At home at McMinnville
Rutschman part of family legacy
By Carl Dubois
McMinnville News-Register
The five other inductees in the 2011 class of the McMinnville High School Sports Hall of Fame live in other cities now. They have varying ties to present-day Mac, mostly characterized by distance of time and place.
Don Rutschman is a different story. A three-sport athlete from 1968-71, he has coached at the high school since 1991. His high school past encircles him daily during his high school present.
Hall of Fame plaques line a hallway leading from the main office to the area with gyms, athletic offices and other remembers of Mac sports. Six new plaques will join them soon after the Hall of Fame banquet at 7 p.m. today at Evergreen Aviation Museum.
Rutschman is at home in McMinnville, where the family legacy cuts a wide swath. Ad
Rutschman, his father, is a Linfield living legend, an Oregon sports figure of prominence, with awards and sports venues bearing his name.
Father and son share the Linfield bond, as Don Rutschman enrolled in college in 1971, the year his father started coaching the baseball team. The younger Rutschman played for the Wildcats.
Linfield won the NAIA national championship in 1971.
“If they wouldn’t have won that national title,” Don Rutschman said, “you don’t know where I might have ended up. Maybe I would have been at Washington State playing baseball.”
Instead, he stayed in the town where he went to high school, where his high school was in the midst of a couple of decades of success in baseball, basketball and football that, as a whole, is unlike the present.
“Mac was on a big run in the ’60s and ’70s,” Rutschman said.
He was a part of it, playing each of those sports, including quarterback on the football team, pitcher on the baseball team and guard on the basketball team.
Today he remains a firm believer in the value of playing multiple sports. He looks at the rosters of teams at Linfield, Oregon and Oregon State, and he sees athlete after athlete who played more than one sport in high school.
He thinks it’s great preparation.
“I think many times that the people highly encouraging athletes in high school to do just one sport were probably one-sport people themselves in their athletic careers,” Rutschman said.
He enjoyed success in all three sports ... He enjoyed practice and setting goals for himself. That helped keep things fresh for him, as did playing three sports.
“If I would have had to play just one sport, I would have been bored to death,” he said.
If he hadn’t played any sports?
“Pruning, fertilizing, gardening, edging and mowing are not my deal,” he said, “and
I know if I wasn’t out for a sport, I was probably going to have to do some manual labor.
“That was not,” he said, laughing, “a part of my program. I did enough of that on the weekends to see the alternative to playing sports.”
Family can vouch. There’s Ad, his dad, his mom, Joan, a former secretary in the athletic department at Mac. Brothers, sisters and sons are part of the family’s Mac tree.
Rutschman teaches driver training — thank him when you make it from one end of town to the other safely — and is an assistant football coach. He coached baseball for years.
He started in education after graduating from Linfield in 1975, and after coming back to Mac High in 1991, he’s something of a “Welcome Back, Kotter” story come to life.
With no end in sight.
“People ask me almost daily,” he said, “and I get tired of it, ‘Geez, how many years do you have left?’ I’m a little irritated by this comment, because I’ve put in a few years, I’m getting older.
“I love what I’m doing. I don’t have a hobby. This is it. So I tell them the alternative is mowing, edging, fertilizing, pruning and trimming, and I hate those things — so I’m still teaching and coaching.”
There were hard times, especially during the recent struggles in football, but Rutschman said he doesn’t regret any of it.
“It’s just been fun,” Rutschman said. “There’s been a lot of hard work, but it’s been fun.”
What: McMinville High School Sports Hall of Fame Banquet
When: 7 p.m. tonight
Where: Evergreen Aviation Museum
Tickets: $35 per person
To buy: Call 503-883-3262
Class of 2011: Alan Cockerham (1983-86), Stephanie (Egan) Banford (1987-91), Ethan McCoy (1999-2002), Tommy Paterson (1997-2001), Don Rutschman (1968-71, 1991-present), Chris Winkler (1978-81)
Distinguished Service Award Recipients: Davison Auto Parts, Doug Fredricks, Farnham Electric, J & W CarStar, Michelbook Country Club, Steve Bernards
Source: Mac HS
Rutschman part of family legacy
By Carl Dubois
McMinnville News-Register
The five other inductees in the 2011 class of the McMinnville High School Sports Hall of Fame live in other cities now. They have varying ties to present-day Mac, mostly characterized by distance of time and place.
Don Rutschman is a different story. A three-sport athlete from 1968-71, he has coached at the high school since 1991. His high school past encircles him daily during his high school present.
Hall of Fame plaques line a hallway leading from the main office to the area with gyms, athletic offices and other remembers of Mac sports. Six new plaques will join them soon after the Hall of Fame banquet at 7 p.m. today at Evergreen Aviation Museum.
Rutschman is at home in McMinnville, where the family legacy cuts a wide swath. Ad
Rutschman, his father, is a Linfield living legend, an Oregon sports figure of prominence, with awards and sports venues bearing his name.
Father and son share the Linfield bond, as Don Rutschman enrolled in college in 1971, the year his father started coaching the baseball team. The younger Rutschman played for the Wildcats.
Linfield won the NAIA national championship in 1971.
“If they wouldn’t have won that national title,” Don Rutschman said, “you don’t know where I might have ended up. Maybe I would have been at Washington State playing baseball.”
Instead, he stayed in the town where he went to high school, where his high school was in the midst of a couple of decades of success in baseball, basketball and football that, as a whole, is unlike the present.
“Mac was on a big run in the ’60s and ’70s,” Rutschman said.
He was a part of it, playing each of those sports, including quarterback on the football team, pitcher on the baseball team and guard on the basketball team.
Today he remains a firm believer in the value of playing multiple sports. He looks at the rosters of teams at Linfield, Oregon and Oregon State, and he sees athlete after athlete who played more than one sport in high school.
He thinks it’s great preparation.
“I think many times that the people highly encouraging athletes in high school to do just one sport were probably one-sport people themselves in their athletic careers,” Rutschman said.
He enjoyed success in all three sports ... He enjoyed practice and setting goals for himself. That helped keep things fresh for him, as did playing three sports.
“If I would have had to play just one sport, I would have been bored to death,” he said.
If he hadn’t played any sports?
“Pruning, fertilizing, gardening, edging and mowing are not my deal,” he said, “and
I know if I wasn’t out for a sport, I was probably going to have to do some manual labor.
“That was not,” he said, laughing, “a part of my program. I did enough of that on the weekends to see the alternative to playing sports.”
Family can vouch. There’s Ad, his dad, his mom, Joan, a former secretary in the athletic department at Mac. Brothers, sisters and sons are part of the family’s Mac tree.
Rutschman teaches driver training — thank him when you make it from one end of town to the other safely — and is an assistant football coach. He coached baseball for years.
He started in education after graduating from Linfield in 1975, and after coming back to Mac High in 1991, he’s something of a “Welcome Back, Kotter” story come to life.
With no end in sight.
“People ask me almost daily,” he said, “and I get tired of it, ‘Geez, how many years do you have left?’ I’m a little irritated by this comment, because I’ve put in a few years, I’m getting older.
“I love what I’m doing. I don’t have a hobby. This is it. So I tell them the alternative is mowing, edging, fertilizing, pruning and trimming, and I hate those things — so I’m still teaching and coaching.”
There were hard times, especially during the recent struggles in football, but Rutschman said he doesn’t regret any of it.
“It’s just been fun,” Rutschman said. “There’s been a lot of hard work, but it’s been fun.”
What: McMinville High School Sports Hall of Fame Banquet
When: 7 p.m. tonight
Where: Evergreen Aviation Museum
Tickets: $35 per person
To buy: Call 503-883-3262
Class of 2011: Alan Cockerham (1983-86), Stephanie (Egan) Banford (1987-91), Ethan McCoy (1999-2002), Tommy Paterson (1997-2001), Don Rutschman (1968-71, 1991-present), Chris Winkler (1978-81)
Distinguished Service Award Recipients: Davison Auto Parts, Doug Fredricks, Farnham Electric, J & W CarStar, Michelbook Country Club, Steve Bernards
Source: Mac HS
