PSU honors former student-athletes

When Karen Strong last played basketball for Portland State, the original “Star Wars” film was in theaters, Jimmy Carter was in office and the Portland Trail Blazers were winning their only NBA championship title.

Last month, Strong and five others became the most recent additions to Portland State’s Athletics Hall of Fame. With each representing a different sport, the six former student-athletes were inducted in a Nov. 14 ceremony in downtown Portland.

Strong’s fellow inductees were Orshawante Bryant (football, 1997–2000), Cynthia Macom (softball, 1987–91), Matt Mandigo (golf, 1990–93), Shelley Rumberger (volleyball, 1985–88) and Chuck Seal (wrestling, 1966–69).

“I am totally honored and humbled,” Strong said following an on-field recognition at halftime of the PSU football game in Hillsboro the day before her induction. “Especially for someone that was pioneering women’s sports.”

Strong played on the PSU women’s basketball team for two seasons, from 1975–77, during the early years of women’s sports at PSU. She averaged 22.1 points and 14.7 rebounds in her first season—marks that still top the school record books.

“We were just starting out,” she said. “We only had numbers on one side of our uniforms. When we got numbers on both sides—we were actually a team then.”

Two of the honorees, Mandigo and Seal, represent teams no longer fielded at PSU. Portland State discontinued its men’s golf program in 2002 and the wrestling program in 2009, citing budgetary reasons for both.

Seal was a three-time All-American wrestler and a member of PSU’s 1967 national champion team. In the 152-pound weight class he twice won the NCAA Div-II championship in the college division (1967, 1969), and he finished second in 1968.

Mandigo played on the men’s golf team for four years. He won the NCAA Div-II Regionals in 1992 and earned All-American honors for an eighth-place finish in the national championship.

Bryant was a wide receiver and kick returner from the Vikings’ first Div-I recruiting class in 1996. He set 10 school records during his PSU career and still holds the records for career receiving yards (3,449) and receptions (223). Before pursuing a career in the Canadian Football League and Arena Football League, Bryant was a part of the Vikings’ first Div-I playoff team in 2000.

Macom was a record-breaking centerfielder for a PSU softball team that twice made the NCAA playoffs, and in 1991 she was named a second team All-American selection. She described that year’s Div-II championship in Midland, Mich. as her most memorable moment in a Viking uniform.

“We were ranked No. 1 in the country the whole year,” she said. “We get back to the championships, and in our first game—I believe it was Southern Missouri—we were leading the whole game. Then, in the last two innings a passed ball goes by our catcher, who had not had an error all season, and they tied it up.

“It ended up going 17 innings and three-and-a-half hours, and we lost that game,” Macom said. “We had to play immediately, and lost the second game in something like 14 innings, a two-and-a-half hour game. So we got third in the country.

“That was marathon softball,” she said. “But talk about a memory; I’ll never forget that.”

Another former Viking to earn All-American honors, Rumberger had a career bookended with championships titles. She played middle blocker for PSU volleyball squads that won the NCAA Div-II national championship in 1985 and 1988.

Championship titles and national honors notwithstanding, Strong and Macom said their fondest recollections of playing for PSU surround the personalities and the camaraderie.

“[Coach] Teri Mariani was the best,” said Macom, now a mother of three living in West Linn. “I was with her when she hit her 1,000th win—it was a very cool moment for all of us to be a part of that with her.”

Strong, a Portland schoolteacher for 31 years, said her fondest memory of the team was simply the friendships she had made.

“We had a good time, and we all got along together,” Strong said. “That was the best part.”

Due to health complications, Seal was unable to attend last month’s induction ceremony, according to athletics spokesman Mike Lund. ?