Friday, October 31, 2014

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Stats/comments about Linfield vs. Willamette football series (posted 10/28/2014)



Thanks to Wildcatville contributor Gerry Painter -- a Linfield grad, Wildcat football season ticket holder and member of the McMinnville Quarterback Club -- for compiling and supplying these statistics/comments about the Linfield Wildcats vs. Willamette Bearcats football series (1902-2013). Some additional info added by Wildcatville. 

The 2014 game of the series has a 1 p.m. kickoff on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014, on Linfield's Maxwell Field.

(Sorry, spacing problem below. Unable to put spaces between grafs.)

  • First game was played in 1902 and the score was 6-6 -- the first of three ties in the series.
  • Through 2013 a total of 86 games have been played covering more than a century.
  • Until Paul Durham arrived as football coach in 1948, the series was dominated by Willamette.  They won 19 of the 22 games played through 1947 having won the last 16 games, and outscored Linfield 540 to 85.
  • In the 1948 game, the first coached by Durham, Linfield lost 26-0, but in 1949 the Wildcats won 20-0  breaking the string of 17 consecutive Willamette victories.  As promised, if Linfield won, Linfield President Harry Dillin stood on his head in the middle of the field (the mud was several inches deep).   
    =On Saturday 11-05-1949 in McMinnville on Maxwell Field, Linfield beat Willamette, 20-0
      The book Linfield's Hundred Years (published 1956) says in the 1949 season, after Linfield beat Willamette, Linfield football players saw "their president (Harry Dillin) do a hand stand in the mud in front of a packed grandstand after the final whistle blew."  (The sports section of the book was written by Paul Durham.)
        =On Saturday 11-14-1953 in McMinnville on Maxwell Field, Linfield beat Willamette, 21-6.
          Sunday Oregonian, 11-15-53, says, "Dr. Harry L. Dillin, the college president, stood on his head on the 45-yard-line , no less, in the midst of a ring of frenzied Linfield students." (The Oregonian sports reporter at the game was Pat Frizzell.)
          • From Durham on Linfield has dominated, winning 47 of the 64 games since 1948, and outscoring Willamette 1774 to 939.
          • Linfield’s longest winning streak, 14 games from 1969 to 1982, was during football Coach Ad Rutschman’s tenure.
          • Rutschman lost only two games, 1968 (His first year at Linfield) and 1983. Rutschman’s teams played Willamette 22 times outscoring them 221 to 20—that’s defense!
          • Overall, Linfield has won 57% of the 86 games played.
          • Both teams have scored “blowouts” (a differential score of 34 or more points): 6 times by Willamette and 9 times by Linfield.
          • Close games (a differential score of 7 or less) have occurred 22 times: 8 won by Willamette and 11 by Linfield plus the 3 ties.
          • Most devastating loss for Linfield may have been in 2007 with Willamette winning 33-32 by kicking a field goal with only 4 seconds left in the game.
          • The highest score for each of the two teams was 63 by Linfield in 2005 and 52 by Willamette in 2008.
          • Largest combined score by the two teams was the 2005 game. Willamette racked up 21 points, added to the 63 by Linfield, making a total of 84.
          From the Wildcatville Archives are these historic/old/not current Linfield Wildcat and Willamette Barney Bearcat athletics logo. No, these won't be used on a regular basis. Just dusted them off for use here/now. 



          Saturday, October 25, 2014

          Linfield at L&C football 10/25/2014

          Photos: Thanks Jack Forde and Jason & John Schindelar

           :::::::::::::::::::::::::: 

          Stats: Linfield football as of 10/25/2014 (Wildcats at Lewis & Clark Pioneers football game in Portland).

           --Cats have outscored their last 3 opponents 183 to 20; four NWC opponents 224 to 34 and last five opponents 260 to 37.

           --Average scoring for last 5 games Linfield 52, Opponents 7.4. 

          --Linfield played at least 13 freshmen and 20 sophomores against L&C, most of them as substitutes or on special teams. 

          LINFIELD EXTENDED THESE WINNING STREAKS in its 59-7 football victory 10/25/2014 at Lewis & Clark

          > 41st consecutive regular-season victory (equalling school record from 2001 to 2006).


          > 36th consecutive Northwest Conference victory (extending school record).

          > Already had clinched 59th consecutive winning season, the national record for all divisions of college footbal
          l.


          Stats: Thanks Dennis Anderson.

          Thursday, October 23, 2014

          Remembering Coach Paul Durham and his wife, Kitty

























          Katherine Kwaineen “Kitty” Chang Durham, 70, of Honolulu, died Sept. 24, 1994. Born in Honolulu, she was a former Kane'ohe, Hawaii, resident. She retired from Hawaiian Telephone Co. as a supervisor. She met Paul Henry Durham, former athletic director of the University of Hawaii Manoa, Honolulu, and Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon, during a University of Hawaii Alumni Association-sponsored tour of China. They married Aug. 14, 1981, in San Mateo, Calif. Her survivors included stepsons, Jeffrey P. and Terry J.; stepdaughter, Cathy Devine; seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren; brother, Benton B.T. Chang; sisters, Violet C. Hara, Lily Chang; sisters, Violet C. Hara, Lily Chang, Dorothy Chock and Pauline Au. Private Service held. Arrangements by Borthwick Mortuary. [Honolulu Advertiser Sept. 30, 1994, and Wildcatville]

          PAUL HENRY DURHAM, 93, of Honolulu, died June 22, 2007. Born in Portland, Ore. An athletic director for the University and Hawaii Manoa, Honolulu, and athletic director and football (and other sports) coach at Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon, he was a retired University of Hawaii faculty member. Also, he was former sports editor and sports columnist for the McMinnville, Oregon, News-Register newspaper. He met Kitty Chang during a University of Hawaii Alumni Association-sponsored tour of China. They married Aug. 14, 1981, in San Mateo, Calif. She died in 1994. He is survived by sons Tony and Jeffrey, daughter Cathy Devine, Brother Donald, eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Services: 1 p.m. tomorrow at Northwick Mortuary in Honolulu. Additional services to be held at Linfield College. Private inurnment in Portland. No flowers. Donations suggested to Linfield College Paul Durham Fund for the Support of Athletics. Aloha attire. [Honolulu Star-Bulletin June 27, 2007, and Wildcatville] 

          More about him here:

          https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/1647189/Paul-H-Durham


          Information here based on obituaries from the Honolulu daily newspapers cited and Wildcatville research.

          Photos:

          -Ted & Ann Wilson, Roy & Dorothy Helser and Paul & Kitty Durham. Photo supplied to Wildcatville by Dorothy Helser.

          -Coach Paul Durham and his wife, "Kitty” (Chang) Durham, are inurned at Rose City Cemetery in Portland. Wildcatville photo of their gravestone.

          -Coach Paul Durham statue (monument) was unveiled 10-18-2014 during Linfield Homecoming 2014. Rusty Rae photos during unveiling ceremony.




          Wednesday, October 22, 2014

          Hugh Yoshida: Coach Durham ‘touched so many of us in our formative years'



          Linfielder Hugh Yoshida and his wife, Patti, traveled from Hawaii for the Oct. 18, 2014, Linfield Homecoming unveiling of the Coach Paul Durham statue (monument). 

          A member of the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame, Yoshida is a 1962 Linfield grad (also earned a M.Ed. from Linfield) and was an All-American linebacker (played 1958-1961) for the Paul Durham-coached Wildcats. 

          After Linfield, he became a high school football coach and athletic director in Hawaii and, later, athletic director of the University of Hawaii.
           

          He said the unveiling ceremony was "very well done. It was a great send off for a man who touched so many of us in our formative years of growing from a boy to a man. Those of us who were lucky enough to play for Paul, it was a means of thanking him for all the lessons and values that we still carry with us in whatever decisions we make on a daily basis. I felt very honored to have been played for him and also was a mentor for me during my football coaching and athletic administrative career."
           



          --2/22/2002 Honolulu Star-Bulletin:Yoshida to retire as UH athletic director


          --9/17/2004 Honolulu Advertiser:Leilehua honors former coach

          Wildcatville photo of Hugh Yoshida, Linfield at Maxwell Field 10/13/2012

          Tuesday, October 21, 2014

          Unveiling of Linfield Coach Paul Durham statue (monument) 10/18/2014


          Still photos by Rusty Rae. Video by Wildcatville.

          Contact Photos by Rusty Rae at this link





          Linfield football Memorial Stadium/Maxwell Field crowd noise and train passing by Linfield tennis courts/Maxwell Field

          Below is a "Stopping By" story/column by 1982 Linfield grad Starla Pointer which appeared in the Oct. 21, 2014, McMinnville News-Register. Wildcatville added two links to the story.  In the:
          • third paragraph is a link to Linfield football Memorial Stadium crowd noise from the 10/18/2014 Willamette at Linfield football game on Maxwell Field. 
          • seventh "graf" is link to a video of a train passing by Linfield tennis courts and Maxwell Field on 2/21/2013.

          Do you hear what I hear?

          By Starla Pointer of the McMinnville News-Register in 10/21/2014 edition

          Any recent McMinnville High School student can tell you the loudest sound in Yamhill County: The homecoming assembly in the main gym. Nicknamed The Furnace, the 2,400-square-foot space literally vibrates with the effort of trying to contain the joyful cheers and stomps of 2,000 fired-up Grizzlies.

          Boisterous and exuberant, it’s the sound of McMinnville.

          Drive past the school on Friday night or through the Linfield College campus on a Saturday afternoon, and you’ll hear the screams and claps of football fans urging their teams to score touchdowns. Get out of your car and take a walk, listening to the honks and flapping of wings as geese migrate south for the winter.

          Visit the McMinnville Aquatic Center and hear the rhythmic splash of lap swimmers doing their daily laps. Stroll through City Park and smile at the joyous laughter of children on the play structure.

          All are sounds of McMinnville.

          The general alarm blares from the fire station near the park, signaling a crisis for someone. Engines roll out, sirens wailing. Help is on the way.

          Down the street, bells ring and lights flash as a train approaches the railroad crossing. Drivers figet in their cars as the engine snorts past, followed by the clackety-clack of wheels turning beneath boxcars, flatcars, the caboose.

          These are sounds of McMinnville.

          On the edge of town, the steel mill clanks. A little farther out, farm equipment purrs through fields, turning the dirt in preparation for the next season. Vineyard cannons boom, pause, boom to warn the birds away from juicy grapes.

          Rain begins, pattering on rooftops and roadways — remember the rain? The wind picks up, dislodging dying leaves and sending them floating to the ground where they will crunch beneath our feet.

          These are sounds of McMinnville.

          Drive slowly down 17th Street on a school day. Listen to the Twilighters blending their voices on a tune arranged by Dana Libonati, or the band warming up for its next concert.

          Go inside Wednesday evening and hear youngsters singing alongside professional artists in the annual Koncert for Kids. During other seasons, groove to music outdoors at Linfield College or Third and Davis.

          These are sounds of McMinnville.

          Awaken to the pealing of bells on Sunday morning. Pause to listen when the carillon plays atop Linfield’s Pioneer Hall -- not just bells to mark the time, but beautiful music, as well.
          And remember, once again, the familiar noises of long ago. Horses’s hooves pounding along dirt streets; cattle bawling at the auction yard on the south end of town; the steam whistle marking time at Farmers Coop Creamery.


          These are sounds of McMinnville.

          Memorial Stadium/Maxwell Field photo from Linfield Athletics Sports Information

          Monday, October 20, 2014

          'Linfield coaching legend receives honorary statue' - Linfield Review 10/20/2014

          Linfield coaching legend receives honorary statue
          By Helen Lee, Editor in chief. Oct 19, 2014
          Linfield Review
          Click on story clippings below to see larger versions.




          Sunday, October 19, 2014

          Gerry Painter’s spreadsheet shows amazing seventh game fact about Linfield football

          When you're a Linfield graduate, Wildcat football fan and used accounting in your professional career, a record of Linfield football scores from the sport's beginning at the college in 1896 to the present is of more than passing interest.

          In 2005, Linfield hit a milestone 50-seasons* of its all-division record of consecutive football winning seasons. It's called "The Streak." TheMcMinnville News-Register issued a "Streak" tabloid section which includes scores of all the 'Cats games to that point.

          The scores in that section piqued the interest of Wildcat fan and McMinnville resident Gerry Painter, a 1950 Linfield graduate (B.S. in Business), who served 1973-1990 as treasurer and chief financial officer of Norwich University, Northfield, Vt.

          Using scores in the N-R's streak section along with information from the Linfield Football Record Book posted online by Linfield Athletics' sports information, Painter created a spreadsheet.

          On the spreadsheet, he used data from the two sources and recorded every Linfield football game by head coach, by season and which game (first, second, etc.) of the season, by playoff games and by opponent teams. Since that time he has continued recording all Linfield football games.

          Painter says his spread sheet shows a "fact which truly is amazing” when Ad Rutschman coached Linfield football for 24 seasons, 1968-1991. “In the seventh game of each of his seasons, a remarkable thing happened: He never lost."

          When Painter told Rutschman at McMinnville Quarterback Club the fact of the seventh game results, Rutschman’s response was he did not know, ‘but who cares.’ ” Painter says that “underscores the difference between a coach and an accountant.”

          Of the 24 seventh games, six were against Whitworth, four versus Willamette and three against PLU. So the seventh games were not all against the weaker teams. The odds of winning all of the seventh game for 24 seasons have to be staggering!," says Painter.

          Prior to Norwich, Painter and his wife, Jackie, Linfield Class of 1954, lived in California’s Bay Area. He was a practicing C.P.A with a major national accounting firm in San Francisco. Then, he was business officer for an interdenominational theological seminary in Berkeley adjacent to the Cal campus.

          While in the Bay Area, Painter became an avid fan of the San Francisco Giants baseball and the 49ers football teams. In Vermont he thinks he was probably the only fan of either team.

          At Norwich, the Painters worked 18 years in the pressbox for all home games of the Norwich Cadets NCAA D3 football team. He ran the football game clock and she operated the scoreboard.

          They retired to McMinnville in 1993 to be near Linfield, where they met.

          *Note: This story posted Oct. 19, 2014. That was the day after Linfield defeated Whitworth, 65-13, in the Wildcat’s 2014 Homecoming football game on Maxwell Field. The win assured Linfield its 59th consecutive winning season.

          Wildcatville photo of Gerry Painter taken at Maxwell Field during team warmups before the Oct. 19 game.

          Statistical highlights from Linfield's 65-13 football win over Whitworth 10/18/2014

          • Linfield gained 719 net yards (third most in one game in school history)
          • Linfield ran 97 offensive plays (second most in one game in school history)
          • Balance!  Linfield gained 352 net yards rushing and 367 yards passing.
          • Defense!  Whitworth had averaged 478 yards and 42 points in 5 games this season.   The Pirates gained 264 yards and scored 13 points Saturday.
          • Dominance:   Linfield led 34-7 at halftime and had gained 352 yards to 124 for Whitworth. Three minutes into the second half, the Wildcats led 48-7 and began substituting freely.
          • Quick strikes:  7 of Linfield's 9 touchdowns were scored on drives of less than 3 minutes. In order, the Ducks-like drives took 37 seconds; 2 minutes, 37 seconds; 2:26, 1:52;  1:48; 7 seconds (one play) and 2:46.
          • The Wildcats were 8 for 8 in the Red Zone -- 7 touchdowns and a field goal.
          • The Wildcats sacked Whitworth quarterbacks six times.
          •  9 Wildcats carried the ball; 6 of them gained 44 yards or more. Whitworth's leading rusher gained 16 yards net.
          • Dominance:  Linfield led in first downs 35 to 15; in rushing 352 net yards to 27; in passing 367 yards to 237 and in total offense 719 yards to 264. 
          • 67 Wildcats played in the game.
          •  137 of Whitworth's 264 net yards were gained after Linfield had taken a 48-7 lead.
          •  In its last four games, Linfield has outscored its opponents 201 points to 20.
          Dennis Anderson compiled these statistics for Wildcatville

          Linfield football streaks (plural) update













          Linfield extended these football winning streaks in its Sat., Oct. 18, 2014, Homecoming game, 65-13, win over Whitworth on Maxwell Field.

          • Clinched 59th consecutive winning season, the national record for all divisions of college football.
          • 40th consecutive regular-season victory (school record is 41, from 2001 to 2006).
          • 35th consecutive Northwest Conference victory (school record).
          • 27th consecutive regular-season home-game victory.
          • 18th consecutive Homecoming game victory (last defeat 20-13 to Eastern Oregon in 1996).
          • 15th consecutive home-game victory including NCAA playoffs (last defeat 31-24 to Wisconsin-Oshkosh in quarterfinal game December 1, 2012).


          Linfield's record for all home games since 2009 is 33-1.


          Compiled for Wildcatville by Dennis Anderson

          Saturday, October 18, 2014

          Linfield Coach Paul Durham statue unveiled Oct. 18, 2014



          =An Oct. 17, 2014, McMinnville News-Register story includes:

          ..."An 8-foot bronze monument of the late Paul Durham, a former Wildcats football coach and athletic director and sports editor of the News-Register, will be publicly unveiled at 11 a.m., (Oct. 18, 2014) two and a half hours before the Linfield football team takes on Whitworth at Maxwell Field. Durham’s statue is located in between the Linfield Aquatic Center and the Health, Human 
          Performance and Athletics building, to the north of the football field.

          "Sculptor Heather Green, who is based in Cascade Locks, produced the piece. Approximately $72,000 was raised for the project through private donations, according to former Wildcats football player and Linfield alumnus Pete Dengenis. The total cost of the project lies at $75,000 and will include lights to illuminate the monument at night.

          Durham compiled a 122-51-10 record as head coach of the Wildcats from 1948 to 1967, winning six Northwest Conference championships and making two NAIA national championship games. He also held the athletic director title from 1949 to 1968, taught classes at Linfield College and served as sports editor of the McMinnville News-Register, where his “Dodging with Durham” column detailed aspects of sport on local, regional and national levels...."

          Link to McMinnville News-Register photos of unveiling of the Paul Durham statue/monument: