Pacific Lutheran University Athletics

LARRY GREEN
(Football)

Defensive tackle and team co-captain Larry Green was the first of football coach Frosty Westering's 21 first team NAIA All-America performers. Green, a 27-year-old Vietnam veteran, earned All-America honors in 1975 after compiling 48 tackles, including 34 unassisted stops, in nine games. That same year, he was named to the Northwest Conference, NAIA District 1 and Little All Northwest first teams, and was co-winner of the team's Most Valuable Defensive Player award. His performance helped the Lutes to a 7-2 record and the No. 10 ranking in the final NAIA national poll. During the 1974 season at PLU, his only other as a Lute, he was a unanimous Northwest Conference all-star selection.

DOUG HERLAND
(Men's Crew and Coach)

Doug Herland's story is interesting not only from the perspective that he was an Olympic medalist, but that he also suffered from Osteogenesis Imperfecta, also known as brittle bones disease. Through courage and determination, he pursued his athletic interests at Pacific Lutheran, where he became a coxswain, and later, coach of the program. In 1984, he not only earned a spot on the United States Olympic team in his seventh try, he took home the Olympic bronze medal in the pairs with coxswain event at the Los Angeles Games. Herland's interest in rowing continued after the Olympic Games. With grant money funded through the Department of Education, his "Rowing In the Mainstream" program became successful at the national level. Herland traveled across the country for clinics, teaching physically-challenged and able-bodied people to row and to set up their own rowing programs. Herland died on March 26, 1991, at the age of 39.  

HARRY McLAUGHLIN
(Men's Basketball)

Harry McLaughlin, who played from 1946-47 until 1949-50, was arguably the first "great" in Pacific Lutheran men's basketball annals. He was a bit of Magic Johnson and the Harlem Globetrotters while on the court, combining excellent ball-handling skills with showmanship to give the audience a real show. McLaughlin ranks third on the all-time PLU scoring list with 1,783 points. He averaged 17.0 points per game as a freshman, his highest per-game average, and never averaged less than 12.9 per contest. In addition, he twice earned Evergreen Conference All-Star honors. Since leaving Pacific Lutheran, McLaughlin, himself an American Indian, has been involved in Indian affairs in South Dakota.

Kristy Purdy set a number of firsts in Pacific Lutheran women's athletics. She was the first woman in PLU track and field history to win a national championship, taking the 10,000-meter title at the AIAW Division III nationals in 1982. She also was the first-ever PLU All-American in track and field, placing fifth in the 10,000 at the AIAW nationals in 1981. Both performances earned her first team All-America accord. Purdy earned first team All-America honors three times in cross country, including a personal best fourth-place finish at nationals as a junior in 1982, and twice in track & field. She was named Pacific Lutheran Woman of the Year in Sports in 1983.