Many know Ad Rutschman, it’s always a surprise when there’s a fact or two you didn’t know about him.
Born in Hillsboro and raised there, too, he graduated in 1950 from Hillsboro High School (Hilhi) where he was a student-athlete excelling in football, basketball and baseball.
Recruited by Linfield College coaches Paul Durham and Roy Helser*, he attended Linfield where he excelled in the same three sports. He graduated from Linfield in 1954.
DID YOU KNOW? After Linfield graduation, Ad and wife Joan Rutschman -- a Hilhi grad, married June 7, 1952 – left McMinnville and moved back to Hillsboro. On the move the first of their children, Don – born in 1953 in McMinnville – was with them. In 1955 daughter Cindy and in 1957 son Ross were born in Hillsboro. Other children followed.
Ad returned to Hilhi in the fall of 1954 and eventually became head football and baseball coach winning state titles in both sports. He also taught p.e.
DID YOU KNOW? In addition to coaching, Ad had another job for Hillsboro High School. Ad told Wildcatville on 7/2/2021 that he drove the Hilhi baseball team bus. Why? It was financial.
“I made more money in the summer playing for the Drain (a city in southern Oregon) Black Sox (semi pro baseball team) than what I made in a year coaching and teaching at Hillsboro High School.” To take care of their family, Joan and Ad needed the extra money he received driving the team bus to all or almost all of our baseball team road games. “The team’s players made fun of me when I drove. I was used to driving a car. With the bus I often jumped the curb when turning corners,” he said.
Let’s jump ahead to the 1957-1958 school year of Hillsboro High School. That was his fifth of his 15 years coaching and teaching at Hilhi.
Neil Kunze, one of coach Rutschman’s varsity baseball players at Hilhi has fond memories of the 1958 season.
“Playing baseball for Coach Rutschman was the highlight of the 1957-58 school year for me,” said Kunze. He had a “positive effect upon a number of us who had the privilege of playing baseball for him (in 1958.) His influence continues to the present day.”
DID YOU KNOW? Ad’s 1958 and other Hilhi baseball teams he coached played home games at the City of Hillsboro’s Shute Field. It had a skinned infield (meaning the entire infield consisted of dirt.) To dry off the field when it was wet, gasoline poured on the dirt was ignited. The flames and heat evaporated moisture. In 1965 his teams began playing its games on new Hare Field of the Hillsboro School District. Hare had a grass infield.
AD RUTSCHMAN COACHING BASEBALL AT HILLSBORO HIGH SCHOOL
1954 Ad was assistant coach to head coach Cliff Wells
1955 Ad was assistant coach to head coach Cliff Wells
1956 Ad was head coach, succeeding Cliff Wells, who became head baseball coach at new (opened 1954) David Douglas High School.
1957 Ad was head coach
1958 Ad was head coach
1959 Ad was head coach
1960 Ad was head coach
1961 Ad was head coach
1962 Ad was head baseball coach - State co-Champ - 25-3. OSAA declared Hillsboro and South Eugene co-champs because the title game in which they were to play in Portland did not occur due to rain.
1963 Ad was head coach
1964 Ad was head coach
1965 Ad was head coach
1966 Ad was head baseball coach - State Champ - 30-3 win-loss record
1967 Ad was head coach
1968 Ad was head baseball coach - State Champ - 38-6-1 win-loss-tie record
(Ad's win-loss record in 13 seasons as Hillsboro head baseball coach: 246-116 )
Ad left Hilhi for Linfield. Starting in the 1968 season he succeeded Paul Durham as Linfield football coach. Starting with the 1971 season he was successor to Roy Helser as Linfield head coach in baseball.
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Ad was incorrectly identified as "Ed" in a sports column in the Oregon Journal April 26, 1955: "Cliff Wells moved from Hillsboro to David Douglas and Ed Rutschman moved up from freshman coach to head coach, and varsity assistant in football and basketball at Hilhi. Al Tarpening of Linfield college takes Rutschman's freshman job."
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Al Tarpening, who graduated from Linfield 1955, was best man at the Ad and Joan Rutschman wedding in 1952. "Tarp" and Ad were Linfield teammates in football and basketball.
Ad lettered playing Linfield football these seasons: 1950, 1951, 1952 and 1953.
Tarp lettered playing Linfield football these seasons: 1951, 1952, 1953 and 1954.
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*FOOTNOTE: At the time Durham and Helser were recruiting Ad, Durham was Linfield head football coach and Helser was Linfield head baseball coach and (1949-1952 seasons) they were co-head coaches of Linfield men's basketball.
PHOTOS: Thanks to Linfielder Tom Rohlffs for the photos posted with this story, They are from Ad’s time coaching at Hilhi. One photo shows Ad Rutschman, assistant football coach, and Norm Martinson, head football coach. The other photo is of the 1958 Hilhi baseball team. Ad is in the back row on the far right.
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