Ed Keim announced sporting events for the Pirates from 1960 to 2006 on the radio. For his work, he was inducted into the Marshfield High School Hall of Fame on Saturday. Also honored with induction to the hall during the evening were Don Megale, Ed Fredenburg, C. Kent Garner, Stephen B. Garner, Janet (Stamper) Holland, Kristy Johnston and the 1956 state championship football team coached by Pete Susick. World Photo by Lou Sennick.

None of the individuals inducted into the Marshfield High School Athletic Hall of Fame Saturday night wanted very much to talk about themselves.

Sure, there was plenty of reminiscing about past glory.

But on a night set aside specifically to honor these inductees, they in turn heaped praise on the coaches, teachers, friends and family they said made them the people they are today.

Inductee Janet Stamper-Holland — who was a swimming champion and volleyball player for MHS, and went on to compete at Arizona State and later had a successful career as a triathlete — used a good chunk of her acceptance speech to thank former coaches Ralph Mohr and Cherry Blaine.

“I only hope I’m half the coach and half the teacher as those two,” said the 1977 MHS graduate. “I just feel so blessed to be here.”

Others didn’t have the same trouble honoring the 2008 inductees, however.

“Stampers never give an inch,” said Mohr repeatedly of Stamper-Holland, as he introduced her to the nearly 400 people in attendance. “I imagine women showing up for triathlons and saying, ‘Is Janet here? Oh, she is. Who am I going to try and beat for second place?’”

Tennis star Don Megale, another inductee, waited 60 years to take the podium and thank everyone who’d helped him along the way as he led the Pirates to three undefeated seasons, and won 16 tennis titles as a singles player and led the squad to two second-place state finishes.

“It was the coaches who made Marshfield High School a top tennis team in the state,” said 78-year-old Megale, a 1948 MHS graduate.

After his Marshfield career, Megale went on to play for the Air Force, become head tennis coach at Oregon State University and a nationally-ranked USTA seniors player.

“He has earned the right to be known as the first, best tennis player to come out of Marshfield High School,” said Athletic Director Greg Mulkey as he introduced Megale.

“I’ve been around plenty of championships,” said Megale, who went on to  in closing. “And this is truly a highlight.”

Saturday night also saw the induction of a pair of wrestling greats, brothers Kent and Stephen Garner.

Older brother Kent Garner (graduated 1964) was the first-ever wrestling champion for MHS, winning the 141-pound class and barely beating to the punch his now-brother-in-law, Lane Smith, who won the school’s second championship ten minutes later in 1964.

“We’d never had a state champion,” said Kent Garner. “Now we had two.”

Kent Garner went on to study and wrestle at Princeton and embark on a successful career in civic and professional organizations after attaining a graduate degree in business from University of California Berkeley.

Younger brother Stephen Garner (1968 graduate) was honored not only for his MHS wrestling career but also his focus on his studies.

“If they had a word in the dictionary, a word that meant ‘student-athlete,’ Steve Garner would be there,” said Mulkey of the man who also attended Princeton before going on to earn several graduate degrees and start his own marketing company.  

Steve Garner chalked much of his success up to the toughness he gained from wrestling.

“It’s a very primal, internal sport,” he said of wrestling. “It’s very solitary. I remember many matches going in where I had no interest in the basics of life... Except maybe I would’ve eaten a hamburger. A wrestler is always hungry.”

And, as was the theme for the night, both Garner brothers spent plenty of time talking about the strength past coaches had given them, particularly John Dustin, who was Marshfield’s wrestling coach by Kent Garner’s junior year.

“There’s a lot of talk about mental toughness, but John was a true believer,” said Kent Garner. “He did everything he could to ensure we were mentally tough.”

Steve Garner added that Dustin believed, “If you can beat their head, you can beat their body.”

Marshfield basketball player Ed Fredenburg, a 1963 graduate, led the Pirates to a second-place finish in 1962 and helped avoid coach Bruce Hoffine’s only losing season by winning the final four games in 1963 to end up 11-11.

He then took his game to OSU as a walk-on, and was starting center for the Beavers from 1964-67.

Fredenburg, standing too tall for the microphone, said he fell in love with basketball as a boy watching the Pirates.

“I became a basketball enthusiast,” he said. “The problem was, I had no talent, no skills... I couldn’t jump, I couldn’t shoot, and I couldn’t dribble. One talent I have — and my wife might disagree with this — I’m a good listener ... I learned the fundamentals.”

Fredenburg went on to be a solid center, known for his rebounding, shot-blocking and nasty screen-setting for an OSU team that featured All-American point guard Jim Jarvis and won the Pac-8 in 1966.

Mulkey said Jim Jarvis had told him, “I never would have been an All-American if it hadn’t been for Ed Fredenburg. He set the most vicious screens.”

Stellar distance runner, 1983 MHS graduate and inductee Kristy Johnston opened the evening with thanks.

“All the way through, I’ve had such great help,” she said. “It’s an honor to be up here. I’m humbled.”

Johnston tied for first in state in the 3,000-meter run in 1983, went on to be a five-time NAIA All-American runner and the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials runner up in 2000. She wasn’t allowed to compete in the Sydney Olympics because she didn’t have the ‘A’ standard for the marathon. Johnston also won the 1994 Chicago Marathon as well as the 1993 Houston Marathon, and was a fifth-place alternate in the 1996 Olympic Trials.

“There’s no doubt Kristy is one of the best to ever come out of Marshfield High School,” said Mulkey. “It was her work and goals after high school that earned her a trip to this stage.”

All of the individual inductees Saturday night weren’t being recognized as athletes.

Ed Keim, a Marshfield sports announcer from 1960-2006 — “The voice of the Pirates” — also took a trip to the podium.

“I still can’t believe this is real here tonight. This happens once in a lifetime,” said an emotional Keim. “I broadcast my first Pirates game in 1960 and since then, there have been no regrets. The most important thing in my career has been the priceless satisfaction of giving athletes the support and recognition they deserve, through tough times and the good ones.”

Keim spent most of the past decade broadcasting Marshfield baseball and girls basketball games on the school’s KMHS station.

“He thought the world of every individual,” said Mulkey of Keim. “And he showed it through his microphone.”

The night ended with the induction of the entire 1956 state championship football team. The squad went 11-0-1 on the year, smashing Medford 40-19 to bring home the title.

Sadly, none of the team’s coaches were present, but more than 20 members of the squad, along with wives and children representing members not present, accepted the honor.

And the night ended as it began, with athletes giving praise to their coaches, especially the legendary Pete Susick, who coached the 1956 team and died within the past year.

“This was a great team because we learned from those guys, our coaches,” said 1956 quarterback Clayton Smith, who also added a message for the members of this year’s incoming Marshfield football team who were on hand to help with the event. “Your coaches are the key to your career and your career beyond high school. You guys running around here in purple shirts remember that.”