Campus streets have football connections

LEVER STREET

Lever Street intersects with Linfield Avenue. It is bisected by Brumback Street.

In 1961, during halftime of the Linfield homecoming football game (Linfield beat NW Conference opponent Whitman, 52-0) on Maxwell Field, what had been Stadium Avenue -- which runs behind Linfield's Memorial Stadium -- was named in honor of Henry Lever. He was athletic director and coached basketball, baseball, football and track at one time or another during a 19-year (1930-1949) tenure at the college. As part of the halftime ceremony, McMinnville Mayor L.F. Ramsey announced the name change. According to an article in the Oct. 24, 1961, McMinnville News-Register, Linfield President Harry Dillin told the crowd Lever was a truly fine gentleman dedicated to the development of young men. Article says Lever "flew in from Chicago" for homecoming festivities. In addition the article says, "Dillin added that a plaque will be inset in the sidewalk across from Maxwell field stadium in the near future."

Photo taken 12/4/2012. The plaque is no longer inset in the sidewalk. That sidewalk was removed and replaced except for a section of the sidewalk in which the plaque was inset. The section was cut and saved. The section is on display on the the Maxwell Field grounds near Memorial Stadium, close to the stadium's auxiliary entry/exit gate. 

BRUMBACK STREET
Brumback Street intersects with Renshaw Avenue.

On one end of the street is the Linfield Softball Field, which is across the street from Renshaw Hall, now home of the college's Mass Communications Department. Player/coach A.M. (Arthur M.) Brumback organized Linfield's first football team in 1896. He coached for five seasons before being appointed college president in 1903, a position he held for two years (1903-1905). Brumback taught natural sciences at the college. According to one write-up, "Brumback had a passion for sport, playing center on and coaching the college’s first football team. While enormously popular with students" he was not successful in dealing with Linfield's financial crisis. He left Linfield in 1905, to take a position at his alma mater, Denison College, in Ohio. At Denison, he was that college's first chemistry professor.