The 1965 football team, coached by Linfield Hall of Fame inductee Paul Durham, has the distinction of being the second Linfield football team to appear in a national championship game.
Led by quarterback Terry Durham, the Wildcats compiled a 7-1 regular season win-loss record. The team opened the year with a convincing 17-0 victory over Pacific Lutheran, and won the next two games before falling to Humboldt State by six points.
The loss served as a wake-up call for the Wildcats, who responded positively. Linfield dominated its opponents the rest of the regular season, rolling over Whitman, Pacific, the College of Idaho and Willamette by an average of 34.5 points per game.
Nine Wildcats were named to the all-NWC team, including Schweitzer, Durham, Ferguson, Fails, Jack Ostlund, Mike Consbruck, Bob Webber, Brian Carter and Gene Forman. The Wildcats also selected Fails as the Most Inspirational Player.
The 1965 Champion Bowl football team was another significant building block in establishing the sustained winning tradition of Linfield College athletics.
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