In the earlier years, they selected an Idaho professional athlete of the year. Also, high school athletes were lumped in with collegians for the male and female athlete of the year awards. Now, awards are given for North Idaho male and female college athlete of the year, and North Idaho (high school) male and female athlete of the year.

Back then, music was provided, with the Wallace High jazz band, the Potlatch High jazz band, the Lake City High jazz band and the Moscow High band among those performing.

In the earlier years, some of the guest speakers included Chris Berman, early in his tenure at ESPN; Abe Lemons, former men’s basketball coach at Oklahoma City University who was also known for his humorous quotes; St. Maries native and former New Orleans Saints general manager Randy Mueller; and former baseball umpire “Jocko” Conlan.

These days, organizers just hope to break even. Doc Lynn says it costs roughly $20,000 to put on the weekend each year — the Friday night gathering for the Hall of Fame inductees, their family and friends, and the committee members, and the Saturday banquet.

Organizers pay for two nights of rooms for the Hall of Famers when they get to town, and pay for 200 banquet tickets for the athletes. Income is derived from sponsor donations and sales of additional banquet tickets. If more donations came in, organizers would consider again bringing in guest speakers from out of the area.

They still have featured speakers, but they’re generally from the area to save costs.

Doc Lynn runs the banquet gratis.

“I get the bills to put on my credit card,” he said with a laugh.

Technically, he is the executive secretary. His son, John, is the secretary (“he does all the work,” Doc Lynn says).

In the earlier days, it was more of a true Idaho sports banquet. In 1973, among the finalists for team of the year was the Highland High football team of Pocatello, and the Boise State football team. Each team also had a finalist for Idaho male athlete of the year.

In 1987, College of Southern Idaho men’s basketball coach Fred Trenkle was a finalist for Idaho coach of the year. In 1993, Pocatello native Merrill Hoge was a finalist for Idaho pro athlete of the year, and a Capital High quarterback named Jake Plummer was up for Idaho male athlete of the year.

Some of the Hall of Fame inductees had no ties to North Idaho, like rodeo star Dee Pickett of Caldwell, and skier Picabo Street.

With this year’s class of five inductees, the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame will have 216 members.

In recent years, it has morphed into a North Idaho sports banquet, and the hall of fame inductees now have some sort of tie to North Idaho, or the University of Idaho.

In addition to making more high school athletes and their families a part of the banquet, organizers added a $500 scholarship they awarded for the first time last year. Panhandle State Bank chipped in another $500, so this year it’s a $1,000 scholarship named after the bank.

Lynn and Dobson both said if people have ideas to improve the banquet, they’d love to hear them.

IF YOU went to the banquet over the past decade and didn’t know who Doc Lynn was, certainly you noticed the guy in the pink sports coat.

His wife, Marietta, bought it for him about 7 or 8 years ago, and he wears it every year to the Saturday night banquet.

“I thought that would be a good place to wear it,” he said. “Only a few guys can wear pink.”

He had a red sports coat because that was one of Wallace High’s colors, and he had a green one because the banquet was right around the time of the Masters.

It turned him into a landmark of sorts on Saturday night.

If people couldn’t find where they were supposed to sit, they were told to “look for the guy in the pink coat,” Doc Lynn said.