Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame
Athlete 1940 - 1943
Don Hansen '43 was a standout player during the first era of outstanding Linfield men's basketball teams. A diminutive guard from Portland's Jefferson High School, Hansen was a two-time all-Northwest Conference pick and two-time NWC scoring champion. In his senior season, Hansen also earned All-America honorable mention for schools of all sizes in Chuck Taylor's Converse Basketball Yearbook.
In 1941, Hansen averaged 12 points per game as coach Henry Lever's Wildcats placed third in the NWC. He scored the winning basket with eight seconds remaining in a 51-50 victory over Portland, had 21 points in a win over NWC champion Willamette, and had a season-high 27 points against St. Martin's.
The highlight of Hansen's 1942 season came when the junior scored 22 points on back-to-back nights in wins over College of Idaho, clinching Linfield's first conference title since 1936 and the Wildcats' first-ever unshared NWC crown. Now playing for coach Harold Oaks, Hansen won the NWC scoring title by averaging 15.1 points per conference game (his 119 points were a conference record) and he averaged 12.1 points per game overall.
In Hansen's senior season of 1943, he again won the Northwest Conference scoring title by pouring in 14.7 points per game; he averaged 15.5 points per game overall. The Wildcats had a 13-game winning streak broken by Willamette, then beat the Bearcats 50-28 to tie for the NWC title. Linfield and Eastern Oregon split a two-game series for the Oregon small-college championship, but Eastern Oregon scored more points in the series to earn a berth in the NAIA National Tournament.
In 1942, a letter from Linfield president William G. Everson congratulated Hansen on the Northwest Conference championship and added, "You have also represented the spirit of Linfield by playing clean and always in the spirit of good sportsmanship, this is even more important than winning so many games."
