Here's a Coca-Cola connection more than 48 years ago which seems to bless Linfield’s spring 2014 conversion from Pepsi-Cola to Coke.
In the evening of Saturday, Nov. 27,
1965, in Midland, Texas, the Paul Durham-coached ninth-ranked Linfield
Wildcats played the second-ranked Bobcats of Sul Ross State College (of Alpine,
Texas, about 165 miles from Midland on the southern plains in the state's
western area) in a NAIA national football championship playoffs semi-final game.
In an upset, Linfield won, 30-27.
After the game, in its Midland Memorial Stadium locker room, Linfield team members
celebrated by drinking bottles of Coke.
Wildcatville research has not been determined why a case of Coca-Cola was in
the room.
This posting's larger photo -- that’s #20 Leroy Fails -- was taken by Linfield
student Dennis Burkhart. It appears
in the 1966 Linfield Oak Leaves yearbook and in the McMinnville News-Register the same year.
The Oregonian’s Dick Fishback traveled to Texas and
reported on the game in the newspaper’s Sunday, Nov. 28, 1965, edition. He
wrote, “Linfield engineered a modern-day miracle” Read about the game in
the 1965 Wildcat football team's Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame enshrinement
write-up.
Fails’ game memories:
- “Yes, a case of bottled Coca-Cola was provided in the locker room. I don't know whether or not the company was a sponsor, just that we had it (there) after the game,” he said.
- One of Fails’ Linfield teammates was Dean Pade. One of the fans attending the game was Pade’s mother. So excited after the win, “she came into the locker room to hug the guys. You should have seen their expressions because they were in various stages of undress,” he said. Someone asked about her locker room visit. She responded, "I have seen it all before."
- There's "Friday Night Lights" connection to the Linfield vs. Sul Ross game, said Fails. Indeed, the game site -- Midland Memorial Stadium -- is connected to the book "Friday Night Lights," upon which the movie and TV show is based. The book followed a 1988 Odessa, Texas, high school football team, the Permian Panthers. (It’s about 20 miles from Odessa to Midland.) Permian's sports opponents in District 2-5A are Midland’s high schools, Midland and Midland (Robert E.) Lee. Up until 2002, the Midland schools played their home football games in Midland Memorial Stadium.
Photos: Football locker room
1965 by Dennis Burkhart in 1966 Oak Leaves. Softball concessions sign 2014
by Wildcatville.
