Blaine Hall of Fame to induct seven new members, ’99 and ’00 basketball teams

The Blaine High School Athletic Booster Club is set to hold its fourth annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday, October 14 at 1 p.m. at the Blaine Performing Arts Center.

This year’s class of inductees includes seven athletes ranging from Ted Hanson (class of 1929) to Heidi Kuttel Burke (class of 2000), to the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 boys basketball team that won back-to-back state titles under head coach Rob Ridnour and his son, former NBA journeyman Luke Ridnour.

“They were a really good unit, a solid team,” Gary Clausen, chairman of the Blaine Hall of Fame, said of the boys basketball team. “Of course, Luke [Ridnour] was obviously the leader, but everybody did what they were supposed to do, and that’s what made them a little bit unique.”

That team is the only Blaine squad to win a state championship in basketball, and no Borderite basketball team has come anywhere near back-to-back state championships before or since, Clausen said.

Finding information for athletes who competed nearly 100 years ago can be a daunting task for the booster club, Clausen said. 

Some volunteer researchers have to dig through state archives, get in touch with family members of deceased honorees, and fact-check every bit of half-remembered information.

“We can’t just take someone’s word, we got to have some kind of proof,” Clausen said. “With Ted Hanson, we knew he won the district discus and was supposed to go to state the next week, but we couldn’t find anything, so we couldn’t put it in [the ceremony].”

Scrupulous fact-checking aside, this class of inductees shows the range of pre- and post-Title IX athletics in Blaine, and the long history of both stellar athletes and community members.

Inductees Heidi Kuttel Burke and Jim Jorgensen both coached local youth sports and earned degrees in education from WWU, and Wayne Schouten coached youth basketball for over 27 years in Blaine.

Clausen said that the success that Blaine sees at the high school level only happens with a strong support system for youth sports. 

“A lot of it is with the programs that encourage and give the kids the time and opportunity to get in there and participate and learn from a younger age,” Clausen said.