FRED “DOC” BOHLER – Coach (Basketball & Track)
Spent 42 years at Washington State University where he was the school’s first athletic director and coached basketball, baseball and track.
He coached the Cougars basketball team from 1908 to 1926, compiling a record of 226–177. Bohler’s 1916–17 team finished the season with a 25–1 record and was retroactively named the national champion by the Helms Athletic Foundation and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll. Bohler was also the head baseball coach at Washington State from 1916 to 1920, tallying a mark of 47–27–1.
Bohler Gymnasium on the WSU campus was named after him in 1946. He was the mayor of Pullman from 1948-1951.
AMOS RUSIE – Baseball
“The Hoosier Thunderbolt” had the most recognized fastball of 19th century Major League Baseball. He won 246 games and led the league in strikeouts five times in the 1890s for the New York Giants. This was before foul balls counted as strikes. Rusie pitched 3,778 innings in 10 seasons. He started more than 50 games five times, with a high of 62 starts in the pre-World Series era.
From his Society of American Baseball Research bio: “Connie Mack, whose major-league career spanned more than 60 years, saw all of the great fastball pitchers from Rusie to Feller. He batted against some and managed against the others. “Rusie was the fastest without a doubt,” Mack said. “Maybe that is because I had to hit against him. And they looked like peas as they sailed by me. All I saw of them was what I heard when they went into the catcher’s mitt.” “
Rusie’s Washington connection didn’t come until after his playing days. He lived in Seattle starting in 1911, working as a gas fitter for a lighting company and as a steamfitter in a shipyard. He returned to New York to work at the Polo Grounds before returning to Washington in 1929. He owned a chicken farm in Auburn that went bankrupt during the depression. A campaign by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and The Sporting News raised enough money for Rusie and his wife to live on the remainder of their lives. Rusie died in 1942 and is buried in Lake Forest Park.
PAUL SCHWEGLER – Football
An outstanding tackle from Raymond, Washington, Schwegler excelled on both offense and defense. In 1930 and ’31, he was the first two-time All-America selection at the University of Washington. He won numerous individual honors as a Husky athlete and he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1967.
FRANK FOYSTON – Hockey
“Flash” Foyston was a member of the 1917 Stanley Cup champion Seattle Metropolitans. Twice he lead the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in goals. He was inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958. Foyston scored seven goals and added three assists to help the Metropolitans win the Stanley Cup in four games against the Montreal Canadiens in 1917. It was the first time an American team had won the Stanley Cup. He had 36 goals and 12 assists in 24 games during the regular season in 1917.
In 1918–19, Foyston scored 15 goals in 18 regular season games, and three goals in two playoff games, as Seattle advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals, again vs. Montreal. Foyston scored nine goals in five games before the series was halted and not resumed due to the influenza epidemic. The following season, Foyston again led Seattle to the Stanley Cup Finals. He scored six goals in five games. scored 26 goals in 22 regular season games, and three goals in two playoff games, as Seattle advanced to the 1920 Stanley Cup Finals. In the Finals, he had six goals in five games against the Ottawa Senators who took the Cup three games to two.
In his career, he won the Stanley Cup with three different teams. Originally from Ontario, he died in Seattle in 1966.
BILL MUNCEY – Boat racing
Bill Muncey started racing on the Unlimited Hydroplane circuit in 1949 and won 62 races. A record that stood for decades. Muncey won eight Gold Cups (1956, 1957, 1961, 1962, 1972, 1977, 1978, 1979), seven U.S. championships (1960, 1961, 1962, 1972, 1976, 1978, 1979] and four World Championships (1968, 1969, 1972, and 1980). He was named the driver of the year seven times. Muncey won Seattle’s Seafair hydro race nine times between 1957 and 1980. He died in a blowover accident during a race in Acapulco in 1981. He was inducted in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2004.
More details can be found in this article about Muncey’s career on the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum website.
