Turns out that Sequim’s biggest fan has plenty of fans of his own.

A cadre of Sequim Alumni Association members are looking to find a way to honor Myron Teterud, longtime resident and well-known Sequim High sports fanatic, now living at Sequim Health & Rehabilitation.

Association members on Sept. 8 presented Teterud with gifts, good cheer and a proclamation that details their belief Sequim schools should rename the athletic field on West Fir Street for him.

Phyllis Meyer said she and fellow alumni wanted to show some school spirit for the man who’s been cheering on and helping out at SHS athletic events for six decades.

Teterud, who turns 81 in November, suffered a stroke about a year-and-a-half ago, prompting alumni association members to encourage the stadium name change.

Meyer is a Sequim High graduate (Class of 1969) and an association member for the past four years.

“He’s not a close friend of mine … (but) I’ve had a lot of kids go through Sequim High, so I’ve seen Myron a lot,” she said.

At an alumni meeting this February, Meyer brought up the idea of doing something for Teterud.

“I said, ‘We should do something for Myron.’ It just came to my head. Before the words were even out of my mouth, heads were nodding and (saying) ‘yes, yes, yes.’”

The vote, Meyer said, was unanimous.

“Our motto is, ‘If you don’t know Myron, you don’t know Sequim.’”

Myron Teterud, a longtime Sequim High sports fan, enjoys some gifts from Sequim Alumni Association members and friends on Sept. 8. Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell

Sequim School District staff have received the alumni association’s proposal, but heath restrictions relating to the coronavirus pandemic have postponed all non-essential school district business to whenever boards can host in-person meetings.

“I don’t want us to fall behind on that (contact),” board director Jim Stoffer said at a board meeting in early September.

Sequim schools superintendent Dr. Rob Clark said he plans to have it on the agenda at the next “live” meeting, which could be as early as Monday, Oct. 5.

Why Myron?

Born Nov. 27, 1939, Teterud came to Sequim in May of 1951 and began attending Sequim Elementary School in a building that stood on property between Fir and Alder streets.

In a 2015 interview with the Sequim Gazette, he detailed his first thoughts of Sequim: “Dead. Nothing to do.”

In his later school years, Teterud became manager for boys basketball and football squads, the only sports teams Sequim High had at the time. His job? “Anything you can name.”

Teterud briefly left the Olympic Peninsula in 1960 to live in Tacoma and worked at Goodwill, but he still kept an eye on Sequim, watching the Wolves play an occasional non-league or playoff game. He soon returned to Sequim, working at several restaurants like the Red Ranch Inn and Gwennie’s.

For decades, Teterud got decked out in purple in gold, walking the sidelines or sitting up in the stands at Sequim High football and basketball games, softball and baseball games, track meets and wrestling matches alike.

“Myron was at every sporting event; it didn’t matter if it was football or T-ball,” Meyer said. What made his fervor extra special, she said was his support not only of the teams but the fans themselves, becoming a de facto extra cheerleader on the sidelines.

He also had a place on the SHS bus for away games.

In the 2015 interview, Teterud said his favorite sports were football and baseball.

“It’s (a) fun and good time,” he said then. “It gets rowdy.”

Myron Teterud, a 1960 Sequim High School graduate, gives the crowd a salute after being honored as “Fan of the Century” at Sequim High School’s centennial celebration in January 2011. Sequim Gazette file photo by Michael Dashiell

Purple and gold through and through, Teterud holds a special rivalry-fueled dislike for Port Angeles’ Roughriders, the cross-peninsula prep rival.

“Enemies from way back,” he joked in the 2015 interview. “Green and white … not my favorite color.”

Teterud was a regular figure at community events as well, enjoying civic celebrations along with church and grange events. Meyer, who served as Sequim Irrigation Festival royalty mom for several years, recalled taking Teterud along with the festival crew for out-of-town parades.

Before a stroke slowed the uber-fan, Teterud made it a habit of visiting numerous local shops and groups to chat with friends and make new ones.

“He’s just ‘Mister Sequim’; most people don’t even know his last name,” Meyer said.

Support for Teterud has come in bundles, Meyer said, with more than a hundred emails backing the drive to honor Sequim’s super fan.

“Some of these emails, they just bring you to tears,” Meyer said.

With Teterud’s health failing, association members looked to give him a bit of a pick-me-up with a surprise visit on Sept. 8. With fellow association member Loretta Bilow by his side, Sequim Alumni Association president Lorri Gilchrist read aloud a proclamation extolling Teterud’s school spirit and indicating their desire to see the stadium renamed.

Meyer said the association doesn’t have a specific name picked out but that they’d like to see a plaque posted at the stadium’s ticket booth, and that the association would pay for signage costs incurred.

No formal talks yet

Dave Ditlefsen, Sequim High School’s athletic director, said school staff hasn’t had any formal discussion about the name change just yet and that the decision would likely come at the district/board level.

“Myron is certainly someone we want to recognize for his support for teams for 50-plus years,” Ditlefsen said.

While the school would like to honor Teterud, Ditlefsen said it might be more appropriate to post plaques at the stadium and inside the gymnasium rather than renaming the stadium; school athletic building names are typically reserved for Hall of Fame coaches and the like, he said.

“We definitely agree with the concept of honoring Myron (but) we’d like to come up with alternate ideas,” said Ditlefsen, a varsity baseball and football coach who’s seen Teterud’s affinity for SHS prep sports up close since coming to the district 16 years ago.

“Hopefully we can work with the group to come up with something that’s appropriate,” he said.

“We understand the love he has for Wolves athletics (and) our teams have always included him as a member of our family,” Ditlefsen said. “There’s definitely a place for him to be recognized.”

Sequim High has one facility bearing a name: The Rick Kaps Gymnasium that hosts boys and girls basketball games as well as volleyball and wrestling matches and (when the school has in-person teaching) physical education classes. Kaps, who coached SHS and Goldendale boys varsity basketball teams to the tune of a 255-148 record and whose 1988 Sequim team finished second in the class AAA state tourney, died of cancer in 1998 at age 55.