LAWYER MILLOY – FOOTBALL
An immensely talented multi-sport athlete out of Tacoma’s Lincoln High School, Lawyer Milloy became an All-American football player at the University of Washington then an All-Pro and Super Bowl champion in the NFL.
Milloy was the top football recruit in the state of Washington as a high school senior, excelling as a running back and defensive back. He was also selected in the Major League Baseball draft as a high school senior. He played baseball for three seasons at UW and was again selected in the MLB draft, but it was the football field where his talent was brightest. As a junior at UW in 1995, he became one of only six Huskies football players to earn unanimous All-America selection.
He spent several years with the New England Patriots and was a key figure in their 2002 Super Bowl victory. Milloy was a four-time NFL Pro Bowl selection (1998, 1999, 2001, 2002). In 1999, he was a member of the elite NFL All-Pro team. He spent 15 seasons in the NFL, starting 213 games, including time with the Bills, Falcons and Seahawks as well.
GINNIE POWELL (CRAWFORD) – TRACK
From her time at Seattle’s Rainier Beach High to her peak as a world-class competitor, Ginnie Powell demonstrated elite sprint speed with the ability to gracefully clear hurdles along the way. She won nine individual-event state championships at WIAA meets. In July 2001, at a meet in Sacramento, her 100-meter hurdles time of 13.39 seconds was the fastest ever for a Washington high schooler. It has not been caught in more than 20 years.
Her talent on the track led her to the University of Southern California where she went undefeated in the 100-meter hurdles her junior and senior years and was a four-time NCAA champion. At the 2006 NCAA Championships, Powell broke Gail Devers’ collegiate record and set a world-leading time of 12.48 in the 100-meter hurdles.
Powell ran professionally with Nike as her sponsor for 10 years. She reached the sprint hurdles finals of the IAAF World Championships in 2007 and 2009, finishing 5th and 6th. With Team USA, she competed in 24 countries and was ranked in the top 10 in the world most of her career.
SID OTTON – FOOTBALL COACH
With remarkable longevity and commitment to teaching young athletes how to excel in football and life, Sid Otton became the winningest coach in Washington state history.
When he retired following the 2016 season, Otton had completed 51 years in coaching, 49 as a head coach, and won 394 games. He had taken over the lead in career coaching wins in 2005, extending the record to a height that may never be duplicated. It was the sort of career that earns fields named in your honor and statues at the stadium, as is the case in Tumwater.
From 1974 through 2016, Otton’s teams at Tumwater High advanced to the state playoffs 27 times, reached the championship game eight times and won five state titles (1987, 1989, 1990, 1993 and 2010). He also coached at Colfax and Coupeville. The 1971 Colfax team went 9-0 and was voted Associated Press state champions before there was an official playoff system.
Otton is a member of seven Halls of Fame and has earned numerous awards, including a national honor in 2007, the American Football Coaches Association “Power of Influence” Award.
GEORGE VARNELL – MULTI-SPORT PIONEER
For decades, George Varnell was a pioneer with an astonishing range across the sports landscape. He was a football running back at the University of Chicago and a track athlete at the 1904 St. Louis Olympics, the first Games with U.S. participants.
Varnell later moved West and became the first men’s basketball coach at Gonzaga, where he also was a football coach. He didn’t only compete and coach, he told stories as a long-time sports reporter and editor in Spokane and then for The Seattle Times. Further, he was among the most highly regarded college football referees in the first half of the 20th century. Varnell was selected as the referee of the Rose Bowl a record eight times between 1919 and 1937. At a time when referees were as well-known as players, Varnell was profiled in film, magazines, and newspapers.
In the 1930s, as a reporter at the Seattle Times covering University of Washington teams, Varnell brought attention to UW rowing excellence, including the 1936 “Boys in the Boat” team that won Olympic gold in Berlin.
Learn much more about Varnell’s life in Jeff Burlingame’s biography: George Varnell: The Life and Times of a Pioneering Sportsman
