Athlete 1974 - 1977
After literally paving the way for his team’s gridiron success, all-America lineman Doug Walker of the Class of 1978 is getting some well-deserved glory with his induction into the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame.
An offensive guard, Walker starred on the 1977 Linfield team that set the single-season record for total offense. The Wildcats totaled 4,144 yards, an average of 460.4 per outing, to break a 16-year record held by the 1961 Camellia Bowl team.
Walker was a four-year letterwinner for the ‘Cats from 1974 through 1977, twice earning all-Northwest Conference honors and garnering second team all-America status as a senior. The ‘Cats won the league championship each of his four seasons, amassing a 30-8 overall record.
As a freshman and senior, Walker helped the Wildcats reach the NAIA national semifinals, resulting in a loss to eventual champion Texas Lutheran in 1974 and a heart-breaking one-point defeat to Cal Lutheran in 1977.
Despite playing high school football under Linfield alumni Terry Durham and Jeff Basinski, Walker had his heart set on attending Lewis & Clark. But the Pioneers did not extend him an offer, and after meeting with Ad Rutschman the summer after his senior year, Walker ultimately decided to follow in his coaches’ footsteps and become a Wildcat.
“They said ‘You’ll have a good time and win,’” Walker recalls his coaches telling him. “And that’s exactly what happened.”
Some of Walker’s greatest memories of his time in a Wildcat uniform include rivalry games against Willamette – when his game-winning block prompted the crowd to chant his name from the grandstand – and against Whitworth, when the Wildcats took down the second-ranked Pirates on Homecoming.
Relationships with teammates and coaches also had a positive an impact on Walker, from the camaraderie he shared with his fellow linemen to the experiences he gained from Hall of Fame coaches Ted Henry and Rutschman, the latter both on the gridiron and as a counselor.
Outside of football, Walker was involved in numerous Linfield offerings, including concert choir, pep band and concert band as a trombonist, theater and the Delta Psi Delta fraternity.
After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in business in the spring of 1978, Walker was invited to the Dallas Cowboys training camp, but instead spent an additional year at Linfield to earn a teaching certificate. He served as a graduate assistant football coach, focusing on tight ends, as the Wildcats won a fifth straight conference title and advanced to the NAIA semifinals.
Walker initially dreamed of becoming a coach, but instead turned a summer job driving fuel trucks for Evergreen Aviation and a chance meeting with company founder Del Smith into a lengthy and successful career in the air freight business.
His early professional roles, including seven years as international manager for Emery Worldwide, provided a wild array of experiences, from transporting an Orca whale from Canada to Los Angeles to traveling with the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers to games in London and Barcelona. In 1998, Walker started his own company, Custom Packaging and Shipping Worldwide, which includes UPS among its many clients.
He currently resides in his hometown of Beaverton, Ore.
