Halftime show focuses on Hall of Fame inductees

Inductees into the Green River Hall of Fame were honored Friday night during the halftime show at Wolves Stadium.

One of the inductees was the 1971 state championship golf team. The team was coached by Larry Clause and was led by All-State golfers Bruce Valencia and John Carey. Other golfers on the team included Wes Bigler, Pat Gaensslen and John Simpson.

At the state championship, Valencia placed third with a two-round total of 172 and Carey took fifth, shooting 177. Both Valencia and Carey were present at the halftime show to represent the team.

Also amongst the inductees is physical education teacher Dolores Albers, who represented herself at the halftime show. Albers started the outdoor education program and was chosen as the Wyoming Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Teacher of the Year (WAHPERD) and the American Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Teacher of the Year in 1995. She was also honored as the National Secondary High School Physical Education Teacher of the Year in 1995. Albers was inducted into the WAHPERD Hall of Fame in 2012 and served as the WAHPERD executive president and vice president.

"I'm in some pretty phenomenal company," Albers said of those honored in the Hall of Fame.

"I've walked through the hallway and looked at all those people and I'm in awe of them. This feeling is hard to describe, I'm overwhelmed."

The inductees also include 1991 GRHS graduate and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer Alyn R. Beck. He was killed by anti-government extremist in an ambush while eating at a pizza parlor in 2014. Beck graduated from the University of Wyoming with a degrees in administration of justice and economics.

He was honored by President Barack Obama in 2015 when his name was placed on the National Peace Memorial in Washington D.C. Beck was represented by his brother, Scott Beck, who carried a framed photo of Alyn as he walked down the track. The crowd gave the fallen officer a long, standing ovation.

The final inductee was Dr. Jess Boyd Eskridge who was represented by his son, Chris Eskridge. Dr. Eskridge graduated from Lincoln High School in Green River in 1946 and was offered a basketball scholarship to the University of Wyoming.

He turned it down to join the Army, in which he served with the occupation forces in Japan. Upon returning to the U.S., he earned his bachelor's degree in optometry at the University of California-Berkeley in 1953.

He earned his PhD at Ohio State in physiology optics in 1964 and went on to work as a university faculty member for 36 years at several universities.

He was named professor emeritus at the University of Alabama-Birmingham in 1990, and the school established a scholarship in his name after his death. Dr. Eskridge's co-authored work, "Clinical Procedures in Optometry," was used worldwide as the standard clinical text in the field for more than a decade. He also helped create the modern contact lens.