Tweet by Kevin Nelson @k6nelson 1:56 AM - 26 Jun 2019 Wow, I just really appreciate all the love from everyone
today. This was a tough decision and I’ll miss being on the call more then you
all know! Thanks for all the support!
Tweet by Kevin Nelson @k6nelson 5:53 PM - 25 Jun 2019
I have decided to pursue a social media manager opportunity
in Portland and will no longer be employed by Linfield Athletics. I can’t thank
the Linfield Administration both past and present enough for believing in me
and allowing me to grow as a professional in sports media. Thank you to all of
the alumni, student-athletes, coaches and the Linfield community for all of the
great memories and your support these past 7 years. I’ll always be rooting for
the ‘Cats but now it will be away from the press box. Thank you, Roll ‘Cats! …. https://golinfieldwildcats.com/staff.aspx?staff=73
Kevin
Nelson
·Title
External Relations Coordinator and Football Play-By-Play
Broadcaster
Kevin Nelson is in his third year as a member of the sports
communications staff and first as the Athletics External Relations Coordinator.
A 2016 Linfield graduate, Nelson assists with story writing and sports
information needs for golinfieldwildcats.com, maintains the athletic
department’s social media accounts and graphics, and serves as the primary
sponsorship sales representative in the community.
As the lead play-by-play announcer on the Linfield Sports Network, Nelson has
called more than 200 games and is entering his fourth professional season with
the Wildcats. The Voice of Linfield Football, Nelson broadcasts all home and
away games with color analysts, Dave Hansen.
Nelson graduated from Enumclaw High School in his hometown of
Enumclaw, Washington in 2012.
Dan Spencer has been
named baseball coach at Linfield College, director of athletics Garry Killgore
announced Monday (6/17/2019). He replaces Stan Manley who retired at the end of
the 2019 season.
"Dan is an excellent
fit as Linfield's next head baseball coach. He has an outstanding reputation
and track record within the baseball community and epitomizes the Linfield
tradition of excellence," said Killgore. "Dan will be a great leader
for our baseball team and a wonderful addition to our coaching staff and the
community at large. I am very excited to have him on board with us."
Spencer becomes just the
sixth Linfield baseball coach in the span of the last 70 seasons. He takes over
a program regarded nationally for its lasting stability and winning ways. Since
recording its first Northwest Conference baseball championship in 1923,
Linfield has won three national championships (two as part of the NAIA and one
in the NCAA), along with 41 additional conference titles.
"I'm very excited and
honored to be joining the Linfield family," said Spencer.
"Growing up
in Southwest Washington in 1975, I would always hear about Linfield and its
reputation for winning baseball games. The baseball program and the people at
Linfield are all fantastic, no matter what angle you look at it from, whether
that's academically, athletically or from a facilities point of view."
Spencer is an
outside-the-box hire, becoming the first non-Linfield graduate to lead the
program since 1949. He has strong ties to the Pacific Northwest and brings with
him 28 years of coaching experience, including 22 at the Division I level with
stops at Washington State, New Mexico, Oregon State and Texas Tech.
He departs Washington State
for Linfield after three seasons in which he served as the Cougars associate
head coach, pitching coach and recruiting coordinator.
Before Washington State,
Spencer was an assistant for three years at New Mexico (2013-15), where he
helped the Lobos reach the title game of the Mountain West Conference
Tournament. In 2014, his pitching staff recorded the lowest collective ERA
(4.23) since 1977 and seventh-lowest staff ERA in the program's 115-year
history. The UNM bullpen saved a school-record 16 games.
He spent a total of 11 years
as a member of the Oregon State coaching staff, first as an assistant
(1997-2003) and then as associate head coach under Pat Casey (2004-07). While
in Corvallis, the Beavers won back-to-back national titles and appeared in
three straight College World Series (2005-07). His pitching staffs led the
Pac-10 in ERA during both 2005 and 2006 and in saves in 2006 and 2007. He also
served as the program's recruiting coordinator and brought in three nationally
ranked recruiting classes. Collegiate Baseball Magazine named Spencer as its
National Pitching Coach of the Year in 2007.
Spencer spent five seasons
at Texas Tech, one as associate head coach and four more as head coach. He was
the first Red Raiders head coach to win at least 25 games in each of his first
four seasons and his teams defeated 32 nationally ranked opponents. His players
excelled in the classroom, earning 31 Academic All-Big 12 awards during his
four years, nearly as many (34) as the school received in the 12 years
preceding his arrival.
During his time at Oregon
State, Texas Tech and New Mexico, Spencer coached 12 players to 26 All-America
awards. Thirty five players he coached were selected in the first 10 rounds of
the Major League Baseball draft, including 14 in the top five rounds and three
first-round picks.
Spencer began his head
coaching career at Green River Community College in Auburn, Wash., where he was
the head coach from 1992-96. In 1992 and 1994, he was named the Northwest
Athletic Association of Community Colleges Coach of the Year. He also spent one
season as an assistant at Tacoma Community College. His first coaching job was
leading Vancouver's Ryder Construction 16-18 year-old Senior Babe Ruth team.
As a player, Spencer played
three seasons as a catcher and third baseman at Texas Tech after beginning his
collegiate career at Mira Costa College in Oceanside, California.
A native of Vancouver,
Wash., and Fort Vancouver High School graduate, Spencer completed his
bachelor's degree in history from Portland State University in 1990. He and his
wife, Susie, have three children: Wade, 24, Logan, 21, and Elizabeth, 14.
DAN SPENCER'S COACHING
CHRONOLOGY
246-179 overall record (131-67 junior college)
Washington State, Associate Head Coach, 2016-19
New Mexico, Assistant Coach, 2013-15
Texas Tech, Head Coach, 2009-12
Texas Tech, Associate Head Coach, 2008
Oregon State, Associate Head Coach, 2004-07
Oregon State, Assistant Coach, 1997-2003
Green River C.C., Head Coach, 1992-96
Tacoma C.C., Assistant Coach, 1991
QUOTING LINFIELD COACH DAN SPENCER On the kind
of team fans can expect to see on the field
"We're going to be known for having very
good fundamentals and for playing hard and running around. We'll be athletic,
fast and physical and we'll have some toughness. People will recognize us as
looking a lot like Linfield teams of the past, teams that won a lot of games by
using a blue collar mentality."
On why coming to Linfield
makes sense for him
"I really feel like
Linfield is the perfect place for me and I'm looking forward to getting
started. We're going to come in and see just how many games we can win. There's
so much support for the program already. I can't wait to get started."
On what stands out to him about coaching at
Linfield
"Coaching at Linfield
is going to be so different from the Division I experience where each sport is
its own separate entity. As I was going through the application process, it
really felt like Linfield was a family with everyone pulling toward a common
goal."
On the differences between Division I and
Division III
"Division I sports have
changed a lot over the last 10 years where now you are going in and recruiting
15- or 16-year-old kids. Picking a college is a big decision someone that age.
At Linfield, we'll recruit juniors and seniors rather than freshmen and sophomores.
So when a guy shows up to play, you have pretty good idea they are already
capable students or they wouldn't be here. That takes a lot of stress off the
coach, knowing that a kid you recruit is a very likely going to take care of
business in the classroom."
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Former Oregon State pitching
coach Dan Spencer hired as Linfield baseball coach
6/19/2019 Oregonian by Nick
Daschel
Dan Spencer, who spent more
than a decade with Oregon State baseball and served as pitching coach on the
Beavers’ 2006 and 2007 national title teams, is back in Oregon as Linfield
baseball coach.
The Wildcats hired their
first baseball coach without school ties since 1949, replacing Stan Manley, who
retired after the 2019 season.
Spencer most recently was
associate head coach at Washington State for the past four years.
Spencer was part of Pat
Casey’s coaching staff from 1997-2007, including associate head coach from
2004-07. In 2007, Spencer was honored as pitching coach of the year by
Collegiate Baseball magazine in 2007.
During a college coaching
career that started in 1991, this is Spencer’s third stint as a head coach. He
previously served in those roles at Green River CC from 1992-96, and Texas Tech
from 2009-12.
Linfield has been one of the
Northwest’s strongest small college baseball programs over time. The Wildcats
are three-time national champions, including 2013 under Scott Brosius. However,
Linfield struggled in 2019, posting their first losing season since 1987.
“Sharon
Shepherd,
probably the greatest woman athlete to ever attend Linfield …” said Paul
Durham, Linfield athletic director, in “Northwest Round-Up” column by Clayton
Hannon in March 28, 1960, Oregon Journal/March 29, 1960, Oregonian.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::
“SHARON SHEPHERD, PROBABLY THE GREATEST WOMAN ATHLETE TO EVER ATTEND LINFIELD ..."
... said Paul Durham, Linfield athletic director, in “Northwest Round-Up” column by Clayton Hannon in March 28, 1960, Oregon Journal/March 29, 1960, Oregonian.
=In the “Northwest Round-Up” column by Clayton Hannon in March 28, 1960, Oregon Journal/March 29, 1960, Oregonian, Paul Durham, then Linfield athletic director, said, “Sharon Shepherd, probably the greatest woman athlete to ever attend Linfield, is working out daily as she gets ready for the Olympic games this summer. Sharon is doing weightlifting to help develop her shot putting. Sharon was on the United States track team which met the Russians in 1958 and 1959 and also represented the U.S. at the Pan American games last summer.”
1960 Linfield graduate Sharon Shepherd
In 2001, she was the first woman athlete and the third woman enshrined in the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame since it was founded in 1998.
=Sharon Shepherd Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame biography
Sharon Shepherd, Athlete 1956 - 1960
--Class 1960
--Induction 2001
--Women's Basketball, Field Hockey, Volleyball
Linfield College 1960 graduate Sharon Shepherd was an athlete of exceptional ability, from her youth in Oregon's Lane County, until she competed for the final time six years ago, at age 57.
In 2001, she will be the first woman athlete and the third woman to be enshrined in the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame since was founded in 1998.
She was a member of Wildcat intercollegiate teams in basketball, field hockey, and volleyball, her favorite sport. Sharon also excelled in track and field and softball, although at the time, Linfield had no women's teams in these sports.
Among her many athletic successes were traveling around the world, competing on U.S. national track and field teams and playing and coaching field hockey and volleyball teams in state, regional and national championships.
Now semi-retired, living in Durham, North Carolina, she was born in Portland, Oregon, and educated in Florence (grades 1-6) and Mapleton (7-12) public schools.She was a sports standout for the “Sailors” of Mapleton High School, from which she graduated in 1956. Sky Pennel and Liz McCain were her high school coaches.
"She was a superb athlete, the most outstanding that I can remember. Sharon competed during a time there was very little recognition for girls. She was such a competitor, she made any coach look good," said Pennel.
McCain said Sharon "excelled in all sports. It was a thrill for me to have a student with her athletic ability."
After high school, Sharon was a shot and discus record-setter. She set the U.S. outdoor shot record during a meet in Portland. She held the National AAU indoor and outdoor shot titles three times. For 10 years (six of them as an All-American) she was among the top three Americans in both events.
Traveling to track meets took her around the U.S. and to other countries. This included the U.S. Olympic track and field trials: 1956, Washington, D.C.; 1960, Abilene, Texas; 1964, New York, and 1968, New York and Los Angeles. She was a U.S. track team alternate for the 1960 Rome and 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.
She represented the U.S. in the Pan American Games in Chicago, 1959, and Sau Paulo, Brazil, 1963.
She was a member of the exceptional 1961 U.S. team which made a three-week, four-meet European tour with dual meets against the Soviet Union, Poland, Great Britain and West Germany. In 1957, she was on the first U.S. sports team to compete in the Soviet Union.
In addition to being a volleyball athlete and coach, she was a collegiate volleyball official at state, regional and national championships. For two years, she was voted one of the top 10 U.S. volleyball officials.
Mariann Johnson Culley (Linfield 1960), now of Pendleton, Oregon, was Sharon's roommate. Both good athletes, they ran many of the practice drills for their Linfield teams. They both were employed in the Pioneer Hall cafeteria, working all three meals and at all college banquets.
Sharon started as a freshman at the University of Oregon, Mariann said, "But it was too big, she felt no one cared. So, she left the UO after three days and came to Linfield," which offered her about $125 a semester in non-scholarship help.
However, Sharon retained a UO connection. She traveled to Eugene for coaching by Bill Bowerman, that university’s legendary track coach.
After graduating from Linfield, she taught in North Bend, then earned a master's degree from Ohio University. She has done post graduate work at the University of Indiana, Ohio State University and the University of North Carolina.
She has been a faculty member and women's and men's volleyball coach at Georgia Southwestern State University, Denison University in Ohio, and Stetson University in Florida. In addition, she was the county physical education and special education coordinator for Grayson County Schools in Virginia. And, she spent 18 years as a semi-truck driver. Tributes for Sharon Shepherd come from both Mariann Culley and Gene Carlson.
An indication of her dedication to athletic excellence, "Sharon worked out on the Linfield track seven days a week, from 2-5 p.m. She also had a key to the Riley Gym weight room and weight trained. This was a time when women did not work out, much less use weights," said Mariann.
Gene (Linfield 1961) adds, "I remember Sharon's openness and pure athletic doggedness. While my teammates and I would be playing baseball at Linfield, Sharon was working out on the track, mostly on her own, because she was way too far ahead of her time. While we players lolly-gagged around, Sharon would get her discus and shot practice in. Then she would take an Army duffel bag full of wet towels, heave it up to her shoulders and jog around the track. At that time I wasn't ready to think of women as great athletes. But, now I believe Sharon is one of the best ever to graduate from Linfield College."
Opportunity Knocked For Gal Shot Putter
By Charlotte Filer, Statesman McMinnville
Correspondent
Oregon Statesman, Salem, Ore., Oct. 18, 1958
McMINNVILLE (Special) - Opportunity has knocked in an unexpected fashion for me, but if it just keeps on knocking until 1960 I'll be satisfied," says Linfield's Sharon Shepherd, the young Mapleton, Ore., women's field star who toured Iron Curtain and European countries last summer with the United States track and field team.
The Linfield junior is looking toward the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 when she hopes to be a member of the American team. This summer she competed in the women, shot put division during meets in Russia and Poland where she placed fourth and in Hungary and Greece where she won second place.
Sharon has never regretted the time and energy she has spent on athletics and says that athletic competition is an important, part of her life. She adds that she has always wanted to excel in some form of athletics and spend much time in athletic competition, but that she never thought it would be in track.
Part of last summer Sharon spent in Salem working in recreation and physical education at the Hillcrest School for Girls.
Right now Sharon is resting up from her exciting summer and playing field hockey on the Linfield intercollegiate women's team besides her regular college studies. She's not exactly loafing though because she still exercises and lifts her weight daily. After hockey season she plans to begin daily shot putting again.
To any young gals with the 1964 to 1968 Olympics in mind she advises that "you have to keep going and working to develop your talents and even when you don’t feel it you have to tell yourself to go on."
She points out that American athletes must help uphold the level of United States prestige aboard. Whatever we do, wherever we go and however we act we’re always representatives of the USA and are being watched as such, she says.
She thinks the language barrier kept any real friendships from being. The Russians are good sports, she adds, but during the practices, they didn't want an American audience. However, when the American team took to the field for practice, the Yankee contestants had a large gathering of the Russian athletes looking on.
Sports in Russia are more important than in America because their athletic competition is all the people have, Sharon observes. Both young and old participate actively or as spectators in athletic contests.
Sharon says that she had no qualms about going to Russia even though the trip occurred at the height of the Lebanon trouble this summer and when the East and West were on the verge of locking horns in more than verbiage.
Sharon would like to see more American women enter athletics. She says the women owe it to themselves and their country to develop all their natural talent and to keep mentally and physically fit. "Athletics can certainly help there," she adds. She also feels that few American women know if they have athletic ability and what enjoyment they can gain from this ability once it is realized
After
30 years, Linfield’s nameless HHPA should memorialize Paul Durham
(This story posted June
1. 2019.)
During
the summer of 1989 Linfield College’s HHPA/Health, Human Performance and
Athletics building opened at the corner of Linfield Avenue and Lever Street.
A
story in the June 15, 1989, Oregonian said
the college’s new “physical education, health and athletics complex … has not
been named.”
It’s
been 30 years since HHPA went into use that summer and it’s approaching another
30 year milestone in November. It was dedicated Nov. 4, 1989.
HHPA
is a well-designed and well-used facility which serves the needs of a vibrant
college community. From when it opened its doors to the present, the building
has continued to have a generic name when other athletics-related facilities on
campus memorialize former Linfield coaches:
·Roy Helser Field.
·Ted Wilson Gymnasium.
·Hal Smith Fitness Center.
·Ad and Joan Rutschman Field House.
There
is one person for whom HPPA should be named: Paul Durham (1913-2007).
Born
in 1913 in Portland, where he was raised, he died at age 92 in Honolulu in
2007.
Call
it the "Paul Durham Health, Human Performance and Athletics
Building." Durham’s initial contact with Linfield
came as one of its students. He had wide ranging talents. Competing in
football, basketball and track, he was a star athlete at Linfield in the 1930s
and is one of the few Wildcats in history to earn 10 or more letters. A good
student, he was also a talented singer. He graduated from Linfield in 1936,
then coached at high schools in Yamhill and Portland before returning to his
alma mater in 1948 to coach football and, starting in 1949, to also serve as
the college's athletic director.
Durham was Linfield's head football coach for 20
seasons (1948-1967), compiling a record of 122 victories, 51 defeats and 10
ties for a .694 winning percentage.
In his final 12 football seasons, the Wildcats went
90-16-6 (.830), won six Northwest Conference championships and reached the
national championship game of the NAIA twice. Those two teams were the first
from the Northwest Conference to participate in the NAIA football playoffs.
His 1956 team started "The Streak" of
consecutive winning seasons that continues to this day as the national record
at all levels of college football.
Durham was inducted into six athletics Halls of Fame,
including the Linfield Athletics, (1998, charter class); Portland
Interscholastic League (2001); Oregon Sports, 1989; NAIA Football, 1969; Helms
Foundation and University of Hawaii Circle of Honor (both 1997). He has been
nominated for the national College Football Hall of Fame.
In 1961 he was Oregon ‘Man of the Year’ and in 1962
the NAIA football ‘Coach of the Year.’
In the season-opening game of 1967, Durham took the football
Wildcats to Honolulu, where they upset the University of Hawaii, 15-13, at
rainy Honolulu Stadium before a Honolulu Stadium crowd of about 20,000 - still
the most ever to see a Linfield game.
Hawaii was so impressed with Durham and the Wildcats
that it hired him away from Linfield in 1968 to direct its athletic program.
Durham was a Renaissance man.
Not only did he coach and teach (he taught health
classes in addition to the life lessons he imparted on the football field) at
Linfield, Durham read widely, sang in choirs and as a soloist, was an
accomplished formal speaker, a wonderful story and joke teller with a deep,
booming voice.
Raising a family in McMinnville on a small-college
coach's salary was a challenge, so Durham augmented his income in other ways.
During summers -- in addition to teaching classes at
Linfield -- he ran the McMinnville city recreation program - overseeing
activities in the city park during the day and softball games at night.
And, he was sports editor of the McMinnville News-Register newspaper. He also wrote a popular sports
column, "Dodging with Durham.”
He was paid to sing popular hymns such as “How Great
Thou Art” at funerals in McMinnville.
He was chosen First Citizen of McMinnville by the
Chamber of Commerce and was elected president of the Linfield Alumni
Association and honored as Alumnus of the Year.
Born
in 1913 in Portland, where he was raised, he died at age 92 in Honolulu in
2007.
There’s more.
Here’s the story -- engraved on one of the tablets
accompanying the Paul Durham statue/monument on the Linfield campus next to
HHPA -- to look into his soul:
“Long before racial sensitivity became a national
issue, (Paul) Durham judged his athletes by the strength of their character
without regard to race or religion.
“He made a strong unpublicized statement for human
and civil rights during the Champion Bowl in Augusta, Georgia, in December of
1965. When a hotel official wanted to serve the Black and Hawaiian members of
the team in the kitchen at the banquet following the game, Durham advised the
restaurant manager the entire team would eat in the kitchen.
“When the manager said there was not enough room to
feed the team in the kitchen, the team stayed in the dining room but there was
no food served at the Linfield tables.
“As a result of this incident and his personal
lobbying efforts, the 1966 NAIA championship game was moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“Such was the profound influence of a man whose
memory is still alive in the hearts, minds, and actions of those he touched
during his distinguished career and extraordinary life. One of life’s blessings
was to be a friend of Paul Durham. He was a beacon of light in the darkest of
times.”
Paul Durham was more than a football coach. He was an
extraordinary person. A talented Linfield student, including in athletics and
music, his successes after graduating from Linfield are storied. He was a
respected community leader in McMinnville with a positive national reputation
which enhanced Linfield. His teaching skills and leadership of Linfield teams
and athletics and impact on all of those with whom he had contact, including
players he coached, were beyond compare. For all the
good Paul Durham did and for his undeniable positive impact on Linfield,
Linfield Athletics, McMinnville and more, the Linfield Board of Trustees doesn’t
think it was enough.
Twice, most
recently in 2014, the trustees were asked by alumni to name HHPA for Paul
Durham. Twice the board said, “no.”
In the
aftermath of the Linfield Trustees saying no in 2014, friends raised funds and
had the aforementioned Paul Durham statue/monument created and installed next
to Linfield Avenue between HHPA and the Linfield Aquatic Center. It was
dedicated in 2014.
In concert with
that, to placate some, Durham’s name went on the front of HHPA to indicate the
lobby and foyer inside HHPA are named for him.
(The Linfield
Athletics Hall of Fame and Hall of Champions are housed within the Paul Durham
Lobby and Foyer.)
But, don’t be
misled. It’s what’s inside HHPA/Health, Human Performance and Athletics
building that’s named for him, not the building itself.
In summary, Paul
Durham’s name is on the building and inside the building. But, the building is
not, as it should be, named for him.
=Although
not athletic facilities, Lever and Brumback Streets on the Linfield campus
memorialize former coaches. Lever Street is for Henry Lever, longtime Linfield
coach and athletic director. Brumback Street is for Arthur M. Brumback, a
former president and the college’s first football coach.
=HHPA
was to be named for Kenneth W. Ford (1908-1997) of Oregon. As it turned out, it
is not. Instead, another building on campus -- Kenneth W. Ford Hall, home of
Marshall Theatre at Linfield – bears his name. According to The Ford Family
Foundation website, Ford “pursued a vision with a single sawmill in the
southern Oregon community of Roseburg. From his tenacity grew Roseburg Forest
Products Co., one of the largest, family-owned wood products.”
1989 –In
June 1989, Linfield’s new Health, Human Performance and Athletics (HHPA)
building opens. On June 17, 1989, it is host of Oregon boys’ high school
all-star basketball games.
1989 – On
Nov. 4, 1989, HHPA dedicated. During dedication, it’s announced gymnasium is
named for Ted Wilson, a Linfield men’s basketball coach.
1991 – On
Oct. 19, 1991, HPPA’s fitness center dedicated for Hal Smith, a Linfield track
& field, cross-country, wrestling coach and p.e. dept. chair.
1998 – On
Oct. 17, 1998, Paul Durham among six members of first “class” enshrined in new
Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame.
2006 (guesstimate)
– Linfield Board of Trustees say “no” to naming HHPA for Paul Durham.
2007 – On
June 22, 2007, Paul Durham dies at age. Born Oct, 18, 1913 and a 1936 Linfield
grad, he was a Linfield coach (football, basketball, golf), administrator
(athletics) and faculty member (health and p.e.), 1948-1968.
2014 – On
April 14, 2014, Linfield Board of Trustees -- via Dave Haugeberg, board chair
-- say “no” to naming HHPA for Paul Durham.
2014 – In
June 2014, Paul Durham signage added to HHPA building exterior.
2014 – On
Oct. 18, 2014 -- 101st anniversary of Paul Durham’s birth -- Paul
Durham statue/monument, funded by his Linfield players and friends,
unveiled/dedicated on Linfield campus outside near HHPA. Event took place
during Linfield Homecoming, before a Wildcats football game.
2019 – In
June 2019, HHPA is now 30 years old. It has been 30 years since HHPA opened and
it’s still not named for Paul Durham.
