Linfield school colors are cardinal and purple. These days purple dominates.
But, there was a time Linfield’s football team wore powder
blue jerseys in intra-squad scrimmages and also, for some years (apparently in
mid- to late-1950s), for home games. For road games, the jerseys were white.
Want proof? Posted with this story are photos showing parts
of two stories, both written by Paul
Durham, at the time Linfield head football coach and McMinnville News-Register (N-R) sports editor:
==Sept. 13 1954, N-R
with headline "Wildcat Grid Intra-Squad Game Is Tie. It’s about
“Linfield’s white and blue” football squads competing against each other during
the pre-season. Final score: 0-0.
==Sept. 14, 1959, N-R
is about the “Blue team” playing the “White squad” in an intrasquad scrimmage.
It is headlined “Blues Take ‘Cat Intra-Squad Fray.” Final score: Blue won,
47-7.
Power blue? Yes, it’s true.
More proof: Linfielder (Class of 1958) Dennis Anderson,
Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame member (his research discovered The Streak),
talked to Wildcatville in 2011 about his freshman year (1954-1955) and his time
on the 1954 Linfield football team, coached by Durham.
After Ad Rutschman (Class of 1954) played his senior (1953)
season of Linfield football, Ad’s powder blue jersey #32 was retired. The home
powder blue jersey he wore was put “in a display case in the hallway on the
south side of the main floor at Melrose.
“I recall (as a student in 1954-1955) that Ad’s jersey was
just there, no placard or anything with it. The jersey was at the bottom of the
case, not on a shelf …,” said Anderson, a McMinnville resident after a 22-years
as a Honolulu newspaper sports writer.
Anderson said, “Our home jerseys in 1954 were powder blue,
kind of like a North Carolina or UCLA blue. My recollection is that Ad’s jersey
on display was the same color.”
Wildcatville remembers in about 1966-1969 or so the same Ad
Rutschman powder blue jersey (now faded) in the Linfield athletics trophy in
Riley Student Center. The case separated a hallway. On one side of the case on
Riley’s first floor were booths for those dining in the Riley coffee shop. On
the other side of the trophy case, across the hall, was front door of the
Linfield Athletic Department.
Powder blue?
Saving money for Linfield Athletics was the reason.
Anderson figures Durham “got a great deal on those
powder-blue jerseys, maybe when some other school canceled its order.”
……….
McMinnville
News-RegisterSept 13 1954:
"Wildcat Grid Intra-Squad Game Is Tie"
Sept 14 1959:
"Blues Take ‘Cat Intra-Squad Fray"
