Coaches Rutschman, Smith reflect on memorable
conference games
One in a special
series of stories – ‘Linfield Football Remembrance of Games Past’ by Rusty Rae,
McMinnville N-R/News-Register
N-R Friday, Nov, 13, 2020, print edition
Mental
toughness – the glue that sustains championship teams. Nowhere is team
fortitude more important than when the winds of November blow rain through
practice sessions, disrupting dreams of December and the playoffs.
Linfield
head football coach Joseph Smith believes the final week of practice for the
final conference contest represents some of the toughest mental challenges for
players.
“Having
something to play for at the end of the season is the first challenge. We’ve
always had a very good chance to make the playoffs, but when you don’t have
hope, it’s difficult to stay sharp and motivated,” said Smith.
The
switch to standard time becomes another challenge. Practices playout under the
lights. Smith adds, “It’s cold, dark, raining — staying focused on our practice
routine requires mental toughness and is a tremendous character builder.”
Even
champions falter at times. Linfield’s 1983 squad, defending head coach Ad
Rutschman’s first national title in football found a rough road towards the end of the
season. The ‘Cats dropped the season opener against Southern Oregon, 38-29.
Rebounding from that setback the Wildcats began a six-game win streak,
including their 30-27 victory over arch-rival Pacific Lutheran on the Lutes’
home field in Puyallup, Washington.
Although
ranked as high as seventh in the NAIA national poll, the Wildcats incurred a
calamitous 26-21 loss to winless Willamette, on a muddy McCullough Field in
Salem. Even with the loss Linfield still had a chance at the playoffs. All they
needed was a win in their final game of the season. Tying the Lutes in the
conference standings presumably earned the bid to the playoffs based on the win
over PLU, with whom they would have been tied for the conference title.
But
the Wildcats faltered on their home turf in the last game of the season,
playing the Pirates to a 7-7 draw and erasing its opportunity to reach the
playoffs. The Lutes wound up making a deep title run, losing the championship
game, 25-21.
Notes
Rutschman, “Sometimes success leads to complacency — we won the title in ’82,
but stumbled in ’83. Won the national championship in ’84, but fell short the
following year and then won the national championship again in 1986.”
During
Rutschman’s tenure there were no lights at the field. At times, in order to
finish a practice he’d relocate the team to a section of grass near Davis
Street where there was a street light they could practice under.
At
the time, Linfield’s grass field turned into a mud bog through the season’s
play and practice. Some practice sessions became beyond difficult; Rutschman
moved the practice sessions to the south end of the track.
“I
don’t know if any of those things had any affect, but the synthetic turf and
lights we have today are a difference-maker,” he said.
Times
have changed at Linfield with addition of artificial turf and lights. However,
some elements of practice remain, like the intrinsic bitterness of the last
game of the conference season erasing any hopes of a playoff bid.
A
pair of games against Western Washington in 1989 and 1990 is telling.
In
1989, Linfield fell to Western Washington University on the ‘Cats’ home field,
27-24. The following season, Linfield made the lengthy trip to Bellingham
topping the Vikings, 27-21. However, in both cases, it marked the end of
playing days for seniors as Linfield failed to make the playoffs.
Notes
Smith, “It takes guys a bit of time to come down off the mountain top after
their playing days are complete. They’ve spent four years perfecting their
craft and when the last game is finished, win or lose – it’s a total change in
identity for many.”
As
a coach, Smith has experienced the flip side of the coin as well, though the
final conference game of the 2014 season forever painted in the joy of cardinal
red and purple and the black angst of despair.
Linfield,
highly ranked early in the season, but was stung by the upset bug two weeks
earlier. It dropped a 31-28 decision to Willamette University. Pacific
University, which had reestablished its football program in 2010, played the
‘Cats to a near standstill the previous season, losing 28-22 in a contest not
decided until the last two minutes as Linfield ran out the clock.
Played
at the Catdome, Pacific entered the contest on a six-game win streak, knowing a
win would knock Linfield from its perch as top ‘Cat of the Northwest
conference. The Boxers, in their fifth year, and now with seasoned players with
four years in the program, believed they were ready to take Linfield down a peg
or two.
A
win for Pacific would have given the Boxers the automatic Northwest Conference
berth to the NCAA Division III playoffs, leaving the ‘Cats hoping for an
at-large berth.
Recalls
Smith, “We began the year as a top five team, but with the loss to Willamette
had dropped out of the top 10 – but we were still a top five team.
“Pacific
came into the game talking a lot of smack, and I think even the mayor of Forest
Grove got into the act. It only served to motivate us that much more,” he said.
The
Boxers brought their full complement of players from Forest Grove. Now in their
fifth year of playing football (after a 19-year hiatus from the game), they’d
be able to topple Linfield. Sometimes expectations exceed reality; at other
times you’re stuck with reality and the Boxers received a sudden dose it,
falling behind 21-0 in the first 12-minutes of the game, 31-0 at the half as
Linfield lowered the boom in a 59-0 blowout victory. Though the two teams
shared the conference title, Linfield earned the automatic bid to the playoffs
based on the victory.
Linfield’s
defense devoured the Boxers’ offense, giving the ‘Cat offense short fields most
of the first half.
Quarterback
Sam Riddle, who ran for 99 yards on the day, scored twice on short runs in the
first 10 minutes of the game. Running back Spencer Payne, from McMinnville High
School, rumbled in from 14 yards out at the 3:19 mark of the first. Payne would
continue slicing through the Pacific defense for 107 yards.
Riddle
recalls, “There was no love lost between the two teams. I scored early in the
first quarter and was met by the Pacific safety; let’s just say polite words
were not shared.”
Payne,
who is back in McMinnville after playing in the German Football League 2, said
Pacific had produced a hype video predicting a win for the Boxers and the
unseating of Linfield. “We thought it was funny and just served to motivate us
that much more.
“We
were firing on all cylinders that day in all phases of the game. We, as a team,
were used to playing with a target on our backs. We knew what we had to do and
there was no way we were going to let the conference title slip out of our
hands,” he said.
But
the joy of decisive victory, a shared conference title and an automatic bid to
the playoffs quickly turned to soul-crushing sorrow as the team learned
teammate Parker Moore was stabbed to death Saturday evening at the local
7-Eleven.
“There
was no joy that day. We went from euphoria of a great win to abject despondency
and despair,” said Smith of the death of Moore.
Payne,
who lived across the hall from Moore, said, “Parker was a close friend. He
brought so much energy and motivation not only on the football field but to the
whole campus. We don’t have enough Parkers on Earth these days.”
Riddle
added, “I’ll never forget the phone call I received that night telling me what
had happened to Parker. Sunday morning in the ICE Auditorium was just surreal.
Our heads were down – we couldn’t look each other in the eye.”
Even
today Riddle keeps the memory of his good friend alive, he says, by the way he
lives, and by the way he treats his friends and business associates and in a
more personal way, too.
“With
Parker’s parents’ blessings, we named our daughter born this March, Parker
Marie Riddle,” he said.
Sometimes,
it seems, football is inconsequential. But the character built in the winds of
November last a lifetime.
__
Correction:
Last week, in a moment of total mental oversight, I swapped names between a
motor-racing friend of mine from Ohio, Dave Little, and the Linfield
quarterback, Dave White, at the helm of the ‘Cats for the Hawaii game.
It
was Dave White who guided Linfield to that 8-1 record in 1970. White was an
all-conference QB that glorious season. The following year, he was the glue
that held the ‘Cats together through a rocky season in which they won four of
their last five games, including a 24-14 final season victory over PLU to keep
the streak alive. Sorry about that, Dave!
