Oregon Magazine

Traveling the West? Stay at Shilo Inns

Cover

Oregon Celebrates National
Gridiron Championship

          By Fred Delkin

     Oregon collegiate football fans should pay proper homage to
their new national title achievers, Linfield College. The McMinnville institution of under 3,000 enrollment has added to a proud gridiron heritage that includes two previous national championships and a national record 37 consecutive winning regular seasons. Current head coach Jay Locey inherited a victory tradition that rose to national prominence under two predecessors, Paul Durham (1948-67) and Ad Rutschman (1968-91).

Locey, a native of Corvallis and defensive back at Oregon State, will enter his ninth had coaching season at Linfield in 2005 with a solid returning cast of players, led by quarterback Brett Elliott, This 6-3, 200 pound bundle of tossing talent threw for no less than 61 touchdowns in 2004. Linfield is a Divison III competitor, but Division I coaching talent seekers are probably considering Locey as a viable candidate.

Linfield squads are populated by west coast talent, with Oregon having no les than 72 natives on the current roster, with Washington, California and Hawaii well represented.

This year's Wildcat edition earned their national crown with a nationally-televised 28-21 triumph over Mary Hardin-Baylor of Texas in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl in Salem, Virginia.

Oregon State win predicted

We expected, as we penned this column, that Locey's alma mater, OSU,
would triumph over Notre Dame in their season-ending bowl
confrontation. The Irish, we thought, should be frazzled over the firing of their head coach Tyrone Willingham at regular season's end. Tyrone did
not deserve such treatment. He was a winner at Notre Dame, but
didn't satisfy the lofty national ranking expectations of a rabid
alumni. We applaud the decision of our alma mater, Washington to
hire Willingham and expect him to turn a woeful Husky program
around within two years.

Roses and Raspberries ... posies are pertinent for a University of
Oregon men's basketball squad that we expect to waylay the
national press downplaying of the Duck chances. Coach Ernie
Kent has a very young team that also boasts some outstanding
talent that we expec to carry it into NCAA post season play...No
plaudits yet earned by the NBA Trailblazers, stumbling into a long,
losing season...back to college cagedom, with a petals toss to
Washington, where coach Lorenzo Romar has built a contender
around one of the shortest performers in college cage ranks, Nate
Robinson, who gave up a promising Husky career as a
gridiron defensive back to prove height is no indicator of hoops
promise.