Linfield Football 1962 praised in Sports Illustrated
SMALL
COLLEGE FOOTBALL received a big boost in Sports Illustrated last week,
for just about the first time in history; and Linfield got in on the gravy.
Under a section about: “The Small Colleges,” entitled “Portraits of a Growth
Industry:" a sub-title included this: “If you haven’t heard of some of the
schools, you may soon. Linfield, Florida A&M and William Jewell are now
small now but getting bigger.
“Pointed
out by the author was the fact that Linfield football teams have, during the
past six seasons, won 43, lost nine and tied four.
The
writer continued: “Linfield has one of the finest built-in recruiting systems
in the country. A liberal arts college, it has a school of education with a
fine course in physical education. Last year there were 174 (204 this year –ed)
graduates coaching, mostly in small schools in Oregon and Washington. In recent
years many of the graduates have sent some of their best players to Linfield.
Actually,
Linfield probably has as many graduate coaches in the large high schools in
Oregon as has any college in the state. For instance, Linfield men coaching at
Portland high schools include: Franklin Mel Fox, Marty Bergan and Marv
Flintcroft; Lincoln, Al Grove and Henry Crawford; David Douglas, Jerry Beier
and Les Pierce; Roosevelt, Bud Gronquist; Madison, Warren Bolin and Don
Gassaway; Jefferson, Jack Riley and Jess Edwards; Wilson, Ole Johnson and Vern
Marshall; Marshall, Walt West; and Cleveland, Art Verment and Ed Warren.
And
scores of former Wildcat athletes are coaching at Class A-1 schools such as
Hillsboro, North Bend, North and South Salem, Ashland and McMinnville, Newberg,
Bend, Tigard, Pendleton and on and on.
Sports
Illustrated also said this about Linfield’s chances this season: “Linfield
(10-1 last fall) can have another spectacular season if good replacement emerge
in the defensive unit, particularly at linebacker. Two defensive backs must be
replaced, but Dave Rohrer, excellent at safety, will anchor the secondary. On
offense, fast, receptive Val Barnes, Pat Thurston and speedy Fullback Dennis
Vitale provide the core of a fine backfield.”
Source: Dodging with Durham by Paul Durham, sports editor,
McMinnville N-R/News-Register, and head football coach, Linfield College,
McMinnville, Ore., in the Sept. 30, 2023, N-R.
:::::::::::::::
PORTRAIT OF A GROWTH INDUSTRY
IF
YOU HAVEN'T HEARD OF SOME OF THE SCHOOLS, YOU MAY SOON. LINFIELD, FLORIDA
A&M; AND WILLIAM JEWELL ARE SMALL NOW BUT GETTING BIGGER
Sports Illustrated, Sept 24, 1962
There
are approximately 500 small colleges in the United States that will field
football teams this year. It is no more possible to generalize about these
schools than it is to compare, say, the American history department at the
University of Texas with the physical education course offered at Springfield
College in Massachusetts. Some of the schools aren't even small. The standards
at one or two are as high as those in the Ivy League. Graduates of others would
have a hard time passing at a good city high school.
No
more is it possible to generalize about the football they play. A majority of
the small colleges would be humiliated by their big neighbors. But a
few—Southern Illinois, Fresno State, Florida A&M, among others—would do
better than the legendary hero of all small colleges, Centre, which defeated
mighty Harvard in 1921, 6-0.
In
this age of standardization, however, it is possible to generalize about the
majority of small-college coaches. Usually easier going than their major
college compatriots, they nevertheless employ the same systems and methods,
they say the same things, have the same mores and accept defeat as gracefully
as a child does a dose of castor oil.
To be
sure, these are not the ways of Dr. Norris Patterson (above), the enormously
successful head coach at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., 15 miles
northeast of Kansas City. But then conformity never was. For instance:
Patterson worries during the summer as much about how to make football more fun
for his players as he does about recruiting. This year he is thinking of
changing his offense to the split T because everybody else is giving it up. He
believes that watching film is virtually useless in sizing up promising high
school players. He would prefer not to give NCAA-type full athletic
scholarships, even if he had them to give. He refuses to use weight and
isometric conditioning programs and would quit coaching if he had to use them.
What
has this oddball approach to coaching meant to Jewell since Patterson arrived
there 12 years ago? Wins—87 of them, to be exact—against 23 losses and seven
ties. Under Patterson, Jewell has won three Missouri College Athletic Union
championships, shared three and been runner-up three times.
Patterson
earned a doctorate in education at Columbia in 1958. Behind every one of his
seeming idiosyncrasies lies a well-reasoned argument. Of his permissive
practices, for instance, he says: "It doesn't follow that the
grimmest-looking football squad is going to be the most successful. I've been
to pro camps and you'd be surprised how much fun they have.
"Football
coaches, in fact, are finally getting educated. They have more knowledge of
science and of the physiology of the human body. As a result we don't have as
many stale players as we once did. I try to make a game out of work. I let my
linemen play soccer and have them play touch football during the season.
"The
trouble with football is that we coaches are losing our creative abilities.
Everybody uses the same terms and has the same drills. My older brother Cecil,
who is one of the most successful high school coaches anywhere [at Kansas
City], won't read a book on football. He does his own thinking and
creating."
Patterson
is one of a splendid minority of fine football coaches in small colleges today.
Some others: Carnie Smith at nearby Pittsburg (Kansas) State College, Edgar
Sherman at Muskingum in New Concord, Ohio (102 wins, 34 losses and seven ties
in 17 years), John Potsklan at Albright in Reading, Pa. (23 wins, three losses
and a tie in the last three years) and Paul Durham at Linfield College in
McMinnville, Ore., 40 miles southwest of Portland. Smith at Pittsburg has won
two NAIA championship bowl games. No other small-college coach in the country
can make that statement. In his 13 years at Pittsburg, Smith has won 91 games,
lost 33 and tied five. Currently Pittsburg is on a 15-game winning streak.
Like
most other successful small-college coaches, Smith recruits football players,
but almost entirely in his own area. Like others, too, he can't offer much in
the way of scholarships and relies mostly on graduates and friends to direct
promising boys his way. The best, of course, go to the big schools, but Smith
gets the next best, some of whom eventually far outshine the most sought-after
prospects.
Paul
Durham at Linfield lost one game last year—to Pittsburg 12-7 in the Camellia
Bowl game in Sacramento. In his last six seasons, Durham's teams have won 43
games, lost nine and tied four. Linfield has one of the finest built-in
recruiting systems in the country. A liberal arts college, it has a school of
education with a fine course in physical education. Last year there were 174
graduates coaching, mostly in small schools in Oregon and Washington. In recent
years many of the graduates have sent some of their best players to Linfield.
While
Pittsburg and Linfield were best among the small colleges last year, they will
have plenty of competition in 1962. Following are regional reports on the most
likely candidates.
(Regional
Reports not provided by Wildcatville).
