Saturday, September 29, 2018

TARA LEPP 4x4 TRUCK FUNDRAISER 9/29/2019 IN DOWNTOWN McMINNVILLE


Mac News was at John Stromme Art Gallery in downtown McMinnville 9/29/2018 where Tara Lepp talked about her amazing work with children at the Open Arms Village in Kenya. Mac News donated to the fundraiser to help buy Tara a 4x4 truck to expand her ministry to remote villages. Photos by Mac News.

Read McMinnville News-Register story about Tara here:

'Tara Lepp, former Linfield athletic trainer, now retired, serving as medical missionary in Kenya'

(Mac News, a blog and Facebook page, is not affiliated with the McMinnville N-R.)
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*Did you know artist John Stromme is a cousin of Linfielder Ron Stromme, who is married to Linfielder Dallas Stromme? 






Friday, September 28, 2018

MARINERS 3rd BASE COACH SCOTT BROSIUS HAPPY BACK IN BIG LEAGUES AFTER NEARLY 15 GREAT YEARS AT LINFIELD























"I loved my time at Linfield, but I like new challenges also and as the kids were growing up and getting out of the house, I just felt like if there was time to do it," Brosius said.

--Scott Hanson, Seattle Times staff reporter, Sept 27 2018--

Twenty years ago, Scott Brosius was the MVP of the 1998 World Series, hitting .471 with two homers in the New York Yankees’ four-game sweep of the San Diego Padres.

These days, you will find Brosius coaching third base for the Mariners.

His journey back to the big leagues, from his heady days with the Yankees, when he was part of three world title teams to coaching with the Mariners, included nearly 15 years about as far as possible from the majors in a small Oregon town about an hour southwest of Portland.

Not that Brosius, who was an All-Star in 1998 and a Gold Glove winner at third base in 1999, would change a thing.
Brosius had a very productive 2001 season with the Yankees at age 35, and it seemed he could play several more seasons. 

But he retired after 11 big-league seasons to be with his family full time in McMinnville, Ore., where both Scott and his wife, Jennifer, went to college at Linfield, an NCAA Division III school.

In 2002, Brosius began working as an assistant baseball coach at Linfield under his former coach, Scott Carnahan. In 2008, he took over as head coach, leading Linfield to the 2013 national title and back to the finals in 2014.

But with the last of his three children finishing high school, Brosius decided it was time for a job change after the 2015 Linfield season.

“I wish I was that smart to have my life planned out like that, but it wasn’t the plan,” Brosius, 52, said. “Just like when I was done playing, I don’t know if I came home with a specific plan to end up back at Linfield. I loved my time at Linfield, but I like new challenges also and as the kids were growing up and getting out of the house, I just felt like if there was time to do it, this was going to be the time because I wasn’t getting any younger.”

Leaving Linfield after nearly 15 years was difficult.

“It was not an easy decision, for sure,” said Brosius, who grew up in Milwaukie, Ore. “My ties with Linfield are very deep – both as a player and a coach there. A lot of great memories, so it was not an easy decision. McMinnville’s our home, and it changed our lifestyle dramatically.”

Even though he was enjoying coaching Linfield, Brosius said the thought of getting back into the big leagues “was a little gnaw in my head that became bigger and bigger, and it was just something that I wanted to do.”

After quitting at Linfield, Brosius went searching for a job, and got one from the Mariners in 2016 as the hitting coach for the Class AAA Tacoma Rainiers. He moved to the big-league club last year as an assistant coach, working with the hitters, and became the third-base coach this season.

“I’ve liked stuff about each,” Brosius said of the three different jobs the past three seasons. “I enjoyed my time in Tacoma, but I knew the big-league staff was where I wanted to get to. I really enjoyed last year working with the hitters, but I really missed in-game responsibilities. So this year, being at third base, I’ve enjoyed the decision-making out there.”

Three years removed from his decision to change jobs, Brosius said, “I am very glad I did.” And is the end goal to be a major-league manager? Not necessarily.

“I take things as they come,” he said. “I know that doesn’t seem very well thought out. When I went to coach at Linfield that wasn’t my ultimate goal, but I just fell in love with it. I kind of take it the same way here. It may be that I love third base, and don’t want to leave coaching third base. I just want to take it year by year.

“I’m continuing to do something I love. For me, that’s the most important thing. I love baseball. Baseball is all I wanted to do from the time I was 4 or 5 years old. For me, it’s hard to imagine working outside of baseball. I come home after being at the ballpark for 10 or 12 hours, and I turn on a ballgame.”
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Tuesday, September 25, 2018

LINFIELDER ED GRIFFIN AS A PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER


Read about Linfielder Ed Griffin as a member of the professional Eastern Basketball Association, also known as the Eastern Professional Basketball League.

He played for the Hartford, Connecticut, Capitols:

http://www.nasljerseys.com/EBA/Players/G/Griffin.Eddie.htm

Photo from the posting (URL above). Sports cartoon from Nov. 25, 1968, Hartford Times. 


Tara Lepp, former Linfield athletic trainer, now retired, serving as medical missionary in Kenya


By Starla Pointer
McMinnville News-Register/N-R
Sept 24, 2018 

Some of Tara Lepp’s fellow volunteers at the mission site in Kenya have told her they always dreamed of helping people in Africa.
Lepp hadn’t considered it.
“It was a God thing,” said the longtime Linfield College sports medicine professor and athletic trainer.
“I was in church on Maundy Thursday, and I was blindsided,” she said, describing how, on the Thursday before Easter in 2005, she suddenly realized she needed to use her skills as a medical missionary. “This was all God’s idea.”
That summer, she became a volunteer for Open Arms International, which was started by a Portland couple. She flew to Kenya to spend a couple weeks doing whatever task was needed.
Lepp returned the next year, and the next. She spent more time in Africa each year, occurring her mission work between semesters of teaching.
Each year her duties expanded, especially after Open Arms opened a family-style shelter for orphans and displaced children, then a school. She leads morning devotions, works with the children and offers medical care when kids are injured.
Over the last five years, she’s split her time between McMinnville and Africa, teaching in the Oregon fall, then doing mission work during our spring and summer — fall and winter there. During the short winter term, she sometimes taught a Linfield course at the Open Arms Village, about a 30-minute drive from Eldoret, Kenya.
Last January, 10 Linfield students, eight from the nursing program and two from the exercise science program, spent the winter term with her for a class called Health Care in Kenya. In addition to visiting medical facilities and personnel there, the Linfield students sponsored a four-day free medical clinic for low-income people.
“It was a great experience for the college students,” she said. “They all want to go back.”
When Lepp first answered the call to become a missionary, she wasn’t sure how her sports medicine skills would be useful.
Her skills fit very well in the area Open Arms serves.
Eldoret is located on the equator, but the climate is temperate, because of its 7,000-foot altitude. The high elevation attracts people training for marathons. Local people engage in a lot of running sports, as well, in addition to soccer and other games.
If someone pulls a muscle or falls, Lepp can help. She assists with other injuries, as well, or refers other cases to the mission’s doctor.
She works with both the Open Arms’ children’s homes and its school, which also serves youngsters from the general population.
The homes include several large family units, each run by a married couple, sometimes with children of their own. Seventeen to 20 children call the house parents “mommy” and “daddy,” Lepp said, and refer to each other as siblings. Assistants who help in the homes are called “auntie.”
“It’s great. You can’t tell who’s the biological child and who’s not,” Lepp said.
The children flourish in the homes, Lepp said. They have opportunities to learn and live that they might not have otherwise.
Kenya has an unemployment rate of nearly 70 percent, she said. Some of the children who come to Open Arms were abandoned by parents who couldn’t care for them for economic or other reasons. Some have no families at all.
Many of Open Arms’ 156 children attend its school, although the oldest go to a high school offsite. With community children included, the school has an enrollment of about 250.
Open Arms also features a mentoring and training programs for adults. One trains women to sew and tailor clothing so they can start their own businesses.
Adults and children also learn skills to run a garden and care for cows, goats and chickens. They also help operate the village’s bakery, water treatment plant and fish farm.
“We try to give them marketable skills, and we try to make the village self-sustaining,” she said. “And we do a lot to transform the lives of future leaders.”
Lepp retired from Linfield July 1. Now, although she’s keeping her house in McMinnville, she will spend most of the year in Kenya.
She’s visiting this month to clean out her office at Linfield and take care of a variety of other business. She’s been telling friends about her missionary work and the needs she sees in Africa.
She mentioned that, as her missionary role expands, she will need her own transportation there. Friends are throwing a fundraiser to help her purchase a four-wheel drive vehicle.
Artist John Stromme is hosting the event from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, at his studio, located on the second floor of the KAOS building, 645 N.E. Third St., McMinnville.
Stromme has painted a special piece for the fundraiser; it features the image of one of the children from the Open Arms school.
During the event, Lepp will show a video about Open Arms and answer questions. Donations will be accepted to support her work and the mission in general.
There’s also a funding page for Lepp on the Open Arms website, at openarmsinternational.org/lepp.
PHOTOS:Cutline for photo included with article: “Submitted photo -- Retired Linfield College professor Tara Lepp, center, with some of the children she works with in Kenya.” Other photos from Linfield Sports Info, Portland Tribune and Wildcatville.






Monday, September 24, 2018

QUOTED COACH AD RUTSCHMAN SEES HIS ‘QUOTE’ ON WALL IN PERSON



Visiting Linfield Bookstore on 9/24/2018 afternoon was Linfield Coach Ad Rutschman (Linfield Class of 1954, Linfield Athletics director emeritus/Linfield Athletics Hall of Famer/former Linfield head football and baseball coach).

For the first time, he saw his quotation on the Bookstore wall, and posed for these photos taken by the Wildcatville camera.

He also visited Fred Meyer Lounge which, like the Bookstore, is on Riley Student Center’s first floor.

Read about how Coach Rutschman’s quote on the wall came about:






Linfield football first game of 1970 season


This ("Linfield then and now") appears in the Sept 24, 2018, Linfield Review student newspaper. (Most likely the Sept 17, 1970, Review, did not report on the Linfield football Wildcats home opener since the first game of the 1970 season was played Saturday, Sept. 18, 1970.) For the record, Linfield's opponent on Maxwell Field for the first game of the 1970 season was Central Washington: Wildcats vs. Wildcats. Linfield won, 10-0. Linfield Review photo appears to show #41 Jim Massey carrying the ball for Linfield. Also posted here is a game story from the Sunday Oregonian, Sept. 20, 1970.


(If an image is too small or cut off, click on it for a full size and larger, easier to see, version.)




Sunday, September 23, 2018

GREG WALSH: Wildcatville Q&A. Linfield Baseball 1971, dahlias and more

WILDCATVILLE: Where did you grow up, go to school? And, in what sports did you participate?

GREG: “I was born and raised in northeast Portland, Oregon. In Portland I attended Kennedy Elementary (now McMenamins Kennedy ) and Grant High School. I graduated from Grant in June 1969 and started at Linfield as a freshman in the fall of 1969.

“I started playing baseball as an eight-year-old at Riverside Little League, encouraged by my parents, friends and neighbors. As 12-year-olds, our Riverside Little League all-star team won the state championship and went on to the divisional playoffs at the baseball facility at Alpenrose Dairy in Portland. We lost to Centralia, Washington, the eventual winner.

“As 15-year-olds, our Babe Ruth all-star team, Fernhill, made it all the way to the Babe Ruth World Series in Douglas, Arizona. We lost in the championship games to New Orleans. I was one of three starting pitchers. When not pitching I played left field.

“An interesting coincidence on the road to this very successful summer season was that we played McMinnville Babe Ruth for the State Championship. On McMinnville's team were three future Linfield teammates, Mike Smithey, Mike Cahill and Tommy Briggs. The championship game pitted Mike Smithey and me as opposing pitchers. We won 5-0 but to Mike's credit he was pitching with a very sore shoulder.

“At Grant High I participated in cross country, basketball and baseball, though I only played at the varsity level in baseball. Our junior year we played Ad Rutschman-coached Hillsboro High in the first round of the State Championship. Hilhi’s pitcher was Spencer Wales, another future Wildcat baseball teammate.”

WILDCATVILLE: You have ice hockey in your background?

GREG: “At 10-years-old I started participating in what would today be called "club" ice hockey. As a 17-year-old Grant junior, our all-star team won its way to the National Juvenile tournament in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. We met up with some ‘real’ hockey players that skated before they walked, but it was an unforgettable opportunity and experience.”

WILDCATVILLE: Why Linfield?

GREG: “In June of 1969 I graduated from Grant High School in Portland. I concentrated on math and Latin. I had been accepted to Lewis & Clark, Redlands and Linfield . Also, I applied to University of Pennsylvania in hopes of being accepted so I might be able to play both hockey and baseball. I was interested in Penn, but Penn was not reciprocal.

“I chose Linfield because early on I knew I wanted to teach. Linfield had a good reputation for placing teachers. Baseball was secondary and I was not recruited for baseball by Coach Helser. I really didn't know much if anything about Linfield's storied athletic history.

“As a sophomore in 1971 I made Coach Rutschman's first baseball squad, probably as the last player picked.”

WILDCATVILLE: You were on the 1971 Linfield baseball team which would win the NAIA national championship?

GREG: “Playing for Coach Rutchman was an eye opening experience. Besides learning that running lines was the solution to all baseball shortcomings (hitting, bunting, base running, fielding, mental aspects) he exposed me to more baseball knowledge in one season than the eight previous years and I thought I knew a lot about baseball. I also learned from Coach Rutschman rhetorical questions are sometimes best not answered.

“My memories of being on the 1971 team winning the NAIA national baseball championship in Phoenix, Arizona, included  playing our first game against Grand Canyon (of Phoenix) when their leadoff hitter (Duke Synder's son) hit an inside the park home run, but didn't return for the defensive half of the inning. His replacement came up in the next inning and duplicated the inside the park homerun and he, too, didn't play the defensive half of the inning. We later found out both of them had swallowed their chew (tobacco), gotten violently sick and probably decreased their team’s chances of winning the national title.

“The second lasting memory from playing in Phoenix was the fan support of Professor Dave Hansen, Professor Bruce Baldwin and students Phil Hankins  and Tom Sutro. They were at every game, loudly supporting the ‘Cats and riding the umpires. After we won the championship they left Phoenix by car , drove straight through and were at Portland International Airport when we landed the next day. To my knowledge they never put in for the land speed record they must have broken accomplishing that feat.

“I earned three varsity letters (1971 as a sophomore, 1972 as a junior and 1973 as a senior) while I only started as a senior as our everyday center fielder. I played little on the junior dominated team when I was sophomore, but I coached first base on a regular basis. As a junior I was used sparingly in left and right field.

“My senior year we were Northwest Conference champions and played for the NAIA Western regional championship in Los Angeles. We lost to U.S. International University (of San Diego, California), the eventual 1973 NAIA National champion, on what can only be described as a mammoth homerun hit by one of their players. The ball landed on the southbound freeway adjacent to the stadium. “

WILDCATVILLE: What were your team honors?

GREG: “I was honored as Linfield’s most inspirational baseball player in 1973 and also awarded Linfield's male student/athlete of the year in 1973.”

WILDCATVILLE: Where did you live as a Linfield student?

GREG: “All four of my Linfield years I lived in Larsell Hall. I was dorm president for at least one of those years. I believe it was my senior year, 1973. That school year (1972-1973) Larsell became a co-ed dorm. Larsell was so close to the Commons (Dillin Hall) I had no excuse for being late for meals!”

WILDCATVILLE: What was your Linfield major?

GREG: “I graduated with majors in math and econ but also had enough education credits to get my teacher’s certificate. Dave Hansen, Levi Carlile and Win Dolan were the professors that were the most influential in my Linfield career. I will be forever grateful to Dave Hansen for being there after my sophomore year to convince me Linfield was a much better fit than the University of Oregon would have been. I thought about transferring to the U of O. To think of everything and everybody in my Linfield experience I would have missed out if I had left Linfield.”

WILDCATVILLE: After graduation from Linfield where did you live and what was your career path?

GREG: “After graduating from Linfield I moved to Newberg in August of 1973 where I taught math at Renne Junior High for six years. I also coached football, girls’ basketball and baseball at the school.

“In June of 1974 Peggi Thomas, whom I met at Linfield my senior year, and I married. She worked at Newberg hospital for one year before being accepted into the OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University in Portland) one-year medical technologist program. After she graduated from OHSU in June 1976, she started working at Physician’s Medical Center in McMinnville as a medical technologist. She spent 20 years working there before moving to Willamette Valley Medical Center (WVMC) in McMinnnville and doing the same type of work. She retired in May of 2017 after 16 years at WVMC.”

Following my six years at Renne Junior High, I worked the next 33 years for Cummins Northwest (diesel engine business) in Portland.

“We moved to our one acre property in Yamhill County’s wine country in Dayton, Oregon, about seven miles from McMinnville, in June 1977. That was about a week after the Portland Trail Blazers won the NBA championship.

WILDCATVILLE: When did you retire and what’s your schedule as a retiree?

GREG: “Since retiring in 2012, I divide my year in three periods.

“The first few years -- November thru February of 2012-2015 -- I was blessed to be able to help our daughter, Cindy Walsh, as head girls’ basketball coach at Horizon Christian High School in Tualatin.

“This began by working with inexperienced international students who wanted to play competitive sports. That segued into being Horizon Christian assistant girls’ basketball coach.”

“February through May is spent attending most, if not all, of Linfield's baseball games.

“I have enjoyed watching/supporting Linfield's trips to regional finals in Austin, Texas, and Tyler, Texas (2) and NCAA national finals in Appleton, Wisc., 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2014.”

“We attend most and if not all the home football games and I try to attend all the away games. We are trying to get to more men's and women's basketball games to support the new look teams. As I indicated, Linfield baseball is a priority come early February. Last year I was fortunate to make it to all the 2017 team’s  games. It is rewarding for me to support the baseball staff, players and parents of this program that has given me many great memories and experiences.

“Early May through mid-November is spent caring for, harvesting and putting to bed my 150 dahlia plants.”

WILDCATVILLE: How did you get into the dahlia business?

GREG: “The latent dahlia growing bug was probably passed on to me by my father who grew a few at our northeast Portland home. He and a neighbor bet on who could grow the biggest.

“I started my dahlia growing adventure eight or nine years ago. My personal commitment was that if I ever made any money at it, I would donate all proceeds to worthy causes. I've been blessed to have some very productive years (7500-8700 blossoms). I furnish probably 40 percent of the flower production to Friendsview Manor in Newberg, McMinnville Senior Center and our church, McMinnville Covenant Church.

 “Another 40 percent of the flowers are sold to a couple local wineries and on my roadside stand. The other 20 percent go for personal use like to friends, former workmates and Linfield functions.

“The causes that I have donated to include Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, the KEX Radio (Portland) Kids Fund, McMinnville Meals on Wheels and our church youth group.”

WILDCATVILLE: What is the dahlia schedule?

GREG: “Dahlias are planted in mid-May, begin producing as early as late June though more normal to start mid- to late-July.  They continue to produce until the first hard frost as long as the mature blossoms have been cut off.

“I put them to ‘bed’ in late November by cutting the stocks off at ground level, cover with heavy tarps and on top of the tarps a layer of straw. This keeps to tubers warm and dry.

“The tarps come off in late April to find some plants already broken through the surface and an anxious wait for the others to show.”

WILDCATVILLE: A few final questions about Linfield baseball. You’ve seen a lot of Linfield baseball in NCAA post-season playoffs and tourneys. The first Linfield national baseball title was in 1966 and you were on the 1971 national championship team. Both of those were NAIA. Did you see the team in 1966? Is there anyone who has been as many Linfield post-season baseball games as you?

GREG: "I did not see any of the 1966 championship team's games but I'm  proud to say I've either participated in or watched in person every baseball championship tournament since.  My hope is to see even more."
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PHOTOS

--Greg in a dahlia field on Greg and Peggi’s property in Dayton, Oregon.

--Formal 1971 Linfield Baseball team photo, Greg is the third player from the left kneeling.

--In the downtown McMinnville 1971 Linfield Baseball celebration photo, Greg (wearing glasses) is second from the left.

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SLIDESHOW

--Slideshow about 1971 Linfield NAIA World Series Champions team:

IN 1964: LINFIELD COACH PAUL DURHAM HELPING PROMOTE McMINNVILLE TURKEY RAMA


July 5, 1964, McMinnville News-Register/N-R

Aw-Struck Johnny Carpenter, MC of the “Hi Neighbor show” on Portland’s KOIN-TV, Channel 6, looks on in amazement at paraphernalia required to compete in McMinnville’s famed Turkey Rama turkey races.

Carpenter received a personal challenge to take on Linfield Athletic Director/Football Coach Paul Durham, right, during his show Friday.

The well-known news and sports announcer agreed to be in McMinnville at the 2:30 p.m. race time Saturday, July 11, 1964, to test his turkey-charming ability against Durham.

Chamber President C.E. Colvin, seated left, and County Extension Agent Louie Cross, holding the big hen, which became the star of the show, were on hand to second the invitation.

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Note in photo taken in KOIN-TV studio Coach Durham wearing Linfield football jersey #39 with a Linfield football helmet and a Linfield football.

Jersey #39 was Carl Heisler's in 1964 season and Dale Newhouse's in 1965 season.


Source: July 14, 2018, Vintage News-Register Instagram. Cutline shown above is based on what Vintage N-R posted.