ROUHGRIDERS HALL OF FAME: Dale, Mike Ridgway first father-son to be inducted together

Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, August 12, 2026

PORT ANGELES — The Roughriders Hall of Fame is often a family affair for many longtime Port Angeles families.

The Madison family leads the way with siblings James, Jessica and Jon and their uncle Mike. Then there is Bernie and Mary Fryer, Karena and Burdette Greeny, Jan Urfer and her daughter Julie, Mike and Terry Clayton, Matt and Eric Lane, Scott and Judy Brodhun, and finally Scott Jones and his daughter Kiah. All in the Roughriders Hall of Fame.

However, Dale and Mike Ridgway, who are being inducted Saturday at Civic Field as part of the 2026 class, are the first father and son to go into the hall of fame together. Mike’s older brother Jeff, who pitched for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Atlanta Braves and Team USA, was part of the inaugural class of the hall of fame.

“It will be cool to have my dad up on the stage with me,” Mike said.

Interestingly, they’re going in for two completely different sports.

Dale Ridgway already got up on the stage a couple of years ago as a member of the 1967 and 68 Port Angeles swim teams that finished second in the state as a team. As a sophomore, he was third in the 50 and 100 freestyle at state and was fourth in the 50 as a junior. He was favored to win first-place state medals his senior year, but all extra-curricular activities were canceled that year due to a levy failure.

Dale said that afterward, he lost his taste for competitive swimming.

“They pulled the rug out from under me. I wasn’t bitter, but I wasn’t real happy,” he said. He swam some in intermurals and to this day swims every day to keep in shape.

“I actually didn’t realize just how good of a swimmer he was,” Mike said. “He never talked about it. I knew he was good, but he was better than I realized.”

“We’re worlds apart” athletically, Dale said. He said he played a little bit of sandlot baseball but didn’t excel at it like his sons.

Jeff was actually a star swimmer for Port Angeles High School after he got hurt playing baseball, but Dale said he never pushed his kids to swim.

“I had a bad experience. I didn’t like the water,” Mike said. “Jeff wasn’t my dad, but he was a good swimmer.”

Mike is going in to the hall for baseball. In 2002, he had one of the most incredible seasons in Roughriders’ history, giving up just one earned run all season for an ERA of 0.21, and striking out 121 batters.

“You don’t do that alone,” Mike said, giving credit to his catcher Matt Lane and his other teammates.

He signed a letter of intent to the University of Washington and was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks, but opted to play for Tacoma Community College, where he was an all NWAC performer, going 6-1 with a 1.10 ERA his sophomore year.

There’s even more Hall of Fame ties with the Ridgway family. In his high school career, Mike pitched to hall of fame catcher Matt Lane. Matt and Eric Lane are cousins with the Ridgway brothers.

There’s yet more. Dale’s wife and Mike’s stepmom Margie is the grandmother of Kody and Kyler Williams. Kody was a star pitcher for the Roughriders baseball team and next year will be pitching for Skagit Valley College. Kyler was on the Babe Ruth 13U team that went to the World Series in New York last year and he also placed at the state wrestling championships his freshman year at Port Angeles High School. They are both potential future Roughrider Hall of Famers.

“They’re both (Dale and Mike) being very modest,” Margie said. “I saw it in Little League how talented they were. Jeff was in a league of his own. To this day this man (Dale) can swim like it’s nobody’s business.

“I just sit back and be the cheerleader,” Margie said.

“She spent a lot of bleacher hours,” Mike said. “It’s genetic. We’re all good at sports. We got a gene pool that excels at sports. Other people are good at other things, we were good at that.”

“Three guys with the same last name in the Hall of Fame. There’s something to that, that’s cool,” Mike said.

Seven other individuals will be inducted into this year’s class. They include: Scott Brodhun, baseball, coach, athletic director; Alison Crumb Rose, basketball; Rob DeCou, track, wrestling and endurance running; Julio Garcia, wrestling; Erik Meyer, cross country/track; Barb Morrison McFall, badminton, tennis; and Aaron Robinson, track.

In addition, the 1972-74 boys cross country and the 1984-86 girls gymnastics teams will be honored. The cross country teams finished in the top four in the state all three years, while the gymnastics teams placed in the top five twice.

The event begins at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.