Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame
Athlete 1977 - 1980
Alan Schmidlin was an all-Northwest Conference quarterback for the Wildcats in 1978, '79 and '80 and was chosen first-team All-America on the NAIA and Kodak teams in 1980.
The 1978 and 1980 Wildcats were unbeaten in the regular season, won Northwest Conference championships and reached the NAIA playoffs.
His teammates chose him as Linfield's Most Valuable Player in 1979 and 1980.
"He came as close as any quarterback I had coached to that time to being the pro-type of drop-back quarterback who could also scramble," said his coach, Ad Rutschman.
Schmidlin's passing and scrambling runs ignited some of Linfield's greatest offensive teams and 25 years after completing his career, his name still is sprinkled throughout the Wildcats' leaders in passing and total offense.
His numbers include 5,194 career-passing yards (third entering 2005), 5,786 yards of total offense (third), 54 touchdown passes thrown (fourth), 388 pass completions (fourth) and 690 pass attempts (fourth).
He ran for 552 yards and 15 touchdowns in his career.
Schmidlin attempted 52 passes against Pacific Lutheran in the final game of his career, which was the school record until Brett Elliott joined the Wildcats in 2004.
His 78-yard completion to Mike Mackey at Central Washington in 1979 is one of the 10 longest in Linfield history.
Schmidlin is a teacher at Aromas San Juan Unified School in Aromas, California, and resides in Morgan Hill with his wife of 23 years, Linda, whom he met at Linfield, and two children, Jessica, 20, and Tyler, 13.
