While EWU’s current football team was preparing for their would-be victory over Sacramento State University on Saturday, the school took some time to honor some of their winners of the past. On Saturday morning, one team and five individuals were inducted into the Eastern Washington University Athletics Hall of Fame.

The football program was highly represented in the induction Class of 2017. Wide receiver Jackie Kellogg and defensive back Tony Brooks were enshrined as individuals, while their 1992 squad was inducted as a team.

Kellogg and Brooks grew up playing for rival high schools. By their senior year, they had become friends. Then they attended EWU together. Their friendship continued long past their playing days, and on Saturday, they joined the Hall of Fame. Like so many other things in their lives, they did it together.

As Kellogg tells it, the fact they were both offered opportunities at Eastern played into their decision to come to Cheney.

“Tony and I came in from Tacoma together,” said Kellogg.  “In our senior season of high school, we started talking about where we wanted to go. Eastern was one of the schools giving us the opportunity to come out and play. So we said, look, let’s go to Eastern together.”

Brooks says their friendship continued while playing at Eastern.

“The summer before we came here, we begin practicing together. And from that, we became roommates here at college, and we built a really strong friendship,” Brooks said.

Kellogg is grateful to EWU for inducting the two together, while also inducting the rest of the 1992 team.

“The school did a really good job with how they did it this year. Putting us in together, two guys from Tacoma,” Kellogg said.

“We were always together. To be able to go in with Tony, and the 92 team, that makes it even more special, because we could not have done it without the 92 team.”

The 1992 team was the first EWU football team to win a Big Sky Conference championship. Since then, the program has won eight more. It was their first conference championship since 1969, and their first ever at the Division 1 FCS level. Their final victory of the season was against Boise State University, clinching the championship.

The 1992 team was coached by Dick Zornes, who is remembered as a tough coach by his team.

“Coach Zornes is one of the toughest, hardest nosed coaches I have ever been around,” said Brooks. “He will drag greatness out of you, kicking and screaming if he has to.”

For running back Harold Wright, coming home meant more than returning to where he played football.

“I met my wife here,” Wright said. “I actually lived on the floor where I met my wife. And now my son goes here. It was a great opportunity to not just learn to play football, but to get an education and get married.”

Does Wright have any advice for students at EWU right now?

“Just enjoy it. Be present. Don’t look at the next step,” Wright said. “I mean, you’re always going to have that in mind. But make sure you enjoy the time you are in now, because it goes so quick.”

Other inductees included basketball players Ronn McMahon and Fay Zwarych-Shaw as well as soccer goalkeeper Tiera Como-Irby.

Como-Irby, who graduated in 2007, was a two-time BSC defensive player of the year. She was part of EWU’s first women’s soccer team to win a BSC championship, and is the first soccer player in the Hall of Fame.

In 1990, McMahon set the school record with 130 steals averaging 4.48 a game. Zwarych-Shaw scored 509 points in 1983, a school record. She graduated from EWU in 1984, and has not been back to Cheney since. Until today.

“It’s been 33 years since I have been here. I drove into town last night. There’s a hotel here now. And traffic lights,” Zwarych-Shaw said.

“It’s wonderful to see the campus again. But walking into Reese Court here this morning, it felt like I never left”.