Willamette at Linfield Football 9/30/2023. Photos by Wildcatville

Linfield Football 1962 praised in Sports Illustrated

Linfield Football 1962 praised in Sports Illustrated

SMALL COLLEGE FOOTBALL received a big boost in Sports Illustrated last week, for just about the first time in history; and Linfield got in on the gravy. Under a section about: “The Small Colleges,” entitled “Portraits of a Growth Industry:" a sub-title included this: “If you haven’t heard of some of the schools, you may soon. Linfield, Florida A&M and William Jewell are now small now but getting bigger.

“Pointed out by the author was the fact that Linfield football teams have, during the past six seasons, won 43, lost nine and tied four.

The writer continued: “Linfield has one of the finest built-in recruiting systems in the country. A liberal arts college, it has a school of education with a fine course in physical education. Last year there were 174 (204 this year –ed) graduates coaching, mostly in small schools in Oregon and Washington. In recent years many of the graduates have sent some of their best players to Linfield.

Actually, Linfield probably has as many graduate coaches in the large high schools in Oregon as has any college in the state. For instance, Linfield men coaching at Portland high schools include: Franklin Mel Fox, Marty Bergan and Marv Flintcroft; Lincoln, Al Grove and Henry Crawford; David Douglas, Jerry Beier and Les Pierce; Roosevelt, Bud Gronquist; Madison, Warren Bolin and Don Gassaway; Jefferson, Jack Riley and Jess Edwards; Wilson, Ole Johnson and Vern Marshall; Marshall, Walt West; and Cleveland, Art Verment and Ed Warren.

And scores of former Wildcat athletes are coaching at Class A-1 schools such as Hillsboro, North Bend, North and South Salem, Ashland and McMinnville, Newberg, Bend, Tigard, Pendleton and on and on.

Sports Illustrated also said this about Linfield’s chances this season: “Linfield (10-1 last fall) can have another spectacular season if good replacement emerge in the defensive unit, particularly at linebacker. Two defensive backs must be replaced, but Dave Rohrer, excellent at safety, will anchor the secondary. On offense, fast, receptive Val Barnes, Pat Thurston and speedy Fullback Dennis Vitale provide the core of a fine backfield.”

Source: Dodging with Durham by Paul Durham, sports editor, McMinnville N-R/News-Register, and head football coach, Linfield College, McMinnville, Ore., in the Sept. 30, 2023, N-R.

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PORTRAIT OF A GROWTH INDUSTRY

IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD OF SOME OF THE SCHOOLS, YOU MAY SOON. LINFIELD, FLORIDA A&M; AND WILLIAM JEWELL ARE SMALL NOW BUT GETTING BIGGER

Sports Illustrated, Sept 24, 1962

There are approximately 500 small colleges in the United States that will field football teams this year. It is no more possible to generalize about these schools than it is to compare, say, the American history department at the University of Texas with the physical education course offered at Springfield College in Massachusetts. Some of the schools aren't even small. The standards at one or two are as high as those in the Ivy League. Graduates of others would have a hard time passing at a good city high school.

No more is it possible to generalize about the football they play. A majority of the small colleges would be humiliated by their big neighbors. But a few—Southern Illinois, Fresno State, Florida A&M, among others—would do better than the legendary hero of all small colleges, Centre, which defeated mighty Harvard in 1921, 6-0.

In this age of standardization, however, it is possible to generalize about the majority of small-college coaches. Usually easier going than their major college compatriots, they nevertheless employ the same systems and methods, they say the same things, have the same mores and accept defeat as gracefully as a child does a dose of castor oil.

To be sure, these are not the ways of Dr. Norris Patterson (above), the enormously successful head coach at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., 15 miles northeast of Kansas City. But then conformity never was. For instance: Patterson worries during the summer as much about how to make football more fun for his players as he does about recruiting. This year he is thinking of changing his offense to the split T because everybody else is giving it up. He believes that watching film is virtually useless in sizing up promising high school players. He would prefer not to give NCAA-type full athletic scholarships, even if he had them to give. He refuses to use weight and isometric conditioning programs and would quit coaching if he had to use them.

What has this oddball approach to coaching meant to Jewell since Patterson arrived there 12 years ago? Wins—87 of them, to be exact—against 23 losses and seven ties. Under Patterson, Jewell has won three Missouri College Athletic Union championships, shared three and been runner-up three times.

Patterson earned a doctorate in education at Columbia in 1958. Behind every one of his seeming idiosyncrasies lies a well-reasoned argument. Of his permissive practices, for instance, he says: "It doesn't follow that the grimmest-looking football squad is going to be the most successful. I've been to pro camps and you'd be surprised how much fun they have.

"Football coaches, in fact, are finally getting educated. They have more knowledge of science and of the physiology of the human body. As a result we don't have as many stale players as we once did. I try to make a game out of work. I let my linemen play soccer and have them play touch football during the season.

"The trouble with football is that we coaches are losing our creative abilities. Everybody uses the same terms and has the same drills. My older brother Cecil, who is one of the most successful high school coaches anywhere [at Kansas City], won't read a book on football. He does his own thinking and creating."

Patterson is one of a splendid minority of fine football coaches in small colleges today. Some others: Carnie Smith at nearby Pittsburg (Kansas) State College, Edgar Sherman at Muskingum in New Concord, Ohio (102 wins, 34 losses and seven ties in 17 years), John Potsklan at Albright in Reading, Pa. (23 wins, three losses and a tie in the last three years) and Paul Durham at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., 40 miles southwest of Portland. Smith at Pittsburg has won two NAIA championship bowl games. No other small-college coach in the country can make that statement. In his 13 years at Pittsburg, Smith has won 91 games, lost 33 and tied five. Currently Pittsburg is on a 15-game winning streak.

Like most other successful small-college coaches, Smith recruits football players, but almost entirely in his own area. Like others, too, he can't offer much in the way of scholarships and relies mostly on graduates and friends to direct promising boys his way. The best, of course, go to the big schools, but Smith gets the next best, some of whom eventually far outshine the most sought-after prospects.

Paul Durham at Linfield lost one game last year—to Pittsburg 12-7 in the Camellia Bowl game in Sacramento. In his last six seasons, Durham's teams have won 43 games, lost nine and tied four. Linfield has one of the finest built-in recruiting systems in the country. A liberal arts college, it has a school of education with a fine course in physical education. Last year there were 174 graduates coaching, mostly in small schools in Oregon and Washington. In recent years many of the graduates have sent some of their best players to Linfield.

While Pittsburg and Linfield were best among the small colleges last year, they will have plenty of competition in 1962. Following are regional reports on the most likely candidates.

(Regional Reports not provided by Wildcatville).

 

Linfield football plays named for Linfield professors Gebauer, Mahaffey

In the early 1970s, I lived in Milton-Freewater. Linfielder Brian Carter was head football coach at that city's Mac-Hi (a.k.a. McLoughlin Union High School). I went to a football practice and was surprised to hear offensive plays being called with familiar Linfield names. One play was the "Gebauer." I asked Coach Durham. It was named for Paul Gebauer, Linfield College anthropologist. Coach said another play was the “Mahaffey.” It involved acting. Hap Mahaffey was an actor and head of Linfield dramatic arts and speech. (Walt Gebauer, son of Paul and Clara Gebauer, played football for Paul Durham-coached Linfield teams.) (Photo of Paul Gebauer by William P. Galen.)

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On 9/24/2023, Linfield Bob Ferguson posted at the Coach Paul Durham Statue/Monument Facebook page that when he played Linfield College Football for Coach Paul Durham "We had a play named for (Brad Durham). It was kind of a pass play and the QB would call either Bradley Right or Bradley Left. I remember him naming the play like it was yesterday!"

Scott Carnahan: Missed Linfield home football game for first time since 1984 (Originally posted by Wildcatville on Oct. 16, 2010)

Scott Carnahan:
Missed Linfield home football game for first time since 1984 

Originally posted by Wildcatville on Oct. 16, 2010 

 

 

 

 

 

When Linfield athletic director/Linfield College grad Scott Carnahan, former Linfield head baseball coach, missed the Oct. 2, 2010 Willamette at Linfield football game on Maxwell Field -- Wildcats won 35-7 -- it was a milestone event for him.

Up until that time, he had not missed a Linfield home football game since returning to Linfield as its baseball coach in 1984. He became the college’s athletic director in 1996. One of his athletic director duties is home football game management.

His reason for missing the game was for a wonderful reason. He and his wife, Linfield grad Cathy Carnahan, principal of McMinnville’s Duniway Middle School, were in Washington, D.C. She was honored there on Oct. 1, 2010, as 2010 National Middle School Principal of the Year during an awards banquet kicking off National Principals Month.

Both Scott and Cathy are members of the Linfield Class of 1973.

CATHY PHOTO
http://www.principals.org/Content.aspx?topic=2011_MetLife_NASSP_National_Middle_Level_Principal_of_the_Year

SCOTT PHOTO
http://www.linfield.edu/sports/sports-administration.html

Randy and Barbara Jelinek

George Randall ‘Randy’ Jelinek,
1927-2001

McMinnville N-R/News-Register Aug 25, 2001

Born 21 Nov 1927  Three Rivers, St. Joseph County, Michigan

Died 22 Aug 2001 (aged 73)  McMinnville, Yamhill County, Oregon

George Randall “Randy” Jelinek of McMinnville died Aug. 22, 2001, in his home, from complications of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He was 73.

Mr. Jelinek was chairman of the Linfield College art department from 1965 to 1980.

A memorial celebration with art and music will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Sept. 15 in Renshaw Hall at Linfield College, McMinnville.

He was born Nov. 21, 1927, in Three Rivers, Mich., and raised in Grand Island, Neb.

He and Barbara Fincher were married Aug. 23, 1953.

Mr. Jelinek studied in Vienna, Austria, in 1956-57. He then returned to the United States and earned a bachelor of arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago and a master of fine arts degree from the University of Washington. He lived in Illinois, New Jersey, and Everett and Renton, Wash., before moving to McMinnville.

After retiring as chairman of the Linfield art department, he did free-lance commercial art work, including creation of logos for the city of McMinnville and Yamhill County.

He and his wife lived and worked in Scotland in 1983, in Zimbabwe in 1995 and in China in 1998.

Mr. Jelinek was a founding member of the McMinnville Art Association, which later became the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County. He had exhibited his work in the Arlene Schnitzer Gallery, Portland, and recently contributed to a retrospective show honoring Portland artist Jack McLarty.

He also was active on the Yamhill County Democratic Central Committee, serving as a precinctperson. He was a supporter of Gallery Theater, McMinnville, and other cultural groups.

Survivors include his wife; two daughters, Julie Baird of Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Victoria Jelinek of Los Angeles; a son, Gregory Monnix Jelinek of Seattle; three brothers, Donald Jelinek and David Jelinek, both of Grand Island, Neb., and Howard Jelinek of Jacksonville, Fla.; and three grandchildren.

PHOTO black & white from Linfield Archives, circa 1979-1979. Professor Randall Jelinek is captured in a candid moment during class. Jelinek was chair of the art department from 1965 to 1980. He was also a founding member of the McMinnville Art Association, now called the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County. Photo likely by Reid Blackburn.

PHOTO color added by Sheri West.

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Barbara Fincher Jelinek,
1933 - 2022

McMinnville N-R/News-Register September-October 2022

Student, teacher, traveler, writer, activist and actress, Barbara Fincher Jelinek died September 25, 2022, in Seattle, Washington, having moved there in 2015 after 51 years in McMinnville, Oregon.

Born March 23, 1933, in Steger, Illinois, to Laura Monnix and Joseph Victor Fincher, Barbara received a bachelor’s degree from the School of Speech and Drama at Northwestern University in Evanston. In the years that followed, Barbara went farther afield, studying in Vienna, New York and Mexico City, ultimately completing a master’s degree in Education from Linfield College, after following her husband, Randall Jelinek, to McMinnville in 1965 when he was appointed Chair of the Art Department there.

While her children were young, Barbara was an editor and writer for Linfield College’s various publications, an adjunct teacher of English at the college, and a freelance writer for the News-Register. In 1968, she received state and national awards for a series of articles in that newspaper about the need for separate facilities for mentally ill adolescents, at the time housed with the elderly in the State Hospital in Salem. Phil Bladine, publisher, distributed copies of the series to all members of the Oregon State Legislature, which led to their establishing Poyama Land, a treatment center for children in Polk, Marion, and Yamhill counties.

Simultaneously, Barbara held various positions in Yamhill County’s Democratic Central Committee, including the role of chairperson, and was the candidate for state representative in 1983, the same year she was invited to the White House to meet President Jimmy Carter.

Barbara continued to support civic projects and cultural organizations throughout her life, such as the Linfield Chamber Orchestra, the Arts Alliance, and Gallery Theater. The latter was so named because it started in 1968 with summer performances in what was then the Linfield art building’s art gallery.

Beginning with that summer of 1968, Barbara had leading roles in numerous Gallery plays, such as The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Lion in Winter. More recently, she was Maria Callas in Master Class and a woman struggling to recover from a stroke in Wings, by Arthur Kopit. She also directed numerous plays at Gallery, at Sheridan High School and at McMinnville High School, in collaboration with her fellow drama teacher and dear friend, Carol Burnett.

Over the course of her lifetime, Barbara taught drama and English in Illinois, New Jersey, Washington state and Oregon and was awarded two Fulbright Scholarships to teach in Scotland and Zimbabwe, respectively. Even after retiring from McMinnville High School, Barbara continued to teach drama and English as a Second Language in China.

A companion throughout her adventures, Barbara’s husband died August 22, 2001, a day before their 48th wedding anniversary. They are survived by their children, Julie Baird and Gregory Monnix Jelinek, both of Seattle, and Victoria Jelinek Jensen of Chamonix. Her grandchildren are Daniel Jelinek, Kaya Baird, Finnegan Jelinek, Zoe Jelinek, and Sebastian Jensen.

Barbara claimed the best summing up of one’s life is an epitaph she once read containing the remains of a young woman at a cathedral on Scotland’s principal Orkney Island:

She lived respected
And died regretted.

In lieu of a festive gathering to honor Barbara at this time, people are asked to donate to the Zoe Jelinek Memorial Fund on www.gofundme.com. Tragically, Barbara’s granddaughter Zoe died in a sudden accident earlier on the same day that Barbara had the stroke that would send her to intensive care and ultimately conclude her own life.

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This is an abbreviated version of Barbara’s obituary from September because there will now be a memorial service and reception to honor Barbara’s life. Those who knew Barbara, in one way or another, are invited to join her family to reminisce, chuckle, lament, and enjoy the opportunity to celebrate a unique woman’s life.

Thursday, 13 April, 2023, 2 p.m., the Gallery Theater, 210 N.E. Ford St., McMinnville, Oregon.

Student, teacher, writer, activist, actress, Barbara Fincher Jelinek died September 25, 2022, in Seattle, Washington, having moved there in 2015 after 51 years in Oregon. Over the course of her lifetime, Barbara taught Drama and English in various states and countries, and was a founding member of the Gallery Players Theater in the 1960s.

A companion throughout her adventures, Randall, Barbara’s husband, died Aug. 22, 2001. They are survived by their children, Julie Baird, Gregory M. Jelinek, and Victoria Jensen. Their grandchildren are Daniel Jelinek, Finnegan Jelinek, Kaya Baird, and Sebastian Jensen. Sadly, a fifth grandchild, Zoe Jelinek, is deceased.

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GENE ‘ACE’ FORMAN: Passed Away Surrounded by Friends

GENE ‘ACE’ FORMAN: Passed Away Surrounded by Friends

We're sure you knew Gene 'Ace' Forman had been in a car accident in August before his senior year and that he spent many months in the hospital and had been told he would never walk and living 45 years would be a goal.

(He died at age 79 on Aug. 20, 2023.)

He had always wanted to be a football coach but many questioned the feasibility of that, being in a wheelchair. He would prove everyone wrong as he coached over 40 years. His players would learn so much more than just football. They learned to live a life of purpose and values of loyalty, tolerance, perseverance, and the importance of having a positive at attitude.

What can we tell you about our best friend Ace? Did you know he earned 12 varsity letters in high school, and played tuba?

Did you know he was an All American football player for Linfield and after his accident Bob went to visit him in the hospital and Ace asked him to wear his number until he could come back? Bob did and took his position as well.

Did you know Linfield established the Gene Forman Inspirational Award?

You probably know he was respected and loved by his players. One said, "He was dealt a bad hand but he played it the best he could." We learned that whatever you do give it your best. "Coach knew from experience you could triumph over adversity and he would help many players who were going through a difficult time."

Did you know he was a collector of friends? If you were his friend you would be his friend for life. His address book had so many names and many had 4 different addresses and new phone numbers. He never wanted to lose a friend. A huge number of players kept in contact with him. Some thought of him as their Dad.

Did you know that one of those players who considered him his Dad went to Linfield and Ace helped financially? Now a retired principal, he is coaching at Geo Fox who we play for Homecoming. He was there for Ace's last day, holding his hand.

Did you know he was a Godfather and a Great Godfather? Many friends had their children call him Uncle Ace. He was the most admired man we ever knew.

If you knew him you loved him. Do you know how many are going to miss him? We don't either but we know we will, Nan and Bob

From Nan for Linfield Homecoming October 2023

Photo of Ace from Linfield Homecoming September 2022

Ralph Ogata on Homecoming Sept 17, 2022, Maxwell Field/Memorial Stadium/Catdome

 

Book includes fake Andy Warhol, but does not mention Linfield College as among colleges duped by the fakester

 

CELEBRATION OF LIFE AND TRIBUTE TO HONOR BELOVED GENE ‘ACE’ FORMAN WILL BE HELD ON McMINNVILLE CAMPUS AFTER OCT. 14, 2023, LINFIELD HOMECOMING FOOTBALL GAME

CELEBRATION OF LIFE AND TRIBUTE TO HONOR BELOVED GENE ‘ACE’ FORMAN WILL BE HELD ON McMINNVILLE CAMPUS AFTER OCT. 14, 2023, LINFIELD HOMECOMING FOOTBALL GAME

A Celebration of Life for Gene 'Ace' Forman will be held on Linfield University's McMinnville campus on Sat., Oct. 14, 2023, after the Homecoming football game.

 

He died at age 79 on Aug. 20, 2023, in Salem, Oregon.

 

The Celebration will begin about 4 o'clock in the afternoon in Jonasson Hall, which is on the ground floor of Melrose Hall.

 

Included in the Celebration will be socializing while looking at photos and memorabilia. Afterwards there will be a buffet dinner and a Tribute for ‘Ace.’

 

Divided into four quarters, all are encouraged to add their memories during the Tribute:

 

1st quarter: Ace and his sports career.

 

2nd quarter: His high school coaching career and Ace's impact on his athletes.

 

3rd quarter: Ace's high school teaching career and relationships with colleagues and students.

 

4th quarter: His love of friends and how Ace was loved.

 

'Ace' was a friend to everyone and now it's our turn to show up to honor him.

 

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