LIFESTYLES
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Requa’s
résumé
Former Pendleton
High School
football coach
Don Requa
watches practice
in 1984.
Downtown bronze would
honor 36-year career
of Pendleton High’s
greatest football coach
Requa’s teams took 13 conference titles.
Although not known as an elite strategist,
EO fi le photo
many former players attributed Requa’s suc-
cess to being a master motivator.
It’s starting to become a
Jon Peterson, who played quarterback for
question unique to Pendleton:
Requa from 1975 to 1978, remembers a pre-
What makes a person stat-
game speech the coach made about the players’
ue-worthy?
This summer, former Pendleton mothers as a source of inspiration.
While Peterson was nearly driven to laugh-
High School football coach Don
ter at the initial concept, his demeanor started
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to turn as Requa described the players’ mothers
from Pendleton’s history immortalized
in the stands, driven to watch the game not for
in bronze on Main Street.
the love of football, but for their sons.
Unlike the subjects of the other bronzes,
By the end of the speech, Peterson was
Requa wasn’t associated with Pendleton’s
Western heritage nor did he become regionally ready to “knock down some doors and play
some football.”
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When asked about it, Requa downplayed his
But to the hundreds of Buckaroos that
motivational skills.
played for Requa over the course of his 36-
“That’s no big deal,” he was quoted as say-
year career, his life is worth remembering.
ing in a news report after his death. “Some of
Requa was born in 1919 in Kimber-
that stuff helps kids. Basically you have them
ly, Idaho, and played football at nearby
inspired before the game or you won’t get it
Wendell High School. Post-high school,
Requa obtained a bachelor’s degree from done.”
Requa could also be stingy with his praise
Southern Idaho College of Education
when it came to appraising his players.
and a master’s degree from the Univer-
While noting that his 1986 football team
sity of Idaho.
could be sensational, he told people at his
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weekly roundtable meetings that he only had
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“nine-elevenths of
bombing missions
a good offense” and
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“eight-elevenths of
during Word War II.
a good defense.”
While still enlist-
Entering his
ed, Requa married
third decade as
Dorothy Finley in
Pendleton’s foot-
Albuquerque, N.M.,
ball coach, Requa
LQ
began to hint at
Three sons,
retirement.
Scott, David and
Requa stopped
Bill, followed. Trag-
teaching high
ically, Bill would
school math in
die at the age of
1971 and relin-
eight in 1957 after
quished athletic
battling an illness
director duties in
for more than three
1984, bemoaning to
months, according
the East Oregonian
to a story in the
that his assistants
East Oregonian.
had stronger rela-
While Requa
tionships with his
initially showed
players than he did.
interest in becoming
Requa also felt
an airline pilot, he
— Wil Phinney,
out of place in a
instead fell into the
East Oregonian sports reporter
changing educa-
world of education
tional landscape,
and football coach-
in a column after Requa’s death
becoming increas-
ing.
ingly aware that his
Requa started his
coaching career at Buhl High School, perfectionism and short temper rubbed some
people the wrong way.
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“I know there are things people don’t like
birthplace.
about me, but they don’t tell me,” he said after
From 1946 to 1949, Requa won
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more games than he lost before
High School. “I suppose some might consider
taking the head coaching job at his
me arrogant, conceited, whatever, but they
alma mater, Southern Idaho College
don’t tell me.”
of Education.
Although a state championship was ul-
He led Southern Idaho to a 7-3 re-
timately elusive, he left Pendleton in 1986
cord, but the college was shut down
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the next year to merge the state’s
football coach in Oregon history at the time of
education program into Idaho State
his retirement.
University.
After moving to a gated community in
Without a job, Requa decided to
Tigard with his wife Dorothy, Requa died in
move west and return to the high
1987 of congestive heart failure at the age of
school ranks by accepting the job at
EO fi le photo
68.
Pendleton.
Requa, center, poses for a photo during his fi rst season in 1951, with his four assis-
Today, there are few traces of Requa in
After losing to Washington High
tant coaches fl anking him. From left to right, Wayne Scott, Chet Schiewe, Dick Nixon
Pendleton, with his wife and two children also
School in Portland, Requa got his
and Jim Inglesby.
deceased.
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But his legacy is felt in the players who
against Pasco High School at the
Round-Up Grounds en route to a 4-4 have achieved success after their football days
were over, many of whom count Requa as a
season.
reason for their success.
“It was wide open at times and
Locally, former players include Peter-
conservative at times, but it got
son, superintendent of the Pendleton School
Pendleton off to a good start to the
Requa watches a
District, Mark Mulvihill, superintendent of the
season,” the East Oregonian wrote
Buckaroo football
Intermountain Education Service District and
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player practice
Requa struggled in the early years Stuart Roberts, Pendleton police chief.
tackling in 1984.
Beyond Pendleton city limits, football alum-
of his coaching tenure, including a
That season, he
ni
have
become successful business owners,
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would surpass
attorneys and even a Pro Football Hall of Fame
Tom Melton, who befriended
Fred Spiegelberg
player, former Dallas Cowboys defensive
Requa after playing under him from
of Medford’s 253
tackle Bob Lilly.
1968 to 1971, said some people
victories to be-
come the
Requa’s bronze will be unveiled at Brown-
were pressuring then-superintendent
winningest high
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school football
plishments of the players he left behind, his
time.
coach in Oreogn
mark has already been made.
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history.
“(I) didn’t think he’d die,” East Oregonian
Requa
rewarded
his
faith
with
a
9-1
EO fi le photo
sports reporter Wil Phinney wrote in a column
record and a conference title the fol-
after Requa’s death. “I thought he was too
lowing year, quieting the naysayers.
strong, too tough, too gruff to die. I thought
What followed next was an
he’d be around forever. I guess in some import-
unprecedented run of dominance for
ant ways he will be.”
the Buckaroos football program.
———
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Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastore-
won 51 straight regular season
gonian.com or 541-966-0836.
games. Even after the streak ended,
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
“(I) didn’t think
he’d die. I thought
he was too strong,
too tough, too gruff
to die. I thought
he’d be around
forever. I guess in
some important
ways he will be.”