Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame
NAIA Division II National Champions
1986 brought Linfield its third national football championship in five years, joining the undefeated squads of 1982 and 1984.
The 1986 team was the most dominant of the three. The Wildcats compiled a 12-0 record with an unrelenting offense and smothering defense and were only seriously challenged once, going overtime to defeat main rival Pacific Lutheran in the first round of the NAIA playoffs, 27-21.
Quarterback David Lindley, who had blossomed in the 1984 national championship game, came full flower in 1986. His teammates called him Zeus, after the lightning bolt thrower of Greek mythology.
Lindley broke or tied 12 Linfield passing and total offense records. The Wildcats set six school team season offensive records, including most points scored and most yards gained. Lindley passed for 2,806 yards and 27 touchdowns, records that stood for 17 years.
Linfield topped 40 points seven times, including a 53-7 destruction of Carroll College of Montana in the NAIA semifinal game. Their 17-0 victory over Baker of Kansas on a very cold day on a muddy field at McMinnville High School was the Wildcats' lowest score of the season.
Guard Doug Hire, kicker Greg Gulliford, linebackers Mark Seigner and Jody Tyrell, tight end Dave Carlson and quarterback Lindley were chosen NAIA All-Americans.
Those six and another 10 players-- fullback Andy Westerberg, split end Colin Johnstone, nose guard James Lee, defensive end Steve Reimann, defensive backs Bruce Scanlon, Randy Heath and Steve Sugg, running back Scott Reeser, offensive tackle Dave Burdett and defensive tackle Doug Dean, were chosen by coaches on the all-Mount Hood League team of the Columbia Football Association.
For the third time, Ad Rutschman was named NAIA Coach of the Year and he won the Slats Gill Man of the Year Award – highest honor among all Oregon coaches in all sports – for a record fourth time. It was the sixth and final time he coached Linfield to an unbeaten regular season.
The 1986 football team is the sixth team to be enshrined in the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame. Lindley was inducted as an individual in 2001 and Rutschman was inducted as an individual with the charter class of 1998 and as coach of his other three national championship teams, including the 1971 NAIA baseball champions.
