Did
you know? Linfield sports teams are the Wildcats. Prior to 1968,
Pacific teams were Badgers. Now they're Boxers. Teams of
the University of Wisconsin Madison are Badgers. There's a Linfield affinity to the Wisconsin university since the Linfield Fight Song is a version of the famous University of Wisconsin fight song, "On, Wisconsin."
Comments below about the Linfield-Pacific football series from Wildcatville
contributor Gerry Painter, Linfield football researcher/season ticket
holder.
1. The first game of the Linfield/Pacific University football series was played in 1896. Pacific won 56-0.
2. No games were played between 1906 and 1921 as Linfield suspended playing football due to concern for its players' safety.
3. Between 1896 and 1947 a total of 27 games were played with Pacific winning 18. Three games were tied, all three ending with no score for either team.
4. From 1948, when Paul Durham arrived as its football coach at Linfield, to 1990 (when Ad Rutschman was Linfield football coach) when Pacific discontinued the sport, Linfield won 39 of the 70 games played or 61 percent. (In 2010, Pacific resumed football following 19 years – since 1991 -- not playing the sport.)
5. Pacific’s widest margin, 56, was the 1896 game. Linfield’s widest margin was in 1964 when Durham’s team won 63-0.
6. Of the 74 games played to date, Pacific shutout Linfield in 21 games, and Linfield shutout Pacific in 14. In 1984 the only score was a safety by Linfield.
7. During Ad Rutschman’s tenure as Linfield footall coach, his teams played Pacific 23 times, winning 20 of them. One game ended in a 7-7 tie, and that was in 1968, Rutschman’s first season at Linfield as a Wildcat head football coach. During those 23 games Linfield outscored Pacific 707 to 264.
8. Linfield has won all four of the games since Pacific resurrected football in 2010, outscoring Pacific 194 to 59.
However, the 2013 game was Linfield’s toughest Northwest Conference game winning 28 to 22. At the end of the third quarter, Pacific led 16 to 14, but Linfield’s two touchdowns in the fourth quarter pulled out a tough struggle.
Pacific showed it had come a long way in just four years. Since Pacific is 5-0 in Conference play coming into the Saturday, Nov. 15, 2014, it undoubtedly will require a sterling performance by Linfield for the Wildcats to win.
