Athletics

The University of Portland Soccer program has deep roots. The present program has been continuous since 1971, flourishing under coaches drawn from home and abroad (Clive Charles, London, UK; Nick Carlin-Voight, Kalamazoo, MI; Michelle French, Fort Lewis, WA, UP Class of 2000). But it is worth noting that 1971 is more or less the fourth founding of soccer at UP, fielding our first squad already in 1904, progressing on as The Cliffdwellers in what was basically a high school league to capture definitely and for all-time the Cameron Trophy in 1913 (now resting in retirement in the University Museum).

The story is told in Portland Magazine, “The Beautiful Game” by Dennis O’Meara, a coach from 1974, who when soccer officially became a varsity sport in 1977 was the person commissioned by Joe Etzel, Director of Athletics, to purchase new uniforms for competition. The old-uniforms having been recycled from the third founding of soccer at UP and worn by a Dream Team of International students under Eugene Tupper, Team Captain from his 1961 freshman season to his final days on the pitch as Player-Coach in 1969. The UP team composed of international players had adopted the striped jerseys of International play. (Which Coach O’Meara describes as, “wide lavender and white stripes and a large “UPSC” patch, a Northwest version of the Argentine national team kit.”

According to O’Meara, the 1961 ‘University of Portland Soccer Club’ comprised of six players from Chile, two from Iraq and one each from Peru, China, and Canada, faced off against a roster of rival Oregon colleges who wore solid jerseys.

Rev. Paul E. Waldschmidt, CSC, the then-Vice President, is listed as the 1961 Coach! Writing of the international student experience in the Alumni Bulletin, Fr. Waldschmidt indulges himself, “We developed a soccer team made up of international students from nine nations. It has been a tremendous factor in calling these students to the attention of the rest of the student body, in developing respect for and interest in them personally, and in their countries. Of course, the fact that the team won a cup play-off this winter didn’t hurt a bit.”

In fact, the team record was 11-3 in the first fourteen matches. The International students had a shared identity in the activity and the school received a boost. The 1967 season tallied a disappointing 4-5-1, but each home game drew increasingly large crowds of spectators and supporters. (1967 Log, p. 70). More than just a novelty, the international soccer club was an attractor and successfully grafted with the University with the result that club soccer achieved varsity status within the next decade. The story continuing on into our second century.

Sources:
The Columbiad, The Cameron Cup, (March, 1912; p. 89)
The 1967 Log, p. 70.
The Alumni Bulletin, “The International Student”, (February, 1962; pp. 2-5)
Portland Magazine, “The Beautiful Game”, (Autumn, 2013; pp. 28-31).  Coach O’Meara’s text is supplemented from an earlier full draft on file in the University Archives.
International Students article on PortLog

Returning to the Bluff as women’s soccer head coach, Michelle French, BA ’00 was a Pilot student-athlete from 1995-1999, a 4-year starter for women’s soccer and First Team All-American senior year.  Post graduation, French picked up a silver medal at the 2000 Olympic games.  She became head coach of the Seattle Sounders Women in 2012.  French also served on the coaching crew for the U.S.A. National Team during the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup and 2016 Olympics.   In 2010 she was inducted into the University of Portland Athletic Hall of Fame.

Links on UP Athletics page
Hall of Fame: Michelle French
UP Athletics Announcement: New Women’s Soccer Head Coach

(University Archives photos, click to enlarge)

Michelle French, 1998

Michelle French, Beacon 1995

Michelle French, 1998

Congratulations to the Gonzaga Bulldogs, West Coast Conference Champions, for their appearance in the Championship Game of the 2017 NCAA Basketball Tournament.  UP and Gonzaga were founding members of the WCC in 1952, two Catholic colleges competing before and since.

A not always polite rivalry.  Although the last Men’s Conference game held in venerable Howard Hall occurred in spring 1981, earlier in December 1978, the Portland – Gonzaga game in Howard so rocked the court, stands, and the building itself that Fire Marshalls and student fans feared the worse (but no worries, the Pilots were off to a 5-0 start that season, defeating the Bulldogs 91-76).  All later appearances in rivalry against Gonzaga have commanded a larger, sturdier venue.  In recent years Gonzaga sells out the Chiles Center as visitors meeting us on our home court.

Winters in Oregon feature scenic views of snow-covered mountains beckoning skiers and snow boarders to the slopes.   Mount Hood — the closest, just two and half hours from Portland — has been a skiing destination spot for UP students from likely before the campus Ski Club was formed in 1939.   The club still going strong today, paired with snowboarding; included among a long list of sports clubs from Student Activities.

And once upon a time UP had a Ski Team (1946 to mid-1950s) which engaged in intercollegiate competition against colleges and universities in the West and Canada.  Pilot skiers competed on Mount Hood and locations such as Donner Summit in CA; Yosemite; Banff in Canada.   During their short run, the Ski Team had successes each year–  1947 in the Giant Slalom Race – Pilots took 5 of the first 10 places; 1948, 1st and 5th place individual at Yosemite; 1949, a 1st in Giant Slalom; 1949, 3rd team overall against University of California, Stanford, and University of Oregon; 1950, 1st place in the Pacific Northwest Ski Association meet; advancing in 1951 a 5th place finish at the National Intercollegiate Ski Championship; and in 1954, 1st place again locally at the Oregon Intercollegiate Memorial Ski Championships.

The Rec Sports sends out a weekend Ski Bus during the season, and continues to offer rental equipment for recreational opportunities for students on a continuing basis, not just during the rare campus closure and even rarer twelve-inch snowfall.

Photo Gallery (click on image to enlarge)

Tom Martin; Gene Brady, Banff, Alberta, Canada, n.d. (University Archives)

Ken Underdahl, ’52, 1950 Log (University Museum)

John Little models ski apparel, 1949 Log (University Museum)

Anders Woldseth, 1952-53 team (University Archives)

1947-48 Team at Yosemite – Kneeling: “Gee Gee” Goodrich, Tom Stewart, Ted Little; Standing: Barney Becker, John Younie, Fredi Lowel, Ruth McElroy, Alan Fischer – 1948 Log (University Museum)

1948-49 Ski Team – Dave Hayes, John Clark, Jim Carr, Jack Viodoni, Bill Hoffstetter, Ted Little – 1949 Log (University Museum)

1947-48 Ski Team, 1948 Log (University Museum)

The last of our early Olympians is Rudolph (Rudy) Scholz, the first of our University-connected competitors to win gold in two Olympic games.

Rudolph Scholz attended Columbia Preparatory School for one year, 1911-1912, moving to California to complete his studies.   He made his mark here in basketball and baseball.    Small in size but quick to react on the court and field.   As a forward on the basketball team, “Rudy was the best scrapper on the team.  What he lacked in inches he made up in cleverness.  Very fast and good on tossing baskets.” (Columbiad, April 1912)   As short stop for the baseball team, he was a “fielding star.” (Columbiad, May 1912).

Rudy must have hit a growth spurt before attending Stanford University where he joined the school’s rugby squad, beginning of a lifetime career in rugby.  In 1920, at the age of 24, he competed with the United States rugby team to win a gold medal at the Summer Olympic games in Antwerp, Belgium.  He returned with the team for the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, France to win his second gold.

Rugby was part of the Olympics in 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924 and then it disappeared from the Olympic scene.  It is one of two sports returning to the Olympics in the 2016 games.

Discus throw has been part of the original Olympic games since the first Olympics in 1896.   Women’s competition in discus was added to the Olympics in 2000.

If not for Xena, Warrior Princess, no one would know why anyone ever put the discus throw into athletic competitions.  Our records up to 1914 suggest that discus was not an event in early Track and Field here.  There is a sketch of a student-athlete in Columbia track uniform with a discus in hand on the front cover of the March 1925 Columbiad.   After track was reinstated as a major sport in 1934-35, the records record a cluster of discus marks for UP Track and Field.  So, the March 1, 1935 Columbiad, documents Edwin (Moose) Dunstan (W. Elwyn Dunstan ’38) tossing a discus 117 feet.   Notable squad records also show up in the 1938 Log where Joseph Enzler (Class of ’40) throws for 140′ 4″;  exceeded in the 1940 Log record of James Shanahan’s (Class of ’41) throw of 144′ 6″.

Photo gallery of student-athletes in discus throw (University Archives photos; click image to enlarge)

Unknown student, 1930s or 40s

Discus practice (Christie Hall in Background), ca1948

Ed Altenhofen, discus, 1954

Discus thrower, 1969 Log

Swimming was one of the original Olympic games in 1896.

‘Upon the Bluff high over the Willamette where the spires of learning reach up to the sky’, swimmers and swimming have been part of campus life since before Howard Hall opened its doors in 1927.   But industry and landfill have since pushed swimming out of the river.  The Howard pool a long-time mainstay.   Whether engaging in a recreational swim or competitive swimming, students have been practicing freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke in the Howard Hall pool for years, with occasional interruption.   For example, when snow collapsed the roof in 1937; and also the time the pool froze-over (February) and then too the building fire (March) in 1949.  (https://sites.up.edu/museum/march-19-1949-howard-hall-fire/)   Generally, a place of calm restoration.  During the years 1982-1989, former University President Rev. Thomas Oddo, C.S.C., often spent late night hours in the pool swimming in solitude.

Photo gallery, click on photo to enlarge:

Swimming Team Patch, late 1930s (University Museum)

Swimming in Howard Hall, ca1935 (University Archives photo)

Swimming in Howard Hall, 1930s (University Archives photo)

Swim team, 1951 Log (University Archives)

Swim team, 1940 Log (University Archives)

Swim Team, 1933 (University Archives photo)

Swim class, ca1950s (University Archives photo)

Tennis was one of the original Olympic games from 1896-1924 and re-instituted in 1988.

One of our recent acquisitions in the University Museum is this women’s varsity letter jacket from Eileen Cebula Smith ’82, four-year member of the University’s women’s tennis team as a singles and doubles team player from 1979-1982.

Eileen’s family has long-ties to the University.  Her grandfather, Eugene Schmitt, was a track standout for Columbia University Preparatory School, graduating in 1915 and her father, Leonard Cebula, graduated in 1953.   Two of her three brothers played soccer for the Pilots, and two nephews, recent graduates, are now counted as Pilot alumni.

Tennis was one of the original Olympic games from 1896-1924 and re-instituted in 1988.

Men’s Tennis 1952-1956

“Their streak, unmatched before or since in University athletic annals, began May 10, 1952, with a win against the Seattle University Chieftains.  Four years later, on May 19, 1956, coach Mike Tichy’s Pilot men’s tennis team lost a match (to Seattle).  Between those two May days the men won 79 consecutive matches and went 17-0 in 1953, 22-0 in 1954, 18-0 in 1955, and 18-1 in 1956, that one loss being the killer on the very last day of the season.  In any sport, a mammoth streak like the Pilots’ record run is fueled by a mysterious combination of talent, skill, hard work, perseverance, good coaching, and a vast eagerness to seize every opportunity to win.”  (from University of Portland Athletic Hall of Banquet Program, Thursday, June 22, 1995)

Photo gallery: click on image to enlarge

p.s. shameless promotion.  The story of Coaches Bill Rose and Mike Tichy, the Streak, and players such as Jim Flynn are told delightfully in the book, The Magnus Factor: The Bill Rose Story, Rise to One, by Mike Wittmayer, ’69.  Available at the Pilot House Bookstore!

Soccer was the first team sport added to the Olympics in 1900.  Women’s soccer joined the Olympic sports roster in 1996.

UP has sent several soccer players to the Olympics.  None have donated their prize medals to rest enshrined on display at the University Museum (we’d be honored!).  Complementing our earlier post about UP women’s soccer as two-time national champions, we offer this picture of Rachel Rapinoe’s soccer jersey which she wore during the NCAA championships finals in 2005.  This jersey memorabilia is on display in the University Museum in Shipstad Hall.   Rachel’s sister, Megan Rapinoe, represents the United States Women’s Soccer Team at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.