This year, Craig Singletary, a retired Linfield professor, is hanging up his microphone and no longer working in the public address box during Linfield football games. Singletary began working in the P.A. box the same year the Wildcats’ winning streak began 58 years ago.
Singletary was born and raised in Portland, Ore. He graduated from Lewis & Clark College in 1954, majoring in speech communications while working on music. He played cello and played in the Portland Junior Symphony. Singletary began working in McMinnville at KMCM radio.
Singletary attends to details during a forensics tournament. He taught various public speaking classes at Linfield, and received his Ph.D. in rhetoric and public address from University of Oregon.
Singletary is seen at another forensics tournament. Singletary was also essential to the creation of KSLC and helped students run the radio station.
“I had a friend in the investment business down here,” Singletary said. That friend helped Singletary acquire a job in the McMinnville area.
“In a small town radio station, you do everything,” Singletary said. “I had a morning show for a couple of years.” Singletary also worked as a director of various aspects of the radio station, music director, program director, etc.
KMCM began broadcasting Linfield games in 1956. Singletary did that for the next ten years.
In 1958, Dr. Roy Mahaffey, who was then the chair of the Linfield Speech Department, approached Singletary about a part-time job at Linfield. Singletary accepted the offer. He taught a broadcast class and a public speaking class.
It was in 1960 when Singletary started his full-time job as a Linfield professor. He taught a variety of classes until his retirement in 1993: argumentation, persuasion, interpersonal communication. At the same time, he still worked on an early morning show for KMCM.
To further his education, Singletary studied at University of Oregon to receive a Masters in radio and television. He then later acquired a Ph.D. in rhetoric and public address from the same university, taking a short leave of absence in 1966.
“I was also a forensics director for five years,” Singletary said. When Mahaffey retired in 1970, Singletary became the Speech and Debate team’s director.
“I was surprised and really pleased to find out they named the high school tournament after me,” Singletary said.
While teaching his class on broadcasting, Singletary realized that students were not receiving much experience at Linfield, so in the early 1960s, he started a radio station here at Linfield, KLIN.
“I felt that it was one way to give the students practical experience,” Singletary said.
The first incarnation of the student radio station had spotty signal because it was carrier current radio station. In 1971, the Federal Communications Commission gave Singletary and the college permission to have an FM radio station, KSLC.
“We didn’t have the facility in the basement of Renshaw then. We had a space in the basement of Pioneer,” Singletary said. “It was nice because students walking to class could look in and see guys working on air.”
In either 1973 or 1974, Singletary was asked to do the PA announcing for the football games. He has worked during every game up until this season. In 2001, he was inducted into the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame.
“It was getting more complicated with computer screens and everything,” Singletary said. “That is why I decided to retire.”
Singletary has always been a strong voice in his time here at Linfield, and he still hopes to add his voice to football games but not from the press box.
“I will continue to be a fan of the Wildcats in future years and add my voice to the crowd cheering, something I couldn’t do in the press box,” Singletary said.
Gilberto Galvez/Features editor
Gilberto Galvez can be reached at [email protected]
