How did the Linfield football team deal with it?
The Wildcats dealt with the storm's aftermath out of town,. They played at Chico State the next day, Saturday, Oct. 13.
On Oct. 12-13, 1962, the Paul Durham-coached ‘Cats were traveling to (or from) or in Chico for the non-conference contest. It ended in a 6-6 tie, the only “non-win” in Linfield’s nine game season which concluded with an 8-0-1 win-loss-tie record.
The two schools played each other four times: 1953, 1960, 1961 and 1962. Linfield won them all, except for that darn tie. Here’s what the McMinnville News-Register said:
“The only tie Linfield had, a 6-all contest with Chico State in what was termed the ‘mud bowl’ (the game was called off twice due to flooding conditions) cost the Wildcats a chance for a return trip to the Camellia Bowl. Going into the Chico contest, Linfield was ranked fifth in the nation and after the game, the ‘Cats dropped to 13th. Linfield could only manage to elevate its ranking to the seventh position, not high enough to merit a return NAIA playoff bid.”
The storm’s impact on Oregon and Washington are well documented. Lesser known, in those two states at least, were how it affected northern California and, specifically, Chico.
In an Internet posting, “Ed” said the storm is regarded as the strongest in recorded history of the Pacific Northwest. I was eleven years old at the time … We lived in Chico, California (a hundred miles north of Sacramento), and even that far south of the Pacific Northwest, we returned home to damage. Our giant beloved weeping willow tree in the back yard had been ripped in half.”
One of the members of the 1962 Linfield football team is Carl Heisler. He has total recall of the Linfield-Chico State football game that season. Here’s part of an article in the July 27, 2010, Forest Grove, Ore., News-Times.:
“It was at the end of the Columbus Day storms, which dumped considerable rainfall in Northern California, and the field took a beating for it. In fact, the game was actually canceled twice and the team was sent home on the bus before eventually being played.
"The result was a scene straight out of the movie ‘Leatherheads.;
" ‘(The field) was perfectly flat and green ‘til you stepped on it and went clear to your ankles,” Heisler said. “We got so muddy, the only thing you could tell different is, we both had white hats and one had a stripe down the middle and the other one didn’t. In no great surprise, the game ended in a 6-6 tie.
"When the team arrived back in McMinnville, the players got off the bus and Durham said they were going to do ‘a little running.’
“They ran for two hours, with many players throwing up along the way.
“ ‘And I’m going, ‘Jesus, what am I gettin’ myself into? If he does this when we tie a game, what are we going to do when we lose?’” Heisler said.
Not to worry. During Heisler's time playing football for Linfield the teams went 24-2-2.
Footnotes:
--It’s likely Linfield and Chico State will never again play each other in football. Chico State dropped the sport in 1997.
--Carl Heisler photo by Wildcatville on Oct. 27, 2012.
