There’s the Linfield Wildcat logo.
“The venerable Linfield athletic logo, showing a scowling Wildcat wearing a jauntily cocked sailor's cap, first became a fixture in 1963 under the late coach Paul Durham,” said a posting at the Linfield Athletics website.
Who designed the logo? In a hand-written postcard (dated 7/2/2004 mailed from his home in Honolulu) Durham told Wildcatville “I remember asking somebody, I don't remember who, to design a Linfield logo using the Walt Disney touch. That's what we got." (Durham died 6/22/2007.) The “ask” took place while Durham was Linfield football coach (1948-1967) and athletic director (1949-1967).
Does that mean the Linfield Wildcat is a Walt Disney creation? No.
So, we have the Linfield Wildcat logo since 1963. What about before that year? Linfield athletic teams were still the Wildcats, but there wasn’t one specific logo representing the college, its teams and athletes.
This story about one of those logos is thanks to information from Linfielder Judee Wisecarver Ward. She was a Linfield Song Leader during the 1956-1957 academic year. And, she kept the chenille embroidered emblems which were on her song queen sweater. See photos, taken by Wildcatville, with this story.
Judee is married to Paul Ward, also a Linfielder. He lettered four years playing football for Paul Durham-coached teams, the last three (1956, 1957 and 1958) of which are the second, third and fourth of current (this story was written in March 2014) the college’s amazing 58-season football Streak.
Both Judee and Paul graduated from Linfield in 1959. Both graduated from high school – she from McMinnville and he from Newport -- in 1955. They live in Dallas, Ore.
She says the Wildcat emblem of the Linfield Song Leaders 1956-1957 “doesn’t scowl (as does today’s Wildcat), but it does …. have characteristics” of today’s Wildcat.
Judee and classmate/friend Justine McClean were two “Mac townies” (grew up in McMinnville, graduated from McMinnville High School) on the five-member Song Leader squad. Judee and Justine acquired red skirts used by the Song Leaders. The skirts had been used previously by McMinnville High Pep Club members. White skirts (see photo) were made by the squad members or they had made, Judee can’t remember which.
“Justine had artistic talent. She designed the Wildcat emblem. I remember she took her design drawing to Dehen (Knitting Company) in Portland. Our sweaters were from Dehen, too” she said.
Being a Song Leader was a “real confidence booster,” said Judee. “I never won many popularity contests. So, being on the squad changed my attitude about myself.”
One of her recollections is leading songs during a 1956 Linfield home football game on Maxwell Field. “Our Song Leader shoes got stuck in the mud, because the field was such a mess. I also remember football games at night under the lights (see photo). I get a little nostalgic remembering this. These were really good times at Linfield for, me, Paul, the Song Leaders and everyone who was part of the college then.”
Black & white photo of Linfield Song Leaders of the 1956-1957 academic year from the 1957 Oak Leaves. Starting in back and going clockwise: Justine McClean, Judee Wisecarver, "Fussy" Nelson, Carol Beale, and Lois Shelton. They’re lying on the Riley Gym floor. Other black & white photo of a Linfield football crowd at Maxwell Field also from Oak Leaves.
