When longtime CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz was requested if he would introduce Fred {Couples}, his shut buddy and faculty roommate on the ninetieth annual Seattle Sports activities Star of the 12 months Awards, it took him this lengthy to resolve:
“A nanosecond,” Nantz stated.
{Couples}, the Seattle native and a World Golf Corridor of Famer, was given the Royal Brougham Lifetime Achievement Award on Thursday evening on the Seattle Conference Middle, one of many highlights of the occasion celebrating the realm’s prime athletes.
“I’m very shy, so Jim Nantz stated he would come and sit with me,” stated {Couples}, the 1992 Masters winner, earlier than the ceremony. “Speeches are usually not my forte, and there’s going be 1,200 individuals right here, and that’s so much to try to impress. … It’s an enormous honor, and I’m actually excited for tonight. And for Jim Nantz to come back out and sit with me — he’s been a buddy endlessly — means so much.”
Nantz, who performed golf with {Couples} on the College of Houston, stated it was “by no means going to be something aside from I might be there.”
“This implies so much to him,” stated Nantz, who additionally launched {Couples} when he entered the World Golf Corridor of Fame in 2013. “He was so proud to be a Beacon Hill child raised proper within the shadows of downtown, and to be coming again residence right here and be acknowledged like this implies so much.”
The Sports activities Star of the 12 months for males’s sports activities was Mariners star catcher Cal Raleigh; the Sports activities Star of the 12 months for girls’s sports activities was U.S. gold medal gymnast Jordan Chiles from Vancouver, Wash.
The Sports activities Story of the 12 months was Kraken assistant coach Jessica Campbell, the primary feminine to teach within the NHL.
Former Seahawks operating again Marshawn Lynch was awarded the Paul G. Allen Award for philanthropic contribution, former ESPN broadcaster Kenny Mayne acquired the Keith Jackson Award for media excellence, and 8-year-old Harper Wilson, who loves lacrosse and is battling leukemia, was given the Wayne Gittinger Inspirational Youth Award.
Seahawks president Chuck Arnold acquired the Sports activities Chief of the 12 months Award and the Sports activities Fairness & Inclusion Award was given to Skate Like a Lady group.
Raleigh took a break from spring coaching to obtain his award, saying he can be again in Arizona on Friday to rejoin the Mariners.
“I simply need to thank my teammates, with out them this might not be potential, and clearly my coaches and my nice group as nicely,” Raleigh stated. “I’m very proud to be a Mariner and actually trying ahead to this 12 months. … Lastly, I need to thank the followers. With out the followers, now we have nothing to play for. It’s vital to look ahead, to convey the World Collection to town quickly.”
Chiles, who spoke to the gang by way of a livestream, received a gold medal as a part of the successful U.S. group in Paris final 12 months and a bronze medal within the ground train.
“To be named Sports activities Star of the 12 months for girls’s sports activities in a metropolis that has meant a lot to me is past particular,” Chiles stated. “This previous 12 months has had a few of the most difficult and rewarding moments of my profession, from representing my nation on the world levels to pushing myself additional than I ever thought potential. I’ve realized that success isn’t nearly medals or podiums, it’s about resilience, ardour and the individuals you lived with alongside the way in which.”
Among the evening’s largest cheers had been for Lynch, who co-founded the Fam 1st Household Basis, has partnered with United Means of King County to offer cellphones to the homeless and has helped construct homes in Haiti. Lynch additionally joined the Kraken possession group to help the group’s humanitarian and youth-focused initiatives.
Lynch was requested what individuals might do to assist him.
“Be sure you try to be the most effective you that you could possibly be,” he stated. “I don’t do what I do for a person to offer me one thing — I’m not good at accepting that; that’s form of laborious, to be sincere — so it’s being the most effective person that you could possibly be, that’s what would assist.”
Campbell stated her award “is just not about me.”
“I feel it’s all about progress,” she stated. “It’s about what occurs after we cease asking if change is feasible and we show that it’s. I would be the first lady behind an NHL bench, however I’m certainly not the final, as a result of when one door will get opened, it by no means actually closes.”
The applause for Wilson rivaled that given to Lynch.
“Now my physique is getting stronger, and I’ll play once more,” Wilson stated of lacrosse. “Thanks a lot for this award and thanks to everybody for serving to me get higher so I can get again to taking part in.”
After Nantz launched {Couples}, he proceeded to do what he stated can be laborious: Impress the massive crowd throughout a several-minute sit-down interview with Nantz.
“Seattle is at all times on my thoughts,” stated {Couples}, who has not lived within the metropolis since he left for faculty. “I’m a Seattle child at coronary heart. I feel each one in all my associates on the PGA Tour know that.”
Earlier than the occasion, 5 had been inducted into the Pacific Northwest Soccer League of Fame: former Washington State and Seahawks operating again Steve Broussard, former Seahawks robust security Kam Chancellor, former UW and NFL operating again Corey Dillon, Dr. Kimberly Harmon from UW and Howard Mudd, a longtime Seahawks offensive line coach who died in 2020.
