Larry Hermo, Linfield Class of 1959, was a Linfield football manager/trainer during the
1955, 1956, 1957 and 1958 seasons.
He saw every Wildcat home and away football games, except overnight road games. During those four football seasons, there was only one day game on Maxwell Field. It was at the start of the 1956 season when Linfield and Portland State played to a 0-0 tie.
FOOTBALL NIGHT IN THE NORTHWEST CONFERENCE
"Saturday night was football night in the Northwest Conference. The lights at (Maxwell Field) were not very good and a few times with fog you could not see to the other side of the field. The crowds were never very big, in fact I think everyone sat" in Memorial Stadium, he said.
During his student years (1955-59) at Linfield, football managers, paid 75 cents an hour for their work, were Wildcat baseball and basketball athletes. Trainers were credited four hours for each practice and game, said Larry. Jack Riley, Bill Machamer (both Linfield Hall of Famers), Kenny Davis, Jerry Martyn and Dick Duerr were among Linfield athletes who also served as managers for football.
The college did not have an athletic trainer, said Larry, "but, there was a doctor in attendance during the games. Without a trainer, my last three years I was (the football team's) unofficial trainer even though I had) "zero training" in training.
"I had no decision making regarding the injuries of players as that was in the hands of (football) coach (Paul) Durham or the team doctor.
Larry "taped hundreds of ankles and knees along with bandaging many wounds of sorts," he said. Linfield Hall of Famer Ted Henry, who would become an assistant coach on Ad Rutschman's Linfield football staff for many years, was one of the players who Larry taped every practice and game. “
A graduate of Clatskanie, Ore., High School, Larry has a serious arm injury his senior year at Clatskanie that hampered his early athletic career at Linfield. For the Wildcats, he played two seasons (1955-56 and 1956-57) of basketball and four seasons (1956, 1957, 1958 and 1959) of baseball. His head coach for both sports was Roy Helser.
SERVED WITH U.S. ARMY IN SOUTH KOREA
After graduating from Linfield, Larry served in the U.S. Army in South Korea.
While in that country, he read in Stars & Stripes (an American newspaper which reports on matters affecting the members of the U.S. Armed Forces) that tryouts for the Seoul area Army Baseball Team were going to take place.
"I asked my office sergeant if I could get off to try out." He asked if I'd miss work if I made the team. I told him ‘I played college baseball and I would think that I might make the team,’ he said.
There were 109 soldiers at the first tryout." With a few ground balls and three swings I was not one of the 50 cut. With three more practices I made the team. After our first three pre-season games our sergeant called a team meeting and said the coach was transferred and wondered who might coach. He asked if any team members had coached before and no one answered. I raised my hand and said I went to college to be a coach. He asked the team if it was OK for me to be the coach and low and behold I was the player-coach for our entire season.
“My office sergeant was not happy as I only worked three hours in the morning and baseball every day from April to mid-August 1961. A three star general signed the order for me to get off of work, therefore; the sergeant had no power about me being off work. Our team was decent and we placed in the All-Korean Military Tournament. It was a good experience and training for my high school coaching days."
The team, SAC (Strategic Area Command), represented the Seoul area of South Korea. During the season a couple of players left the team for the States when their 13-month "term" ended and new players replaced them.
In 1954, the year after the Korean War ended, U.S. Major League players went to South Korea to teach Koreans baseball fundamentals. "The Koreans became familiar with a number of major leaguers" and some of them were identified with Major League stars or coaches. For example, there was the Casey Stengel of Korea, top manager; the Stan Musial of Korea, best hitter; Babe Ruth of Korea, top home run hitter.
In addition to playing baseball, Larry also played basketball while serving in Korea. One of the South Korean players against whom he played was called the Bob Cousy of Korea, because he was the best player in the country. On the court, he played three or four members of the 1960 South Korean Olympic men's basketball team which played in Rome.
LINFIELD FOOTBALL MEMORIES
After discharge from the Army, Larry returned to Maxwell Field starting in 1962, as a fan, to watch the football Wildcats play. He remembers:
- the 1962 Lewis & Clark at Linfield game. During it, an L&C running back "broke out of the fog from the left and went down the sideline near the stands with a Wildcat in hot pursuit." That 'Cat "made the tackle on the 10 yard line" and L&C subsequently failed to score. Linfield won, 12-6.
- Willamette playing at Linfield at the end of the 1965 season. Both teams were undefeated. It was a "mud bath." Linfield won 26-6 for the Northwest Conference title. That night, Larry said, Linfield running backs LeRoy Fails and Odis Avritt were not slowed by the mud or Willamette. Each rushed for more than 100 yards.
COACHING CAREER STARTED AT Y-C
Larry’s coaching career started at Yamhill-Carlton High School after attending and graduating from Linfield and serving in the Army. He was there, 1961-1967. One of his Y-C players was Tom Jernstedt, a “very good baseball player for me, in fact he pitched five no-hitters my first year of coaching,” Larry said. Jernstedt went on to become the “number #2 in the NCAA, in charge of all championships for NCAA member schools with emphasis on the basketball playoffs. He changed the basketball playoffs from 32 teams to 64 teams and also negotiated a TV contract with CBS for $6 Billion dollars for 11 years. When I was at the Final Four in Indianapolis in 2010, Tom was inducted into the NCAA Hall of Fame.”
From Y-C, he moved to Rex Putnam High School in Milwaukie, coaching 1967-1991. He coached Linfield Hall of Famer Scott Brosius at Putnam and encouraged Brosius to attend Linfield. Brosius is now Linfield head baseball coach and, before that, went on to fame in Major League Baseball with the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees. “It is so neat to guide a guy to Linfield and see what he did in professional baseball and end up to coach the Wildcats,” said Larry.
"Guess I did an adequate job coaching during my career as I was inducted into the Oregon High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1998," Larry said. "It was great during my induction as there were three other Linfield guys inducted the same time. In 1990 I was inducted into my High School Clatskanie Hall of Fame as I earned 12 varsity letters for my career.”
Proud to be a Wildcat, Larry (Class of 1959) said he is “more proud that my grandson, Troy (Class of 2016), started at Linfield in 2012. Troy is a third generation Wildcat. Larry, his late wife, Claire, and his wife Sharon both graduated from Linfield (Class of 1964) as did his older son, Brad (Class of 1986), who played baseball for Linfield, two seasons with Brosius as a teammate.
BLEEDS PURPLE AND CARDINAL
“We are a Linfield Wildcat family and I bleed purple and cardinal,” Larry said.
Photos from:
- 1959 Oak Leaves, the Linfield 1958 football team. In close-up, Larry Hermo is second from the right in top right, standing next to assistant coach Roy Helser. Larry is wearing a hat for a Portland summer baseball on which he played. The hat has “GT” for Granning & Treece loan company.
- 1959 Oak Leaves, Larry as a member of the 1959 Linfield baseball team.
- 1961 as player-coach of the U.S. Army’s SAC (Strategic Area Command) baseball team
- Linfield 2012 Homecoming, Larry visits with Linfield grad Rob Saxton, State of Oregon public instruction deputy superintendent. Saxton, a former Linfield quarterback, is the son of Cliff and LaRene Saxton, both of whom attended Linfield. Cliff, who played football for Linfield, is a member of the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame.
Note: While Wildcatville wrote this story, the reality is that it “wrote itself.” Larry Hermo has an amazing memory and he’s also a very good writer, as “evidenced” by writing sports stories for his hometown Clatskanie Chief weekly newspaper while attending Clastskanie High School.
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