Identification for 1941 Linfield Baseball team photo -- Back: Wolfsehr, Partlow, Bixler, Monnes, Lyons, J. O’Meara, Williams, Means, Thomas, Coach Helser. Center: Hagerman, Walker, Voth, Rich, Piche, Bolin, Grube, Front left: “Art.”
Persuasive info that Roy Helser was Linfield College head baseball coach in 1941 season
Take a look at stories and record books about Roy Helser’s tenure as Linfield College’s head baseball coach and its clear. He coached 21 seasons, starting in 1950 and concluding after the 1970 team concluded its games.
Pinnacle of his coaching success was Linfield winning the 1966 NAIA national baseball championship, the first Linfield team to earn a national title. Fourteen Northwest Conference titles, too.
So, 21 season, 1950-1970. Right? Almost. There’s more. One more. He also coached Linfield varsity baseball the 1941 season.
This posting provides persuasive info that Roy Helser was Linfield head baseball coach in the 1941 season
With the permission of Elam Anderson, Linfield president, after Dorothy Evelyn Wall and Roy Herman Helser married Aug. 11, 1935, in Kitsap County, Wash., they became the first married couple to attend the college.
Dorothy and Roy were both members of Linfield Class of 1936. But, she graduated in 1936. He graduated in 1941.
After Dorothy Helser earned her degree in May 1936, Roy played professional baseball (including for the Portland Beavers) and Dorothy often traveled to his games.
"He had great stuff, but he was wilder than a March hare," she told the McMinnville N-R/News-Register, recalling how her husband, a left-handed pitcher, often threw equal numbers of strikeouts and walks.
In 1941, the Helsers (Dorothy, Roy and baby son Dennis, a.k.a. "Denny") returned to McMinnville so Roy could earn his degree.
The 1941 Linfield Oak Leaves yearbook shows Helser earning a bachelor of science degree in Physical Education as does a 1941 edition of the McMinnville T-R/Telephone-Register newspaper, predecessor of the N-R.
Roy Helser’s time as a professional baseball player included playing for the Salem Senators of the Western International League in 1940 and 1941. This was when he was back on the Linfield campus as a student working toward his degree.
The 1941 Oak Leaves has photos of Helser as coach with the Linfield baseball team that year and also as football coaching assistant to Henry Lever, football head coach.
Text in the 1941 Oak Leaves says in the 1940-1941 school year Lever was head coach at football, basketball and track and Helser “who starred in yore for Linfield ably took over the post of baseball coach…”In the same Oak Leaves it says, “Coach Roy Helser succeeded in turning out a completely capable club…”
A story in the May 14, 1941 Oregonian, about a Linfield baseball game in McMinnville versus Pacific mentions “Coach Roy Helser’s Linfield nine…”
However, T-R stories of the time about Linfield baseball identify Henry Lever as the Linfield baseball coach. Maybe it was force of habit by the newspaper to identify Lever as the baseball coach even if he wasn’t that season?
Whatever the case, Wildcatville says it’s more probable than not that Roy Helser was Linfield head baseball coach in the 1941 season. If so, that meant he was attending Linfield, coaching at Linfield and playing for the Salem Senators at the same time.
Take a look below at these newspaper clippings:
Helser named Linfield coach – Oregon Journal, May 14, 1949.
Helser to Boss Linfield Team –Oregon Journal, Feb 23, 1941
#
