The Front Row with MARK NELKE Jan. 27, 2013
When I'm able to plow through the accumulated mess of a newspaper storage area, it's always a little nostalgic to thumb through old papers from way back when.
The other day, I was looking up stuff from early 1983 and '84 - shortly after I first started covering sports in North Idaho.
There was a mention of some kid named Jim Winger hitting a couple key free throws to help the Coeur d'Alene junior varsity boys basketball team knock off Mullan.
And there were others.
SO, I wondered who might have been in the paper 25 years ago that people might still remember today.
We'll start with the Sunday, Jan. 24, 1988, paper, back when it was called the North Idaho Sunday, and covered teams throughout District 1. Before that, the Daily Bee in Sandpoint published afternoons Monday through Friday, and the Coeur d'Alene Press came out every day but Sunday. In 1984, the North Idaho Sunday was born.
Some nuggets from that 1988 paper:
* Kurt Lundblad, the former Coeur d'Alene High star, scored 34 points as North Idaho College defeated the visiting College of Eastern Utah 92-77 in Scenic West Athletic Conference men's basketball at Christianson Gym.
"A lot of what we do depends on how he is playing," NIC coach Rolly Williams was quoted as saying.
"He won the game for them," CEU coach Ron Stubbs said.
The College of Eastern Utah is now Utah State-Eastern. And the court at Christianson Gym has since been named after Williams.
* NIC's wrestling team, ranked No. 1 in the NJCAA - imagine that! - improved to 16-0 by downing No. 11 North Dakota School of Science 39-5, No. 17 Bismarck 34-6 and Dickinson State 35-3. Ernie Molina, at 118 pounds, started each dual by winning by decision for the Cardinals.
* Sandpoint's boys won 70-67 at Post Falls in overtime in Inland Empire League play. That was long before there was a 5A IEL and a 4A IEL.
Bret Williams and Jay Van Den Berg hit baskets early in overtime to put the Bulldogs ahead, and Cameron Lumsden and Cliff Anderson sealed the win with free throws late. Brent Schlotthauer hit two free throws with 1:03 left to tie the game at 61 and force OT for Post Falls, which outscored Sandpoint 18-5 in the fourth quarter. Anderson led all scorers with 21. Coaches were Duane Ward (Sandpoint) and Hugh Hobus (Post Falls).
• Wallace’s boys beat Kellogg 78-73 in Intermountain League play before a standing-room-only crowd at Andrews Gymnasium in Kellogg. Tom Cuthbert scored 26 points, Robb Jones 22 for Wallace. Brad Cougher led Kellogg with 19. Kellogg is still in the IML; Wallace dropped down years ago and is now in the 1A North Star League.
• Darla Smith scored 20 points as coach Greg Crimp’s NIC’s women’s team beat Eastern Utah 83-52. Shelly Steigelman, whose daughter Kabri Emerson plays for this year’s Cardinals team, added 19 points.
• Kenny Luckett scored 23 points as Idaho won 64-63 at Montana in a Big Sky Conference game. Montana forward Wayne Tinkle, who is now the coach, also scored 23 for the Griz.
And wouldn’t you know it? Though the Vandals would leave that conference eight years later, that matchup will once again be a Big Sky game next year.
• Brian Wright scored 11 of his game-high 17 points in the second half to lead Washington State past Oregon State 56-49 in Pullman.
Brian Wright?
Some guy named Gary Payton led the Beavers with 11 points. A quarter-century later, his son took the court in Coeur d’Alene against NIC as a member of the Salt Lake Community College squad.
• A couple of days later, the Press ran the weekly rec basketball roundup. Among the familiar names listed: Kent Scanlon, Jim Benson, Bob Burton, Jack Foster, Loren Schmidt, Mark Simon, Park Singer, Darren Taylor, Darrell Dlouhy and Carl Couser. Also in the roundup was Duane Nordgaarden, playing for a Sandpoint team entered in the Cd’A “A” league, who scored 26 points in a loss to Simon’s team. Simon scored 28.
• At the bottom of the front page in Sports in that Sunday paper that year was a column by some goofball who was still working in Sandpoint at the time.
He wrote about a former Clark Fork High standout who had just completed his rookie season as a tight end with the San Francisco 49ers. Their season was cut short by an upset loss to the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC divisional playoffs — a loss that still irritates me.
Oh well. The following year, the ex-Wampus Cat would win a Super Bowl with the Niners.
Years later, after the reporter made the move to Coeur d’Alene, he would catch up with Ron Heller from time to time when news warranted out of 49er land.
Who knew?
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.