Whittier College Revives Football for 2026, Backed By $814K Alumni Fundraising | Whittier College

I recall playing Whittier when I was with UCSB football in the early 70s. The mascot as poet always made me chuckle. Bringing back this program is great - especially for those high school players wanting to play and get a degree. I recommended a QB to go there from where I was coaching years ago and he had a great time. Tricky Dick would be pleased!

I can get behind the Poets as a mascot, conceptually. Makes me think of the "warrior poet" line at the end of braveheart

What other schools play division 3 football in California. There's a good D3 school in Oregon west of Portland that has done so successfully for many years but I forget it's name.

Gobears49 said:

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What other schools play division 3 football in California. There's a good D3 school in Oregon west of Portland that has done so successfully for many years but I forget it's name.

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IIRC, UC Riverside has a D3 squad. A co-worker of mine at a job I had decades ago was a Riverside alumnus and he played on the OL there.

The conference:

https://thesciac.org/sports/football

Gobears49 said:

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What other schools play division 3 football in California. There's a good D3 school in Oregon west of Portland that has done so successfully for many years but I forget it's name.

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Linfield University in McMinnville. They just clinched their 68th straight winning season.

Gobears49 said:

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What other schools play division 3 football in California. There's a good D3 school in Oregon west of Portland that has done so successfully for many years but I forget it's name.

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Occidental.

Occidental dropped its football team after 2020.
https://www.oxy.edu/news/occidental-makes-difficult-decision-end-football-program

The current D3 schools in the west are in Region 6 which includes Wisconsin for some reason (UC Riverside killed its football program in 1975):

https://www.d3football.com/teams/region-6

Yes, that's it. Linfield has had an unusally good football team. I think, several years ago, they had a QB who did very well as a transfer QB at Portland State and later may have played some at Washinton St.

Gobears49 said:

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What other schools play division 3 football in California. There's a good D3 school in Oregon west of Portland that has done so successfully for many years but I forget it's name.

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Google is definitely not your friend.

https://www.fieldlevel.com/app/teams?sportEnum=football&athleticAssociation=2&state=ca

So I grew up next to the WC campus from 1978 -1988. I've had so many experiences there that it's hard to know where to start. From the age of 11 or so, my family paid to have access to their collegiate level pools and diving boards during the summer. Even at present calculation, I wasted a good portion of my life there perfecting the figure four off the 3 meter high dive. When I got older and my interests changed, the 74 acres of mostly unsupervised college campus was indispensable. I took batting practice and practiced with my dad and my brother at the baseball diamond on weekends. I got high on campus on my way to high school. I drank beers with buddies approaching midnight hours in the football stands. Depending on how you score it, I'm pretty sure I lost my virginity somewhere on the campus.

I no longer live in the area but I buried my step mother in Rose Hills last year and attended her services in the heart of old town Whittier. It was so weird looking back as an adult. Those Whittier alleys have stories we did not have the time nor the willingness to discuss.

Anyway the irony of having a mean looking quaker as a mascot is just too rich. I just bought a shirt for that reason alone. But man have the Poets had a long, long long long, tradition of futility in football.

Here's hoping they can keep the program alive. Go Poets!

I've had a long interest in the league and particularly Claremont. I was recruited to play football at then called Claremont Men's College in l968. Great coach, John Zinda who they actually named the field after several years ago. As I was a senior in high school and even though I knew it was an established school, it seemed small and very academic on my recruiting trip there. A year later, after playing on the freshman team at UCSB (whose community was not small and quiet!) I regretted not going to CMC. So while redshirting and then getting hurt my sophomore year with the Gauchos, I would have no doubt been playing and perhaps having a different kind of football life at CMC. Go Stags!