Photo by Kurt Howard
Jordan McPhee (12) of the Seattle Pacific women's basketball team shoots during action at the Royal Brougham Pavilion.
Brougham name stands out at SPU
By Tim Clinton
One of the most famous names involving athletics at Seattle Pacific University is that of a man who did not even attend the school, let alone play sports or coach there.
It is that of Royal Brougham, who the Falcons' athletic pavilion is named after (as well as the road that runs between T-Mobile Park and Lumen Field in Seattle).
Brougham dropped out of Franklin High School in Missouri at the age of 16 to start a sports writing career at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1910 that lasted until he died in the Kingdome press box at a Seattle Seahawks game in 1978 at the age of 84.
Most of that time he served as the newspaper's sports editor until stepping down from that position at age 74 in 1968.
Brougham was portrayed for covering the University of Washington crew team in its 1936 Olympic gold medal year in the 2023 movie "The Boys in the Boat."
Seattle Pacific plays at the NCAA Division II level, including the men's and women's basketball and women's volleyball and gymnastics teams that call the Royal Brougham Pavilion home.
Other men's sports at the school now are soccer, cross country and track and field.
The women at SPU also have soccer, cross country, golf, rowing and track and field to compete in.
The Falcons are members of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference in most sports. The gymnastics team is in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and the women's rowing team in the Northwest Collegiate Rowing Conference.
SPU boasts five NCAA Division II national championships in men's soccer, coming in 1978, 1983, 1985, 1986 and 1993.
The Falcons were under the leadership of head coach Cliff McCrath all of that time. He held the position from 1970 to 2007.
SPU took the NCAA Division II women's soccer crown in 2008.
The Falcons raced to second in NCAA women's rowing in 2017 and sixth in 2022.
Vanessa Anteye of Seattle Pacific once earned a national championship at the NCAA indoor track meet competing in the 800-meter run.
Your second block of text...