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Early history
Football at Oregon State University started in 1893 shortly after athletics were initially authorized at the college, which was then known as Oregon Agricultural College. Athletics were banned prior to May 1892, but when the school's president Benjamin Arnold died, his successor John Bloss reversed the ban.[3] Bloss' son, William, started the first team, on which he served as both coach and quarterback.[4] The team's first game was an easy 64–0 victory on November 11, 1893, over visiting Albany College.[5]
Conference affiliations
The university has been in several athletic conferences. Prior to joining the Pac-12 Conference (then called the Pacific-8 Conference), OSU intermittently played as an independent school.[6]
Oregon State has won seven conference titles, done through four different conferences, although two of them have links to the current Pac-12 Conference, as the conference claims the history of the PCC as their own, and the Athletic Association of Western Universities was the first name for the conference that later became the Pac-12 Conference.[8][9]
The 1897 Oregon Agricultural Aggies football team compiled a perfect 5–0 record, shut out four of five opponents, and outscored their opponents by a combined total of 164–8. The team claimed their second league championship in the OIFA.[10]
The Aggies defeated Oregon (26–8) and Washington (16–0).[11] With those two wins, they then proclaimed themselves regional "Champions of the Northwest".[12]
Oregon Agricultural's game against Loyola, then known as the St. Vincent's College Saints, was a Thanksgiving Day matchup of the "Champions of the Northwest" and the "Champions of California", with the winner taking home the "Championship" of the entire West Coast.[13] After their victory, the Aggies proclaimed themselves "Champions of the Pacific Coast".[14]
Oregon State University has played in 20 postseason bowl games.[16] The Beavers have also played in the Mirage Bowl, but this was a regular season game and a "bowl" in name only, not a post-season invitational bowl game.[17] The Beavers lost the 1980 edition of the game against No. 14 ranked UCLA 34–3 in front of 80,000 at National Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan.
The 20 bowl game total does not include an invitation to play in the Gotham Bowl in 1960, when no opponent could be found for Oregon State.[18] The Beavers are 12–8 in bowl game appearances.
The Beavers play their home games at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Oregon. It was originally called Parker Stadium when it was constructed in 1953, and had a capacity of 25,000. Parker Stadium was renamed Reser Stadium in June 1999. Major renovations from 2005 to 2016 increased the stadium's capacity to 43,363, where it stood through the 2021 season.[19] Another renovation project, called "Completing Reser", was announced on Feb. 4, 2021.[20] The stadium featured a temporary capacity of 26,000 during the 2022 season[21] and now has an official capacity of 35,548 at the completion of the construction project for the 2023 season.[22]
Rivalries
Oregon State fans prepare to rush the field near the end of an upset of No. 3 USC in 2006
Oregon State University's primary rival is the University of Oregon. The two schools enjoy a fierce and long-standing rivalry due to the proximity of the two campuses. The University of Oregon is in Eugene, Oregon, about 40 miles (64km) south of Corvallis.
The teams first matched up on the gridiron in 1894 and have been playing each other almost every year since. The rivalry game between the two schools has traditionally been the last game of each season and was long known as the "Civil War Game." The two schools have played each other 128 times, tied for fifth most among any Division I FBS rivalry. Though not officially recognized by the universities, the Platypus Trophy is awarded annually to the winning alumni association. Oregon leads the series 69–49–10 through the end of the 2024 season.[23]
The rivalry with Washington State started in 1895 when Cougars defeated the Beavers 41–35. It is among the most played FBS rivalries in history. The two rivals have meet 109 times as of 2024 and will play each other twice with a home-and-home series in 2025. Washington State leads the series 57–49–3 through the end of the 2024 season.[24]
The Beavers' largest margin of victory was 66–13 in 2008, while the Cougars' largest margin of victory was 55–7 in 1991. Oregon State's longest win streak against the Cougars is six straight from 1966 to 1971, while Washington State's longest against the Beavers is 10 straight from 1983 to 1993. The rivalry has not been officially named yet, with suggestions including the "Land-Grant Rivalry", the "Cascade Cup", and the "Colombia River Rivalry".[25]
The Northwest Championship is a rivalry between Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, and Washington State. The four Pacific Northwest rivals began playing in a round-robin format in the 1903 season. No trophy is awarded to the winner, and no organization grants the title,[26] although in 2002, the Washington Huskies wore homemade t-shirts for the Northwest Championship.[27][28][29]
Although not a retired number Oregon State has "AL" displayed opposite Terry Baker's number "11" in Reser Stadium for long time donor/philanthropist/contributor Al Reser.
Paul Lowe, AFL running back from 1960 to 1969, two-time AFL All-Star, 1965 AFL MVP, & member of the AFL All-Time Team
Greg Marshall, NFL defensive lineman (Baltimore Colts), 1978–1979, CFL Ottawa Rough Riders, 1980–88. All League multiple times, 1983 Defensive Player of the Year. Member of All Time Franchise Team. Current Head Football Coach, University of Toronto.
Pellom McDaniels, Defensive lineman in the World League of American Football from 1991 to 1992 for the Birmingham Fire, and NFL from 1993 to 2000 for the Kansas City Chiefs & Atlanta Falcons
Bill McKalip, NFL player from 1932 to 1932, 1934, 1936
↑ Condotta, Bob (October 12, 2004). "Huskies eyeing mythical Northwest title". The Seattle Times. Retrieved January 8, 2022. Fans of other schools cried that the Northwest Championship was strictly mythical, just another devious Neuheisel ploy. But the Huskies didn't care, and proudly laid claim to it again last year when, in the midst of one of the most chaotic seasons in school history, the lone highlight was beating Oregon State, Oregon and Washington State by a combined 61 points.
↑ Maisel, Ivan (November 25, 2002). "Tale Of Two T-Shirts". ESPN.com. Archived from the original on December 25, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2022. Washington is content with its unofficial Northwest Championship. "It had to be enough," quarterback Cody Pickett said Sunday. "Everybody left us for dead. We had to rally around something."
↑ Kercheval, Ben (April 1, 2019). "How the Arizona Hotshots ended their losing streak to become the AAF's hottest team". CBS Sports. Retrieved January 8, 2022. "We just found something to play for. We had games against Oregon State, Oregon and Washington State, so we created a 'Northwest Championship.' We found a rallying cry. We had little shirts with check marks on them," he said. "And we knocked them all off." ... At Washington, Neuheisel found the best way to motivate his players was the perfect storm of playing their top three rivals in successive weeks.
↑ Jude, Adam (October 5, 2016). "Silence was Golden, and purple: Remembering when UW last won at Oregon in 2002". The Seattle Times. Retrieved January 8, 2022. That completed what Neuheisel had dubbed the Northwest Championship, with the Huskies closing out the season with successive victories over Oregon State, Oregon and WSU (after losing to USC, Arizona State and UCLA the three weeks prior). Neuheisel even had T-shirts made up with blank boxes to check off after each win. [...] The Huskies wore those T-shirts as they marched back onto the Autzen Stadium turf for their postgame brouhaha.
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