NORTH IDAHO ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME: Mueller, Bopp, Eggers, Ross-Mattox to be inducted
COEUR d’ALENE — A former pro football front office administrator for four decades, one of University of Idaho’s most decorated track athletes, and two individuals who have had a big influence on high school sports in North Idaho are the 2024 inductees into the North Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame, NIAHF officials announced.
Randy Mueller, who has worked for seven professional football teams, retired high school and college basketball official Bill Bopp, Olympian Jackie Ross-Mattox, who still holds UI track records, and former Deary High athlete, football coach and school administrator Darrah Eggers are the honorees this year.
The four will be inducted during the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet, which is set for Saturday, April 6, at The Coeur d’Alene Resort.
Tickets for the banquet, which also features North Idaho high school and college awards, are $39 each and can be purchased online either by going to https://ci.ovationtix.com/35849/production/1154078 or at www.nihof.org after Tuesday, March 12, and clicking on the ”Purchase Tickets” brown box. Reserved tables for eight also can be purchased for $400.
Former University of Idaho and NFL standout Mark Schlereth will be the featured speaker.
Current and former student-athletes from North Idaho high schools and colleges also will be honored that night. The finalists for each award will be announced later this week. Each student-athlete nominated for an award that night can obtain a free ticket to the banquet. Information on how to obtain that ticket will be announced at the same time as the finalists.
Mueller has been around professional football for four decades. Born and raised in St. Maries, he played quarterback for the Lumberjacks and then at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore. As a senior in 1982 at Linfield, he led his team to the NAIA Division II national championship and was named MVP of the title game.
A year later, Mueller began his pro football front office career as an assistant in pro personnel with the Seattle Seahawks. In 1990, he was promoted to pro personnel director, and then in 1995, he became the team’s vice president of football operations.
In 2000, Mueller became the general manager of football operations for the New Orleans Saints. In his first year, the team qualified for the playoffs and won its first-ever playoff game. As a result, he was named the Sporting News NFL Executive of the Year.
During 2002-05, Mueller was an NFL analyst for ESPN before the Miami Dolphins made him their general manager. In 2008, he began a 10-year career as the senior executive for football operations for the San Diego Chargers.
In 2018, Mueller was hired by the Salt Lake Stallions of the new Alliance of American Football. After the AAF folded, he joined another fledgling league in the XFL, becoming the Houston Roughnecks' director of pro personnel in 2019, and later with the Seattle Dragons in 2022. In January this year, it was announced the Sea Dragons would not be a part of the UFL merger.
Bopp was a high school basketball official for 36 years before he retired in 2021. He also spent more than a dozen years officiating college games.
Bopp, who lives in Cocolalla, graduated from Sandpoint High in 1978 and began officiating games in 1984. During his time, he worked roughly 38 Idaho high school state tournaments, including 20 boys tournaments and 18 on the girls side. He probably would have worked more if not for a rule that prohibited referees from working more than one state tournament each year.
Bopp also officiated junior college basketball games in the area during the 1990s and early 2000s before going back to doing only high school games.
He did miss the 2004-05 season officiating because he dislocated his hip after an ATV accident while elk hunting.
In 2022, he received the IHSAA Distinguished Service Award for District 1.
Mattox is a 10-time Big Sky Conference champion. Born in Kingston, the capital city of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Mattox attended UI during 1989-83. She is a three-time Big Sky champ in both the outdoor and indoor triple jump, a two-time winner in the indoor high jump, and also won titles in the outdoor long jump and pentathlon.
She was named the Big Sky’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Year three consecutive seasons and was chosen to the conference’s All-Decade Team for the 1990s.
She set several schools records along the way and still holds the Vandal mark in the indoor and outdoor triple jumps, and formerly held her country’s outdoor triple jump mark.
Mattox became the first woman for St. Vincent and the Grenadines to compete in the Summer Olympics and finished 26th in the long jump in the 1988 Games. She also competed in two NCAA national indoor championships in the triple jump.
Mattox received the St. Vincent National Heritage Achievement Award in 1995 and was inducted into the UI Hall of Fame in 2014.
Mattox currently works as an RN as a nursing home infection preventionist at Northpointe in Spokane.
Eggers was a multi-sport standout at Deary High. He grew up in Boville, where he built high jump and long jump pits in the backyard, along with a two-lane 35-meter sprint area. That work paid off when he won the national 12-13-year-old high jump and pentathlon titles, setting a national record in the latter.
At Deary, Eggers was a four-year letterwinner in football, basketball and track. He won the state Class A-4 long jump title as a sophomore and also wound up third in the decathlon at a national meet. In football, he earned all-state honors his junior and senior years and was named the Idaho Statesman’s Player of the Year as a senior.
Eggers played running back at Spokane Falls Community College for two years and then transferred to UI, but numerous ankle surgeries cut his career short.
Eggers then started his 32-year teaching and coaching career at Clearwater Valley High in Kooskia where he was head football and track coach for four years, head basketball coach for two years and assistant basketball coach for two years.
In 1992, he accepted a teaching and head football coach position at his alma mater. The Mustangs averaged eight wins a season during his 15 years, making the playoffs 11 times. The team played in six straight state title games and won three, and two of his teams were honored as the North Idaho Hall of Fame’s Team of the Year. He also assisted with the boys basketball and track teams for five seasons.
In 1999, Eggers became principal and athletic director at Deary, positions he held for 20 years. He was a member of the District 2 Board of Control for the Idaho High School Activities Association for 20 years and received the IHSAA Distinguished Service Award in 2020. Eggers also spent five years working for BSN Sports selling athletic supplies to area schools. He retired last May.
For more information on the North Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame or the banquet, contact Rick Rasmussen at Rick.Rasmussen@surgerypartners.com or 208 699-7495.
Randy Mueller
Darrah Eggers
Jackie Ross-Mattox