Athlete 1924-28
1999 Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame Inductee
So
valuable was Bernard Martyn to Linfield College athletics in the
1920s that when there were home baseball games and track meets at
the same time, the baseball game was paused when Martyn's event
came up at the track meet so that he could run across the field
and participate.
Because of his versatility, Martyn won 14 varsity letters in four sports at Linfield between 1925 and 1928 -- in 71 years since, no one has surpassed that accomplishment. He lettered three years each in football and basketball and four years each in track and baseball. He played quarterback in football, pitched and played the outfield in baseball and high jumped, long jumped and sprinted in track and field.
Martyn was named to the Willamette Valley Conference all-star football team in 1926 and was captain of the Linfield baseball team in 1927. There was no regional or national competition in those years for a wider audience to appreciate Martyn's talent, but in 1961, he became the first Linfield athlete inducted into the Hall of Fame for NAIA District 2, which included Oregon, Washington and part of Idaho.
More honors wouldn't have impressed him anyway. Martyn's motto was: "The joy is in doing and not in the trophy won."
His versatility wasn't limited to athletics. Martyn also played the baritone horn in the college orchestra all four years at Linfield. He was a member of the student body executive board in his junior and senior years.
After receiving his BS in mathematics from Linfield in 1928, Martyn embarked on a high-school teaching and coaching career that took him to Weiser, Mountain Home, Filer and Twin Falls in Idaho, and Mossyrock in Washington. In 1942 he left teaching to take over the family farm in Twin Falls and continued running the farm until his retirement in 1982.
Martyn encouraged others to share in the Linfield experience. His two sons, a granddaughter, sister-in-law and brother-in-law all graduated from Linfield. Son Bob Martyn also was an outstanding athlete, being named to the Linfield Hall of Fame in 2000, and played major-league baseball for the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals.
Great Grandson, Moses Cochrane is a candidate in the 2005 Mr. Hudson's Bay Pageant, an annual event by Hudson's Bay High School in Vancouver, Washington to raise funds for nearby Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, Oregon.
In 1985, a year after his death, his family and friends established the Bernard Martyn Endowed Scholarship to assist male and female scholar-athletes.