CHRIS HENDERSON – SOCCER
Chris Henderson’s career arc from amateur standout to national team and professional success and on to the heights of his sport as a team executive is remarkable. His ability on the soccer pitch at Everett’s Cascade High led to two state championships and two Parade All-American honors. From there, it was a spot on the U.S. Youth Soccer National Team and a college career at UCLA. As a midfielder, he led the Bruins to the NCAA title in 1990. Henderson represented the U.S. Men’s National Team 79 times in his career from 1990-2001. He was one of just three collegiate players chosen to join the U.S. squad for the 1990 FIFA World Cup and was also on the 1992 Olympic team in Barcelona. Henderson tallied three goals and 10 assists in his national team career. European pro soccer came before a long stint in Major League Soccer. Playing for five different MLS clubs from 1996-2006, he scored 55 goals and added 85 assists. When he retired, he was the all-time league leader in games played with 317. Since then, he has had club leadership roles. During 12 seasons with the Seattle Sounders, the club made the playoffs every year, including a five-year run from 2016-2020, when the team made four MLS Cup Final appearances, winning in 2016 and 2019. After a stint in Miami, Henderson is now the Chief Soccer Officer and Sporting Director of the MLS Atlanta United FC.
LORI ANN HENRY – SOCCER
Defensive players don’t accumulate attention-getting statistics. Instead, team wins and teammates respect defined one of the pioneers of women’s soccer in the United States. Lori Henry excelled at Shorewood High before becoming a standout at one of the most successful women’s college sports programs in history. With Henry anchoring the defense, the University of North Carolina won three NCAA championships without losing a game. She was a two-time, first-team All-American and the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year in 1987. In 1988, she was named to the All-NCAA Tournament team. While at UNC, in 1985, she became one of the members of the first-ever U.S. national women’s soccer team. Her teammates selected her as U.S. team captain for three years. She was the only team member who played in the first USWNT game in 1985 who was still with the team when the U.S. won the World Cup in 1991. The U.S. beat Norway in front of 63,000 fans in China. Henry played 39 international matches for the U.S. before retiring in 1991. She was a member of Soccer America’s All-Decade Team of the 1980s. Later, she was the first women’s soccer head coach at Ohio State University, before returning to Shoreline to be a P.E. teacher.
MARK HENDRICKSON – BASEBALL/BASKETBALL
Mark Hendrickson is one of only 13 athletes ever to play in both the NBA and Major League Baseball. He is the only one to do it in the past 40 years and the only one to play at least four seasons in each league. A 6-foot-9 forward on the basketball court and a left-handed pitcher in baseball, Hendrickson exhibited two-sport stardom back to his high school days when he led Mount Vernon to two state basketball championships (1991, 1992) and two state baseball championships (1990, 1992). He was a 13th-round baseball draft pick in 1992 but headed to Washington State University focused on basketball. He was a two-time, first-team all-Pac-10 selection. When he concluded his WSU basketball career in 1996, he was second for career rebounds (927) and third for points (1,496). He was the 31st overall pick in the 1996 draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. He played 114 NBA games with four teams. He had pitched eight games at WSU as a junior and MLB scouts kept drafting him. He signed with the Toronto Blue Jays, playing some minor league ball while still in the NBA. In 2002, he made his Major League debut. He was a full-time starting pitcher for three seasons with Toronto and Tampa Bay. He continued for 10 seasons in the majors, winning 58 games. He also hit the first home run by a pitcher in the history of the Toronto Blue Jays.
JOHN CLAYTON – MEDIA
John Clayton re-defined how the media covers the NFL as the most connected reporter in the country. Clayton covered the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune for over 10 years but developed national recognition when he became the lead NFL reporter at ESPN in 1995. His writing, TV and radio segments shared insider knowledge of the NFL and brought a generation of fans closer to the players and teams. From a career that began covering the Pittsburgh Steelers while he was in high school and college, Clayton earned so much respect around the league that, in 2007, he received the Bill Nunn Memorial Award and induction into media wing of the NFL Hall of Fame. In addition to his coverage for the Tacoma News Tribune, Clayton hosted “Sports Saturday” on Seattle’s KJR radio and later moved to ESPN 710 radio continuing his popular call-in show. After exiting ESPN in 2017, he was a sideline reporter for Seattle Seahawks games for five seasons.
Upon his death in 2022, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell honored Clayton as a “wonderful person” who “earned my tremendous respect and admiration as a journalist. For five decades, he covered the league with endless energy and professionalism.”
CHRISTAL (MORRISON) ENGLE – VOLLEYBALL
Christal Morrison is the only player in the storied history of the University of Washington volleyball program to be a four-time American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American selection (1st-team junior and senior seasons, 3rd-team as a sophomore and 2nd-team as a freshman). An outside hitter from Puyallup, Morrison was the first Husky to be named first-team All-Pac 10 all four years (2004-2007). She left UW as the Huskies career leader in kills (1,859, now second) and points (2,188.0 still first), third in aces (142), seventh in digs (1,154), and 10th in total blocks (294). As a sophomore in 2005, she led Washington to its first national title and was named the NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player. Her efforts earned her recognition as the Seattle Post Intelligencer Sports Star of the Year. UW advanced to the national semifinals in three of her four seasons.
After college, four seasons on the pro beach volleyball circuit took her around the world. Morrison was inducted into the Husky Hall of Fame in 2014. At Puyallup High School, she was named Washington’s Gatorade Player of the Year and played on the U.S. Junior National Team that won a silver medal at the 2002 NORCECA Junior Continental Championships.
CHINOOK PASS — THOROUGHBRED
More than 40 years since its peak prowess, Chinook Pass remains in the discussion regarding the fastest thoroughbreds ever. In September 1982 at Longacres in Renton, Chinook Pass ran what still stands as the swiftest five furlongs ever run on dirt, 55 1/5 seconds. That same year, he also equaled three other track or course records, for five furlongs at Hollywood in 56 seconds in the Meteor Handicap on grass; 5 1/2 furlongs at Longacres in 1:02.40; and six furlongs at Santa Anita in 1:07.60 while winning the Palos Verde Handicap. The Enumclaw-raised horse won the 1983 Eclipse Award as the nation’s champion sprinter. Chinook Pass remains the only Washington-bred horse ever to win a national award. That’s why it was later named Washington’s Horse of the Century. Horse racing Hall of Fame jockey Laffit Pincay Jr., who rode Chinook Pass to seven stakes victories, once paid the gelding the highest praise: “Affirmed (1978 Triple Crown winner) was the best horse I ever rode, but Chinook Pass was the fastest.”
Chinook Pass started 25 races, winning 16 and taking second four times. Chinook Pass retired after winning the Longacres Mile by six lengths in 1983. Chinook Pass was bred and owned by Ed Purvis’s Hi Yu Stables and was raised and trained at Dewaine Moore’s Rainer Stables. Bud Kiokstad was the lead trainer for all but the last five races, which were overseen by Laurie Anderson.
During the retired years with post-racing career owner Jill Hallin.