Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Individual inductees or their family members Cindy Mack Jespersen (accepting for her late father, Coach Bob Mack), Travis Todd, Bruce Todd, Tom Schafer, Ryan Scrupps (accepting for his brother Chris Scrupps), Jennie Harp and Eric Walter were on hand to accept the awards for 2021. Kysa Cronrath Schaefer and Matt Cronrath were unable to attend.
Members of the 1954-55 and 1955-56 baseball teams that lost only a single game over that two year period: Jerry Walter, JP Luiten, Jim Martin and Jim Matsui. Team members Oscar Undeberg, Dick Gies and Bob Gies were unable to attend.
ODESSA – The Odessa Athletics Hall of Fame held its induction ceremony last Saturday in the Odessa High School gymnasium lobby. Nine individuals and two teams were celebrated at the event.
Attending the event in person to accept their awards were athletes Erik Walter (a 2004 OHS graduate), Jennie Harp (2006) and Travis Todd (2008). The award for Chris Scrupps (2003) was accepted by his brother Ryan Scrupps, as Chris is serving in the U.S. Army and was in the process of a transfer from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to Joint Base Lewis-McCord in Tacoma. The awards for Kysa Cronrath Schaefer (2006) and Matt Cronrath (2008) were awarded earlier because they had a prior family commitment.
Two coaches also received awards for their service to OHS athletics. Bruce Todd is still today the athletic director at Odessa High, so he and his son Travis were happy to both be inducted in the same year. Bruce graduated from Republic High School in 1984. Over his career at OHS, he has coached football, basketball and baseball. Coach Bob Mack spent only five years in Odessa, but he was always well remembered by the student athletes he coached during that time.
His daughter Cindy Mack Jespersen of Spokane accepted his posthumous award, telling the assembled guests that he kept photos of his winning Odessa teams on his desk no matter where the family moved on to in his teaching career.
Tom Schafer (1968) of Odessa was also on hand to accept his award as an athlete, coach and contributor to Odessa sports. He went on to compete in track events during his college days. He has coached basketball and youth sports through the years.
Only four members of the 1954-55 and 1955-56 OHS baseball teams were present to accept their awards, Jim Martin, JP Luiten, Jim Mitsui and Jerry Walter. In fact, many had already passed away. The two teams lost only one game over the two seasons. Their only loss was during the first season was in the championship game. But they came back and took the title the next year, playing many A schools in the process.
The presentations were made by Larry Weber, chairman of the Hall of Fame committee and Jon Heimbigner, vice-chair of the committee.
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