Weeelllll... I didn't believe you guys, but now I guess I do. I looked in a manual for another vehicle and it mentioned leaving space in the clutch master cylinder for the extra fluid as the clutch wears.
I should have mentioned in my previous post that the adjusting nut on the operating rod was at the beginning of the threads so there was no way to "shorten" the rod besides cutting some off and then adjusting the nut back out to give the correct free play.
So... I guess we know what caused it now, don't we?
Lowell