Eastern Washington University Athletics

Kallem spent 17 seasons as Eastern’s golf coach (1967-82, plus 1993-94 school year), as well as 13 seasons as an assistant football coach (1965-69, 1971-78). His golf teams appeared in the NAIA Championships nine times, with a best finish of 10th place. His squads won six-straight district championships from 1967-72, then won titles in 1978 and 1979 before Eastern moved to NCAA Division II competition. He was NAIA District 1 Coach of the Year three times, and coached seven district medalists. Included in the players he coached were PGA professionals Gary Lindeblad, Steve Nelke, Dan Hill, Roger Wallace, Paul Stringer and Matt Bunn. Lindeblad and Bruce Brevet each went to the NAIA Championships four times in the late 60’s. In 1979 Gene Kuhn and Steve Michelson finished tied for 17th place at the NAIA Championships as Eastern finished 16th as a team. Medalists he coached in NAIA District I included Lindeblad (1971), Brevet (1972), Michelson (1978, 79), Fred Lufkin (1968) and Steve Ferrell (1967). Kallem was a past president of the NAIA Golf Coaches Association (1971-72), and served on the NAIA Golf Committee. He was also an assistant coach on the 1967 Eastern football team which finished as the NAIA runner-up and was inducted into the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001. Among the many outstanding Eastern athletes he helped coach, Dick Zornes, Bob Picard, Bill Diedrick, Dave Svendsen, Ed Fisher and Gary Lindeblad are members of Eastern’s Hall of Fame. The first head football coach he worked under was inaugural Hall of Fame inductee Dave Holmes, followed by Brent Wooten and John Massengale. Kallem retired as a faculty member in the Eastern physical education department after 31 years of service. He passed away on July 10, 1997. His son, Kris, was on the Eastern golf teams that Don coached, which included a third-place finish at the Big Sky Conference Championships in fall of 1993. Kris is now a PGA professional and general manager at The Fairways Golf Course near Cheney.