LINFIELD: Year after year, Oregon’s best

By BILL MULFLUR

Of The Oregonian staff

Aug 28, 1987

Linfield College hasn’t had a losing football season in 32 years.

The last time the Wildcats lost more games than they won was in 1955 – Tommy Prothro’s first year at Oregon State, Len Casanova’s fifth season at Oregon and the first-ever football season for Portland State as a four-year school.

The Wildcats have had 31 consecutive winning seasons. In the same span, Oregon, Oregon State and Portland State have had 30 winning seasons – combined.

Linfield has put the frosting on the cake with three National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Division II national titles in the past five years.

Comparing NAIA football to the NCAA brand that is played by the Ducks, Beavers and Vikings is like comparing apples to oranges.

Yet, continued dominance at any level is remarkable.

The Wildcats have played 299 football games since 1955, winning 240, losing 50 and tying 9. Counting ties as half a win and half a loss, that’s a winning percentage of .818. Nebraska (.816) and Alabama (.807) are the NCAA leaders over the past 25 years.

In the last 12 seasons when Paul Durham was coach and the 19 seasons under present coach Ad Rutschman, Linfield has had four unbeaten seasons and 13 years with only one loss.

The Wildcats are getting few, if any, football players at the Pac-10 level. The Columbia Football League, made up of the 14 NAIA schools in the Pacific Northwest, probably didn’t have more than six players who could have started in the Pac-10 during the 1986 season.

What makes the best small-college players take the road to McMinnville, where Rutschman has annual squad turnouts in the neighborhoods of 125 players?

“The best players want to play for the most successful team,” said Frank Buckiewicz, the former Pacific University coach (1965-80) who beat the Wildcats once in 16 tries – 9-7 in 1971.

Rutschman, a 1950 Hillsboro High School and 1954 Linfield graduate, still holds three career and season rushing records at Linfield. He played four years for Durham, 1950 through 1953. Teams on which he played  had respective records of 6-3, 3-3-3, 5-3-1 and 5-4 those seasons. The Wildcats went 3-6 in both 1954 and in 1955, the last year the squad was below .500.

“The tradition hadn’t started yet,” said Rutschman, who was a standout athlete at Hillsboro High School. “I have fond memories of those years. I loved my teammates and my coaches. Many of them are lifelong friends.”

Fred Wilson, who will return to the coaching sidelines at Lewis and Clark this year, coached against Rutschman’s first 16 Linfield teams and won once, 7-4 in 1973. Wilson thinks the Linfield tradition played a big part in the Wildcats’ success.

Alumni in prep coaching ranks
help Linfield recruit top talent

“Linfield has a strong physical education major and that attracts athletes,” said Wilson. “They have hundreds of graduates in the high school coaching ranks and when there is a 6-foot-4, 220-pound kid in La Pine, he’s likely to end up at Linfield. It’s a real plus for them.”

Durham, who was 90-16-6 in his last 12 years, recalls the start of success at Linfield.

“In the late ‘50s,” said Durham, who left Linfield in 1967 to become athletic director at the University of Hawaii and is now retired on Oahu, “Roy Helser and I started recruiting. By that time, we had 200-300 Linfield graduates in the high school coaching ranks.

“We couldn’t recruit them by going to their homes,” said Durham. “We had to get them on the campus and they were interested. It’s no secret the kids who graduated to coaching helped us in recruiting.”

Durham developed other connections in Hawaii and Hartford, Conn.

“Joe Beidler, a former coach at Whitman, called me and wanted to know if I was interested in a player from Hartford,” said Durham. “The first was Curtis Manns, who is now a professor of mathematics at the University of Connecticut. Eventually, we got John Lee. Lee was the only player in NAIA history to play in national playoffs in football, basketball and baseball in the same school year.”

Helser remembers Al Wills as the first to come to Hawaii and bring other players with him. “One of the original five was Hugh Yoshida.”

Durham said that Yoshida, an NAIA All-American linebacker in 1961, is not director of athletics for Oahu public schools – and the Hawaiian connection continues. Doug Hire, the bellwether of the offensive line on last year’s national championship team, came from Oahu. “He’s one of the best offensive linemen I’ve ever coached,” said Rutschman, who usually doesn’t throw out individual accolades.

Durham remembers Rutschman’s first year as a player at Linfield. “He was a tremendous athlete, leader and fun guy. He drives a coach nuts. How the big schools passed him up, I’ll never know.”

“I realized he would be a great high school coach before he graduated,” Durham said of Rutschman, who coached three state championship teams in baseball and one in football at Hillsboro before moving to Linfield.

“When I decided to leave, Roy, Ted (Wilson) and I sat down to talk about my successor. Ad was the only one any of us wanted,” said Durham.

Fred vonAppen, who is in his fifth season as special teams coaches for the San Francisco 49ers, was there almost at the beginning of Linfield’s dynasty. During vonAppen’s four seasons (1960-63), the Cats went 33-4-1 and played for the national championship in his sophomore year – losing to Pittsburg State (Kan.). The was when all NAIA teams were in the same division. Division II didn’t come into being until 1970.

“I came out of South Eugene High School, a two-way 173-pound player, and I know I wasn’t major college caliber,” said vonAppen. “My coach (Loyd Amick) counseled me on the Northwest Conference and I wrote to Linfield, Willamette and Pacific. I got positive letters from all of them.

“I decided to visit Linfield, so I got on a Greyhound bus and went to McMinnville,” said vonAppen. “The minute I set foot on campus, I knew that was where I wanted to go. I’ve always loved the campus.

“Paul Durham was a very engaging and caring man,” he said. “They had an exceptional assemblage of coaches in Durham, Ted Wilson and Roy Helser. Wilson coached basketball and Helser baseball, but they both assisted in football.”

“We had a good class of football players,” said vonAppen. “Linfield had been competitive before but not perennial champions. Paul got it going then and Ad had taken it even further.”

VonAppen said, “Paul was a surrogate father to us and he had a great sense of humor. The interaction of the coaches transcended the practice field.” That’s not to say the players got off easy. “We had to go to class and to chapel.”

VonAppen coached the line for Durham for two years after he graduated and went to work as a volunteer coach for Frank Broyles at Arkansas to learn and get into major college coaching – that year the Razorbacks went unbeaten into the final game of the season, losing 15-14, losing to eventual national champion Texas. He later coached at UCLA, Virginia Tech, Oregon and Stanford for two Rose Bowl teams coached by 49er Coach Bill Walsh. He gives the Linfield atmosphere credit for motivating him toward the coaching field.

“I was on scholarship, but I lined the field on Saturdays before home games, washed buildings and we taped each other’s hands before games – something coaches have to do,” said vonAppen. “The unique environment and intimacy of the campus made it possible to see your professors in the coffee shop or drop by a coach’s office any time during the off-season,” said vonAppen.

“They were great role models,” he said of the coaches. “They had high standards and there is no question that they motivated me toward coaching.”

Jim Massey, who played one season for the Los Angeles Rams and two seasons for New England, started several games at cornerback for the Patriots in 1975, was a transition player at Linfield – playing on Durham’s last two team and Rutschman’s first two.

“I had a full ride to Oregon, but it was just too big for me since I was from a small high school (Neah-Kah-Nie at Rockaway),“ said Massey. “I left that first fall and talked to my high school coach, Dick Smith, about options. He played with Ad at Linfield and he recommended Linfield to me.

“I was aware as an 18-year-old could be that there was an winning tradition there. Once I started playing, it was instilled in the players. I don’t know of anyone who can do that better than Ad. The lessons he taught on the field were applicable off the field.”

After his four-year pro career, Massey played one year with British Columbia in the Canadian Football League before he returned to Linfield as an assistant coach for two seasons.

“I live in McMinnville and I haven’t missed many games in recent years,” said Massey, who was head football coach at Yamhill-Carlton High School before taking an assistant’s position at McMinnville High School this year.

Mike Riley, in his first year as head coach of the division-leading Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, received most of his coaching experience on Rutschman’s staff from six seasons (1977-82).

Riley, who quarterbacked Corvallis to a Class AAA state high school championship in 1970 and played as a defensive back for four years at Alabama for Bear Bryant, said, “They’ve played great football for a long time. Winning builds upon itself.”

“Ad is the key,” said Riley. “He’s a great coach, teacher and motivator. I’ve never been around a better football mind. He’s right where he should be, but no matter where he was, he would be successful.”

Riley sees the Pacific Lutheran series  and one game in particular, the 1982 football playoff game on the way to the first national championship, as symbolic of the Linfield program.

“We were ranked 1-2 in the country, and it was a great game,” said Riley. “It was really the championship game.”

“I can’t tell you how great the kids were. Hard working, down to earth and all winners. We kept coming from behind to win. In the semifinals, there was no way we had any business on the field, physically, with Cal Lutheran – but we won.”

Over all of this is Rutschman – coaching from the press box, dedicated, single-minded and completely involved.

“He’s the No. 1 competitor on the team,” said David Lindley, who quarterbacked the 1984 and 1986 national champions. “There’s no one working as hard as he does.”

Lindley recalled the 1984 championship game when the Wildcats came to the dressing room at half-time, trailing Northwestern Iowa) 22-0.

“He wasn’t mad; he was fired up,” said Lindley. “He took a piece of chalk and wrote on the board, ‘This is what the heck we’ve got to do,’ he said. ‘This will get the job done.” He had in his mind that we could still win and we did (33-22).

“He was always coming up with adjustments during a game. He did it last year in our playoff game against PLU. He is a genius with X’s and O’s. I knew that the first week of my freshman year.”

Note: Article as printed in the newspaper, except Wildcatville corrected errors:

--Incorrect is Rutschman playing football for Linfield "1951 through 1954 and records of 3-3-3, 5-3-1, 5-4 and 3-6." He played 1950 through 1951 with respective records of 6-3, 3-3-3, 5-3-1 and 5-4.

-- Not correct is Rutschman playing for the Detroit Lions in 1955. Offered a Lions’ contract, he turned it down and began teaching and coaching at Hillsboro High School.

-- Last name of former Whitman coach was Biedler, not “Bidler.”

-- First name of former South Eugene High School coach was Loyd, not “Lloyd.”

Linfield at UPS football 11/3/2012

Linfield football 1962: Columbus Storm memories

It's Friday, Oct. 12, 1962. The Columbus Day Storm hits Oregon, including McMinnville. 

How did the Linfield football team deal with it? 

The Wildcats dealt with the storm's aftermath out of town,. They played at Chico State the next day, Saturday, Oct. 13. 

On Oct. 12-13, 1962, the Paul Durham-coached ‘Cats were traveling to (or from) or in Chico for the non-conference contest. It ended in a 6-6 tie, the only “non-win” in Linfield’s nine game season which concluded with an 8-0-1 win-loss-tie record.

The two schools played each other four times: 1953, 1960, 1961 and 1962. Linfield won them all, except for that darn tie. Here’s what the McMinnville News-Register said:

“The only tie Linfield had, a 6-all contest with Chico State in what was termed the ‘mud bowl’ (the game was called off twice due to flooding conditions) cost the Wildcats a chance for a return trip to the Camellia Bowl. Going into the Chico contest, Linfield was ranked fifth in the nation and after the game, the ‘Cats dropped to 13th. Linfield could only manage to elevate its ranking to the seventh position, not high enough to merit a return NAIA playoff bid.” 

The storm’s impact on Oregon and Washington are well documented. Lesser known, in those two states at least, were how it affected northern California and, specifically, Chico. 

In an Internet posting, “Ed” said the storm is regarded as the strongest in recorded history of the Pacific Northwest. I was eleven years old at the time … We lived in Chico, California (a hundred miles north of Sacramento), and even that far south of the Pacific Northwest, we returned home to damage. Our giant beloved weeping willow tree in the back yard had been ripped in half.”

One of the members of the 1962 Linfield football team is Carl Heisler. He has total recall of the Linfield-Chico State football game that season. Here’s part of an article in the July 27, 2010, Forest Grove, Ore., News-Times.: 

 “It was at the end of the Columbus Day storms, which dumped considerable rainfall in Northern California, and the field took a beating for it. In fact, the game was actually canceled twice and the team was sent home on the bus before eventually being played. 

"The result was a scene straight out of the movie ‘Leatherheads.; 

" ‘(The field) was perfectly flat and green ‘til you stepped on it and went clear to your ankles,” Heisler said. “We got so muddy, the only thing you could tell different is, we both had white hats and one had a stripe down the middle and the other one didn’t. In no great surprise, the game ended in a 6-6 tie.

"When the team arrived back in McMinnville, the players got off the bus and Durham said they were going to do ‘a little running.’ 

 “They ran for two hours, with many players throwing up along the way.

 “ ‘And I’m going, ‘Jesus, what am I gettin’ myself into? If he does this when we tie a game, what are we going to do when we lose?’” Heisler said. 

Not to worry. During Heisler's time playing football for Linfield the teams went 24-2-2.

 Footnotes: 

--It’s likely Linfield and Chico State will never again play each other in football. Chico State dropped the sport in 1997. 

 --Carl Heisler photo by Wildcatville on Oct. 27, 2012.

Wet & Wild: Willamette at Linfield football 10/27/2012

1960s art by QB Bruce Priem depicts Wildcat players, coach

In college football, Bruce Priem is best known as the 1968 and 1969 starting quarterback of the Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, Calif.) Cougars. But, he has Saxons and Wildcats in his background, too. 

At South Salem, Ore., High School – Bruce is a member of the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame as a three-sport (football, basketball, baseball) athlete – he played football for Linfielder Marv Heater, the South Salem Saxons head coach. Former Linfield football player Sonny Jepson, Linfield Class of 1973, was one of his high school football teammates. 

After graduating from South Salem in 1966, Bruce studied at Linfield for two academic years (1966-67, and 1967-68) and was a Wildcat junior varsity QB. He transferred from Linfield to Azusa and was the Cougars’ starting quarterback. Bruce is in the Azusa football record book for throwing six touchdown passes in a game. 

(By the way, John Tully, Whitworth University head football coach, was Azusa’s starting quarterback 1971-1974.) 

How did Bruce, was an outstanding athlete, become an artist? An artistic inspiration was his dad, Roy Priem, a graphic artist, cartoonist and sign painter in Salem. "I always did a lot of sketching and doodling," Bruce said, "I learned a lot from my father." Similar to a coach encouraging an athlete, his dad told his son, "you need to practice more!" Art was "enjoyable for me," Bruce said, "but no way was I doing to be as good as my father. He had serious talent." 

At Linfield, Bruce took some art classes. His teachers were art faculty members Peter Teneau and Randall Jelinek, also art department chair. Bruce remembers his Linfield football coach, Paul Durham, had Teneau football (a fake draw screen) and Jelinek (a draw) plays. 

Bruce’s artistic talent came to the attention of Rick Pullen, a Linfield sports information director, and Tim Marsh, a Linfield Review student newspaper sports editor. They commissioned him to do pen and ink drawing from black & white photos. 

The first drawing, of Ted Wilson, Linfield men’s head basketball coach, appeared on the cover of the 1967-68 Linfield men’s basketball media guide. His drawings of football players Mike Barrow, Rogers Ishizu and John Sadowski, and Bob Haack and Bob Laycoe were used in the newspaper’s sports section and/or home game football printed programs. He also wrote sports stories for the Review. The Barrow drawing is on a football card issued as part of the Linfield 2011 football season dedication of the Mike Barrow study room in the college’s Nicholson Library. 

After graduating from Azusa in 1970, Bruce earned a master of science degree in physical therapy from the University of Southern California. He is a licensed physical therapist in the state of Oregon. 

Today, Priem lives in Salem, where he is a physical therapy-occupational therapy department manager at Kaiser Permanente in Salem. Bruce and his wife, Mary, are active in their church. In the summer of 2012 they traveled to Honduras and worked in an orphanage. It was a return to that country and the Dominican Republic where they lived and worked as short term missionaries for World Gospel Crusades, 1970-72. 

Photo information: Bruce & Mary Priem and Bob Haack during a 2012 football season visit to the Mike Barrow Study Room in the Linfield library. Priem sketches: -Bob “Igor” Haack and Bob “Heavy Duty” Laycoe in the Oct. 19, 1967, Linfield Review. -Rogers Ishizu and John Sadowski, Linfield players from Hawaii. -Coach Ted Wilson on cover of 1968 winter sports media guide. -Mike Barrow on card given out at Mike Barrow Study Room dedication fall 2011. -Priem bylined article in Oct. 19, 1967, Linfield Review.

Linfield at Lewis & Clark football, 10/20/2012

Speaking of Linfield at L&C football game on Oct. 20, 2012 …

 Illustration from Albany College 1930 'Orange Peel' yearbook.

NOTE: IT WAS ALBANY BEFORE LEWIS & CLARK

Prior to locating in Portland and becoming Lewis & Clark College, L&C was Albany College in Albany, Ore. From Northwest Conference website:

“The NWC was formed in 1926, making it one of the oldest athletics conferences in the western United States. For 60 years, the Northwest Conference sponsored sports exclusively for men, but in 1984 it joined with the Women’s Conference of Independent Colleges to become the Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges, shortening the name to its current moniker in 1996 when it joined the NCAA. The charter members (were) Willamette University, Whitman College, Pacific University, the College of Puget Sound (now the University of Puget Sound), Linfield College, and the College of Idaho. In 1931, Albany College joined, left in 1938, and rejoined in 1949 using its present name of Lewis & Clark College.”

NOTE: GRISWOLD STADIUM
Football venue at L&C is Griswold Stadium. It's named for Graham Griswold. L&C

--“In 1952, at the urging of students, trustees, and administrators, work was started on a permanent home for Pioneer football. Trustee Graham Griswold donated $25,000 and most of the lumber needed to spearhead the project.”

--“The site was officially named and dedicated to Graham Griswold in the season-opener of the 1954 season…”

Source: L&C Sports Info website.

NOTE: AD RUTSCHMAN GIVEN GAME BALL

--“The first game was played in the new stadium on October 10, 1953, against Linfield College. The Wildcats won the contest 12-7 with the star of the game, Linfield halfback Ad Rutschman, being given the game ball by Portland mayor Fred Peterson.”

Source: L&C Sports Info website.

Wildcatville says see Oregonian (Oct. 11, 1953 edition, “Wildcats surprise LC Eleven, 12 to 7”) coverage of the game here.

NOTE: NAMES OF GRISWOLD STADIUM'S TRACK, FIELD 

Eldon Fix Track and Fred Wilson Field at Griswold Stadium

Source: L&C Sports Info website.

Homecoming football 2012: Linfield 54, Whitworth 14

Wildcatville slideshow from Whitworth at Linfield football game and other Linfield Homecoming  activities held on campus Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. In the game, Linfield Wildcats defeated Whitworth Pirates, 54-14. See posted video here.

Hail to Bar West Classic Committee! 10/12/2012

During Linfield College, McMinnville, Ore., 2012 Homecoming, the Bar West Classic Committee (a.k.a. BWC Committee) was presented a Linfield Alumni Service Award on 10/12/2012 for 25 years of connecting/reuniting alumni through reunions and events.  Wildcatville photos and video. See posted video here.

Victory Bell reintroduced to Linfield College community

During 2012 Homecoming at Linfield College, McMinnville, Ore., the college's historic Victory Bell was reintroduced/unveiled on 10/12/2012. See Linfield news release http://bit.ly/WerYGr and a McMinnville News-Register story (based on the news release) http://bit.ly/R4rXBB  here for bell information. Video and photos by Wildcatville.

Seldom seen tablet notes historical highlight of McMinnville | Linfield College

Located on the edge of the Linfield campus, near 99W and the President’s House, this stone tablet is seldom seen due to garden vegetation. Text on the tablet:

THIS STONE MARKS THE SPOT
WHERE THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

MET AUGUST 2, 1881 AND TOOK

ACTION WHICH RESULTED IN

MOVING McMINNVILLE|LINFIELD

COLLEGE FROM 5th & C STREETS

TO ITS PRESENT LOCATION.

ACTUATED BY THE GIFT OF

MR & MRS SAMUEL COZINE.

PRESENTED BY CLASS OF 1922

                                                                       
Wildcatville photos, 10/11/2012.

The art of Coach Ad Rutschman

Created 10/1/2010. Final editing/posting 10/4/2012

Music:
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech): Heartwarming
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Linfield at PLU football in Puyallup, Wash. 9/29/2012

Linfield football (Water Crew) at Cal Lutheran 9/15/201

See video, Linfield 1984 NAIA National Football Championship

On Saturday, Dec. 8, 1984, Linfield defeated Northwestern (Iowa), 33-22, for the NAIA 1984 national football championship at McMinnville (Oregon) High School's Wortman Stadium. This video (appx 3:14 converted from silent Super 8 film) shows game action and after game celebrating.

Story below from 2010 is about Leonard "Len" Gann, a 1971, Linfield graduate. He transferred from Linfield after attending Palomar College, a two-year college in San Marcos, Calif. He was a quarterback for the Palomar Comets. He was a Linfield QB, playing on the first two seasons (1968, 1969) of Ad Rutschman-coached Wildcat football teams. Gann was Linfield's starting quarterback in the Wildcats' 1968 season-opening 17-7 victory in Boise over the Boise State Broncos. He threw a touchdown pass to Bob Murphy in the game. View video of Len Gann responding to his Nov. 10 induction (Class of 2010) into the San Diego Hall of Champions. Gann lives in Sequim ("Squim"), Wash. According to Wikipedia, Sequim (in Clallam Co.) had a population more than 6,600 in 2010. "The city has been increasing in population dramatically in recent years due to the influx of retirees from the Puget Sound region and California," says Wikipedia. The city lies within the "rainshadow of the Olympic Mountains and receives on average less than 15 inches (380 mm) of rain per year—about the same at Los Angeles.... Yet the city is fairly close to some of the wettest temperate rainforests of the contiguous" U.S. Photo by Michael Dashiell of the Sequim Gazette.

Gann among greatest

Area Sports by Michael Dashiell, Sequim, Wash., Gazette
Dec. 23, 2010

Ted Williams, Don Larsen, Bill Walton, Tony Gwynn, Leonard Gann.

Which of these names doesn’t belong?

If you had said Leonard Gann two months ago, you’d have been correct.

Not anymore.

The former high school coach, who led teams in six different sports and racked up 322 wins, seven league titles and two sectional titles in prep softball, was inducted into the San Diego County High School Coaching Legends at the San Diego Hall of Champions, joining some of the nation’s greatest coaches and athletes.

Dignitaries and former players honored the retired coach at a ceremony at the hall on Nov. 10.
“Totally surprised,” Gann says of his selection. “I thought it was quite an honor.”

A committee that honors coaches for the hall contacted Gann, a Sequim resident for the past five years, about two years ago. He filled out an application detailing his 35 years of coaching football, baseball, basketball, softball, soccer and tennis teams for the San Marco, Calif., Unified School District.

“I never gave it any more thought,” Gann says.

He worked as a teacher for the district, in special education, health and safety, and, for the last decade or so, as head of the physical education department.

He led the San Marco High School softball squad to a sectional title in 1996. When San Marco got too big and split into two schools, he headed up the Mission Hills High softball squad, leading that team to a sectional title in 2005.

He was named Coach of the Year five times, receiving the AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year award in 2003, the High School Sports Association Assistant Coaches Award in 2004 and the Cal-Hi Sports Coach of the Year in 2005.

Well before that, however, Gann had his eyes on Sequim. His wife Jane’s twin sister Anne Terrell lived in Sequim and the Ganns planned their move about four years before he called it quits at San Marco.

Gann helped lead the Sequim junior varsity football squad and worked with Sequim’s baseball program before finally calling it a career this July — officially 40 years of coaching.

For love of the game

It’s a retirement in name only. Gann, 63, is also player-manager for the Sequim Senior Softball team.

“This guy is an athlete,” says teammate John Zervos. “I think I’m pretty good. I’m one of the fastest on the team (but) I can’t keep up with Leonard. He’s the leader of the team.”

And while playing the game keeps Gann’s competitive juices flowing, he says there’s something special about being a coach.

“You always love to compete (but) … to watch (a game) is probably more satisfying,” Gann says.

If he had to pick, Gann says his favorite sports to coach are softball and football.

“It takes a total team effort to win,” he says. “In basketball, it takes five guys, maybe a couple off the bench. But (in football), if all 11 guys aren’t working together, you don’t win.”

A good winning percentage, however, doesn’t mean someone is a good coach, Gann says.

“It’s not so much wins and losses; it’s how the kids respond to the coach,” Gann says. “Some of my best teams were not the most talented.”

About 70 or 80 former players joined Gann and 11 other San Diego-area high school prep coaching stars at the ceremony in November.

Zervos joked that Gann needed to go out and buy long pants for the ceremony, since team members say they’d never seen their teammate in anything but shorts — even in chilly Sequim winter weather.

“I never wore long pants … except in the classroom,” Gann says. “You need to be professional in the classroom.”

The San Diego coaching icon says Sequim is home now, even if his name and career highlights reside in Southern California.

“I truly miss the even weather they have, but I don’t miss much more than that,” Gann says. “Sequim’s a great place. I wish I could have grown up here. It’s the small community I guess. The kids here are great — and the coaches.”

Angels in the Helser Field outfield?

Angels in the outfield of Linfield's Helser (baseball) Field? No, but outfield work was being done there as these Wildcatville photos (all identfied with a "W", taken 6/14/2012) atest. Arial photos -- taken several years ago -- from Linfield Sports Info.

Trading on Linfield's name?

Happenstance these McMinnville businesses -- Linfield Manor apartment building and Winfield Motors used car dealership -- are trading/traded on Linfield's name or a variation thereof? It appears Winstone was the last name of the owner of Winfield Motors, established in 1995. Winfield could have been a merger of the "Win" of Winstone and the "field" of Linfield. The dealership may have gone out of business in 2011.

Following Catball at 2012 NCAA D3 national softball championship tourney in Salem, Va.

Illinois Wesleyan's Courtney Martin loses the ball as Linfield's Kate Hasty slides to second base Saturday, May 12, 2012, during the NCAA Division III Softball Regional Tournament at Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington. Photo by Carlos T. Miranda of the The Pantagraph of Bloomington, Ill., a daily newspaper serving eight counties and more than 60 communities in Central Illinois. This photo appears on page 1 of the May 14, 2012, edition of The Linfield Review, student newspaper of Linfield College, McMinnville, Ore.

• Want to follow Catball (Linfield College softball) in the 2012 NCAA D3 national softball tournament in Salem, Va.? 

  If so, there are various choices. They include:

  --Linfield Sports Information. 

  --"Catball Group" at Facebook. If you would like to join the Group, you must have a Facebook account. If so, go to the Group's URL ...

  
  http://www.facebook.com/groups/284035448309238
  
  ... and log in.

Is Cardinal Circle for you?

Is Cardinal Circle for you? You'll never know if you don't attend one of the Circle's monthly lunch gatherings at Wildcat Art Larrance's Racoon Lodge in Raleigh Hills, Portland. Here are two photos from the 5/17/2012 event. Art regails (left to right) Wildcats Pete Dengenis, Bob Ferguson and Terry Durham. Art poses in front of his Porsche. Contact Ferguson if you want to learn the whys and wherefores of Cardinal Circle.  Note: Apologies to Cardinal Circlers who left before these photos were taken.

Oregonian article 5-14-2014

Banner across McMinnville's Third Street promotes Linfield luau May 2012

Student art on Linfield campus 4/16/2012

Softball: Willamette at Linfield 4/14/2012

In Northwest Conference softball, Willamette played a doubleheader at Linfield on Saturday 4/14/2012. WU won the first game, 2-0, and Linfield the second, 8-0.

First game of George Fox at Linfield softball doubleheader 4/6/2012

Linfield is built upon names

Did Roy D. “Hap” Mahaffey look like a miniature schnauzer? You be the judge! Photo of miniature schnauzer courtesy of Hemlock Schnauzers. This is “Dexter,” not “Mahaffey” mentioned in the story. For Hemlock Schnauzers info click this link.

Alumni Council Notes
By Tim Marsh, Class of 1970
Linfield Alumni Association president, 1981-1982
Appeared in Nov. 1981 Linfield College Bulletin

Linfield is built upon names.

Naturally you think about Mrs. Linfield's name. Her gift resulted in McMinnvilie College becoming Linfield College.

But there's more to it than that. While the Old Oak, Pioneer, and Melrose are names which might all mean Linfield to you and me, there are other names which in their own special way make us think of Linfield.

Cozine, for example. It's the hall or the valley (gully?) near where the creek is located.

Professor Harold Elkinton. Students of my era, I'm Class of 1970, called him "The Elk." In earlier years he was nicknamed by students as "Elky."

And Professor Jonas Jonasson answers to "Steine" or "Stein." That comes from his middle name, Adalsteinn.

Wildcat football has produced more than just numbers.

I don't know about Coach Ad Rutschman's current teams, but I do know that during Coach Paul Durham's era, 1948-67, some football plays had names, instead of numbers.

"Basically our plays were numbered," Durham remembers. "But occasionally we named them after someone.

"One year we had a 'Helser Special,' which (assistant coach) Roy dreamed up. It led to a win over Willamette. We also had a 'Wilson Special,' a play (assistant coach) Ted had put in."

Durham continues, '"think it was the summer of 1961-the Camellia Bowl year-that my son Jeff, a Linfield football player, and his wife, Amy, had my grandson, Bradley (now a Linfield sophomore after transferring from Oregon State University). So we had a football play called the 'Bradley Special,' a pass to his father.

Then there was the "Gebauer" play. "It may have been a scoring play, one we used on the opponent's one-yard line," Durham said. "Everyone loved and respected (Professor) Paul Gebauer and, in football, you can't get an opponent's respect any easier than by scoring on him.

"If I remember correctly, one year we had a 'Mahaffey Special.' Professor Mahaffey directed productions for the drama department and the success of this play was based on some of the backs acting like they were going to do one thing while they ended up doing something else. A good football player has to be an actor."

Actually Professor Mahaffey's first name is Roy, but many people know him as "Happy" or "Hap."

Mahaffey remembers, "My nicknames were quite prolific-and had do with the great deal of red hair I had then. An early one I didn't like was 'pinky,' next in line was 'carrot top.' Then came 'Rosy' and 'Red.'

My first year in college-Ottawa University, it was 'Pat.' I'm not certain but I think that 'Happy' came about with someone mispronouncing my name as 'Mahappy.' I never objected to this. In fact, it’s my favorite and now wife is Mrs. Hap, our two daughters Mishaps and our son is Perhaps!."

Mahaffey might be interested to know that at least one Linfield graduate, Nancy (Biel) Greenland '68, has gone as far as to name her dog after the professor.

“Mahaffey's the dog's name. He was named after Professor Mahaffey, she explained, "because of the similarity in appearance-big bushy eyebrows, full mustache, and shaved head. The miniature Schnauzer line 1ooks that way. 'Mahaffey's personality reminds you so much of Professor Mahaffey---both are a lot of fun and always up to something."

Now it's time for a pop quiz to test your memory about other Linfield names. Ready?

Begin:

1. The last of the old GI apartments next to Maxwell football field had a College-given name and later a student-given one. What where they?

2. Name three restaurants down the street which are or were popular places for Linfield students to eat.

3. Former Linfield President Gordon Bjork came to the College with wife Susan and daughters Katie, Becky, and Susanna. While at the College the Bjorks had a son. What was his name? How old was Professor Bjork when he became Linfield president?

4. How many lanes were there in the old Riley Hall bowling alley?

5. Name the avenue which .runs in front of Memorial Hall, the dorm which is built into the back Memorial Stadium.

Scoring

If you got every question correct you never left Linfield. If you missed just one we'll find an old freshman green beanie or ribbon for you to wear. If you missed all or two or more, you'd better study up and be ready for the mid-term!

If you have any Linfield names you'd like to share with others drop me a note in care of the Linfield Alumni Office.

Answers

1. Laurel Hall. The Waldorf.
2. Bud and Dot's was and is no longer. Alf's and the Rocket still are. Pop's Shop was on the edge of campus, not down the street!
3. Anders was his first name. President Bjork was age 32.
4. Two lanes.
5. Lever Avenue was named for Linfield Coach Henry Lever, now deceased.

............

More about "Hap" Mahaffey:

Linfield's Mahaffey Hall and a plaque in the hall.

Wildcatville photos taken 4/6/2012

Mrs. Linfield died March 26, 1940

AP story from page 1 of March 26, 1940, Spokane Daily Chronicle

Mrs. F. R. LinfieldIs Taken by Death

Mrs. Frances Ross Linfield, widely known education and philanthropist, who formerly lived in Spokane, died today in Portland after a seven-week illness, the Associated Press reports.

Mrs. Linfield headed the modern languages department of Lewis & Clark high school here from 1895 to 1912. She was active in Grace Baptist church, and was a member of that congregation til her death.

At one time she owned considerable property here, gave it all to Linfield college, McMinnville, Ore., which was named for her husband. Only property here still owned by the college is a 100 by 120 foot plot at the northwest corner of Sprague and Monroe now occupied by the Cohn Brothers furniture store and Fox garage.