Did you know that:
- In the early 1910s, Theander Harstad and Anton Brottem followed their exemplary years on the PLU baseball team with careers in Major League Baseball?
- In 1940, the PLU men’s basketball team defeated the University of Washington?
- In 1988, Professor Colleen Hacker was the first woman to head-coach a national-champion women’s soccer team?
- In 1995-96, a school-record 27 Lutes were named first-team All-Americans?
- Or that in 2000 the PLU football team was featured in Sports Illustrated?
The program enjoys a present just as rich as its past. In the 2014-15 school year, the baseball, volleyball and women’s swim teams were crowned Northwest Athletic Conference champions. And PLU has won the Northwest Conference All-Sports Trophy 15 times in its 30-year history.
PLU’s First Gymnasium
At PLU, athletics always have been about far more than final scores, times and results. Legendary coaches such as Frosty Westering and Clifford Olson have challenged student-athletes to work just as hard as they do in athletics in the classroom, in their communities and in pursuit of their best selves.
1900s & 1910s:
The Trailblazers
Basketball was the first team sport for men and women at Pacific Lutheran Academy, followed shortly after by baseball and softball. In 1901, the men’s basketball team played its inaugural game against the Tacoma YMCA’s Skookum Club. By the end of the 1900s, PLA was vibrant with sports spirit, and many additional sports were added throughout the 1910s.
1920s & 1930s:
Laying the Foundation
Athletics continued to build momentum as legendary coach Clifford Olson led the men’s basketball and football teams into eras of rarefied form; the Parkland Golf Association gifted its course to the college; and, in 1926, women’s basketball star Polly Langlow scored 270 points in 12 games, setting the national scoring record for women.
1940s & 1950s:
Winning Through Wartime
Men’s sports teams maintained much smaller rosters during WWII. Even so, the basketball program maintained its elite level for the better part of the 1940s and ’50s, finishing as the national runner-up in 1959 and in third place in ‘57. That same year, the football team put together a run that resulted in three consecutive WINCO (Washington Intercollegiate Conference) championships. Individual highlights included football’s Marv Tommervik’s selection as the first All-American in school history in 1940 and three-time All-American John Fromm’s three national javelin championships.
1960s & 1970s:
Expanding and Modernizing
In 1973, expansion and financing of PLU women’s athletics were given an enormous boost by an anonymous gift of $420,000 in the form of two trusts. Soon, PLU would house 22 men’s and women’s varsity sports—more than any other NAIA school in the Northwest (at the time). In 1974, PLU welcomed its first four African-American basketball players to campus. Two of them, Jeff Byrd and Tony Hicks, led the team in scoring both years they played. Some of the most successful teams of this period were the men’s and women’s swimming teams and men’s tennis team, which all enjoyed sustained periods of success that would continue throughout the 1980s. And in 1972, a charismatic football coach from the Midwest named Forrest “Frosty” Westering was hired by PLU.
1980s & 1990s:
The Era of Dominance
Headlined by national championships in football (1980, ’87, ’93, ’99) volleyball (’88, ’92), women’s soccer (’88, ’89, ’91), softball (’88, ’92) and women’s cross-country (1988), the 1980s and 1990s were the most successful sporting decades in PLU history. Lute tennis, swimming, track, golf and men’s soccer programs also enjoyed extended periods of excellence. Six school years of this era featured 20 Lutes named first-team All-Americans (’85, ’86, ’90, ’91, ’95, ’96). In 1996, PLU earned the NAIA Sears Directors’ Cup, which recognizes the nation’s top overall athletic program.
Perhaps the most extraordinary individual athletic achievements in school history where those of Diane Johnson ’82, Valerie Hilden ’88 and Sonya Brandt ’89. Hilden was named an All-American eight times: four times each in cross-country and track. Johnson won four All-American honors in three sports: cross-country, Nordic skiing and track, and Brandt was the first four-time All-American in the history of NAIA women’s soccer.
2000s-The Present:
Continuing the Legacy
PLU Athletics continues to thrive. In the spring of 2015, the baseball team won the Northwest Conference championship and then two national tournament games before being eliminated. In 2012, the women’s softball team won its third national championship. PLU’s volleyball team has enjoyed its most successful period, winning seven conference championships since 2000. PLU Athletics continues to strive toward equity and inclusiveness: In 2014, the university was honored as the first recipient of the Diversity Spotlight award for LGBTQ inclusion efforts by student-athletes.
PAST SPORTS
In PLU’s 115 years of athletics, many sports have come and gone. Here are three that are remembered fondly.
Field Hockey
Wrestling
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Legendary PLU football coach Forrest “Frosty” Westering, who led the Lutes from 1972-2003, was named NAIA Division II Coach of the Year in 1983 and 1993 and NCAA Division III Coach of the Year and led his teams to four national championships. He was Inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005 and remains one of only 11 college football coaches who have won at least 300 games. While no PLU team under his guidance ever suffered a losing record, his rich legacy also includes his sportsmanship-at-its best EMAL (“Every Man A Lute”) coaching philosophy, which is carried on by his son, Scott, who has served as PLU’s head football coach since 2004 and has continued the Westering tradition of sportsmanship, camaraderie and winning football.
