THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: North Idaho Athletic Hall of Famers, in their own words

Growing up in New York, CORKY FAZIO said he had a deprived childhood. 

“I had to root for the Mets,” he said. 

Eventually, life offered him the chance to play baseball at Lewis-Clark State College. 

“I had to go to an atlas to see where Idaho was,” Fazio said. 

Once here, Fazio embarked on a long and rewarding career officiating high school football, basketball and baseball games, as well as umpiring college baseball games, for more than four decades. 

“Coming out here was one of the best decisions of my life,” Fazio said on Friday night at The Coeur d’Alene Resort, when he and three other men were honored for their induction into the North Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame. 

Some of the people attending the dinner Friday night were coaches of games Fazio worked, including former longtime basketball coach Jim Winger, also a Hall of Famer. 

“It was a lot easier T-ing you up after a stomp,” Fazio said, referring to the ‘Winger stomp’ the coach was famous for during his early years on the sideline. 

He told stories of working games coached by Kenny Hobart, another Hall of Famer in the crowd, as well as umpiring baseball games coached by Ed Cheff and Bobo Brayton. 

But mostly, he talked about the memories made along the way. 

“How many people would you know if it weren’t for athletics?” he asked the audience at the dinner. “I came here not knowing anybody, and now I’m surrounded by people who mean the world to me.” 

AJ CHRISTOFF was playing football at the University of Idaho in the mid-1960s when he decided to join the Marines.  

He was called into the office by then-Vandals coach Dee Andros, himself a former marine. He expected to be congratulated on his decision. 

“You want to be a marine? Well, you’re going to graduate first,” Andros told him. 

Eventually, Andros hired Christoff on his Oregon State staff in 1969, the start of a 45-year coaching career, mostly as secondary coach and/or defensive coordinator, which included stops back at Idaho, then on to New Mexico State, Idaho again, Oregon, Stanford, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Alabama, UCLA, Colorado, USC, Stanford again, Cincinnati, and a brief stint as defensive back coach with the San Francisco 49ers. 

At Alabama, Christoff recalled the Crimson Tide making it to the Sugar Bowl, where they lost to Dennis Erickson and Miami. 

Christoff said coaching at Alabama “was a pressure cooker.” 

He recalled one time, after ‘Bama lost to Ole Miss in a game where the two Tide quarterbacks had terrible passing stats, a brick was thrown through a window at the head coach’s house. 

The local news, Christoff said, reported “the two quarterbacks were being eliminated as suspects.” 

JAKE SCOTT grew up in Lewiston down the road from Bengal Field, where the high school team — which included him, later on — played for years. 

“My dad pulled my sister and I down to Bengal Field in a wagon when I was 2 or 3,” Scott recalled Friday night. 

After Lewiston, Scott went to Idaho as a walk-on offensive tackle and went on to play in the NFL for 10 seasons with four teams. He became a Super Bowl champion when the Colts beat the Bears, and later played for Tennessee, Philadelphia and Detroit. 

He credited those who coached him along the way — including Howard Mudd and former NFL great Mike Munchak. 

But much of his praise was directed to Nick Menegas and his coaching staff at Lewiston High. 

“Being a part of that program set the foundation for my success,” Scott said.  

By the time he reached the NFL, competing for roster spots against players who came from bigger colleges, “they put me so far ahead, as a redshirt walk-on, I knew more about football than those other guys, because I had great coaching.” 

ROGER STEWART reminded the audience that there was more to officiating than what you see just during the game. 

“Contrary to popular belief, you don’t just show up in the fall,” Stewart said Friday night. “We work at this year round.”

Stewart, who has been a football official at the high school, college and professional level for more than 40 years, noted “you’re only one call away from being on SportsCenter.” 

“You haven’t lived until you’ve been booed by 50,000 people,” he said. “It’s cathartic, in a way.” 

He recalled his roots, working games down at McEuen Field for $12 a game where, one time, “a seventh-grade mom told me, ‘You’re killing my kid’s scholarship opportunity.’ 

He said he didn’t have the heart to “tell her her son’s shoulder pads are on backwards.” 

He said he couldn’t have had the career he had without the love and support of wife Patty, and daughters Nicole, Natalie and Taylor. 

When they traveled with him to games, there was a rule — don’t let the fans know who you’re there with. 

One time at a Montana game in Missoula, Stewart made a call that went against the Griz, and the fans yelled at him. 

Afterward, he mentioned the call to his family. 

“Dad, I was yelling along with them,” one of his daughters said. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.