Hey, you... Write a history book about Linfield athletics

There’s no definitive history book about Linfield athletics.

Why don't you write it?

Your sources for information should probably include the three books about Linfield history. Each book includes some information about Linfield athletics.

The books are:

--Bricks Without Straw, an early history of the college published 1938. It was written by Jonas A. Jonasson, then a Linfield history professor.

--Linfield's Hundred Years: A Centennial History of Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon. Published in 1956, it was edited by Kenneth L. Holmes, then a Linfield history professor. He was also Linfield’s swim coach. Paul Durham provided the section in the book about athletics.

--Inspired Pragmatism: An Illustrated History of Linfield College. Published in 2007, it was written by Marvin Henberg, Linfield philosophy professor and Barbara Seidman, Linfield English professor and former interim faculty dean. He served (2005-2006) as interim president and academic affairs VP/faculty dean.

Also, take a look at:

• Shooting the Bull and Dodging with Durham sports columns by Paul Durham from the McMinnville News-Register and its predecessor (McMinnville Telephone-Register) newspapers. At the time Durham wrote the columns in the1950s-1960s, he was Linfield athletic director and football coach and, for much of the time, sports editor of the newspaper. Look for uncredited photos taken by Durham, too.
  

• Articles, bits of sports information and photos from the News-Register and Telephone-Register not produced, written or taken by Durham.

• Coverage of Linfield athletics by these daily newspapers: The Oregonian (Portland), now defunct Oregon Journal (Portland), and Salem’s Oregon Statesman (morning) and Capitol Journal (afternoon). The Oregonian is owned by Newhouse and so was the OJ in its final bit of life before it was folded into the “O.” Somewhat similarity, Gannett owned (and owns) the Statesman and the CJ before it merged the newspapers into the Salem Statesman-Journal. Look at issues of the S-J, too. Seek bound volumes or microfilm of these newspapers.

• Sports media guides and printed programs, brochures and other material, including DVDs, produced by Linfield sports information directors. You ought to interview some of some SIDs (sports information directors), too.

Speaking of interviewing. Think about interviewing some of those who were play-by-play “voices” and color commentators for Linfield football and basketball games on the radio.


Take a look, too, at:

• Linfield Review and Linews student newspapers.
  
• Linfield College Oak Leaves yearbooks.
  
  
• Linfield Magazine (produced by the college’s college relations office) and its predecessor, the Linfield College (Alumni) Bulletin.
  
  
• This blogsite, Wildcatville.That being said, Wildcatville focuses on Linfield football. Thus, be sure to not do so in the definitive Linfield athletics history and be sure to cover both Wildcat women and men’s athletics.
  
  
• And, interview a variety of people who have played a role in Linfield athletics over the years. Those interviewed might include Margaret Lever Dement or another or other of Marguerite and Henry Lever's nine children. (Henry Lever and all those with linked/underlined names below are members of the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame.) Dorothy Helser, widow of Roy Helser; Ann Molek Wilson, widow of Ted Wilson; Terry Durham and Cathy Durham Devine , son and daughter of Paul Durham; Ad and Joan Rutschman and Craig Singletary, Linfield football public address announcer and former Linfield football play-by-play “voice.” Current athletic department leadership and coaches should be interviewed as should those enshrined into the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame.

Some of those mentioned here are former Linfield athletes, be sure to interview them, too.

And, be sure to watch these video interviews:

• Interviews and videos – including Linfield’s Tradition of Excellence video and a 50-The Story Behind Football's Greatest Team Record about the Linfield football team winning season steak -- produced/"videoed" by videographer Mike Rhodes, formerly of MCM/McMinnville Community Media Cable Channel 11. Tim Marsh was the interviewer. It's on file on a DVD in Linfield's Nicholson Library as GV351.3.O7 L5643 2004.
  
  
• A 47 minute video interview of Paul Durham and Roy Helser, conducted in Aug. 1990 by Craig Singletary and on file on a DVD in Linfield’s Nicholson Library. The library catalogue gives the impression there are two interviews, one each with Durham and Helser. In reality, Durham and Helser were interviewed at the same time.
  
  
• Craig Singletary interviews (47 minute DVD videodisk) Paul Durham in Aug. 1990.

GV351.3.O7 L5642 1990

Summary: Durham “guided the Wildcats to six conference titles and two appearances in the NAIA national championship game. His most outstanding season as coach came in 1961 and 1965. In 1961, Durham's Wildcats capped the first unbeaten, untied season in college history with a trip to the ‘Camellia Bowl’ in Sacramento, Calif. Linfield was the first college from the Northwest Conference to participate in the NAIA football playoffs. The Wildcats narrowly lost the national championship game, 12-7 to Pittsburg State of Kansas. Linfield again finished unbeaten and untied in 1965 and beat Sul Ross State 30-27 in the semifinals before losing to St. John's of Minnesota 33-0 in the so-called ‘Champion Bowl’ played in Augusta, Ga. Durham graduated from Linfield in 1936.”

• Craig Singletary interviews (47 minute DVD videodisk) Roy Helser in Aug. 1990.

GV351.3.O7 L564 1990

Summary: Helser was the “Wildcats' head baseball coach for 21 seasons, a span in which Linfield won 14 Northwest Conference championships and one NAIA national title in 1966. He retired from coaching in 1970 with a career record of 316-199-6, then served as the college's athletic director for five years. He also served as men's basketball coach from 1949 to 1961 and was an assistant football coach under Paul Durham for several seasons. Helser's basketball teams won four conference titles during his tenure. Helser graduated from Linfield in 1936 after earning 11 letters in football, basketball and baseball.”

Wrought iron by Wipf

Elias J. "Eli" Wipf was born 1921 in Chasley, N.D. He died Oct. 2001. A longtime resident of Tacoma (University Place), he ran his own business, Wipf Ornamental Iron, until he retired. These photos show an example of his work, probably from the late 1950s.

Photos below have no connection to Wipf or ornamental iron.

Coach Paul Durham photos over the years

Paul Durham, Linfield athletic director and Wildcat football coach, photos (left to right) from Linfield Oak Leaves yearbook in the respective years 1951, 1955 AND 1963.

Whitworth at Linfield football 11 Oct. 2008

"Here Come the Wildcats"

"Here Come the Wildcats" ... the Linfield football team
runs out of Memorial Stadium onto Maxwell Field.
This video shot Oct. 11, 2008; Whitworth at Linfield
Northwest Conference game.








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Linfield Football picture postcard is part of Wildcat football's Hawai`i (and Australia) connection

The late Bill Helbig grew up in Hawai`i, and returned there after graduating from Linfield in 1970. Later, he moved to McMinnville and lived at "Aloha Ranch." A friend of Linfield Athletics, one of his supportive efforts while in Hawai`i was a 5 3/4 x 8 1/4-inch picture postcard promoting Wildcat Football. The card was produced after Ad Rutschman-coached Linfield football teams won NAIA national championships in 1982 and 1984. Rutschman also led the Wildcats to a NAIA national title in 1986. Below is the front of the card. Beneath it is text from back of the card. When Rutschman was Linfield football coach and athletic director and his wife, Joan Rutschman, was the college's athletic office manager and football ticket manager. The Rutschmans often used the cards to correspond with recruits, alumni, friends and fans.

TEXT ON BACK OF POSTCARD

Linfield College Wildcats
McMinnville, Oregon

LINFIELD COLLEGE WILDCATS-There are few small college football programs in the county that can match the success of Linfield. The Wildcats, coached by Linfield alumnus Ad Rutschman, won NAIA Division II national championships in 1982 and 1984. Nine NAIA playoff appearances (1961, 1964, 1965, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1984) is matched by none. The Wildcats are the winningest team among NAIA Division II schools in the last ten years. Linfield had won 12 Northwest Conference titles in the last 16 seasons. Coach Rutschman has compiled a 130-32-3 record in 17 years at Linfield.

Photographs by Rusty Rae, Dean Koepfler and Tony Overman – Published for Linfield College by Bill Helbig – P.O. Box 2835, Honolulu, Hawaii 96803. Printed in Australia.

Shrine All-Stars on 1961 Wildcat team

SHRINE ALL-STARS were welcomed in grand style on the Linfield campus Wednesday at the 1961 football aspirants gather to being drills Thursday morning. Eight men who played in the Shrine classic in Portland recently are new members of the Wildcat club, seven of them are show above being greeted by Linfield football coach Paul Durham. Left to right, in the front row, are Jim Gaydon, Joe Rainwater, and Pat Thruston. In the back row are Russ Morrison, Larry Binkerd, Durham, Bill Champange and Barry Fuller. The eighth man, Bill Mickle, showed up after the photo was taken. (Photo by John Buchner) Sept 8, 1961, McMinnville News-Register

Beating Whittier assures Camellia Bowl berth

TWO OF THE HAPPIEST people on Maxwell field Saturday night after the rampaging Linfield football team had cinched a Camellia Bowl berth by turning back Whittier, 18-7, were Wildcat head coach Paul Durham (center) and his son, Jeff (left), a starting offensive end. Reserve quarterback Ken Ware is show on the right. The Wildcats will Battle Pittsburg State of Kansas in the Camellia Bowl Dec. 9 for the national small college football championship. A 40-man Linfield party is scheduled to fly out of McMinnville Tuesday, Dec. 5, for Sacramento, site of the bowl game. (N-R Photo by John Buchner.) Nov. 28, 1991, McMinnville News-Register

1961: Street named for Coach Henry Lever

Lever Street sign on Linfield campus. 

Photo taken in 2018.
==========================

Oct. 24, 1961
McMinnville News-Register
Henry Lever
Gains Honor

Henry Lever, a former Lin-
Field college coaching great,
flew in from Chicago Friday
to be the honored guest of the
Wildcats’ 1961 homecoming
weekend.

Lever, who coached basket-
ball, baseball, football and track
at one time or another during
his 19-year tenure at Linfield
(1963-1949), was honored at
halftime of the Wildcat-Whit-
man homecoming game Satur-
day night.

College president Harry Dillin
introduced Lever as a truly fine
gentleman dedicated to the de-
velopment of young men.

President Dillin called for all
the former athletes who per-
formed under Lever during his
tenure at Linfield and these
ex-athletes filed out from the
stands onto the field to greet
their coach.

Then L.F. Ramsey, mayor
of McMinnville, told the crowd
that a street had been named in
honor of Lever. The street,
which runs parallel to the foot-
ball field, was formerly known
as Stadium Ave. It is now called
Lever Ave.

(Note from Wildcatville in 2008.
These days it is called Lever
Street.)

President Dillin added that a
plaque will be inset in the side-
walk across from Maxwell field
stadium in the near future.

Lever concluded the cere-
mony by thanking everyone for
making the night possible.

From Paul Durham’s “Dodging with Durham” sports column
Oct. 27, 1961
McMinnville News-Register

…Then, when the Wildcats came out for the second half and surrounded coach Henry Lever for the ceremony in which Mayor L.F. Ramsey announced the changing of the name of Stadium Ave., to Lever Ave., the game was held up long enough that the officials penalized Linfield 15 yards before kickoff…

COACH LEVER HAS RECEIVED many honors for his years of highly successful coaching and every one of them was richly deserved. He’s been a tremendous influence on a great many young people all his adult life and has contributed greatly to the development of those young people.

But his most recent honor, having a street named in this city will go down in history as remind people in years of the contributions of himself and his worldly goods that coach Lever made to Linfield and its students during his 19 years on the staff, is without a doubt the greatest and the most lasting.

During his years of struggle to develop a winning athletic tradition at the college, fighting a lack of athletes, interest, equipment, facilities, money and everything else that is needed to make such a program grow, coach Lever brought about development far greater than he realized … He is so humble in his approach to admitting that he contributed much to the development of the college and its athletic program that, even now, he sincerely feels the honors such as the one which came his way last weekend are not deserved.

But people who worked with him on the campus here, and the hundreds of young men who played on his teams, as well as those individuals who served the city in various capacities at the same time he did as a stellar member of the Methodist Church and a solid worker in the Kiwanis Club, know that no one deserves recognition that does Coach Lever.

When someone begins talking about the great things Mr. Lever did, about the fine team he had, and about the successes some of “his boys” have achieved in many walks of life since their years at Linfield, Coach Lever begins to kid himself about the tough times, the losses, the mistakes he made, and the things he should have done better.

So Coach Lever will always be the same great person. He’s been gone from campus for more than 12 years now but his successors are striving to contribute just a small bit of the high ideals, ethics, desire to excel but always according to the rules, which he not only preached but lives.

Coach Lever must be well into his seventies now but he still looks almost as young as he did when he first hit the Linfield campus back in 1930. He has the secret to the fountain of youth.

And he still has a youthful approach to athletics. He could still take over a college football team and bring it in a winner. He’s kept up with the game and is about as up-to-date on it has a man can be.

Kids are still his big love… This next summer, for example, he plans to coach at Peewee baseball team in his hometown, Madras. And don’t bet against his boys, They’ll know the fundamentals of the game from A to Izzard and battle all opponents every inch of the way.

But why not? They'll be playing under a great coach who has always used coaching sports as a means of make fine men out of boys… What greater thing can you say about him?

• Joe Dancer, who served from 1960-1986 as McMinnville City manager, told Wildcatville the McMinnville City Council changed the name of Stadium Avenue to Lever Avenue in 1961. What is now called "Lever Street" borders the college's athletic complex, football field and baseball diamond. The name change came at the urging of Linfield President Harry Dillin, said Dancer.

A Linfield here, there, every where

Linfield Football Club of Irish Premier League, Northern Ireland

Linfield Christian High School “Lions” of Temecula, Calif.

Linfield National Golf Club in Pennsylvania

Linfield Hall at Montana State University in Bozeman, Mont. In Feb. 2012, the Bozeman Chronicle reported MSU had committed $1.5 million to make the hall accessible to the disabled.

Campus streets have football connections

LEVER STREET

Lever Street intersects with Linfield Avenue. It is bisected by Brumback Street.

In 1961, during halftime of the Linfield homecoming football game (Linfield beat NW Conference opponent Whitman, 52-0) on Maxwell Field, what had been Stadium Avenue -- which runs behind Linfield's Memorial Stadium -- was named in honor of Henry Lever. He was athletic director and coached basketball, baseball, football and track at one time or another during a 19-year (1930-1949) tenure at the college. As part of the halftime ceremony, McMinnville Mayor L.F. Ramsey announced the name change. According to an article in the Oct. 24, 1961, McMinnville News-Register, Linfield President Harry Dillin told the crowd Lever was a truly fine gentleman dedicated to the development of young men. Article says Lever "flew in from Chicago" for homecoming festivities. In addition the article says, "Dillin added that a plaque will be inset in the sidewalk across from Maxwell field stadium in the near future."

Photo taken 12/4/2012. The plaque is no longer inset in the sidewalk. That sidewalk was removed and replaced except for a section of the sidewalk in which the plaque was inset. The section was cut and saved. The section is on display on the the Maxwell Field grounds near Memorial Stadium, close to the stadium's auxiliary entry/exit gate. 

BRUMBACK STREET
Brumback Street intersects with Renshaw Avenue.

On one end of the street is the Linfield Softball Field, which is across the street from Renshaw Hall, now home of the college's Mass Communications Department. Player/coach A.M. (Arthur M.) Brumback organized Linfield's first football team in 1896. He coached for five seasons before being appointed college president in 1903, a position he held for two years (1903-1905). Brumback taught natural sciences at the college. According to one write-up, "Brumback had a passion for sport, playing center on and coaching the college’s first football team. While enormously popular with students" he was not successful in dealing with Linfield's financial crisis. He left Linfield in 1905, to take a position at his alma mater, Denison College, in Ohio. At Denison, he was that college's first chemistry professor.

1962 Menlo Park Reds - El Camino League Champs

Reds were Northern Division runnerup and finished season with
a 31-20 win-loss record

Flu reason Ad Rutschman first coached Linfield football from pressbox

It’s well-known that during most of his career as Linfield’s football coach, Ad Rutschman, coached from the pressbox rather than from the sidelines. The first game in which he coached from the “box” was Saturday, Sept. 27, 1969, at Lewis and Clark. Linfield won the game, 14-0.

Article below mentions Rutch being bed-ridden with the flu. Rather than staying home and listening to the game on the radio, he traveled to the game and coached from the pressbox at L&C's Griswold Stadium.

McMinnville News-Register
Sept 27, 1969

Rutschman Likely To Miss
Linfield - L-C Game

By CHUCK HUMBLE
Linfield Sports information

"Head coach Ad Rutschman may be Linfield's only serious causality for
Saturday's Northwest Conference opening tilt with Lewis and Clark.
Rutschman has been bed-ridden all week with a case of the flu which
has made him a very doubtful starter.

"While Rutschman still continues to organize practices from his bed,
assistant coaches Ted Henry and John Knight have spearheaded
on-the-field workouts..."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Oregonian sports "Pasero says" column, by George Pasero, about Linfield's Dec. 11, 1982, national football championship win includes text about Rutshman coaching from the pressbox. The text includes:

Ad typically downplays his role as the all-seeing eye above the arena.

“Aw, I’m just getting too old to jump around on the sidelines,” he laughs.

No one believes him for a minute. He’s been “upstairs about 12 years now,” he says.

What if the The Streak started in 1960, not 1956?

During the 2005 Linfield College football season, the McMinnville News-Register newspaper began preparing a special edition, to be issued when Linfield won a game assuring the 50th season/year of The streak.

As N-R staff looked through information in past issues of the newspaper and compared game scores to those in the Linfield football media guide, it questioned a score from the 1959 season.

The media guide showed Linfield winning the game, 14-0, over the College of Idaho. But, the N-R has Linfield and the C of I playing (in Caldwell, Idaho) to a 14-14 tie. Indeed, the Sunday Oregonian of Oct. 11, 1959, said C of I "marched 93 yards in 10 plays in the final two minutes" for the tie.

Because the game ended in a tie and not a win, Linfield's win-loss-tie record during the 1959 season was correctly 4-3-2, not 5-3-1, as listed in the 2005 media guide.

So? Linfield's streak of winning football seasons started in 1956. If there had been one more loss during the 1959 season, the Wildcats would have been 3-4-2 and, consequently, the streak would have started with the 7 win-2 loss 1960 football season, not the 1956 season.

The 2005 season would have been when Linfield clinched 45 years of winning seasons. And, if the Linfield Streak started in 1960, the 50 year mark would have been 2010, not 2005.

Photo taken Sept. 2008 of a Melrose Hall radiator has nothing to do with The Streak, but maybe the radiator was around when The Streak started?

Coach Hal Smith’s perfect meal

 

Go on a Linfield athletic team road trip with Coach Hal Smith and you might have noticed his penchant for frequently (always?) ordering the same meal, a cheeseburger and a chocolate milk shake.

He believed it was the perfect meal because all the food groups were represented.

His son, Mike Smith, Reno, Nev., told Wildcatville, “You are correct in that he said it had all the required food groups and was therefore a perfectly healthy meal.

"Unfortunately, that’s all I can remember about it, but I know it was one of his favorite meals. Of course, I didn’t mind eating them either.”

POSTSCRIPTS:

=Keith Shriver, a Linfield Athletics Hall of Famer as an outstanding sprinter for Wildcat men’s track & field confirmed Coach Smith’s cheeseburger endorsement.

=Prior to the 1968 Northwest Conference men’s cross-country championship on Sat. Nov. 2, 1968, at Pier Park in Portland, Oregon, Coach Smith encouraged one of his team’s top two runners to “satisfy yourself.”

Hal Smith photo from Tom Rohlffs Archives. Photo of cheeseburger and chocolate shake taken Sept. 27, 2008, at Alf's Ice Cream & Burgers in McMinnville.

Where have you gone, Ooney Gagen?

Ooney Gagen ("Ooo-Nee Gay-gen")

If you are a Linfield Wildcat fan of a certain vintage, you may well know Ooney, who played for both Linfield and McMinnville High teams.

It's a guess, but plausible, that Ooney was a creation of Paul Durham (1913-2007), when he was sports editor of the McMinnville News-Register.

At the same time Durham was athletic director, coaching and teaching at Linfield, he was also "sports editing." His duties included writing a sports column, "Dodging with Durham."

Across the sports editor's desk would come photos shot at sporting events. Some of the photos, especially from basketball, would show a player whose face was obscured by a basketball which had been thrown, tossed or passed in front of the camera. These were action photos. The ball in front of the camera lens (and, thus, in the photo obscuring player's face) was unintentional. What to do with a photo like this? Some would have tossed the photo. Not sports editor Durham.

The player with the obscured face became Ooney Gagen. Or, a set-up photo showing someone with an obscured face was Ooney.

With this story see a photo (football helmet on backwards) of Ooney from a sports page in the Jan. 23, 1957, issue of the News-Register. The other photo, from the Feb. 10, 1965, N-R, is not of Ooney, but could well have been.

Check out Linfield football uniform from 1950

Clipping from Oct. 5, 1950, McMinnville, Ore., Telephone-Register.

The Way (Linfield football scoreboard) It Was

Clipping from Aug. 18, 1961, McMinnville, Ore., News-Register

NEW PAINT JOB -- Charlie Sheckler and Darlene Kroll take out of from their summer jobs at Linfield College to look over the new paint job on the Maxwell Field scoreboard. Sheckler both designed the painted the attractive sign. HE and Miss Kroll are both graduates of McMinnville High School. (N-R Photo by John Buchner.)

Drawing for 1952 Linfield Old Grads basketball tourney

Clipping from Dec. 4, 1952, McMinnville, Ore., Telephone-Regsiter

Coaches Roy Helser (Linfield), Ted Wilson (McMinnville High) toast upcoming 1952-1953 hoops season

Clipping from Nov. 20, 1952, McMinnville, Ore., Telephone-Register

HotLips pop bottled in McMinnville

When you see bottles of HotLips and when you drink some of the soda pop, think of Wildcatville. Although the label on the bottle gives the impression it's a Portland-only creation, the pop is bottled in McMinnville. See this story from the McMinnville News-Register's July 12, 2008, edition.

Southern Oregon at Linfield football Sept 27, 2008

Wildcat Frank Molek loves Carver County

This video is a testimonial from Frank Molek, former Linfield student body president, Wildcat baseball player and Ted Wilson's brother-in-law.

In it, Frank indicates he loves Carver County (Minnesota), its small-town charm, big city accessibility. The University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is located in Chaska (Carver County), Minn. Frank is arboretum senior development officer.

He was a member of Linfied's first national championship team. The 1966 baseball Wildcats coached by Roy Helser won the NAIA World Series.

For more information on Carver County, visit http://whyilovelivingincarvercounty.com/category/why-i-love-living-in-carver-county