Long before area sports fans might either be elated or devastated by how the Seahawks, Mariners or Zags might fare on a given day or year, there was another hard luck team that galvanized the community.
Prior to sports franchises dealing with $100-million contracts — for a single player — or stadiums and arenas costing billions to build, a local group spent countless hours dedicated to a labor of love without a penny in their pockets.
It was nearly 70 years ago that the Miss Spokane unlimited hydroplane carried the hopes and dreams of big-time greatness for a city that always lived in the shadow of Seattle.
Long forgotten, left to fade and its wood wither, a new generation of enthusiasts want to make the “Lilac Lady” roar again with an ambitious restoration.
The Miss Spokane made history in 1957 when it became the first community-owned unlimited hydroplane. This was back when the nearest NFL team was in San Francisco and before the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles to play baseball.
Hydroplane racing was the Northwest’s Major League sport drawing huge crowds to the shores of Seattle’s Lake Washington.
According hydroplane historian and author, Stephen Shepperd, the campaign reportedly raised $8,000 to buy the boat hull once owned by Bill Boeing, Jr. of Seattle airplane builder fame.
The money was raised a buck at a time with each shareholder’s donation purchasing one-square-inch of the boat. A boat load of promotional items that augmented the operation from plastic lilac earrings to oversize matchbooks and more.
And like today’s battles with the Mariners playing salary poker, so the Miss Spokane not only raced the Miss Thriftway or Miss Bardahl on the water but their huge budgets as well.
The battles were rarely fair throughout the Miss Spokane’s short run from 1958 to 1961. The boat never won a race but came so close to claiming the checkered flag — and immortality.
With Rex Manchester at the wheel, Miss Spokane was leading on the final lap of the 1960 Seafair Trophy race. A trailing boat caught fire, stopping the race. In the re-run the next day there was no catching eventual winner Bill Muncey and Thriftway.
Arguably the most disappointing and consequential race for the boat came the following year when again it was leading the 1961 Gold Cup on Nevada’s Pyramid Lake.
Miss Spokane hit a rolling wave and flipped throwing Manchester from the boat which sank in 80 feet of water. A race win would have allowed Spokane (well Coeur d’Alene) to host the Gold Cup — the equivalent of sport’s Super Bowl.
Later raised and brought back to Spokane after that race, the run of the Lilac Lady was done. It lived a new life as the Eagle Electric for a couple of years before being sold to an owner in Lapeer, Mich.
After winning its one and only race in Sacramento in 1966 the Miss Lapeer was retired and put on display in the city for nearly 20 years.
When word surfaced that the hull would be sent to the dump, a rescue mission brought the boat home again. For the cost of licensing the trailer in 1983 the Miss Spokane came home where it sat in storage until just recently.
Now owned by Pancho Simonson, the hull has been shipped to Chelan where Mark and Mitch Evans will oversee the renovation. The Evans brothers drove unlimiteds in the past and restored the Breathless II, another vintage boat.
This project, however, is not just another day at the office for the brothers. Their father Norm Evans, once drove the Miss Spokane.
“Because of the condition of the boat and the costs that have been encountered in completing similar restorations, it will likely be in the six figures,” Shepperd wrote in an email.
This is not the first attempt to return the Miss Spokane to its earlier form. Simonson was part of efforts in the 1980s and 1990s along with owner Ron Miller. “When Ron Miller died in 1999, the restoration effort died with him,” Shepperd explained.
Hydromaniacs is a group of aptly named boat racing history buffs and their Facebook page will be a source of information for the restoration project.
Shepperd, who a decade ago authored a book on Coeur d’Alene’s Diamond Cup race, is close to concluding his own project on the Miss Spokane. “My book, tentatively titled, “The Lilac Lady - A History of Miss Spokane” is in its final re-write with one chapter left to be edited,” he said.
In yet another race for the Miss Spokane, Shepperd’s book will likely win this one to the finish line.
Paul Delaney is an award-winning sports writer at the Cheney Free Press. Email him at [email protected].
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