Meritorious Service
Reflecting back on the life of 2025 Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Billy Maxwell is nothing short of inspiring. Billy passed away nearly 50 years ago, but his legacy as an unselfish volunteer, donor and lifetime Wildcat fan lives on to this day.
Growing up in the tiny Eastern Oregon farming community of Haines, Billy contracted polio while he was a young boy. Yet he never considered himself as handicapped and remained relentless in his effort to walk. Doctors told him, “You'll never be able to walk." Growing up on his family’s ranch, he did his share of the hard work along with his all his siblings to bring in the harvest and manage all the ranch chores that were required.
Through his college days and middle age, he walked with a cane. His later years saw him transition to using a wheelchair.
The name Maxwell should ring a bell for those familiar with Linfield. Maxwell Field, the home of Linfield football and track & field teams since 1928, sits on land which Billy’s father, J.O. Maxwell, donated to the college.
For about a third of a century in the early to mid-1900s, J.O. Maxwell’s children or grandchildren were continuously enrolled at Linfield, according to "Bricks without Straw," the 1938 historical retrospective of the birth of Linfield entitled by Jonas “Steine” Jonasson. Of J.O. Maxwell’s 10 children, nine attended Linfield and family members estimate about half of them earned college degrees.
Billy started classes when the school was known as McMinnville College, and by the time he graduated in 1924, it had changed its name to Linfield College. He joined the Linfield Board of Trustees in 1929 and served in that capacity for nearly 50 years.
Billy earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and initially taught math at McMinnville High School before becoming school principal at age 27, a position he held until 1946.
In 1941, he served as a farm labor assistant for the federal government and was one of the first to organize work platoons for that at one time had 2,900 workers helping with the fall farm harvest.
Billy admired athletes and attended Linfield sports events religiously. Seeing Billy near the west entrance to old Riley Gymnasium became an expected, natural sight.
Billy was the definition of a consummate Linfield sports fan. In his fandom heyday, you could depend on seeing Billy sitting in his car watching Wildcat football games on the roadway next to Maxwell Field. He attended Linfield baseball games on campus and, despite his disability, helped drive Linfield teams to many away basketball and baseball games, too.
Former Linfield basketball coach Ted Wilson once said of Billy, “If his car wasn’t at football team practice, he had to have a pretty good excuse for not being there.”
Wilson’s statement sums up Billy’s dedication and attitude toward Linfield Athletics. The man was always around; rain or shine, win or lose, practice or play, Billy was there. He was Linfield’s No. 1 booster.
But Billy did more than just watch games. One of his favorite pastimes was serving as scoreboard and score clock operator at Linfield home basketball and baseball games for 54 years.
Legendary Oregon Journal sports writer George Pasero quoted Billy in 1970 as saying, “I started timing men’s basketball games in 1920. I timed every home game that Ted Wilson-coached teams have played.”
Said longtime friend Dusty Woods: “Billy never missed a game, except when he was sick.”
When he died in 1976 at age 73, Linfield lost one of its most loyal friends.
Not only did Billy contribute his free time to Linfield Athletics, he was an important financial donor and vocal fundraiser.
Just after he graduated, Billy and another donor paid the necessary financial guarantee to bring the men’s basketball team of Whitman College from Walla Walla to McMinnville for two games in the 1925-26 season.
Forty-five years later when former track and field coach John Knight first arrived at Linfield, he was unhappy with the track facility, which was cinder at the time.
Said Knight: “Billy inspired me to work and quit complaining about things. We needed an all-weather track and Billy helped make it a reality.”
Not only did Billy convince Knight to work on raising money for a new rubberized track, he volunteered to supervise the effort and launched the campaign by donating the first $1,000. The project was completed in 1972.
His generosity and commitment to Linfield athletic facilities is not surprising, considering his father donated the property to the college that Maxwell Field was established on.
Five years after he had graduated, Billy was appointed to serve on the Linfield Board of Trustees, a position he held until his death in 1976 at age 73.
Billy’s commitment to his community extended beyond Linfield. The list of those he served includes:
52 years as a member of the First Baptist Church
41 years as a member of the McMinnville Kiwanis Club
25 years with the local Boy Scouts Troop
18 years as McMinnville High School principal
4 years as Yamhill County Assessor
And many years as President of the McMinnville Quarterback Booster Club
Billy’s pleasant disposition and good humor, coupled with his refusal to recognize as a handicap the crippling effect of his early age polio attack, cultivated a world of friends. In a long, active life, he contributed much to the youth with whom he loved to work with, and the community institutions and organizations he ably served.
In summing up Billy’s life at his 1976 memorial service, the Rev. Bernie Turner said “Some of us are handicapped. Billy simply was not.”
While living in McMinnville, Billy and his late wife, Hilda, who also graduated from Linfield, raised two children, Harold and Donna.
