Add another honor to
the impressive resume of Ad Rutschman,
award-winning and much honored Linfield alumnus (Class of 1954).
Ad was an
outstanding student-athlete and later coach for the Spartans of Hillsboro, Ore.,
High School (Hilhi) before graduating in 1950.
He was one of four
inducted into the Hihi “Hall of Achievement” on Oct. 1, 2016. It took place during
the 2nd annual Hall of Achievement ceremony and auction held in The
Shivley Barn, Hillsboro.
Those inducted in the
“Hall” represent Hihi alumni, staff and community supporters. They are
celebrated for contributing to Hilhi’s “rich history” and recognized for making
“positive contributions” and having “lasting impact” on the school, said Steve Drake, Hilhi athletic director.
Ad was selected for athletic contributions.
Funds raised during
the event supported integration of classroom technology f0r staff and students
at Hihi, she said.
Introducing Ad at the event was Larry Binkerd (Hilhi Class of 1961, Linfield Class of 1965). He’s Hilhi
track coach and standout athlete at Hilhi and Linfield. He joined the “Hall” in
2015.
Binkerd told Wildcatville Ad is “without a doubt one of Hilhi's
most famous athletic alumnus, along with Olympic gold soccer medalist Tiffeny
Milbrett.”
In addition to Ad’s success as a Spartan football, basketball and
baseball player, being “Hillsboro born, an Hilhi alumnus and coach of Hilhi
state champions coach in football and baseball, he had plenty of background to
draw from. The 200 people in attendance were treated to a walk into the past of
what Hillsboro and Hilhi were like in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s,” said
Binkerd.
Attending the event and sitting at the
table with Ad were his daughters MaryJo and Cindy and Don,
one of his three sons, along with Larry and his wife, Erline.
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A story in the Aug. 19, 2005, issue of the McMinnville News-Register detailed Ad’s life and successes
including mentioning:
-The Ad and Joan Rutschman
Fieldhouse at Linfield.
-Being in five Halls of Fame (and now six
with the Hilhi Hall of Achievement).
-Receiving five Man of the Year awards
and 12 Coach of the Year honors.
-Being the only person to ever coach
college football and baseball teams to national championships
According to the article, Ad says winning
kept him in coaching, but the “greatest satisfaction he got out of it was
seeing the kids he coached becoming better people. He tried to help them
develop a work ethic, a commitment to excellence and learn how to deal with
adversity.”
“… Seeing people improve personally and then
watching them go out and become successful in their lives is what I enjoy most.
And our people, by and large, have enjoyed great success," Ad told the News-Register.
Ad also told the News-Register for the Aug. 19, 2005, article that the best
classroom for teaching success skills was on the playing fields at Linfield.
"I'm not talking about computer
skills or writing skills or surgery skills but just plain success skills,"
he said. "People talk about how important the work ethic is, getting along
with people, a commitment to excellence, leadership, ability to follow,
cooperation, team work, how important those qualities are to success and the
response I get from everybody is that it's everything.
Where can you develop those things
anywhere better than team sports?," he told the News-Register.
The following is verbatim from the Aug.
19, 2005 News-Register article:
Playing the game
Rutschman grew up on a farm in rural
Hillsboro. He played sports, but primarily softball.
"I'm not sure I even knew football
existed until I was in about the sixth grade," he said. "We didn't
have television. We played softball and the older people played baseball."
When his family moved into town in the
fourth or fifth grade, he started getting involved in other sports. But there
were no sports camps or programs for kids at that time.
Rutschman ended up playing football,
basketball and baseball in high school. He made the varsity as a freshman in
baseball, the varsity as a sophomore in basketball and he lettered in football
as a junior.
He liked all sports. He didn't have a
favorite.
"People have asked me what my
favorite sport was since I was growing up," he said. "Basically it
was whatever sport was in season. I just liked playing."
Rutschman said he has many fond memories
of playing. He was lucky to have had outstanding coaches.
"They had a big influence on me and that was the thing that made it as much fun as anything else," he said. "I just loved playing for them."
His teams were very successful. In his
first year in baseball as a freshman his coach was Don Kirsch, who went on to
become an outstanding baseball coach at the University of Oregon.
"My football coach also was very
good," he said. "He became a principal and later hired me back to
Hillsboro as a coach. My basketball coach in high school became the athletic
director so I played for both of those people as an athlete and then went back
and worked for them as a coach."
Rutschman played second base and the
outfield in baseball and was a guard in basketball. They didn't have point
guards back then, he said.
"People weren't as big as they are
now," he said. "We had a kid who was 6-foot-5 as a center and he was
a pretty good size kid but he was about the only one we had in school who was
that tall."
Rutschman had a scholarship to play
football at Oregon State University but they told him he could play baseball in
the spring only if he participated in spring football practice. They would
release him from football practice to play in the baseball games. He didn't
figure that would work for him.
At the same time, he had made up his mind
that he wanted to go into teaching and coaching. He figured playing in more
than one sport would
better prepare him for coaching.
better prepare him for coaching.
It didn't hurt that then football coach
Paul Durham and baseball coach Roy Helser actively recruited him for Linfield
College.
So Rutschman came to Linfield where he
lettered in three sports.
In football, he earned the nickname
"The Flying Dutchman" and still holds Linfield career rushing
records. He won championships in baseball. Coach Roy Helser was very
successful, he said.
Rutschman enjoyed himself at Linfield but
said the best playing experience he had was playing for a semi-professional
team in Southern Oregon. Helser was hired to put together a team and
Rutschman's team dominated the league.
From player to coach
Rutschman said he probably had more fun
playing than coaching. But that didn't stop him from turning down a
professional contract with the NFL's Detroit Lions. He had his mind made up to
teach and coach sports.
He got his degree in physical education
and started teaching at Hillsboro High School immediately afterward. He was an
assistant coach first and in his second year, in 1956, he became the head
baseball coach. He became the head football coach three years after that.
Rutschman won one state football
championship and three state baseball championships while at Hillsboro High but
his coaching career had a shaky start. His first year as the head baseball
coach at Hillsboro was terrible. His win-loss record was not good.
"I remember going into our principal
and saying that if I have to go through very many years like that, he was going
to have to look for another coach because I didn't care for that," he said
with a laugh.
"Thank heavens things changed and we
ended up having a lot of success. We started playing a lot better ball."
When Rutschman began coaching at Hillsboro
there were four Little League teams. When he left, there were 41.
"We got a lot of kids playing,"
he said. "Some of the kids that played ball for me in high school ended up
being Little League coaches themselves and they started teaching the kids the
same things that we were teaching them at the high school level. That's when
the program really took off."
After 13 years at Hillsboro, Helser and
Durham approached Rutschman about the head football coaching job at Linfield.
Durham was leaving to take the athletic director job at the University of
Hawaii and they wanted Rutschman to step in.
The job was offered to him and he talked
it over with his wife and they decided to do it. Three years later, Helser
wanted him to take the baseball coaching job. Two years after that, when Helser
wanted to retire, Rutschman stepped into the athletic director's position as well.
Rutschman's legacy
Rutschman was the head Wildcat football
coach for 24 years. He coached the baseball team for 13 years. He had a major
impact on the players he coached and more than 120 of them have gone on to
become head coaches themselves including at least 16 of them for colleges.
"It's amazing, over the years, the
number of student athletes who, by Ad's example, went on to be coaches,"
said Scott Carnahan, current Linfield athletic director. "Ad's mentoring
has influenced how they coach.
"He's got a very dynamic personality
and he's taught success oriented skills for years. He feels sports is a good
arena for those values. He feels athletics, especially team sports, may be the
best classroom for teaching success oriented skills. Like how to get along with
people and how to develop a good work ethic."
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Photos provided by Hilhi:
-Ad’s plaque/award displayed in Hilhi’s
front office
-Two pages
from the 2016 Hilhi Hall of Achievement Auction Catalog. Page 4 headlined “Ad
Rutschman
Hall of Achievement Athletics Recipient.” Page 5 headed “CONGRATULATIONS!!
Ad Rutschman.”
-Ad’s table at the event. From left to right,
Ad’s daughters MaryJo and Cindy, Ad, son Don, and Larry and Erline Binkerd.
-After introduction by Larry Binkerd
(right) Ad and Larry shake hands at podium
-Ad delivers his talk.
