Linfield Baseball 1966 NAIA World Series Champs: Art Larrance has a mitt of Wildcat history

It’s a fact, the first sports team in Linfield College history to win a national athletics championship was the Roy Helser-coached 1966 baseball Wildcats. They won the NAIA World Series.

For the record, Helser's was the first college team in Oregon to win a national baseball title, performing the feat 40 years before Oregon State University’s NCAA World Series title in 2006. OSU won another title in 2007.

Speaking of OSU, Linfield has won two national baseball championships, too. The aforementioned 1966 team and the 1971 Wildcat team, coached by Ad Rutschman.

Here’s a question. Who on the 1966 Linfield baseball team caught the last pitch thrown by Linfield freshman left-hander Jon Hart in the 1966 title game, a 15-4 victory over Illinois’ Lewis University Flyers played the evening of June 10, 1966, at Phil Welch Stadium in St. Joseph, Missouri?

The answer: Art Larrance, who has the catcher’s mitt to prove it. Take a look at the photos of the mitt. It’s a Rawlins, 100% nylon sewn, Nu-grip streamlined Earl Battey profession model with a “Deep Well Pocket” and “Heart of the Hide.” Battey was heart of the Minnesota Twins' 1965 American League championship team.

After he caught the last pitch (a pop-up behind the plate to end the game), Art gave the ball to pitcher John Hart who had his teammates, Linfield players, and Wildcat coaches sign the ball. The ball is in the Linfield Hall of Fame in a glass box with other items from the championship series.

A 1966 Linfield business graduate, of Oregon Brewers Festival fame, Art owns Raccoon Lodge in Raleigh Hills and the Cascade Brewing Barrel House on southeast Belmont in Portland.

Art grew up in Washington County -- outside of Hillsboro -- and graduated in 1962 from Hillsboro High School. At Hilhi, he played baseball for Ad Rutschman and was a member of the Spartan team which was 1962 state co-champs with South Eugene. See Footnote #2. For eight years he was president of the Portland Old Timers and Active Baseball Players Assn., succeeding the late Vern Marshall, a Linfielder.

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Footnote #1: Take a look at this black & white photo on this page of the 1966 Linfield baseball team with its NAIA National Championship banner after winning the title in St. Joseph, Mo. Art Larrance, with the mitt, is standing, second from the left. The banner was displayed on a wall in Riley Gym until Linfield athletics moved to the Paul Durham Health, Human Performance, and Athletics (HHPA) facility. At some point after that, Art inherited the banner. He plans to put it on display at Raccoon Lodge.

Footnote #2: An edited version of a story which ran in the Sunday June 3, 1962, Eugene Register-Guard:

Rain Halts

Prep Finals:

South, Drain, Coburg

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PORTLAND (Special) -- An unexpected storm has canceled the state high school baseball championships and left the state with six state champions.

South Eugene was to have played Hillsboro in the A-1, Drain was to have met North Catholic in the A-2, and Coburg was to have gone against Condon in the B final Saturday night at Multnomah Stadium.

But rain hit Saturday morning and left the field in unplayable condition. The sun began breaking out in the afternoon but no tarpaulin had been on the infield.

Since no postponement is allowed for the finals, the 1962 playoff finalists will go down in the books as co-champions in all three divisions. For more about the rained-out championship games, read two articles from June 2, 2012, "The lost champions: Enduring memories of games never played" in the Oregonian by Lindsay Schnell and "The baseball championships that never were" in the McMinnville News-Register by Jim Walker.

Footnote #3: Two photos of the 1971 Linfield baseball team. One is a classic team photo. The other shows the team during a celebration in downtown McMinnville.

Photo information: Linfield NAIA World Series pennants on display during a NAIA World Series at Lewis Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. Linfield 1966 NAIA national champ replica patch. Art Larrance with his catcher’s mitt in 1966 and in 2009. Art’s catcher’s mitt. Oregonian clipping recounting 1966 baseball team’s title-winning victory. Linfield 1966 and 1971 baseball teams. Close-ups of player figurines on national championship trophies. In St. Joseph, Mo., Linfield 1966 baseball team one June 10, 1966, with its NAIA World Series championship banner and close-ups of banner taken by Wildcatville on March 24, 2012, in Art Larrance's Raccoon Lodge office in Raleigh Hills (Portland), Ore. See banner replica here.

POSTSCRIPT:

• The 1966 Linfield baseball team, coached by Roy Helser, won its NAIA World Series title by beating Lewis of Illinois, 15-4, the night of Friday, June 10, 1966, in St. Joseph, Mo., at Phil Welch Stadium.
• The 1971 baseball team, coached by Ad Rutschman, won its NAIA World Series title by beating Lipscomb of Tennessee, 9-8, in the afternoon of Wednesday June 9, 1971, in Phoenix, Ariz., at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.

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Linfield's NAIA World Series 1966 championship banner is on display in Art Larrance's Raccoon Lodge brew pub in Raleigh Hills, Portland. This Wildcatville photo was taken during a 9/19/2013 meeting of Linfielder's attend Bob Ferguson's Cardinal Circle lunch meeting.