This photo was taken on the first day of football practice. LeVerne H. "Kip" Taylor (1909-2002) was the head football coach at Oregon State College from 1949 to 1954, compiling a record of 20-36.
From left to right: Lon Stiner, Jim Dixon, Harold Moe, and William McKalip. Alonzo "Lon" Stiner served as head football coach at Oregon State from 1933-1948, following a four-year stint as assistant coach. He compiled an overall record of 74-49-17 and was undefeated in three bowl game appearances. Jim Dixon, an alumni with the Class of 1926, later served as assistant football coach and head wrestling coach for his alma mater. Dixon Recreation Center is named in his honor.
Tommy Prothro coached football at Oregon State from 1955 through the 1965 Rose Bowl game. The Beavers lost the New Years Day bowl game to Michigan by a score of 34-7.
The old armory and gymnasium building was converted to a playhouse for Oregon State’s excellent theatre program around 1951. It was later named Mitchell Playhouse, in memory of C. B.Mitchell, longtime chair of the Speech Department and director of the Theatre program. The building was used as the playhouse until 1990, when fire safety concerns closed it for that purpose. In 1992 it reopened as the Valley Gymnastics Center.
Paul Valenti (1920-2014) was integrally connected to Oregon State University for more that seventy years, beginning with his arrival on the Oregon State College campus as a student athlete in 1938. A member of the Beaver basketball squad during his undergraduate years, Valenti later served as freshman baseball coach, freshman basketball coach, head basketball coach and head tennis coach, spanning a time period from 1946-1970. He continued on as Assistant Athletic Director until retiring in 1982, and remained an enthusiastic ambassador for OSU until his death in 2014.
The three are posing with a trophy, presented by the City of Portland, that marks Oregon State's 25-13 victory over New York University. Paul J. Schissler (1893-1968) was head football coach at Oregon State from 1924 to 1932, compiling a career record of 48-30-2. He later coached professionally with the Chicago Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers football teams. Corvallis native Howard Maple played quarterback for Oregon State from 1927 to 1929, and went on to play professional football for the Chicago Cardinals and professional baseball for the Washington Senators. George Baker served as mayor of Portland from 1917 to 1933.
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.
Paul J. Schissler (1893-1968) was head football coach at Oregon State from 1924 to 1932, compiling a career record of 48-30-2. He later coached professionally with the Chicago Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers football teams.
Behind the students in the center of the photo is the OAC Cooperative Association building. This building served the association, later known as the bookstore, from 1917 to 1928. v
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.
Dick Fosbury attended OSU from 1965-1969 and is remembered today as the inventor of the "Fosbury Flop" high jump technique. He won two national championships and an Olympic gold medal while revolutionizing the sport with his innovative approach to jumping higher.
Standing in the third row, third from right (uniform number 46) is Rich Brooks, who later went on to coach the Oregon Ducks football team as well as the NFL's St. Louis Rams.
Field hockey was one of the few intercollegiate sports available to women at OSU prior to the passage of Title IX. OSU women began playing intercollegiate field hockey as early as 1938, and in the mid-1970s it became a varsity sport. In this photo OSU player Linda Sims (front left) works against an unidentified opponent. During the 1967 season OSU compiled a record of eight wins, two losses and one tie, which included two wins over the University of Oregon. Field hockey was eliminated as an intercollegiate sport in about 1978.
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.
Miller and the Beavers are pictured here playing against Indiana at the Far West Classic tournament in Portland. Ralph Miller was one of the most successful basketball coaches in OSU and college basketball history. His OSU record was 359-186 (1971-1989), and his career collegiate record was 657-382.
OSU football coach Tommy Prothro shaking hands with Oregon coach Len Casanova. Standing in the middle is OSU quarterback and Heisman Trophy-winner Terry Baker.
Harvey Wade "Swede" Halbrook (1933-1988) was a 7'3" center who played at OSC from 1953-1955, and then for two additional years in the professional ranks.
Paul J. Schissler (1893-1968) was head football coach at Oregon State from 1924 to 1932, compiling a career record of 48-30-2. He later coached professionally with the Chicago Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers football teams.
What is now known as Gill Coliseum was opened in 1949. The arena is named after Amory T. "Slats" Gill, who coached basketball at Oregon State from 1928 to 1964.
The two male students, marching in Bell Field, are wearing "rook lids" and sandwich boards reading: "This stadium unfair to students, alumni, visiting teams, fans and prospective athletes. Your contribution will help build the new stadium. Ask me for a pledge card." Construction on Parker Stadium was completed in 1953.
Terry Baker (b. 1941) is among the most accomplished and celebrated athletes in Oregon State history. Winner of the 1962 Heisman Trophy as the nation's most outstanding college football player, Baker's Oregon State basketball team also reached the Final Four of the 1963 NCAA tournament. That same year, Baker was named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated magazine. Baker graduated from OSU in 1963 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Following a brief stint in professional football, Baker earned a law degree and enjoyed a successful career practicing in the Portland area
Jim Dixon, an alum with the Class of 1926, wrestled and played football while a student at OAC. He later served as assistant football coach and head wrestling coach for his alma mater. Dixon Recreation Center is named in his honor.
This meet, against the University of Oregon, was the first to be run on a new course at Corvallis’ Avery Park. Although the UO edged out OSU on this occasion, the Beavers went on to a tie for sixth place at the NCAA Championships.
Hoover, an OAC graduate in the Class of 1901, married Jay Bowerman, a future governor of Oregon, and was the mother of University of Oregon track coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman. While at OAC, she played on the women’s basketball team. She returned to OAC to earn a second degree in home economics in 1916, and taught school for a number of years.
The 1907 football team achieved what few other collegiate teams ever have been able to do. It was undefeated, untied and un-scored upon. The team was coached by Fred S. Norcross (back row, right), who had played at the University of Michigan under renowned coach Fielding Yost. Norcross coached the 1906 through 1908 teams, compiling an overall record of 14-4-3. Among the team's six victories in 1907 were wins over Willamette University (42-0), Pacific University (49-0), the University of Oregon (4-0), and west coast powerhouse St. Vincent College (10-0). OAC traveled for the first time to Los Angeles to play St. Vincent on Thanksgiving Day, and with the win, secured the Pacific Coast championship.