For two summers, Linfield College student/Wildcat football player Rogers Ishizu (B.S. 1967, M.Ed. 1968) from Hawaii (Maui) worked in McMinnville at the Norwest Fabrics, Inc., woolen mill.
From the money earned in the Norwest job, Rogers bought a 1959 turquoise (color officially named “Crown Sapphire,” according to General Motors) and white Corvette from Willie Chang, a 1965 Linfield grad and former Wildcat football player from Hawaii (Oahu).
In June 1967, Linfield student Rogers was driving his Corvette from McMinnville en route to a National Guard weekend drills meeting in the Portland area. But, tired from his summer job, Rogers fell asleep at the wheel and the car ran off the road in Tigard and crashed. He found himself suspended upside down, secured by his safety belt. He unbuckled and got away from the wreck. Luckily, Rogers had only a broken nose and black eyes. But, the Corvette was destroyed.
His auto insurance agent John E. Seeborg’s State Farm Insurance office was across the street (South Baker, 99W) from the Linfield campus. John, an avid supporter of Linfield athletics, had a color snapshot photo of the wrecked Corvette on a wall in his State Farm.
Photo posted here is of a 1959 Corvette, but it's not the one which was owned by Willie and Rogers.
