Walt Milroy: Dealing With a Pandemic, He Might Be Oldest Living Husky
Walt Milroy quite possibly might be the oldest living Husky.
One hundred years old.
Like the rest of us, he's dealing with a pandemic.
Unlike the rest of us, he's at the very top of the risk category.
Milroy, a former University of Washington baseball player, one-time professional baseball scout and legendary Ingraham High School basketball coach, has people looking out for him these days.
People in high places.
The governor, for instance.
Jay Inslee was one of Milroy's Ingraham basketball players.
Inslee was a reserve on the Rams' 1969 team that went unbeaten in 23 games and beat Hoquiam 39-38 for the state championship held at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, which used to cater to Milroy when he was a UW athlete. A snippet of the arena today is shown in the video.
This week, Inslee shared his concerns for the centenarian, who lives in a Lynnwood retirement community and still is very active. Milroy turned 100 last month and celebrated the occasion with former coaches and other friends.
"This morning, I'm thinking about my old basketball coach, Walt Milroy," Inslee said at a news conference. "He's 100 years of age. He's still in good health and totally with it, and I love the guy. And we're here today saying we've got to protect him."
Milroy, a first baseman who grew up playing for Roosevelt High against the likes of Franklin icons Fred Hutchinson and Dewey Soriano, captained the final Huskies team coached by the legendary Tubby Graves in 1946 after returning home from World War II naval duty.
In the accompanying photo, Milroy is seated second from right, next to Steve Buckley, former Ingraham pitcher and at right, and an unidentified former player, and two away from Ken Ball, his former assistant basketball coach.
Milroy was profiled in this Where Are They Now story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and was honored in recent years by having the Ingraham High basketball court named after him, a ceremonial event that involved Inslee.
At another gathering to celebrate his milestone birthday, Milroy shared a funny story that involved UW baseball teammates Emmett Watson and Tony Gasparovich, who became a revered Seattle newspaper columnist and Ingraham's legendary football coach, respectively.
They all traveled to Washington State to play the Cougars baseball team and stayed in Moscow, Idaho. Goofing around, a mischievous Milroy and Watson jokingly were trying to "drown" a teammate in their hotel bathtub when Graves walked in to do a bed check.
Watson somehow climbed back into bed and escaped punishment, but Milroy was benched the next day for his antics. The captain had to sit out in favor of Gasparovich, who stepped up and hit a home run.
"That's how Gasparovich got his letter that season," Milroy recalled with a twinkle.
He told KOMO TV this week how he's careful about his movements and has no symptoms of the novel coronavirus. Yet he would like to get tested at some point for peace of mind. He did an interview with the station that can be seen and heard here in print and in video.
Meantime, his former Ingraham basketball player now running the state is continually looking out for him.
"I'm here protecting my old basketball coach," Inslee said. "I hope everybody is going to think about the people they're going to be protecting by reducing their social interactions, by protecting older people from not going out."
And, again, this would include Walt Milroy, likely the oldest living Husky.