This story part of the special N-R series: Linfield
Football: Remembrance of Games Past
By Rusty
Rae, McMinnville N-R/News-Register, Oct 9, 2020,
Who actually saved the Seattle Seahawks from
moving to Los Angles nearly a quarter century ago?
To answer that question, we have to visit a
Sheraton Hotel in Spokane one Friday night in the spring of 1978. Linfield’s
baseball team was preparing for a weekend series with Whitworth.
Enter Randy Mueller from St. Maries, Idaho, a
small logging town. He and his dad made the one-hour drive to the big city to
meet with Ad Rutschman, the ‘Cats’ head baseball and football coach. Mueller
was a quarterback prospect.
“I’d already signed my letter of intent at
Pacific University. A friend and competitor who was a year ahead of me was
already playing there and they had been recruiting me all along. I had never
heard of Linfield,” Mueller remembered, from his office in San Diego.
Rutschman had asked Mueller to stop by for a
chat. Mueller remembers Ad and son Donnie; they had about a two-hour
conversation, at which time Mueller recalls Ad telling him, “I can’t guarantee
you’ll play, but we’ll win a lot of games and play for a national
championship.”
Mueller and his dad next made a trip to
McMinnville to check out the city and the campus. It was everything Ad
promised, and more. Mueller decided to attend Linfield. His dad, however, said
before he could register at Linfield he’d have to retrieve his $100 deposit
from Pacific.
With the money in hand, Mueller was Linfield-bound,
a freshman in the class entering in 1979. Notes Ad, “Randy wasn’t the
prototypical QB. He wasn’t 6-0 or 6-2, and his throwing motion was more
three-quarters than over the top, but he had the ability to get the ball where
it needed to go – and seemed to have great leadership skills.”
Mueller had the benefit of being the ball-boy
for the Seahawks for two years and camp goer for three additional years since
his junior year in high school. At the time, the Hawk training camp was at
Eastern Washington University in Spokane, and Mueller played catch with the
likes of Jim Zorn, Steve Largent and Dave Krieg.
“That experience grounded me. Watching and being
around those guys was a great learning tool for me. It really helped me learn
to deal with ups and downs of the game,” he said
Mueller certainly would have his share of the
unpredictability of football at Linfield. He played sparingly as a freshman and
sophomore but was the starting QB in the alumni game in the 1981 season, his
junior year. Back in the NAIA days, Linfield would play a non-counting
preseason contest against former players to allow coaches and athletes the
opportunity to evaluate their progress in a game-like situation.
Early in the contest, Mueller was sandwiched in
a tackle resulting in a broken leg. The fractured tibia cost him his junior
season. Linfield went 8-2 that year, losing to Southern Oregon and taking its
lumps from arch-rival, PLU 17-0 on the road.
Mueller returned in 1982 stronger than ever and
the ‘Cats rolled through a magical season, undefeated and winning that national
championship Ad referenced four years earlier. That year the ‘Cats were the hot
knife and the competition the butter.
Of course, there were a few narrow victories on
the journey to the title – a 40-35 win over Oregon Technical Institute; a 20-16
victory against Lewis & Clark, and a 20-16 triumph over California Lutheran
in the first round of the playoffs.
By this time, Mueller had mastered Linfield’s
offense. There was nothing stopping the Wildcats.
Against Westminster of Pennsylvania in the
second round of the playoffs, Linfield fell behind in the first minutes of the
game, 6-0. On the next series, however, Mueller, carrying out a perfect fake
off a dive play, went 49-yards around the right side of the line as Linfield
took a 7-6 lead, finishing with a 37-9 semi-final victory.
“I always taught QBs they had to carry the fake
with their hands and their eyes. Randy was one of the best at fooling defensive
players,” Rutschman said.
The following week, during a contest played at
the McMinnville High School field, which was in better condition, Linfield
faced William Jewell, a team with one of the top-rated defenses in the nation.
Rutschman recalled, “Nobody was scoring much on William Jewel that year.”
During warm-ups and player intros, many William Jewel players dropped handfuls
of dirt from home on the Mac field, letting the ‘Cats know they were playing on
Cardinals’ turf.
Rutschman remembers one player in particular, a
linebacker or defensive end, who was amped in the extreme, helmet off, shaved
head and seemingly totally emotionally out of control. Seeing that display,
Rutschman told assistant coach Bob Walker, “We’re going to trap him on the
first play of the game.”
Once again, however, Linfield fell behind, this
time on the initial play. The Cardinals first play was a simple out route to a
wide receiver. Both Linfield defensive players converged on the William Jewell
player, but instead of making the tackle, the defensive back knocked the
defensive end down and the Cardinal player went 80 yards, untouched, for the
score and a 7-0 lead.
When it was the ‘Cats turn, Mueller brought
Linfield to the line; the trap play was called in the huddle, as Rutschman had
decided. But Mueller audibled out of that play and threw a pass for 17 yards.
On the next play, the trap play was called again, and this time it worked to
perfection.
Linfield scored shortly after and wound up
thumping William Jewel 33-15 for the school’s and Rutschman’s first football
national title.
Of the audible on that first play, the Linfield
head coach noted, “How many players are savvy enough to audible out of the
first play of a national championship game?”
Mueller remembers it was a pretty easy call. “It
was just good Linfield coaching, actually. I had been drilled that if I saw a
particular look, it was almost an automatic to change the play. It was a
decision I was well prepared to make,” he said.
Mueller went 18-33-0 for 292 yards and three TDs
and was named offensive player of the game.
Then came the decision of a lifetime for
Mueller. Should he return for a fifth year or move on. “That summer I was
nearly 100 percent sure I’d return the next season,” he said. However, between
the start of the season and the championship, Mueller had a spectacular job
offer – from non-other than the Seattle Seahawks.
After the game, Mueller told the News-Register,
“This (winning the national championship) makes the decision more difficult.”
At the time, Rutschman said, “Randy has to do
what’s best for him. I’d love to have him come back, but he has a future ahead
of him, too.”
Mueller recalls Rutschman made the decision much
easier for him in later talks. Rutschman remembers a conversation with Mueller.
“Randy came in for a chat. I asked him, ‘What
would you love to be doing in five or 10 years?’”
“I’d love to be working in the NFL here in the
Northwest.”
Rutschman asked, “What’s the chance, if you pass
up this opportunity and return to play football, you’ll get another chance? If
the NFL is your goal, then it seems like a no-brainer.”
Mueller went from winning the championship in
December to being hired by the Seahawks in January, commuting back and forth
between McMinnville and the Hawks’ office in Seattle spring semester. The team
gave him a projector and, between studying for classes, he watched a ton of
film rating players and learning from then-director of football operations Mike
McCormack and head coach Chuck Knox.
Mueller spent the next 17 years with the Seahawk
organization, rising to the position of Vice President of Football Operations
in 1990. It was the worst of times and best of times for the Seahawk
organization. Mueller was a part of the story that brought the late Paul Allen
to its ownership.
In 1988, California real estate baron and
billionaire Ken Behring purchased the team from the Nordstrom family. Under
Behring, Knox and McCormack both left the Hawks. Tom Flores was brought in as
team President and General Manager. When Flores, the former Oakland Raider
coach, couldn’t hire the coach he wanted, he became the head coach, too.
These were the dark days for the Seahawks but
also a time of opportunity for Mueller and Mickey Loomis, the general manager
of the team. In 1996, Behring announced he was moving the Seattle club to Los
Angeles. What ensued is a historical struggle between Behring and Seattle and
Washington state politicians, finally able to negotiate a sale of the team,
with the help of Bob Whitsett to the late Paul Allen, the billionaire Microsoft
co-founder.
Though Mueller notes he wasn’t really involved
in the sale, he and Loomis did have to dance through a dicey negotiation
between the Behring ownership and the new Allen ownership during the draft.
Mueller finessed a trade of the underperforming Hawk QB, Rick Mirer, a
first-round draft pick several years earlier, to the N.Y. Jets in exchange for
their first-round pick.
That, in turn, gave Seattle a pair of first
rounders, number 10 and 11, which they subsequently traded up to garner the
third and sixth pick of the draft. With those two selections, Mueller took the
Hawks future Hall of Fame left tackle Walter Jones, and a speedster wide
receiver from Ohio State, Shawn Springs.
Jones would become one of the foundation figures
leading Seattle to its first Super Bowl under head coach Mike Holmgren. Mueller
would later take a job with the New Orleans Saints where he would help the
team, under coach Jim Hazlitt, win the NFC West and their first playoff game in
the 2000 season when he was named the NFL’s Executive of the Year.
Since then, Mueller’s had stops at ESPN, Miami,
and San Diego, but he remains faithful to his Linfield roots, noting, “My
Linfield experience shaped me as a person. The football education from Ad was
certainly beneficial, but it was much more than that. It’s the simple lessons
of life many don’t learn until much later — like communication skills – like
how to look someone in the eye and shake their hand.”
As for the Seahawks, Mueller, who today runs a
sports management company in San Diego, admits he was working behind the scenes
when the Seahawks were saved from the move to Los Angles. He adds, “Mickey
(Loomis) and I were running the team at the time.”
You have to wonder, if Mueller had returned to
Linfield, how would history have changed for the Seahawks?
Maybe, Ad Rutschman at least deserves an “RBI”
for saving the Seahawks.
