McMINNVILLE — For more than half a century, Saturdays here at Maxwell Field haven’t changed all that much.
Sure, Linfield’s gridiron has seen its share of renovations. In 2004, the Division III university put $1.4 million into the stadium, adding synthetic turf, video displays, lights and a press box. It modernized the place, which first opened in 1928, but it didn’t really change the heart of it.
Linfield was great before the renovation. Linfield has been great after the renovation. For the last 65 seasons, the school has literally been the most consistent winner in all of football.
Saturday was no different.
No. 7 Linfield walloped previously undefeated Pacific 52-23. The win improved the Wildcats to 5-0, which clinched an NCAA-record 65th consecutive winning season. No other team in college football has had more than 42.
“We’ve won 80% of our games for six-and-a-half decades,” Linfield coach Joseph Smith said. “And the reason that happens is because of the culture and because of the values. Good things happen whenever you put the team first and focus on doing common things in an uncommon manner.”
Smith knows as well as anyone. He played here as an All-America defensive back and spent 13 years as an assistant. He took over as head coach in 2006 and has now gone 136-26.
For context: Chip Kelly won 87% of his games at Oregon over a four-year span. Smith has essentially done that (84%) for four times as long. It would be all the more impressive had Jay Locey not won 82% of his games at Linfield over the 10 seasons before Smith. Or had Ed Langsdorf not won 77% of his games before Locey, or had Ad Rutschman not won 79% of his before Langsdorf. And it all began with Paul Durham winning 69% of his games over a 20-year span from 1948-1967.
Heck, in the 106 seasons of the program, the Wildcats are 616-261-31 with four national championships and enough conference titles to stretch across an entire banner on the grandstand. The current streak began in 1956, when Linfield went 6-1-2 and players celebrated that year’s Northwest Conference title by tossing coaches Durham and Roy Helser into the showers, clothes and all.
Smith didn’t quite expect that on Saturday.
“I don’t think these guys even knew it was the series-clinching game,” he said. “We have pretty big aspirations for the year, so this was probably just expected.”
It didn’t entirely come easy, though. Pacific took an early 3-0 lead, as fans lining “Streak Street” adjacent to the stadium filtered in on a perfect fall Saturday. Just a week ago, the Boxers thumped Puget Sound 69-6. For a Linfield team that often isn’t able to gauge itself until the postseason, Smith viewed this game as one of his team’s first real tests. And behind Wyatt Smith’s 312 yards and four touchdowns through the air, the Wildcats aced it.
“It was fantastic that we were tested,” Smith said. “Today’s the first game that we’ve played for four quarters. We’ve had our first-string offense out of every game by the third quarter. It was great for us to go through because there are teams out there that have the talent that we do and we’re going to have to play clean games against those teams.”
Again, Smith said the Wildcats have higher aspirations than just clinching a winning season, but he still found himself filled with bits of nostalgia while standing on the field after the win. As the clock ticked down, Linfield’s mascot swapped out his jersey for one that had a big “65″ on the front. Parents, fans and cheerleaders came onto the field to celebrate along with several members from the team that started the streak 15 years before Smith was even born.
“From Coach Durham to Coach Rutschman to now, the secret to this place has been that we have really good people coming and being a part of a really good program,” Smith said. “When you focus on excellence and put the team first and you’re a man of your word, great things happen.”
-- Tyson Alger for The Oregonian/OregonLive
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