Steve Johnson was a star post player for the OSU basketball team from 1977 to 1981. He was drafted number 7 overall in the 1981 NBA draft and played professionally for ten years.
Wagner coached both OSU athletes at the Pan American games in Mexico City, where they both won gold medals. He coached at OSU from 1966 to 1975, compiling a dual meet record of 49-24. He led OSU to four top six finishes at the NCAA Championships, where the 1969 squad finished second. Nine of his athletes won individual NCAA titles, and fifteen athletes won twenty-three All-American honors. Tom Woods was a four-time All-American in the high jump and captured the 1972 NCAA title. Huntley competed at OSU in 1975 and participated on two U.S. Olympic teams. In the early 1970s, OSU was called the “high jump capital of the world” by some sportswriters due to the success of Dick Fosbury, Woods, Huntley and other Beaver high jumpers.
Johns attended OSU from 1970 to 1974. Though he came to OSU to study agriculture, he discovered a passion for photography. After graduating from Oregon State and earning a master’s degree at the University of Minnesota, Johns embarked on a successful career as a photojournalist. He was named the National Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 1979. After a number of years as a freelance photographer, he joined National Geographic’s staff in 1995. In 2003 he became editor-in-chief of National Geographic magazine. That same year he was also named as one of the twenty-five most important photographers in the world. Johns was OSU’s 2005 commencement speaker.
The Outdoor Program offered equipment rentals for outdoor activities to the OSU community, sponsored ski and rafting trips, and hosted lectures and clinics pertaining to outdoor activities. The program was located in a quonset hut near Moreland Hall for several years. Today similar equipment and programs are available through the Dixon Recreation Center’s Adventure Leadership Institute, which also offers bicycle, ski, and snowboard repair.
Gene Alexander explains how water heated by the parabolic reflector could be used to vaporize freon to produce electricity at the OSU Energy Fair, held in the Memorial Union quad. At the time, Alexander was a senior in Mechanical Engineering.
OSU defeated #1 ranked UCLA, 61-57, before 10,376 fans in Gill Coliseum. The win by the Beavers ended UCLA’s conference winning streak of 50 games. This photo, taken by student photographer Chris Johns, appeared in the March 1974 Oregon Stater. Johns tied his camera to one of the basket supports behind the backboard in order to get the photo.
