Lever Street sign on Linfield campus.
Photo taken in 2018.
==========================
Oct. 24, 1961==========================
McMinnville News-Register
Henry Lever
Gains Honor
Henry Lever, a former Lin-
Field college coaching great,
flew in from Chicago Friday
to be the honored guest of the
Wildcats’ 1961 homecoming
weekend.
Lever, who coached basket-
ball, baseball, football and track
at one time or another during
his 19-year tenure at Linfield
(1963-1949), was honored at
halftime of the Wildcat-Whit-
man homecoming game Satur-
day night.
College president Harry Dillin
introduced Lever as a truly fine
gentleman dedicated to the de-
velopment of young men.
President Dillin called for all
the former athletes who per-
formed under Lever during his
tenure at Linfield and these
ex-athletes filed out from the
stands onto the field to greet
their coach.
Then L.F. Ramsey, mayor
of McMinnville, told the crowd
that a street had been named in
honor of Lever. The street,
which runs parallel to the foot-
ball field, was formerly known
as Stadium Ave. It is now called
Lever Ave.
(Note from Wildcatville in 2008.
These days it is called Lever
Street.)
President Dillin added that a
plaque will be inset in the side-
walk across from Maxwell field
stadium in the near future.
Lever concluded the cere-
mony by thanking everyone for
making the night possible.
From Paul Durham’s “Dodging with Durham” sports column
Oct. 27, 1961
McMinnville News-Register
…Then, when the Wildcats came out for the second half and surrounded coach Henry Lever for the ceremony in which Mayor L.F. Ramsey announced the changing of the name of Stadium Ave., to Lever Ave., the game was held up long enough that the officials penalized Linfield 15 yards before kickoff…
COACH LEVER HAS RECEIVED many honors for his years of highly successful coaching and every one of them was richly deserved. He’s been a tremendous influence on a great many young people all his adult life and has contributed greatly to the development of those young people.But his most recent honor, having a street named in this city will go down in history as remind people in years of the contributions of himself and his worldly goods that coach Lever made to Linfield and its students during his 19 years on the staff, is without a doubt the greatest and the most lasting.
During his years of struggle to develop a winning athletic tradition at the college, fighting a lack of athletes, interest, equipment, facilities, money and everything else that is needed to make such a program grow, coach Lever brought about development far greater than he realized … He is so humble in his approach to admitting that he contributed much to the development of the college and its athletic program that, even now, he sincerely feels the honors such as the one which came his way last weekend are not deserved.
But people who worked with him on the campus here, and the hundreds of young men who played on his teams, as well as those individuals who served the city in various capacities at the same time he did as a stellar member of the Methodist Church and a solid worker in the Kiwanis Club, know that no one deserves recognition that does Coach Lever.
When someone begins talking about the great things Mr. Lever did, about the fine team he had, and about the successes some of “his boys” have achieved in many walks of life since their years at Linfield, Coach Lever begins to kid himself about the tough times, the losses, the mistakes he made, and the things he should have done better.
So Coach Lever will always be the same great person. He’s been gone from campus for more than 12 years now but his successors are striving to contribute just a small bit of the high ideals, ethics, desire to excel but always according to the rules, which he not only preached but lives.
Coach Lever must be well into his seventies now but he still looks almost as young as he did when he first hit the Linfield campus back in 1930. He has the secret to the fountain of youth.
And he still has a youthful approach to athletics. He could still take over a college football team and bring it in a winner. He’s kept up with the game and is about as up-to-date on it has a man can be.
Kids are still his big love… This next summer, for example, he plans to coach at Peewee baseball team in his hometown, Madras. And don’t bet against his boys, They’ll know the fundamentals of the game from A to Izzard and battle all opponents every inch of the way.
But why not? They'll be playing under a great coach who has always used coaching sports as a means of make fine men out of boys… What greater thing can you say about him?
- Joe Dancer, who served from 1960-1986 as McMinnville City manager, told Wildcatville the McMinnville City Council changed the name of Stadium Avenue to Lever Avenue in 1961. What is now called "Lever Street" borders the college's athletic complex, football field and baseball diamond. The name change came at the urging of Linfield President Harry Dillin, said Dancer.
