Friday, October 18, 2013

Milestones for Linfield's 10/19/2013 football game

Many Linfield football fans know that a victory over Whitworth on Saturday will secure another winning season for the Wildcats, extending Linfield's national college record of consecutive winning seasons to 58.

The last time a Linfield football team did not win more than half its games was 1955.

There is another milestone within the Wildcats' reach on Saturday that is lesser known.

Linfield has shut out its last two opponents. The last time the Wildcats shut out three teams in a row was in 1950 -- 63 years ago.

The school record for shut-out victories in a season is five achieved in both 1964 and 1965.

For the record, the most points Linfield ever scored in a shut-out victory was 83, against  Western Oregon in 1927.

The fewest was a 2-0 victory over Pacific in 1984. Linfield went on to win its second national championship that season.

Some other shutout facts:

Linfield also won three consecutive games by shutouts in 1946 and 1937. If they do it Saturday, it will be the fourth time in 99 years of Linfield football.

In addition to the record five shutout victories in 1964 and 1965, Linfield shut out four opponents in 1926 and 1950.

Perhaps emphasizing the effect of the forward pass and increasing potency of offenses, Linfield won 76 shut-out games in its first 50 years of football, but only 53 in its last 49 years.


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Thanks to Linfielder Dennis Anderson for researching and writing this story.