Reprinted from The News Tribune, December 14, 2009
Before the Seattle Seahawks and Mariners, hydroplane racing was the big sport to follow in the Puget Sound region.
Among its heroes was Eatonville resident George “Smiling George” Henley.
Henley’s magical year was 1974. At the helm of the unlimited hydroplane Pay ‘n Pak, he won the Gold Cup on Lake Washington when the race returned to Seafair after a seven-year hiatus.
That same season he won seven total races and the national points championship. He beat all comers, including the “Thunderboat King,” Bill Muncey.
Henley, who retired from racing in 1976 and went on to own Henley’s Silver Lake Resort near Eatonville, died Monday morning at Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup. He was 73.
“It was sudden,” his wife, Mary Henley, said. “It was just one of those things.”
Born in Ketchikan, Alaska, Henley was 13 when he came to Silver Lake in 1950 after his parents bought the Silver Lake Resort..
He used to sneak off to watch the boat races on Spanaway Lake and fell in love with the sport, his wife said.
“He always had something to do with the water,” she said. “He had webbed feet.”
Marc Blau, president of the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame, recalled Henley as a very unassuming man with a constant smile. Henley was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005.
Henley began building his reputation as a boat racer in 1955 when he started racing outboards. He then moved up to inboards and made the jump to unlimited hydroplanes in 1970. He won 12 out of 34 races he entered over the next five years.
In 1974, he joined forces with Dave Heerensperger on the Pay ‘n Pak. The previous year the boat won a National High Point Championship with a different driver at the controls.
Henley was up to the challenge and drove the boat to its second straight championship, which earned him an invitation to the White House to meet President Ford.
Henley retired but came back the next season as partial owner of the Pay ‘n Pak and won another national points championship.
In 1976, Henley left unlimited racing for good.
“He said it was a dangerous sport and why put your life on the line all the time with a family when you have fulfilled all your goals,” said his wife, who recalled that his 1954 Eatonville High School prophecy was that he’d win the Gold Cup.
Legendary hydroplane racing designer Ron Jones, Sr., of Renton, called Henley “my most favorite boat racer.”
“He got boats around the racecourse others could not,” Jones wrote in an online memorial set up for Henley.
Carol Parsons of Harts Lake Resort and Deli in southeast Pierce County remembered Henley as a businessman who “loved that resort and was so devoted to it.”
Henley also is survived by two sons, a daughter and grandchildren.
Among its heroes was Eatonville resident George “Smiling George” Henley.
Henley’s magical year was 1974. At the helm of the unlimited hydroplane Pay ‘n Pak, he won the Gold Cup on Lake Washington when the race returned to Seafair after a seven-year hiatus.
That same season he won seven total races and the national points championship. He beat all comers, including the “Thunderboat King,” Bill Muncey.
Henley, who retired from racing in 1976 and went on to own Henley’s Silver Lake Resort near Eatonville, died Monday morning at Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup. He was 73.
“It was sudden,” his wife, Mary Henley, said. “It was just one of those things.”
Born in Ketchikan, Alaska, Henley was 13 when he came to Silver Lake in 1950 after his parents bought the Silver Lake Resort..
He used to sneak off to watch the boat races on Spanaway Lake and fell in love with the sport, his wife said.
“He always had something to do with the water,” she said. “He had webbed feet.”
Marc Blau, president of the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame, recalled Henley as a very unassuming man with a constant smile. Henley was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005.
Henley began building his reputation as a boat racer in 1955 when he started racing outboards. He then moved up to inboards and made the jump to unlimited hydroplanes in 1970. He won 12 out of 34 races he entered over the next five years.
In 1974, he joined forces with Dave Heerensperger on the Pay ‘n Pak. The previous year the boat won a National High Point Championship with a different driver at the controls.
Henley was up to the challenge and drove the boat to its second straight championship, which earned him an invitation to the White House to meet President Ford.
Henley retired but came back the next season as partial owner of the Pay ‘n Pak and won another national points championship.
In 1976, Henley left unlimited racing for good.
“He said it was a dangerous sport and why put your life on the line all the time with a family when you have fulfilled all your goals,” said his wife, who recalled that his 1954 Eatonville High School prophecy was that he’d win the Gold Cup.
Legendary hydroplane racing designer Ron Jones, Sr., of Renton, called Henley “my most favorite boat racer.”
“He got boats around the racecourse others could not,” Jones wrote in an online memorial set up for Henley.
Carol Parsons of Harts Lake Resort and Deli in southeast Pierce County remembered Henley as a businessman who “loved that resort and was so devoted to it.”
Henley also is survived by two sons, a daughter and grandchildren.