Category: Sports

For one of the world’s most accomplished athletes, nothing has come easy. By Charles E. Reineke It was raining as EWU student and Team USA Paralympian Jaleen Roberts settled into the starting blocks at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium — a light but steady downpour, just like the PNW showers she’d trained in back home.  The 2020…

After three decades on the job, Dave Cook, Eastern’s longest-serving director of sports information, exits the press box. By Dave Meany For more than 30 years, the name Dave Cook has been synonymous with EWU Athletics. Some would say, despite his understated style, that he was the most influential person in the department. As EWU’s…

Since 2016, Eastern admissions staff members have partnered with Spokane Public Schools and local-business donors to bring red and black Eagle sweatshirts — and big, beautiful smiles — to local fifth graders.   The hoodie project, started five years ago by an anonymous EWU alumnus, involves Eastern staff and students visiting regional elementary schools, handing…

Eastern students and alumni are used to attacking rims at Spokane Hoopfest. Now they’re bringing the backboards.   Hoopfest, the massive three-on-three basketball gathering that modestly bills itself as the “Best Basketball Experience on Earth,” now counts EWU as a major sponsor. To celebrate, three university design students, Matthew Barden, Tannor Glumbick and Delaney Umemoto,…

Eastern’s head basketball coach accepts the top job at the University of Portland. By Charles E. Reineke Following Eastern’s Big Sky Conference Tournament championship — and a spirited near-miss against the University of Kansas in the first round of March Madness — men’s basketball head coach Shantay Legans announced he was leaving EWU for the…

A Big Sky Tournament Championship, and a third March Madness appearance, cap a Covid-plagued season to remember. By Paul Delaney   Last March, after EWU’s men’s basketball team won the Big Sky Conference regular season title, it seemed only a matter of time until the Eagles punched their ticket to their third NCAA Tournament berth.…

David Riley spent almost a decade as an EWU assistant. Now it’s his turn to lead.   David Riley ’13, a longtime EWU assistant, on March 25 was named to succeed his former boss, Shantay Legans, as the new head coach of the Eagles men’s basketball team. The upcoming 2021-22 season will be Riley’s 11th…

A recent EWU grad is poised to make his mark on biochemistry By Leilah Langley John Vant ’18 would be the first to admit that his decision to attend Eastern Washington University had little to do with academics. The Montana native, now 26, says he enrolled at Eastern mostly because the university’s rec center had…

H. George Frederickson, former EWU president, led dramatic advancements in academics, athletics and fundraising. By Eastern Magazine George Frederickson, the revered former president of Eastern Washington University who led dramatic advancements in academics, athletics and fundraising, died on July 24 in Lawrence, Kansas. He was 86. Over the university’s long history, few individuals have had…

In February, EWU hosted the USA National Curling Championships. By Eastern Magazine Back in February, just weeks before the coronavirus upended athletic competitions across the globe, the EWU Recreation Center for the first time played host to the USA Curling National Championships. The weeklong competition featured the nation’s top men’s and women’s curling sides, each…