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Faculty News |
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Eldon Fix, a legend at Lewis & Clark College and in national and international track circles, died Monday, Nov. 15, 1999, at the age of 86. He joined Lewis & Clark in 1946 as head basketball coach and track and field coach. In 1948, he initiated Lewis & Clark's cross-country program and later started the Oregon State High School Cross Country Championship. He led the College's track and field teams to 14 conference titles and 12 district titles. His athletes included 37 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics All-Americans. Fix saw sports as just one part of a balanced education and was impressed by the broader lessons of sports, especially track and field, in which he once said, "an individual is on his own against the field." During his 35-year career at Lewis & Clark, he also taught health and physical education classes and served at times as department chair and director of athletics. Born Dec. 14, 1912, in Pendleton, he received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Oregon and his doctorate from Portland State University. He married Dorothea Wilner in June 1942. In 1963, Fix coached seven U.S. athletes during a State Department track and field exhibition tour in Africa. He also coached the U.S. team at the 1971 Pan-American Games in Colombia and served 12 years on the Olympic Track and Field Committee. In 1966, he was inducted into the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Hall of Fame. Fix coached basketball for 13 years, winning two Northwest Conference championships, including the College's first championship in any sport after its move to Palatine Hill. He followed the winter 1949 basketball championship with a spring track and field championship, his first of 14 Northwest Conference (NWC) and 12 NAIA Division II track and field championships. Lewis & Clark was among the first NWC schools to offer cross country when Fix started the program in 1948. From 1963 to 1981 when he retired, Fix's cross-country teams never finished below third. He garnered six NWC championships during those 18 years. Fix served as president of the Oregon Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and of the NAIA Track and Field Coaches Association. He is survived by his wife,Dorothea; his son, David; and two grandchildren. The family suggests sending remembrances to the Lewis & Clark Track Endowment Fund or to his church. |
Eldon Fix, legendary coach and professor emeritus of health and physical education. |