Ward, Wilund to be inducted in North Idaho Hall of Fame this month

COEUR d’ALENE – Three former University of Idaho standout athletes join two former high school administrators and coaches to compose this year’s inductees to the North Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame, officials have announced.

Football player Joel Thomas, women’s basketball player Emily Sann (nee Faurholt) and men’s basketball player Don Newman are the former UI athletes who will be inducted in April. They will be joined by former high school teacher, coach, administrator and basketball official Jim Wilund and Duane Ward, who coached at his alma mater, Sandpoint High, for more than 50 years.

The four will be inducted during the Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet, which is set for Saturday, April 16, at the Coeur d’Alene Resort. Tickets for the banquet, which also features the North Idaho High School Awards, are $31.75 and can be purchased online at www.nihof.org and clicking on “Purchase Tickets” button lower on the page. Thomas, who is now the running back coach for the New Orleans Saints, also will be the featured speaker.

For student-athletes who are nominated for awards that night, they can obtain a free ticket by also going to https://nihof.org and clicking on the “Tickets” button and registering.

Ward has been active in athletics in the area covering seven decades. He lettered in football, basketball and track at Sandpoint High, where he graduated in 1961. During his senior year, he played quarterback and linebacker and led the Bulldogs to an 8-0-1 record.

Ward went on to play basketball at Lewis-Clark State College where he was selected the Outstanding Athlete during his final year.

After graduation, Ward returned to Sandpoint where he began his teaching and coaching career in 1966. He taught for 33 years, retiring in 1999 and then retired from coaching in 2021. He was a head or assistant coach for football, boys and girls basketball, track and cross country. He also served as athletic director where he was instrumental in adding baseball, soccer and cross country as helping with a new wrestling facility and the dedication of Barlow Stadium named after his former high school football coach Cotton Barlow.

He was inducted into the Sandpoint High Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997 and was honored by receiving the “Distinguished Coach of the Year” for girls basketball in 2018 from the Idaho State Coaches Association. He has the rare distinction of having guided two teams to the state tournament – boys basketball in 1970, and girls basketball in 1996, 2015,2016, 2017, and 2018, He garnered a second place and two third-place trophies.

During his last four years as girls basketball coach, the teams did not lose a league game or regional state qualifying game. He received the Coach of the Year award from the 4A Inland Empire League for each of those years.

Wilund spent 33 years as a teacher, coach and principal in northern Idaho before he retired from Lewiston High in 2005. He grew up in Coeur d’Alene and played football at UI where as a tight end during the 1971 season, he caught 26 passes for 343 yards and a touchdown.

After graduating from UI, Wilund taught and coached football at Timberline, Post Falls and St. Maries. In 1984 he was named principal at Sandpoint, and then took over the same position at Lewiston in 1988.

Wilund began working as a high school basketball official in 1976 and officiated in 18 Idaho state basketball tournaments and seven in baseball. He was named to the Idaho High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011.

In 1988, Wilund started officiating college basketball. He worked eight Frontier Conference tournaments and also at the NAIA national tournament one season. He later became a basketball official observer for both the Pac-12 and Western Athletic conferences.

Wilund passed away in December. 2020. He will be represented by his family at the ceremony.

Thomas came to UI in the fall of 1993 from Port Angeles, Wash., and played as a true freshman. He broke his foot during the following season and was redshirted. He returned but suffered what was thought a career-ending knee injury in 1997 against Air Force, but returned the following year and led Idaho to the Big West title and a victory over Southern Mississippi in the Humanitarian Bowl.

Thomas’s name is littered throughout the Vandal record book. He is the program’s all-time leader in yards rushing (3,929), touchdowns (51) and carries (765). He averaged 85.4 rushing yards per game and has a total of 4,737 yards for rushing, receiving and kick returns.

He also is tied for the single-game record with four rushing touchdowns in a game and has the second-longest rushing TD in UI history with a 90-yard run against Boise State in 1996. In that game, he rushed for 273 yards, the third-highest total in program history. He finished 17 games with more than 100 yards rushing, second only to fellow Hall of Famer Sherriden May,

Thomas was twice selected first-team All-Big West and was named the conference’s Player of the Year in 1998.

He started his coaching career in 2000 as a graduate assistant at Purdue. He later coaches at Louisville, Idaho, Purdue again, Washington and Arkansas before he became the Saints’ running back coach in 2015.

Sann played three seasons for the Vandals in 2003-06 and led the NCAA in scoring at 25.4 points per game in her first season when she was named the Big West Conference’s Player of the Year. She followed that up by averaging 23.2 points per game the next season. Those two season averages rank No. 1 and 2 all time in the program.

Sann was a two-time all-Big West regular-season and tournament first-team selection and a WBCA All-American as well as an Associated Press All-American honorable mention selection. She also was a second-team Western Athletic Conference pick her final season. She ranks third all-time in points scored at UI with 1,938 and tops the school’s all-time list with a 22.0 points-per-game average.

Sann ranks in the top five in program history in field goals made (677, fifth), free throws made (455, second) and assists (303, fifth).

Newman helped spark Idaho basketball’s turnaround in the late 1970s. After attending Louisiana State as a freshman, he transferred to Idaho in the fall of 1977. He sat out a year because of the transfer rules and then made his impact known under former UI coach Don Monson.

After finishing in the cellar the two previous seasons, Idaho rose to second place in the Big Sky Conference standings during his senior year and qualified for the four-team conference tournament for the first time. He was named the conference’s Player of the Year and a unanimous first-team all-conference selection.

Prior to his senior year, Newman was selected in the fourth round of the 1979 NBA draft by Indiana and then was taken in the third round by Boston in 1980. He was the final player cut prior to the start of the season, which the Celtics went on to win the NBA title that year.

Newman also played centerfield for the Vandal baseball team in 1979.

Although he didn’t play college football, Newman showed off his athleticism by trying out for the Seattle Seahawks at cornerback in 1981. He didn’t make the team, but he did wind up playing five seasons in the Canadian Football League as a cornerback and a receiver. While playing in the CFL, he also played basketball for three seasons in the CBA with George Karl as his coach.

Newman spent 1985 as an assistant football coach at Lewiston High and then coached some at Moscow High. He then served as an assistant coach to Kelvin Sampson at Washington State during 1987-92. He left WSU to become head coach at Sacramento State for five years. He then went to Arizona State as an assistant but was promoted to head coach during the 1997-98 season where he compiled an 18-14 record.

Newman then reunited with Karl as an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Buck in 1999. He then was an assistant for the Nets, Spurs and Wizards through 2016.

Newman passed away in 2018 after a long battle with brain cancer.