Here's what happened to Chris Miles, a member of Linfied's 2004 NCAA DIII championship football team

Since Nov. 2011, Chris Miles (see photo) has owned/operated CMDesign, an advertising and design agency in McMinnville. From Junction City, Ore., after graduating (art/mathematics) from Linfield -- where he lettered in football (defensive tackle) and track & field (throws) -- in 2006, he went to work for the McMinnville News-Register as lead graphic artist. Later, he became production manager. He and his wife, Danielle (Bielenberg), also a Linfield grad, have a new-born (Sept. 2011) son, Roman Christopher Miles. The fall 2010 issue of Linfield Magazine says she is a clinical specialist at the Federal Correctional Institution in Sheridan, Ore.

Behind Linfield's football bench and stands at Wesley game

Here's information about the cemetery seen behind the Linfield bench and stands during the Linfield at Wesley College NCAA DIII football playoff game at Wesley's Scott D. Miller Stadium in Dover, Delaware, on Nov. 26, 2011. It's the Church of the Holy Cross Cemetery and Mausoleum affiliated with the Roman Catholic church of the same name in Dover. (For the record, Wesley is United Methodist and Linfield is American Baptist.) In this photo -- showing the Linfield and Wesley football teams huddling and praying together after the game -- you can see (top of photo) the mausoleum and cemetery with gravestones.

Linfield at Wesley football Nov. 26, 2011

Wildcatville thanks Phil Bond, Linfield Class of 1970, for many of the photos here and in the slideshow. A member of the Linfield Board of Trustees, Bond lives in Fairfax Station, Va. As a Linfield student, he served as sports information director for the college's athletic department. He lettered four years for Linfield track & field and is #4 on the college's men's all-time best in the 800m run.

Photos from morning of 11/25/2011 Linfield campus

Learn about the namesake of Linfield's Jerald R. Nicholson Library

Late in the summer of 2003, Jereld R. Nicholson Library was opened, succeeding Northup Library, which is now TJ Day Hall. Below is information about the library's namesake. The black & white photos here of Nicholson are from the Linfield Oak Leaves yearbook of 1939, the year he graduated from the college. The yearbook says he earned a bachelor of arts degree in history and his hometown was Boyd, Ore. 

Color photos, by Wildcatville taken in Nov. 2011, show a library door and exterior. Other photos taken in March 2013 show a plaque and photos near library entry.

Linfield news release 5/17/2003

Linfield receives $6.4 million bequest, the largest in its history

McMINNVILLE -- A 1939 alumnus has left Linfield College $6.4 million, the largest bequest in the history of the college.

The bequest is from the late Jereld R. Nicholson of Dufur, who graduated in 1939 with a degree in history. The bequest was unrestricted and will be placed in the college quasi-endowment, with the ultimate use to be determined by Linfield's Board of Trustees.

"Mr. Nicholson's generosity will have a significant impact on Linfield College for generations to come," said President Vivian A. Bull in making the announcement. "By making his gift unrestricted, Mr. Nicholson has provided the college with the flexibility to use the money where it will best enhance our mission and the education of our students."

Nicholson was born July 31, 1914, in Wasco County and grew up in Boyd and Dufur. At Linfield, he majored in history and was a member of the Iota Omega Mu fraternity. After graduating, Nicholson returned to Dufur and operated and eventually owned the Underhill Ranch.

Nicholson remained an avid promoter of Linfield College in Dufur and encouraged qualified students to attend. He also made regular contributions to Linfield College up to his death in June 2002.

"Mr. Nicholson put his own gifts to use in the service of others," said Richard Ice, chair of the Board of Trustees. "Like many others who have attended Linfield College, he was from a modest background and was the first in his family to attend college. He supported Linfield in a meaningful way throughout his lifetime and his generosity, through this bequest, will benefit countless students in the future."

Nicholson's gift is the largest bequest and second largest gift ever received by Linfield College. The Hewlett-Packard Company is the single largest contributor in the college's history with the donation of 81 acres of land to the college, valued at $7.9 million.

.....................................Obituary in The Dalles Chronicle June 19, 2002Jerald R. NicholsonJerald "Nick" Rust Nicholson, 87, a resident of Dufur (Oregon) died at a hospital in Portland of a sudden illness, on Monday, June 17, 2002.

He was born July 31, 1914, in Wasco (Oregon) one of two sons to James A. and Marcia (Rust) Nicholson. He grew up in Boyd (Oregon) and graduated from Dufur High School and later from Linfield College in McMinnville (Oregon).

He served in the Army during World War II, and then returned to the Dufur area to wheat and cattle farming.

He was a member of the Dufur Christian Church and attended all the Dufur Community activities from the school ball games to the Threshing Bee. He enjoyed visiting and eating out with his friends.

He is survived by many friends and was preceded in death by his brother, James.

Viewing visitation will be held at Spencer, Libby & Powell Funeral Home on Thursday, June 20 from 2 to 7 p.m. and 9 to 10:30 a.m. on Friday.

Funeral services will be held at Spencer, Libby & Powell Funeral Home at 11 a.m. on Friday, June 21, with Asa Jenson officiating. Interment will follow at the Dufur Community Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to Jerry Walker Scholarship Fund, c/o Dufur High School.

TD for Linfield vs. Cal Luth: 11/19/2011

Linfield QB Mickey Inns (#11) passes 8 yards to Deidre Wiersma (#12) for a Wildcat touchdown with 41 seconds to go in the second quarter. In the opening round of the NCAA DIII football playoffs, Linfield beat Cal Lutheran, 30-27, Nov. 19, 2011, on Linfield's Maxwell Field in McMinnville, Ore. This video by Wildcatville shows clips out of order. Below are Wildcatville still photos from the game.

Mike Barrow: A Wildcat remembered

A Wildcat remembered
1963 Crook County graduate has study room in Nicholson Library named posthumously in his honor
By Lon Austin
Central Oregonian newspaper
Prineville, Oregon
Nov. 18, 2011

Mike Barrow is most remembered for his athletic prowess.

Barrow, a 1963 graduate of Crook County High School, played football, basketball, and baseball at CCHS before going to Linfield College on a baseball scholarship.

Once at Linfield, Barrow not only played baseball, he played football, and by his junior year was the starting quarterback.

Barrow graduated from college in 1968, with a degree in physical education, and planned to become a teacher and coach.

His plans were altered when in 1968 he enlisted in the U.S. Army. Then his life was tragically cut short when he was killed in action in Khanh Province, South Vietnam in June of 1969.

“He went over there and never came home,” said Jerry Bernard, who graduated from high school with Barrow. “Well, he came home — but not the way we wanted him to. As far as I know, he was the only person from our class who didn’t make it.”

“It brought a traumatic awareness of the war around town,” added long-time Prineville resident Von Thompson, who played baseball with Barrow.

“I was a freshman at Spokane Falls Community College when he was killed in Vietnam,” Huntley added. “With Mike growing up in Prineville and his dad being a minister in town, I’m sure that it made Vietnam a whole lot more real to people.”

Although Barrow is gone, he is not forgotten. Last Saturday, Barrow was remembered at Linfield. Not as an athlete, but as a student. The university honored Barrow by naming a room at the Nicholson Library the Mike Barrow Study Room.

The hour-long event took place following Linfield’s 47-14 victory over Lewis and Clark University. Taking part in the program, which was organized by his Linfield football teammates and fraternity brothers, was his sister, Mary Gail Barrow, the last surviving family member.
Barrow was an unlikely athletic star.

Although it wasn’t one of his finest moments, everyone seems to remember one incident from Barrow’s high school baseball career.

The Intermountain Conference was divided into an eastern and western division. Crook County had won the western division and Pendleton won the eastern division. The two teams met in Prineville for a best-two-out-of-three series with the winning team going to state.

The two teams had split the first two games of the series, so a lot was on the line in game three.

The game had become physical and there had already been a series of controversial plays and arguments when Barrow apparently decided that enough was enough. He hit a ball to deep center field and knocked down Pendleton’s first baseman as he rounded the bag. Then he slid into second base with his cleats high, hitting Pendleton’s second baseman, causing what witnesses describe as a rhubarb.

His father, Gene, was sitting in the stands and took exception to Barrow’s attitude on the play.

The next Cowboy to the plate singled and Barrow rounded third base headed for home.

“Mike was rounding third base and was looking to the outfield to pick up the ball,” Thompson said. “His dad just appeared out of nowhere and he reached out, I think to grab him, but he just kind of clotheslined him and shocked everyone in the crowd. It was so unexpected I’m not sure I remember the result. Whether he was out, or what happened after, that but it was definitely a big play in the playoff.”

Barrow returned to the dugout and according to accounts said ‘don’t say anything. I was wrong.’

Barrow didn’t play the remainder of the game, which the Cowboys lost. Then he apologized in front of the entire church congregation on Sunday.

He then wrote a letter of apology to the Central Oregonian stating “I would like to apologize for the unsportsmanlike manner in which I acted on the baseball field Saturday, May 19. I feel that my actions may have given our town a bad name and I wish to take the blame for it, if so.

I feel that my father was right in taking me from the game because I had been taught to, above all, be a good sport and to abide by the rules.”

His senior year of high school he was listed at 135 pounds on the football roster.

“I think they lied, as is tradition in football,” said Thompson. “He was a little guy, maybe 5-8 and 120 pounds.”

However, in spite of his size, Barrow never backed down from a challenge.

“He was a good student and a good athlete in everything that he did,” Bernard said.

“I was a bat boy when Barrow played baseball,” said retired Crook County High School teacher Tim Huntley. “I remember him as a fiery competitor. Every time he went out on the field he would give it his all and you could tell that he enjoyed it. He was the kind of kid that we really looked up to. You know, the really elite athletes at Crook County at the time. Barrow was even better in college from what I understand.”

Once in college, Barrow was an overachiever. He started much of his sophomore season when the starting quarterback was injured. Then, during his junior and senior seasons, he was in a battle for the starting quarterback job with Terry Durham, son of then Linfield head coach Paul Durham.

Barrow eventually won the starting position and was quarterback in 1967 when Linfield upset University of Hawaii 15-13 in front of a crowd of more than 20,000 — still the largest crowd to ever see a Linfield game.

“I had a lot of respect for him,” Thompson said. “He was a feisty little guy, and fiercely competitive. He didn’t back down from anybody, but he also had character.”

Huntley agreed that Barrow was a great athlete, but also believes that he was someone worth emulating.

“Those were the days when 400 or 500 people watched a baseball game and the gyms were packed when they were playing,” added Huntley. “I think there were several of us at my age group who probably really looked up to him as a role model.”

Barrow was an overachiever and a role model, and his teammates at Linfield have made sure that he will not be forgotten.

Linfield Review story about Nov. 12, 2011, Mike Barrow Study Room dedication

Mike Barrow, a Linfield alumnus and Vietnam veteran was honored with a study room in Nicholson Library on Nov. 12. Throughout the ceremony, friends of Barrow, such as Brian Petterson (above), spoke of the huge impact Barrow had on him and Linfield. Joel Ray/Photo editor
==See Wildcatville postings concerning the Nov. 12, 2011, dedication of the Mike Barrow Study Room here and here.==

Linfield alum, veteran honored with study room
Posted Nov 14, 2011
By Kelsey Sutton

A Linfield alumnus and Vietnam veteran was honored for his life and accomplishments with a study room in Nicholson Library. Friends, family, college teammates and fellow alumni gathered to tell stories and remember Mike Barrow on Nov. 12 in the library.

Barrow graduated from Linfield in 1968 and entered the military in Vietnam, where he was killed during combat in 1969.

Barrow was described by his friends and family as an outgoing, competitive person and a “rascal.” He lettered in both football and baseball at Linfield, playing as a successful quarterback throughout his college years in 1963 through 1968.

Friends of Barrow stood up to speak about his memory and share anecdotes. His laughter and his big heart were frequently highlighted by his loved ones.

His sister, Mary Gail Barrow, told a story from their childhood about how his competitiveness went all the way back to grade school when they played softball at recess.

One friend, Brian Peterson, stood to speak of the great impact that Barrow’s friendship had on him. He showed his ring, which was inscribed with the words “Remember Mike.”

“He was a Delta, I was a Theta. You wouldn’t think that we would bond, but we did. I was a center, he was a quarterback. The bond’s still going on,” he said.

Tom Taylor, Barrow’s roommate in college, met Barrow outside of the spotlight and attention of sports.

“Mike had a zest for life that I haven’t seen since,” he said.

Pete Degenis, another close college friend of Barrow, was one of many who mentioned his large character despite his small stature.

Odis Avritt, a fellow Delta Psi Delta, spoke of Barrow’s leadership.

“Mike was kind of our leader. Everyone knows freshmen were hazed. So, as freshmen, we would go aside and figure out how we were going to get those older Deltas,” Avritt said.

Avritt talked about how he tried to talk Barrows out of going overseas. Barrows told him, “I’ve made my peace, and I will go and do what it is that I need to do.”
“He wasn’t very big, but he had the heart of a lion,” Avritt said.

Barrow met a girl in college, fell in love and proposed. Barrow left for war, but Janet Gerfen never stopped loving him, even after she went on to marry and have children.

Gerfen’s daughter, Stephanie Baird, spoke of her mother’s undying love for Barrow. "My mom wore Michael’s engagement ring on another finger until the day she passed away, three years ago.”

There are pictures and mementos in the study room in Nicholson Library. It is the hope of many that Linfield students will see the pictures and imagine what it was like to be a student at Linfield during another time. And of course, students will be able to see the great role model that Mike Barrow was.
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In response to the Nov. 14, 2011, Linfield Reveiw article (above) about Mike Barrow ... this response from reader "Frances" is noted:

Posted November 14, 2011 at 2:03 PM

Mike was a very close family friend. We grew up with him attending his high school football games, and spent endless hours with Mike, Mary-Gail, and his younger brother, Gerald. He was fun, full of life, an outstanding athlete, and an overall wonderful friend. We were with his brother, at camp, when we were told of Mike’s death. We will never get over the impact of Vietnam had on all of us, as a result of Mike’s death. A life too young, too short…and too important to be taken so soon. He was 23.

A bit of fall in McMinnville, Ore. 11/14/2011

Sorry, video editing problems result in this video playing too long.

Log and lumber trucks rumble through McMinnville on Hwy 99W, 11/14/2011

Mary Gail Barrow speaks at Mike Barrow Study Room dedication, Nov. 12, 2011.

Mary Gail Barrow speaks at the Nov. 12, 2011, dedication of the Mike Barrow Study Room in Linfield College's Nicholson Library, McMinnville, Ore. The room is named for her brother, a Linfield graduate and former Linfield football team quarterback, who died in 1969 while in combat with the U.S. Army in Vietnam. Mary Gail and Mike's brother, the late Gerald "Jerry" Barrow, is also graduated from Linfield. Photo by Tim Marsh, Wildcatville.

Linfield’s storied ‘Hartford Pipeline’ is thanks to Coach Joe Beidler

Updated Nov. 11, 2011. Photo from 1952 Whitman College Waiilatpu student yearbook .

The storied “Hartford Pipeline” is part of Linfield sports lore. Ten graduates of Hartford, Conn., high schools came to Linfield and went on to success at the college academically and athletically and to successful careers after graduating from the college.

Meet Joe Beidler (pronounced “Biide-lur”). Without him, there would be no “Hartford Pipeline.” Also, it's been called the "Hartford Connection."

Beidler’s contact with Linfield happened because he was coaching at Whitman College, Linfield’s Northwest Conference rival in Walla Walla, Wash.

He and his wife, Ruth, arrived at Whitman in 1949, after three years (1946-1949) coaching at his alma mater, Trinity College in Hartford.

Initially, he was Whitman head baseball coach and assistant football coach. In 1951, he became Whitman’s head football coach, too. He coached both sports until June 1955, when the Beidlers left Walla Walla and Whitman to return to Connecticut.

Back in Hartford, he coached football and baseball at Weaver High (Hartford) and Conard (West Hartford) until his retirement in 1983.

“In my years at Whitman, Paul Durham and Roy Helser (Linfield head football and baseball coaches respectively), although both staunch rivals and highly competitive, developed into my good friends among those in the coaching world,” Beidler, age 91, told Wildcatville in October 2010 from Vero Beach, Florida, where the Beidlers live.

“I was fortunate to spend time socially with Paul and Roy off the field, often in their homes with their families, during times when our teams were not on the field of competition in Walla Walla and McMinnville,” he said.

“After leaving Whitman, my new assignment of coaching in high school in Harford enabled me to make recommendations for student-athletes whom I believed would be successful with at Linfield,” said Beidler.

The first athlete Beidler recommended to Linfield was Curtis Manns, who had played football for him three years at Weaver High. He entered Linfield in 1958 and lettered in his first three years. He gave up football as a Linfield senior to concentrate on academics. Ultimately, he earned a doctorate degree and served for many years on the faculty of Florida A&M.

Of the remaining nine athletes who entered Linfield from 1959-1967, seven played football: Mike Stelman, Bernie Grant, Pete Dengenis, John Lee, Ron Rudo, Eddie Griffin and Bob Sullivan. Rick Turner was a basketball player and Bob Raffalo was a swimming team member and played baseball. (Griffin came to Linfield indirectly. Read on.)

“This was an unusually talented group,” he said. As evidence are some of the individual honors earned. The group includes Pete Dengenis, John Lee, Bob Sullivan and Bob Raffalo, all members of the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame.

In addition, Dengenis was named to the NAIA All-American team in 1963 and he was All-Northwest Conference in 1961, 1962 and 1963. Also All-NWC were Sullivan (1968, 1969 and 1970) and Stelman, Lee and Griffin in 1961, 1963 and 1967 respectively.

Six “Hartford Connection” members became educators after graduating from Linfield. In addition to Manns, they include Turner, who earned a doctorate and served in the University of Virginia administration; Dengenis; Sullivan; Ruffalo and Lee, now a pastor.

Mike Stelman’s accomplishments include a successful real estate business in San Diego. He travels frequently on behalf of the Rotary Club. A Rancho Bernardo, Calif., resident, his honors include being a member of the Rancho Bernardo Hall of Fame and Soroptimist Man of the Year. In addition, he is on the board of directors of the San Diego International Sports Council, Holiday Bowl.

Eddie Griffin (Edward Ploma Griffin, Jr.), an outstanding football and basketball player for Linfield (graduated 1968), is a state high school championship high school boys basketball coach in Hartford. He transferred to Linfield after his freshman year at Virginia State. He followed in the footsteps of his cousin, John Lee (John Earl Lee, graduated 1967), who started at Linfield as a freshman.

Griffin is a member of the Hartford Public High School Athletic Hall of Fame as a player.

So, Beidler was key in Lee going to Linfield. In turn, Lee was key in Griffin going to Linfield.

An almost “Hartford Connection” member is the Beidlers' daughter, Jo. She attended Linfield (psychology major), 1967-68, and then transferred to and graduated from the University of Hawaii.

Beidler has frequent e-mail, mail and telephone contact with “Hartford Connection” members. In November 2005, he traveled from Florida to McMinnville for reunion of some members as well to visit with Paul Durham, who had traveled from Hawaii to Linfield for a Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony and football game.

..........

Research subsequent to this story indicates the "Hartford Connection” also includes: 

Harold D. Abrams -- Grad of Hartford High School, played basketball for Linfield, graduated from Linfield in 1973. After a 30-year career in government, retired in 2007 as City of Hartford director of parks and recreation. 

Charles Ferguson – Grad of Hartford’s Bulkeley High School, wrestled for Linfield, graduated from Linfield in 1982. Coached wrestling at Bulkeley and coached (still coaches?) at New Britain, Conn., High School. 

Clifford "Suge" Mitchell (Clifford J. Mitchell, Jr.) -- Grad of Hartford's Hartford High School, played basketball for Linfield, graduated from Linfield in 1972.

Lance S. Powell -- Grad of Hartford’s Weaver High School, swimmer for Linfield, graduated from Linfield in 1974. 

Anthony P. "Tony" Ragazzi Jr. -- Grad of Hartford’s Weaver High School, played football for Linfield. 

Billy R. Scott -- Grad of Hartford’s Weaver High School, played football for Linfield, graduated from Linfield in 1974. 

Ronald "Ronnie" "Smitty" Smith -- Grad of Hartford’s Weaver High School, played basketball for Linfield. 

Robert "Bobby" Williams -- Grad of Hartford’s Weaver High School, played football for Linfield, graduated from Linfield in 1974. 

Kevin Rivers -- Grad of Hartford's Bulkeley High School, tried out for Linfield football team, but did not play football for the Wildcats. He graduated from Linfield in 1973.

Other Linfielders from Hartford, who apparently did not participate in sports for the Wildcats, include:

Pete Casarella, Class of 1972. He's a grad of Hartford’s Bulkeley High School.

April Everett, Class of 1974. She’s a grad of Hartford’s Weaver High School.

Brenda Joiner, Class of 1974. She’s a grad of Hartford’s Weaver High School.

Edmond "Ed"/"Eddie" Ware, Class of 1975. He’s a grad of Hartford’s Weaver High School.

Called "Hartford High School" here, it's correctly identified as Hartford Public High School.

See Wildcatville story, "Hartford Connection's Pete Dengenis, Mike Stelman visit Linfield Football practice at Maxwell Field 10/15/2010."

...................................

After 10/18/2014 unveiling of the Coach Paul Durham (in the background) statue on the campus of Linfield in McMinnville, Cathy (Bake) Sullivan took this photo (left-right) of her husband, Bob Sullivan; Pete Dengenis, John Lee and Mike Stelman. They're part of Linfield's storied "Hartford (Connecticut) Connection." Photo posted 8:39pm 10/19/2014 http://on.fb.me/1t2tP2N by Cathy Sullivan at Facebook BWC-Linfield with this cutline: "Four of "The Hartford Connection" who were recruited by, and played for Coach Durham. (left to right) Bob Sullivan 71', Pete Dengenis 64', John Lee 67', Mike Stelman 63'."

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Joseph B. Beidler, 1918-2016

Hartford, Connecticut, COURANT newspaper

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/hartfordcourant/obituary.aspx?pid=182401932

Joseph B. "Coach" Beidler, 97, died Monday, October 31, in the comfort of his home.

He was born November 15, 1918.

Joe served our country during WWII as a Lieutenant in the Navy aboard a mine sweeper.

His passing leaves a void in the hearts of many, especially his devoted daughter, Nancee (Ray Torns) and his adoring wife and "best girl" of 74 years, Ruth.

He is also survived by his daughter JoAnn Schaaf, his son Robert, his only granddaughter, Brandy Caban, three grandsons Kalua, Kama and Kahoa McKeague, and his special great-granddaughter, Kiana Caban.

Joe's passion was football and baseball. First as a player and then as a coach.

His career spanned nearly 4 decades, beginning at his beloved alma mater, Trinity College, migrating to the Pacific West and returning home to CT to coach at Weaver High and Conrad High.

One of his proudest achievements was creating what became known as the "Hartford Connection." Between 1958 and 1967 Coach sent 10 young and talented players to Linfield College in Oregon.

Coach believed in his players and inspired them to fulfill their potential. Joe's 15 year run of coaching with McKee at Conrad High was legendary, winning over 80% of games played.

When he hung up cleats and retired to Vero Beach with Ruth they "played" together at golf, Bridge, square dancing and pool! Always learning!

He volunteered for the Dodgers at Spring Training and relished being the driver who talked "game" all the way to the airport. Coach Beidler was a great guy. Loved and respected. A coach who knew the science of football and a gentleman on and off the field. His word was gold. He left the world a better place.

The family extends its sincere gratitude to all the caregivers and Masonicare Hospice professionals who gave Joe such exceptional care.

A Celebration of Coach Joe Beidler's life will be held at Trinity College Chapel at a later date. Please visit our guestbook at www.taylorandmodeen.com

Robert Raffalo of Linfield "Hartford Connection" fame, Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame member enshrined 11/12/2011

This info from Linfield Sports Information. Robert Raffalo of Linfield "Hartford Connection" fame was enshrined Nov. 12, 2011, in the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame.


Robert Raffalo
Athlete 1961 - 1965

Robert Raffalo of the Class of 1965 rarely experienced defeat over his four-year career as a baseball and swimming student-athlete at Linfield.

Raffalo was a four-year starter for the baseball club coached by Roy Helser, during which time the Wildcats won four Northwest Conference championships, made four postseason appearances and posted a 71-42-1 win-loss record.

He began his career as a third baseman, earning first team all-conference honors as a freshman and sophomore. His first year in uniform, he led the ‘Cats in RBIs and posted a career-best .364 batting average.

Raffalo made the transition to the shortstop position as a junior. His highly decorated senior year included first team all-conference honors, NAIA honorable mention All-America recognition, All-Oregon Sportswriters Association accolades and Linfield’s Most Improved Player award. After graduation, he was invited to a professional baseball tryout with the St. Louis Cardinals.

He boasts a .345 career batting average and still ranks in the Top 10 in three individual single-season categories at Linfield, including on-base percentage (.528), triples (6) and appearances (35).

Raffalo enjoyed an equally prolific career in the pool. A four-time all-Northwest Conference and NAIA District 2 champion in diving, Raffalo became the first Wildcat to qualify at the NAIA National Swimming & Diving Championships as a senior in 1965. Unfortunately, due to mechanical plane problems and extreme winter weather conditions in La Crosse, Wis., he was unable to compete in the meet.

Over his four-year career, Raffalo went undefeated in NAIA District 2 competition and lost just twice to NWC opponents. He was recognized as a conference and regional all-star all four seasons.

Raffalo was an active member of the Linfield community. In addition to his athletic pursuits, he served as the Senior Class President, Lettermen’s Club President and Vice President of Linfield’s Chapter for the Oregon Education Association. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and health with a minor in social studies.

After graduating in 1965, he returned to his hometown of Hartford, Conn., where he taught and coached in the public school system for 38 years. During that time, he also found the time to complete two additional degrees, volunteer with multiple sports organizations and serve as athletic director at his alma mater, Bulkeley High School.

Raffalo retired in 2004, and currently resides in Old Saybrook, Conn. He has two grown children, Kelly and Robert, Jr.

Lewis & Clark at Linfield football 11/12/2011: Linfield Wildcats beat L&C Pioneers, win Northwest Conference title

Links to four Mike Barrow stories

This was posted 2/11/2015

"Cheering over, but Mike Barrow still remembered" story related to Nov. 12, 2011, dedication of the Mike Barrow Study Room in Nicholson Library at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. Linfield is Mike's alma mater.

http://wildcatville.blogspot.com/2011/10/cheering-over-but-mike-barrow-still.html

Same story here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/71190985/Mike-Barrow-Flyer

....

Linfield Review (Linfield College student newspaper) Nov. 14, 2011, story about Nov. 12, 2011, dedication of Mike Barrow Study Room in Linfield College (McMinnville, Oregon) Nicholson Library. Linfield is Mike's alma mater

http://wildcatville.blogspot.com/2011/11/linfield-review-story-about-nov-12-2011.html

Same story here:

http://thelinfieldreview.com/9008/the-rest/linfield-alum-veteran-honored-with-study-room-2

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Story about Mike Barrow, "A Wildcat remembered," in the Nov. 18, 2011, Prineville, Oregon, Central Oregonian newspaper. Mike is said to have been from Portland, Oregon. However, he grew up in Central Oregon and graduated from Crook County High School in Pineville, Oregon.

http://wildcatville.blogspot.com/2011/11/mike-barrow-wildcat-remembered.html

Same story here:

http://portlandtribune.com/component/content/article?id=182601

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Mike Barrow included in Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) "Wall of Faces" 


http://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/2675/MICHAEL-E-BARROW

College sports: Smitten with Division III

Sat., Nov. 12, 2011

From guest columnist The Oregonian. Link to posted column here.

By Barry Glassner
President
Lewis & Clark College


Our football team is having its best season since 1963.

Don't feel bad if this is the first you've heard of the team's astounding turnaround. An unexpected 7-0 start would get notice in Sports Illustrated or ESPN if it happened at any of the previous schools where I've worked. But those places -- Syracuse University, the University of Connecticut and the University of Southern California -- are Division I, and now I'm president of Lewis & Clark College, a Division III school.

I sometimes wish our teams and their inspiring seasons got big play in the sports press. And I confess that I miss the spectacle, resources and athleticism of Division I sports. But I'm happy to trade them, and the costs that accompany them, for the satisfactions of D-III.

Now, instead of worrying about a player's father being absent from the upcoming game because he's meeting with a sports agent, I worry about the health of the father with cancer who has never missed his son's game -- and who thanks me, every time I greet him at the stadium, as if I'm the one who's done something herculean.

Instead of reeling from news about an alumnus of my school going through the public embarrassment of giving back his Heisman Trophy, I revel in updates from an athlete who graduated a few years ago and is now a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. And instead of hearing professors complain about athletes who view classes as rest stops en route to the NFL or NBA, I get messages like the one a humanities professor sent a few days ago:

"Saturday's game was a delight in so many ways, and oddly, least of all because it was a win," the professor wrote. "It was just a delight to see our students play spirited football and to do so with real pleasure, to talk to an alum who treasures his football-playing experience now, nearly six decades gone by, and to meet the parents of one of our offensive linemen who was my student last year, and his brother, who plays on the other team."

You couldn't have found a prouder, happier family, that professor wrote, than the family he witnessed on the field after the game. "Win, lose or draw," the professor said, "mom and dad were tickled that their sons played in a game across from each other -- and are both getting a great education (although we know who is getting the better one)."

To be sure, there are equally proud parents, and for much the same reasons, at D-I schools. In my view, the NCAA and Division I schools have received more criticism lately than they deserve -- although the recent scandal involving Penn State's fabled football program is deeply disturbing, to put it mildly. Still, Division I might benefit from some of the Division III philosophy, which calls on member colleges to pursue their intercollegiate sports programs in a manner that places the highest priority "on the overall quality of the education experience and the successful completion of all students' academic programs."

Division III schools emphasize the experience of the athletes, not the sports-consuming public. The NCAA specifically calls on us to "place special importance on the impact of athletics on the participants rather than on the spectators ... and the general public and its entertainment needs."

Played far from network television cameras and the 100,000-seat stadiums you'll find on the nation's most famous football campuses, our games take place in more idyllic settings. At the site of our team's home games, towering evergreens line one side of the field, opposite the atmospheric wooden grandstand, and as you follow the arc of a high punt or pass, you catch a glimpse of distant foothills between the trees. To be sure, Griswold Stadium at Lewis & Clark is not the L.A. Coliseum or Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. But it has a charm of its own -- faculty and staff kids playing on the track at one end of the field, a small pep band (complete with the octogenarian alumnus on bass drum) plugging away in the thick of the crowd -- a charm that speaks to a more innocent iteration of intercollegiate athletics.

On D-III playing fields, student-athletes really are student-athletes. At this level, no one gets athletic scholarships. Students compete not for fame and big crowds, not for a shot at a pro career, but purely for the fun, excitement and educational benefits they derive.

Sure, some of the disappointments and the worries are the same as you'll find at high-profile football universities. Players get injured in Division III just as they do in Division I; a torn ACL or a concussion is no less painful or troubling for them and the coaches, parents and professors who care about them. Even here, it pains me to say, you'll find student-athletes who are not paying as much attention to their studies as they should.

This Saturday, I'll be living and dying with every play as my college takes on Linfield for the football championship of the Northwest Conference.

At the same time that we're playing, before a crowd maybe 20 times larger, the team representing my former employer will be battling the high-flying squad of another major university. I wish them the best. I'll try to catch the highlights on ESPN, if I can.

Del Smith dies at age 84 (McMinnville N-R 11/7/2014)

"Athletics benefactor Del Smith passes away," Linfield Sports Info release 11/7/2014
http://bit.ly/1GzKm3I

.............

By Nicole Montesano
of the McMinnville News-Register 

Delford M. (Del) Smith, founder of McMinnville's Evergreen International Aviation and Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, died of natural causes late Friday afternoon at his Dundee home, the Yamhill County Sheriff's Office has confirmed.

Smith, 84, had been battling ill health for some time.

The sheriff's office said a death investigation found no evidence of anything other than natural causes. It said Macy & Son had picked up the body and would be handling arrangements.

The life-long aviation enthusiast and entrepreneur is survived by his wife, Maria, and son, Mark. Another son, Michael, preceded him in death.

Smith was a U.S. Marine and self-made man. Though his aviation empire failed in the end, he left a larger than life legacy in the field.

According to The Associated Press, reporting in 2001, “His adoptive father died in a car accident when Smith was 2, and he was raised in near-poverty by his mother. At age 8, he borrowed $2.50 from a Centralia, Wash., bank to buy a lawn mower. Three years, three paper routes and half a dozen other menial jobs later, at age 11, he bought her a house. …

“He invested the equity from the house he bought for his mother to pay both for her long-term care and his tuition to the University of Washington, from which he graduated in 1953. Starting in 1960 with two Hiller helicopters and a 40-foot trailer, Smith began building a global aviation empire that has operated in 178 countries. The 5,500 people who work for his companies generate annual revenues of more than $560 million.”

He founded his aviation enterprise in 1960, starting with a single helicopter. He grew it to the point where it had a fleet of 747s hauling freight to the far corners of the world.

He went on to found the Evergreen Aviation Museum in 2001.

Its centerpiece was, and remains, Howard Hughes' famous Spruce Goose. Smith purchased the wooden behemoth in 1992 and had it disassembled and moved to McMinnville piece by massive piece.

The museum was officially named the Captain Michael Smith Evergreen Aviation Educational Institute, in honor of Smith's son, an Air National Guard pilot and auto racer who died in a car crash in 1995.  The museum continued to expand over the next decade, adding a space museum, movie theater, water park, chapel and outdoor facilities.

A lodge has been started, but construction has been stalled for the past year.

Smith's Evergreen International Aviation company also continued to expand, starting with a helicopters division, expanding into cargo and military flights, cargo handling and even into agriculture.

In 1999, Smith received the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy at a ceremony in Washington D.C., hosted by the Aero Club of Washington.

Beginning in 2010, facing major business challenges, Smith began selling off assets, including the helicopter division in a $250 million sale in 2013. Smith told the News-Register he planned to use the money to reinvigorate his airline, but the company was $300 million in debt at the time and could not, in the end, be saved.

Smith closed the airline in November of 2013, and the company declared bankruptcy on New Year's Eve. A trustee was assigned to take control. In June, a federal judge approved the sale of most of the company's assets.

The aviation buildings were put up for sale earlier this year.

A spokesperson from the museum, and others associated closely in personal and business relationships with Smith, expressed sorrow at the news and said more information related to Smith and Evergreen would be made available in days to come.