No boxer from Alaska did more than Anchorage’s Cody Koch, whose rapid and remarkable rise to prominence in the 1990s was unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the sport. Koch broke into pro boxing in 1995 after winning a national Toughman Contest. He won his first 24...
The Seawolves made history on a Wednesday. It was Dec. 28, 1988. Just four days before ringing in the new year, the UAA men’s basketball team put No. 2-ranked Michigan through the ringer at the Utah Classic. The Seawolves executed their stall-ball strategy flawlessly...
When UAA-UAF hockey flits across my mind, memories drift back to the late 1980s, when Mike Peluso was the Seawolves’ cornerstone defenseman and Ricky Pitta was the Nanooks’ spark plug. Peluso was 6-foot-4 with long arms, easy-going off the ice, but 200 pounds of...
You’d be hard pressed to start a college career any better than Eagle River’s Kelly Cobb, who took the Duke University women’s soccer team by storm in 2011. The 5-foot-10 forward scored game-winning goals in each of her first two appearances as a freshman, the second...
Level after level, league after league, Brian Swanson delivered points – a ton of them. The hockey center from Eagle River spearheaded Chugiak High to two state championships during a time when he also flourished on his club team. In two seasons with the Anchorage...
Few Alaska high school athletes have dominated three sports in the same season quite like Anchorage’s Ra Shipps did his senior year at East in 1992-93. In football, the bruising all-state running back rushed for 907 yards and nine TDs in just six games. In hockey, the...
This was free-agent week in the NHL, an annual rite of summer in which players cash in big-time and set themselves up for life. It comes with a catchy soundtrack – “Ka-Ching!” And that reminds us of several Alaska players who hit the July Jackpot back in the day, none...
Anchorage’s Lillian Bullock came out swinging with the North Carolina A&T State University softball team. She crushed 17 home runs and knocked in 56 RBIs in 60 games as a freshman in 2007 to earn first team all-league honors in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference....
Anchorage’s Kaarin Knudson was a remarkable runner for the University of Oregon from 1994 to 1999 as she earned eight letters and competed eight times at the NCAA Championships. A two-time All-American in track and field, she was a seven-time NCAA qualifier for the...
Alaska’s first Olympic runner, Don Clary of Anchorage represented Team USA many times during his career before stepping onto track and field’s biggest stage in 1984. As a high school senior in 1975, he was part of the U.S. junior team that won the title at the IAAF...
Arguably the greatest college pitcher to come out of Alaska, Sitka’s Matt Way carved up Pac-10 hitters when he toed the rubber for Washington State University from 2006 to 2009. A two-time All-Pac-10 performer, the sublime southpaw is one of only two Alaskans to throw...