Eastern Washington University Athletics

First as a coach and then as a faithful supporter of Eastern Athletics, Thorne Tibbitts (pictured on the right in the photo) has been actively involved in the growth of athletics programs at Eastern Washington since 1960. In the publication "Washington State Gymnastics History" by Lee Bjella and Mary Sarver, Tibbitts was selected as one of 34 "pioneers" of gymnastics in the state of Washington. He was on the physical education staff and coached men's gymnastics, helping lead Eastern to a second-place finish at the NAIA Championships in 1965 in just the second season that organization sponsored a national championship. His team was the runner-up behind champion Western Illinois as eight Eastern athletes finished in the top 10 of their respective events. Among them were All-Americans Steve Woodward (second in the all-around) and Don Funderberg (second in the free exercise). He coached Jack Benson to an appearance in the 1962 NCAA Championships in the horizontal bar, rope climb and ring competition. Benson would succeed Tibbitts as coach and go on to a 12-year career at Eastern that included eight national championship appearances that included finishes of second, third, fourth and fifth (twice). In 1965, Tibbitts volunteered to be golf coach and took two golfers to the NCAA Championships. One of them, Karl Ota, placed sixth and earned first team All-America honors. Tibbitts was a founding member of the Eagle Athletic Association in 1983, and has served as president and on the board of directors. He has been one of the organization's top contributors and fund-raisers ever since. During the EAA fund drive in 2006, he was team captain of the "Team Tibbitts" squad that won the team championship for the seventh-straight year. He is annually an All-Star as one of the top individual fund-raisers during the drive. In fall 2002, he and his wife Sally transferred a gift of real estate to the EWU Foundation as a gift toward the Woodward Field Renovation project. Tibbitts graduated from Bethel High School in 1955 and lettered four years at Washington State University in gymnastics. He competed in all 10 events that men participated in during that era of gymnastics. He was team captain in 1959 when he qualified for the NCAA Championships in the horizontal bar and parallel bar events. In 1957 he was the Pacific Northwest champion in the horizontal bar. He assisted at WSU before moving to EWU in 1960. His stop at Eastern was part of a 17-year career in higher education. When he left Eastern in 1965, he was hired by the University of Oregon to work in the nation's first urban Job Corps Center in Astoria, Ore., at the old Navy base there called Tongue Point. He and Yoshi Hatano put together a competitive gymnastics team made up of high school dropouts from throughout the United States. He then went to the University of Nevada in Reno and taught physical education, coached men's gymnastics and directed a large intramurals program. From there he went to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque to work on his doctorate in the field of recreation. In 1969, Dr. Jack Leighton hired him a second time to develop the young Recreation and Parks Administration program at Eastern. Tibbitts went into the real estate business in 1976, and he has been a top producer in the Spokane area for over 30 years. Besides his involvement with the EAA, Tibbitts has been a member and former lieutenant governor of Kiwanis International, president of the Cheney Chamber of Commerce and is a member of El Katif Shrine.