Steve Anthony has been part of the local softball scene for more than four decades.

For the past three decades, he has played a big role in growing the sport locally, as well as bringing state, regional and even national-level softball tournaments to Coeur d'Alene.

Last Saturday Anthony, the Coeur d'Alene recreation director since 1985, was honored for his efforts when he was inducted into the ASA Pacific Northwest Hall of Fame, in a ceremony at the Red Lion Inn at the Park in Spokane.

"It was really nice; it's nice to be recognized by your peers," said Anthony, 59. "It's based not only on my involvement with softball, but a lot of it has come through the quality of the program we've had in Coeur d'Alene. We've always had a good reputation of first-class tournaments. Our city has a good reputation within the softball community - and not just adult, but youth, too."

Anthony is only the second person from North Idaho to be elected to the ASA Pacific Northwest Hall of Fame. Arnold "Red" Halpern, a former Idaho ASA commissioner and former Coeur d'Alene recreation director, was elected in 1981.

Over the years, Anthony has been a player, administrator, and coach, a tournament director, regional player representative and state commissioner.

His first position within ASA softball was as the player representative from Idaho. In 1983 he became the District 1 commissioner; in 1986 he was elected president of Idaho ASA and served a two-year term. He served as a player representative for 12 years and as the regional player representative for 6 years.

He has been Idaho ASA commissioner since 2002, and is also currently the Pacific Northwest Regional Director.

On the national level he is the chairman of the Seniors Committee, and is also on committees for ethics and compliance, playing rules, special programs and commissioner appointments.

Anthony has been the tournament director for five national tournaments, eight national qualifiers and more than 40 state and regional tournaments.

In the early days, adult tournaments were the thing in Coeur d'Alene. The largest national tournament here was a coed major tourney in 1994 which attracted 77 teams.

These days, it's youth fastpitch tournaments which fill up the summer weekend schedules on Coeur d'Alene fields.

Anthony recalled youth slowpitch national tournaments in the early 1980s which would bring 40-50 teams to the city.

"I think it goes back to the old slowpitch days, when we did a few of those national tournaments the community really embraced them," he said. "Kids came in from Florida and Georgia and New Hampshire, etc., and each team had a host. They became part of the community for a week, and I think that spurred the girls program on."

Anthony said only a few adult teams travel anymore to play in tournaments - now, they travel with their kids who are playing in tournaments.

"So we still have (adult) tournaments, but they're mainly local teams, he said. "The state adult tournaments aren't as big as they used to be, and youth tournaments are bigger than they used to be."

Anthony said he would like to hold some national qualifiers for youth softball in Coeur d'Alene, but they are usually scheduled for the same weekend as Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June, making motel rooms for visiting teams hard to find.

Anthony said support from the city and community - as well as the attraction of the area itself - has made Coeur d'Alene a popular spot for tournaments.

"In Coeur d'Alene we've always had great facilities," he said. "We had the one thing nobody else had - Memorial Field - which is kind of a unique place to play. And at the time we had a very active committee of like-minded people that wanted to bring big softball events into Coeur d'Alene. And they were willing to go out and do the fundraising, the work ... so we had lots of volunteers.

"And a lot of the teams come to Coeur d'Alene (for regional tournaments) because they look at it as a destination," he added. "They'll come and stay a couple of extra days, and enjoy the lake or go to Silverwood ... so we've been fortunate because of our location, and I've been fortunate to have the support of the city."

Anthony graduated in 1970 from Coeur d'Alene High, where he ran track and played American Legion baseball.

The summer following his graduation, he and his friends put together a men's rec softball team, and he's played softball ever since.

"It gives me the opportunity to be involved and actually see how the program's running," Anthony said. "I'm actually a player and an administrator and a participant. So it gives you a feel. You're there if things go good, you're there if people are unhappy."

In 1980, when Anthony first started working in rec softball for the city of Coeur d'Alene as a supervisor, there were perhaps 100 teams. Now, there's around 200 adult rec teams, including the summer and fall leagues. There's been as many as 216 teams, he said.

When Ramsey Park was built in 1993, the five-field complex helped centralized things for leagues and tournaments. Before, they were at Person Field, Memorial Field and McEuen Field. They still use Memorial and McEuen, but most of the play is at Ramsey.

"McEuen's always been nice," he said. "Memorial, everybody would play every game at Memorial if they could, but Person, there wasn't ever any parking, you were in the neighborhood, we were hitting houses ... with the development of Ramsey, with five extra fields, it gave us more options to offer the programs."

Anthony said he got into the administrative end of softball "kinda by default" while he was working for Halpern in the early 1980s.

"In 1980 they (the ASA) were attempting to get softball into the Olympics," he said. "So to be a member of the USOC you have to have player representation on all your governing bodies, and so since I played I became a player rep. So I ended up on the regional board because I was the player rep from Idaho, and after that, I got elected the regional player rep, so I represented the northwest as the regional player rep, and that's how I got involved at the national level."

Softball was eventually voted into the Olympics in 1996, though Anthony is quick to admit, "I can't take much credit for getting ASA into the Olympics."

Softball was played in the Olympics in 1996, 2000, '04 and '08 before being voted out prior to the 2012 Games, in part because it was only being played in certain parts of the world. The ASA and the USOC continue to push for the sport to be reinstated for future Olympics.

"What they have done, and Idaho's done this, is collect softball equipment from our teams that don't use it anymore, and send it to countries that are members of the (IOC) that don't have softball so their kids can start playing," Anthony said. "Softball wasn't really big in Europe, or in Africa ... the ASA sends equipment to Eastern Europe and African nations, so it gives the kids an opportunity to play. Softball is a Canadian, Pacific Rim-type of sport."

Anthony says he'll stay involved in softball "as long as I enjoy this."

"I've been lucky to be in a city that's really supported, not only softball, but all of our recreation programs," he said.