Long-time radio personality, sportscaster and columnist Scooter Chapman is retiring, and in his honor Newsradio KONP is branding Jan. 31-Feb. 4 as “Scooter Chapman” week.

Chapman recently announced he’s hanging up his microphone after 70 years working at KONP.

A teenager at the time, Chapman began his radio career in 1951, when he arrived at the station and took on multiple tasks from sweeping floors to spinning a few disks. As a junior at Roosevelt High School, he started assisting Ralph Gallacci doing play-by-play for the Port Angeles Roughrider football games. He gained a knowledge of sports by listening to Leo Lassen broadcast Seattle Rainier baseball games.

Chapman graduated high school in 1952 and attended the University of Washington. He returned to Port Angeles and found time to hang around the station before a two-year stint in the U.S. Army as a radio broadcast specialist that paved the way for his journalistic career in communications.

He began working for the Port Angeles Evening News as a sports editor and at KONP as sports director. For more than 30 years he was sports editor for both the newspaper and radio station.

Chapman wrote a long-running sports column for the Sequim Gazette from 2003-2012.

Chapman was inducted into the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Hall of Fame, not only for his announcing of games on radio, but also his newspaper and sports officiating careers. In 2016 he was inducted into the Peninsula College Athletics Hall of Fame.

In September 2017, as a testament to his value to the community, the Port Angeles High School named the press box at the High School’s Civic Field “Scooter Chapman Press Box.” In 2018, Chapman was inducted into the Port Angeles Roughriders Athletics Hall of Fame.

In addition to his work, Chapman has volunteered for countless sporting events as a referee and umpire; combined with his reporting and broadcasting it’s estimated he’s had a hand in announcing more than two thousand games, not to mention local parades, the annual Salmon Derby and countless emceeing events at various fundraisers and events.

To celebrate the week, Chapman will be on the 8:30 a.m. Morning Scramble at KONP (1450 AM) each morning. He will also join the Todd Ortloff Show for a full segment on Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 2-3; the show on Feb. 3 will be devoted to Chapman taking calls from listeners.

The community is encouraged to share thoughts and memories with Scooter by mail or electronically by visiting myclallamcounty.com. Cards and memories may also be dropped off in person at the radio station anytime during the week.KONP is at 721 E. First St., Suite 101, Port Angeles.