Fix, Eldon
From Lane Co Oregon
Retired Coach Eldon Fix dies at age 86[1]
Fix was a legend at the College and in national and international track circles
Posted November 19, 1999
Eldon Fix, a legend at Lewis & Clark College and in national and international track circles, died Monday, Nov. 15, at the age of 86. A memorial service will be at 2 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 20, in Agnes Flanagan Chapel, Lewis & Clark College. Another will be at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Burlingame Baptist church, where he was a member.
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 and hosted the Oregon State High School Cross Country Championship. During his 35-year career at Lewis & Clark, he taught both activity and academic classes in the health and physical education program, at times holding the positions of department chair and director of athletics.
Fix was born Dec. 14, 1912, in Pendleton. He received his bachelor�s and master�s degrees from the University of Oregon and a doctorate from Portland State University. He married Dorothea Wilner in June 1942.
While at the University of Oregon, Fix ran cross country and track and field under Bill Hayward. After teaching and coaching at Springfield High School for four years, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and worked as a sports specialist in the Gene Tunney Program. He was a Lieutenant Sr. when he was honorably discharged in 1945. While a graduate student, he assisted Hobby Hobson in the basketball program. He also coached the youth program at Burlingame Baptist Church.
In 1963, Eldon 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 Cali, Colombia and served 12 years on the Olympic Track and Field Committee. He and his wife attended Olympiads in Montreal in 1976, in Moscow in 1980, and in Seoul in 1988. In 1966, he was inducted into the Natinal Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Hall of Fame.
He coached many championship teams at Lewis & Clark and touched the lives of thousands of students. He 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 District 2 track and field championships.
Lewis & Clark was among the first NWC schools to offer cross country when Fix started the program in 1948. Cross country did not become a conference sponsored sport until 1968. From 1963 to 1981 when he retired, Eldon�s cross-country teams never finished below third. He garnered six NWC championships during those 18 years.
During his professional career, Fix chaired the Track and Field Committee of the Oregon Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), and served as president of the Oregon Association of the AAU and of the NAIA Track and Field Coaches Association. He was vice-president of the NAIA Coaches Board and chair of the NAIA District 2.
He is survived by his wife, Dorothea; his son, David; David�s wife, Paula Jack Fix; and two grandchildren, Kyle and Adria. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Patricia, and her son, Kevin.
Private internment will be in Sunset Hills Memorial Park. The family suggests remembrances to the Lewis & Clark Track Endowment Fund or his church.
