Questions/comments about this story:
--Was 1947 Linfield baseball the first baseball team to win a NWC title or the first Linfeld team of any sport to win a NWC title? The story notes mentions Gene Peterson receiving the Jack Dempsey Trophy for being the outstanding athlete at Linfield.
--The cutline with photo of Coach Henry Lever (first name Henry, not Jack) shows Steve Thomas with the Jim Thorpe Trophy. Apparently the Dempsey and Thorpe trophies no longer exist.
Lever led 'Cats to first conference baseball title
By ALLEN
MOODY of the McMinnville News-Register/N-R, 7/28/2005
The 1947 Linfield Wildcats entered the baseball season
with some pretty high expectations and they proved the pundits correct by
capturing the school first Northwest Conference title.
The Wildcats had 40 players out for the team, including
15 lettermen, some of whom played for the Wildcats during the previous year,
while others played for Linfield before serving in the armed forces.
"Many of us were veterans," said Cecil Golden, a member of the Wildcats'
1947 team. "I only had one year in the service. When I came to college,
guys like Steve Thomas was much older than I was."
The season didn't start out quite the way Linfield had
hoped, as the Wildcats dropped a 13-12 decision to Vanport College (now Portland State University) of Portland in its opener and followed that up by dropping a pair of games to Oregon State
College, 5-0 and 6-1.
Gene
Peterson threw a shutout in a 6-0 victory over Montana to put the
Wildcats in the win column, only to see Montana come back and take the nightcap
6-4.
Ron Dunn pitched
the Wildcats past Vanport 4-1 in a rematch and the Wildcats were ready for
conference play.
"Gene Peterson was an awfully good pitcher and Ron
Dunn was too," Golden, a left-handed pitcher said. "Bert Burr, the catcher could call throw
the ball harder back to me if I got in the game."
Burr's ninth-inning single scored Dewey Halsey with the winning run in the 'Cats' conference opener
against Willamette, but Linfield dropped two of its next three games and was
2-2 in conference. But those would turn out to be the final two losses of the season
for the Wildcats, who won their final four conference games of the season to
finish at 6-2.
At that time, the NWC was split into divisions, meaning
the Wildcats would square off against Whitman for the conference title.
"We had a very primitive baseball diamond, but Henry
Lever worked us hard to keep it up to shape for games," Golden said.
"All three conference championship games were played at Linfield."
The first game of the series proved to be pivotal, as
Linfield scored an unearned run in the bottom of the 13th inning to grad a 4-3
victory. Thomas hit a one-out single and Halsey walked, which brought Lee Reeder to the plate. His ground
ball to the second baseman went into the outfield, allowing Thomas to score and
bring the game to an end.
Peterson pitched all 13 innings, allowing just five hits
to earn the win on the mound.
The second game was all Linfield in the beginning, as the
Wildcats took a 5-1 lead after three, but four unearned runs in the fourth
inning tied the game at 5. Golden came in to relieve Dunn in the fifth inning
and allowed just two hits while holding Whitman scoreless the rest of the way
to earn the win. Thomas and Halsey scored in the seventh inning to give
Linfield the 7-5 victory.
With the conference championship wrapped-up, the Wildcats
defeated Whitman 6-4 in the final game behind Dunn.
"There was no big, giant celebration because it was
the end of the school year," Golden said. "We didn't have big
turnouts for games in those days like they do now."
Peterson was awarded the Jack Dempsey Trophy for being
the outstanding athlete at Linfield.
Thomas was the team's leading hitter, batting an
impressive .472, while Halsey was second on the 'Cats, hitting .297. Petersen
hit .292 and Clarence Mellbye
finished the season at .291.
"I would say we were more of a running team,"
Golden said. "Steve Thomas only had one home run, I believe."
NOTES: Thomas and Dunn each had trophies named after
them. The Steve Thomas Memorial Trophy went to the baseball team's most
valuable player from 1978 to 1995 and the Ron Dunn Memorial Trophy has gone to
the Wildcats' outstanding pitcher every year since 1983. ... Golden's high
school coach at Rainier High School for several years was none other than Roy Helser.
