Anchorage Daily News

Mount Marathon powerhouse, Olympic skier and all-round tough girl Nina Kemppel was overcome by emotion during her acceptance speech Thursday night at the induction ceremony for the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame.

Aging runner Doug Herron found it harder to thank his parents than to run 800 meters so hard and so fast that more than two decades ago he set a record that still stands and might, as former Anchorage Mayor Rick Mystrom observed, stand forever.

The family of Metlakatla's Wally Leask gathered together on the Hall's podium in front of more than 300 people in the ConocoPhillips Alaska Atrium to celebrate the life of a man who, back in his day, was the state's greatest athlete only to fade almost out of sight as times changed and Alaska grew.

Crippled by stroke and confined to a wheelchair, former lieutenant governor and Alaska Baseball League founding father Red Boucher reminded the crowd his motto has always been simple: "Never give up.''

It was a philosophy he shared with another Hall inductee who wasn't around to speak for himself anymore, Col. Norman Vaughan. But Carolyn Muegge-Vaughan, the wife of the late, great musher, was there to note the real significance of the ageless adventurer who went out still fighting at the age of 100.

"What he gave us was inspiration,'' she said.

So did they all, Mystrom noted.

An all-grown-up Hilary Lindh, who won Olympic silver in the downhill in her youth, pretty well underlined that when she recalled how one of her fondest memories was picking up the phone in her Juneau home after her return from the games to find an elderly Alaska Native from "up north," as she called it, saying he wanted to congratulate her for what she'd done for everyone in the state.

Noting Alaska's diversity, she observed, "it's a truly amazing place.''

An amazing place made only more so by some of the people who have survive what it can throw at pitiful humans. Four of them took the stage to end the evening. They were the survivors of the first winter ascent of Mount McKinley by a mixed team of French, English and American climbers.

One of the group, Art Davidson, became famous by writing a book about it, "Minus 148 Degrees.''

But, as he noted, he never would have been given that opportunity if Dave Johnston and others with him on the mountain hadn't saved his life, as he in turn helped save the lives of others.

Climbing might not be much like most other sports, Davidson said. "We don't have a championship.'' There is, however, a team, and the McKinley team demonstrated "you can do much more when you pull together,'' he said.

They were all pulling together Thursday night to try to promote sports in Alaska.

Along with the five individuals added to the Hall's roster -- Boucher, Kemppel, Leask, Lindh and Vaughan -- Herron's national-best run of 1:49.2 in the 800 meters in 1985 and the 1967 winter ascent of McKinley entered the record as great Alaska moments.

And the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics (WEIO) was recognized as a Hall-worthy event, joining the Iditarod and the Great Alaska Shootout. Since its inception in 1961, WEIO has grown into an internationally famous event that celebrates Alaska's indigenous games and their athletes.

Here's a little about each of the new inductees:

• H.A. "Red" Boucher founded the Alaska Goldpanners in Fairbanks and helped push Alaska baseball into national prominence in the 1960's. One of many future big leaguers to play for Boucher was Tom Seaver who observed that Boucher instilled such a sense of unity and pride in his players "that there still remains a feeling of brotherhood among us fortunate enough to have played for him."

• Nina Kemppel from Anchorage raced in four Olympics and won 18 national championships, but she may be as well know in Alaska for winning Seward's Mount Marathon a record nine times.

• Wally Leask from Metlakatla helped the University of Washington basketball team he captained into the Elite Eight in 1943, but was called away before the tournament started to train as a U.S. Army aviator. With Leask gone, the team faltered. After the war, Leask played professionally for a time but eventually turned down offers to play for the Minneapolis Lakers in favor of a higher paying job that would support his family. He died in 2004 at the age of 84.

• Hilary Lindh from Juneau had an alpine racing career that included the first World Junior Championships downhill title won by an American, the 1992 Olympic silver medal in the downhill, the 1997 world championship gold medal in the downhill, three World Cup victories and 27 top-10 World Cup finishes during an 11-year career.

• Norman Vaughan is simply an Alaska legend. The Harvard graduate was with Admiral Byrd at the South Pole from 1928-1932, competed as a sprint-dog musher in the 1932 Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., drove dog teams to rescue airmen downed in Greenland during World War II, and -- still lusting after adventure -- moved to Alaska at the age of 68 to "start a new life." He subsequently ran the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race 13 times.

Find Craig Medred online at adn.com/contact/cmedred or call 257-4588.

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