#5 - Junior Weekend

School Traditions #5, part of my series, is now up at the OSU Special Collections and Archives blog!

The 1908 Beavers - Part 2

A while back I mentioned that I found the earliest known reference to the "Beavers" in an athletic context, in relation to Oregon State University.

I have been spending the occasional afternoon at the Athletic Department going over old records in their "archive," and while there I told my contact in the department that I could scan the references in question. Having now scanned the images and having sent them off, I figured I would also post them here in a public debut of the very first known documentation of "Beaver" relating to OSU. Both come from the Barometer, the school's newspaper, and both printed on November 9, 1908.

A really busy few months ahead!

I have finally entered my last (undergraduate) term! In just 2.5 months, I will have a Bachelor's Degree in History! My only regret is that I was unable to squeeze in a Writing minor. With my transfer credits figured in(online courses while in the Army), my three years at OSU is equivalent to graduating a semester early. I could have squeezed in the minor, but I did not want to add another Fall term-- the added stretch of Summer makes that one-term extension a bit too long. Good thing too, since this was decided before we found out we would have a July 2nd due-date for our first baby!

In the mean-time, a LOT of things are happening:

I am wrapping up my research project. Last term I finished my paper on spirit and traditions at OSU. I will make it available online later, after doing some edits recommended by my instructor. After it is touched up, I plan to follow her urgings and enter it into an undergraduate competition of sorts for large papers in the History Department. I think there might be a money (scholarship perhaps) prize involved, but I'm not exactly sure. If I end up being lucky enough to earn a scholarship, I hope it can transfer to a private school rather than be used just at OSU.

I am starting a new research project. I needed four more upper-division credits to graduate (since then it lowered to three since I added another band one more time), so I implored my instructor to let me basically retake her thesis course as an independent study for four credits. This one will be the first-ever extensive program history of OSU's Track and Field program (it was actually quite a big deal back in the day). I have started research on it already, and look forward to spending more time in the Archives, as if I didn't spend enough time there already! If only I could get a job researching OSU (especially athletics, band, and ROTC)... I would be fine with that!

I am wrapping up my undergraduate studies. Besides my Independent Study, I have Biology 103 (anatomy), History 341 (Russia post-1917), German 213 (only 9 weeks left!), Horn Ensemble, and a German conversation class (easy one-credit class that reviews for GER 213 and offers time to just talk in German). Related to German, I am also getting together with classmates to watch The Two Towers auf Deutsch. Wir hat "The Fellowship of the Ring" (auf Deutsch) gesehen letzte klasses. (We saw part one last term). Gimli is awesome as an angry German! They are just the dubbed German versions, with no subtitles. The Elfish is still Elfish, though it was mostly dubbed by the German actors for continuity. The History of Russia class is also pretty neat-- the instructor tailors the class towards those serious in their studies instead of those trying to fulfill requirements, and his lectures are basically 2-hour presentations rather than just boring lectures. Awesome.

I am still working at the OSU Archives. 17 hours per week, not including my hours researching Track and Field. My main task involves researching minorities in baseball, and I have already taken one field trip to the Sports Information Office's super-secret archives. Ok, not actually secret, just not generally for public use unless you ask very nicely, and maybe have a good reason to go.

I am preparing to be a dad. We toured the labor unit and had a one-on-one meeting with the nursing coordinator, and I have to say, I am very impressed. With just one exception, every single concern about hospital birth addressed in my Anthropology class is covered at our hospital. (I took a class which included a lot of information on midwifery, from an anthropologist who became a midwife in order to study the culture of midwifery. She has attended over 1000 births, holds her own practice, and along with her doctorate, is the first person called as an expert witness in pretty much any court cases involving midwifery in the state of Oregon.) I have also been signed up for numerous classes. No idea what they are, just that we (or sometimes just I) am going to. Thanks Deanna! I am excited... but also nervous. But also excited. I also feel ready, but also not at all. But still ready to take on the challenge, I think. All I know for sure is that I will miss sleep terribly, but can't wait to 1) try the patient's menu that I was denied while staff, and 2) hold my son for the first time. Not necessarily in that order. (Well, chronologically, the order is right, but you know what I mean...)

I have a ton of reading to do... for fun. Book 14 of Robert Jordan's (and lately Brandon Sanderson since Robert Jordan did not live to see the end of the series)The Wheel of Time, A Memory of Light, is coming out in January. In preparation, last Fall I decided to do a re-read of the series so I would be ready. This genius plan had a few hitches. First, I was using the audio book for book one, The Eye of the World.Great plan, except it only worked during car rides and in the gym. Then I discovered that Brandon Sanderson is an AMAZING writer. A. M. A. Z. I. N.G. Really. That side-tracked me over Christmas, and getting an XBox 360 during Black Friday didn't help either. During Spring Break, I dug into book two since I had the time, and now I am reading between classes if I don't have time to research (if only an hour break), on the bus, and sometimes instead of computer/XBox time. I am back to my former fast speeds in High School when I would slam through one a week... just required a reduced use of electronics. Only 10.8 more books to go! I want to be mostly done by the end of summer (maybe leave one for Christmas Break) so I have fewer things going on when I start school in the fall. Studies + Pleasure reading = not a good combination sometimes.... that is when I will switch to mindless video games to unwind at times.

I start Seminary in the Fall... hopefully. The plan is to start in the Fall as I begin a journey of earning my Master of Divinity in four years (can be done in three, but new baby means I will go slower). I am accepted by the school and my denomination, but am still waiting on word from the Army. I just got my fingerprints scanned, so hopefully my packet is now finally done and will go forward to the review board, unless my physical needs to go with it. If not, I will also look into the Navy and Air Force before giving up and finding a new direction in life. Hopefully that does not happen, though God does sometimes have a funny sense of humor! The biggest challenge there will be income. Tuition will be paid, but not by the GI Bill, so no more living allowance. Deanna may go part-time to her culinary school (which has a job placement program) so maybe I could transfer it and we could still get some of that income, but I still need to find a job as well. And even worse, unless we live in a drug-infested complex, we are going to have to get a co-signer for our lease, unless something amazing happens with income, like a huge influx of scholarships, etc. More to follow on that I guess... But really, it is to be expected. I mean, going to Seminary, how could I not expect some hard testing? At least I know enough to expect to not be able to expect anything.

So that about sums everything up...

Oh! Except for this blog! When I am a Seminary student, I can't very well leave this as "Tales of an Archivist," can I? We'll see what happens, but I think I'll need to find a catchy name describing the adventures of a seminary student/new dad... we'll see!

#4- The Hello Walk

The next part is up: The Hello Walk.

#3 - "The Rook Green"

#3 of my series-- "The Rook Green."

OSU Archives Blog

#2: The Tabletops

#2 of my series at the OSU Archives is now up:

OSU Archives Blog

The Beavers... just how early were they?

Most OSU historians in the past have claimed that athletic teams started their association with beavers in the early 1920s. Citing personal accounts, others claim that it may have come at least a decade earlier, though until recently, this opinion was in the minority due to a lack of written sources.

They were both wrong.

Yesterday, while looking for early mentions of OAC's baseball team in The Barometer, I came across not one, but two articles mentioning the Beavers... in 1908! The first article mentioned the football team and called them the Beavers, and in the context of the article, it was clear that the author assumed the reader understood Beavers to refer to the Orangemen. On the next page, an article talked about Beaver spirit-- essentially tying the beavers with propaganda encouraging school spirit. Last week a staff member found a yearbook drawing with "Our Mascot" underneath a picture of a beaver in 1912, but the 1908 find, once properly shared, may very well lay to rest the debate.

That the term "Aggies" was used well into the 20s is also no problem-- the transition was gradual-- we just had two team names for a time, not unlike Auburn's tigers and war eagle, and the terms were shared with Beavers no matter which decade historians attribute to the addition of the team name.

#1 - No Smoking at OSU!

I wrote a series for the OSU Special Collections and Archives blog, and each portion will be appearing over the next few days. It wasn't originally going to be individual posts, but rather paragraphs in one long post, but my boss thankfully realized this would be a better format. I will link each post here as it is posted.

OSU Tradition #1 - NO SMOKING!

Update: The Stadium that Almost Wasn't

I couple days ago a posted an entry about the failed proposal to build a joint UO/OSU stadium. I touched up the article (re-read the article and applied myself as a fact-checker, then removed some of the anti-Oregon rhetoric to make it more appropriate for a more public venue) and it then was picked up as an entry on the OSU Archives blog. (Actually the OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center blog... but that is just being nit-picky.)

It is not much different, except that the pot-shots against the green toilet seat are removed, and a picture of the article is included.

Link to Blog Entry

We almost had to share a stadium...

It is not too uncommonly known that Oregon State lent alumni to its little brother to build a football stadium and in the naming of that stadium's field (the reason why Oregon's stadium is named after an Oregon State grad, and an OSU football player became the UO coach for which the field is named), but did you know they almost had to share a stadium too? In June of 1952, over $300,000 had been raised to build a new stadium next to the impressive Gill Coliseum. Old Bell Field was worn out, and the football team--and its fans-- desperately needed a new home, so the money was raised to build it. Such a large fundraising effort was very impressive for 1952, and fans eagerly awaited the new stadium, but then, before the dream became a reality, disaster almost struck. A proposal mulled around with the Board of Trustees (the article was fairly vague-- this was perhaps for the Oregon University System) about the possibility of building a joint stadium for the two schools, perhaps in Junction City, halfway between Corvallis and "the landfill" (highlight the blank spot if you want to see what the landfill is actually called --> eugene). On paper, it seemed like a good idea; one facility could house ten or eleven games per year rather than just four or five, potentially saving the state a lot of money. Furthermore, one facility meant half as much maintenance required. Fortunately for everyone, reason won out when, added to the disgust of forcing each team and student sections to travel for "home" games each week, the funding was not transferable-- funding raised for Parker Stadium was earmarked for a stadium next to Gill, so building in an alternative location would instantly dissipate $300,000 already raised, a figure daunting enough to cancel the plan.

All information regarding the plans for a new stadium was gleaned from an article in the Barometer in June of 1952 which joyfully reported the demise of the proposal.

OSU Football Attendance Trends

For my research project, one of the factors I decided to consider is a comparison between the OSU Football team's win/loss record and attendance at home games. If boring explanations get to you, skip to the bottom for the quick version. Everyone knows that seasons during which the team is doing well, attendance spikes, and likewise, after losing seasons attendance drops, right? I knew that the correlation had to be there, but just "knowing" the answer does not make any conclusion valid, so I did some number crunching, and I found a mildly surprising result. Based on data from Oregon State between 1946 and 1988, while attendance did tend to fluctuate in accordance with the wins percentage, the overall trend had relatively little impact. Apart from a spike during 1968 (the year after a Rose Bowl season), a spike which did not happen after the previous Rose Bowl season (1957), attendance actually stayed fairly consistent, with a gradual upward trend. Of course, it had its highs and lows, but generally those highs and lows fit the form of a gradual increase. For comparison, here are two graphs I made. (I don't have good software installed on my Mac yet, so you'll have to pardon that I don't have the graphs on a single image and that the images need to be cropped--click on the images for a bigger version.) The first graph shows the average home attendance (though as some "home" games were played in Portland's Civic Stadium, I included separate statistics for averages with and without the Portland games), while the second shows the percentage of wins in the season (wins only, no ties).

The quick version:

Average attendance at home games increased over time even though the W/L ratio generally decreased over time. Results of an individual season often result in a spike or dip in attendance, but not enough to impact the overall trend, with the exception of the 1967 Rose Bowl team.

Special thanks to the OSU Sports Information office for granting me access to its "archive," from whence the 1989 Football Media Guide supplying my data came.

The intertwining of OSU and it's... prodigal son?!? down the road.

Oregon State and Oregon, the 5th-oldest rivalry in College Football, the most contested rivaly in College Basketball (and the provider of OSU's NCAA record 184 wins over any single opponent); this rivalry is something special. Today's fans are at each other's throats, literally burning each others fields, and generally part of a very nasty rivalry. Knowing the bloody vibes between the two schools, it might come to your surprise that the two schools are actually much more intertwined than one would think!

Here is a short list of the schools' interactions. (Notice which school this seems to favor!) [note: In a very non-archivist form, I do not have citations today. This is soley out of the top of my head, however everything below I have personally verified. I may remedy my lack of citation later, but we'll see... I am, after all, a lazy college student.]

1. Mike Parker, the voice of the Beavers. Mike has helmed our audio ship since 1999. With the exception of Cunningham's "Kiss the Sky" award-winning dunk last year, Parker's voice can be heard on EVERY replay shown at OSU, but did you know that this staple in Beaver lore is... a duck??? It turns out Parker graduated from the U of O, though he is quick to point out that he has conformed from his evil ways and will always remain a Beaver. Fortunately, his status was cemented when the university bestowed an honorary degree a few years ago.

2. Don Essig, the voice of the Ducks. Essig is the PA at Autzen Stadium, which means I shudder every time I hear his excited voice. Every time its pitch rises in excitement, it means that evil has once again triumphed, and the ugly ducklings have prevailed over all. But, like Parker, it turns out Essig's gig is a betrayal of his alma mater; not only was Essig a Beaver, but he was even on the Rally Squad, no small feat back in the day! One can only hope he at least thinks of himself as a platypus and not the dreaded waterfoul down south.

3. Autzen. Sure, Autzen was a Duck... Autzen Jr. that is, but Autzen Sr. is the namesake of Nike U's stadium! I was first tipped off by the Autzen classroom at OSU's Valley Library; why would a famous Duck get his own room here? It turns out he was actually a prominant Beaver, but to humor his traitor son, he donated the lumber to build Autzen Stadium, thus earning the namesake in the middle of a gloomy wetland.

4. Rich Brooks. Autzen Stadium's field is named after the guy, so he has to be a famous Duck, right? Right, er... sort of. Besides playing for OSU, Rich Brooks started his coaching career under The Great Pumpkin, Dee Andros, before taking the head coaching job at the U of O. Yes, the Duck's turn-around was started by a Beaver.

5. That One Guy who co-founded U of O... Alright, so I don't remember his name, or even the year. I just know "there was a guy." If I come across it I will add an addendum to this post with the details, but here is the skinny: Before U of O had its U or its O, it was known as Skinner's Butte Academy. (Presumably on Skinner's Butte? A hill in Eugene named for, you guessed it, Skinner.) This was similar to Corvallis College in Corvallis-- not officially the predecessor of the University that came later, but it should be. Like Corvallis College for OSU, without Skinner's Butte, the U of O would never have started. So why is this important? Because an SAC alum (SAC become OAC, which became OSAC, which became OSC, before becoming OSU) was a co-founder of Skinner's Butte Academy. What does this mean? An OSU alum founded U of O! That means that the Ducks are right-- OSU can't actually claim U of O is our little brother... though they should also realize that we are not their little brother either. Instead, we should be asking them: "Who's your daddy?"

A final disclaimer on the above: Everything I have claimed as fact is something which I 100% know to be true. I don't know the name of "that one guy" but I do know for sure that the details given are accurate. If I listed a detail, I know it to be fact-- if I was hazy on a detail, it is either not included, or not worded in a way to imply I am certain.

The Serpentine

I have refined my topic a bit more, and although I am still hammering out an argument, I have decided that my project will revolve around school spirit at OSU up to the era of anti-establishment brought on by Vietnam. I don't have much else to report, though I thought I would share a fun photo of the "Serpentine," a tradition dating back over a century.

P217:028 064, OSU Archives (Taken from Flickr Commons)

In light of today being Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I think it is appropriate to take a look at my latest long-going projects in the Archives: Racism at OSU.

My first tale begins in 1969 when the Great Pumpkin, Dee Andros, was the head football coach at Oregon State. As is a common practice among various sports teams (the New York Yankees are perhaps the most obvious example), Coach Andros had a strict policy of his players remaining clean-shaven. Most of the team stayed within compliance of his policy, but one day in 1969, black player Fred Milton decided to grow a beard anyways. Upon his first sighting by Coach Andros, Milton was told that the beard had to go, and rather than concede, Milton stubbornly refused. After his suspension, Milton cried foul, pulling out the race card, and the 160ish-strong Black Student Union organized protests and a boycott of classes. Not much really happened in the aftermath, except that Milton transferred and a couple other black students left the team. Andros went on to become the Athletic Director, but although the incident gained international attention (I read one account of a man's friend calling about it from Turkey!), no policy changes were enacted. At a glance, this case really seems silly. I mean, what is racist about asking him to shave his beard? All the white players had equal treatment! BUT, in the words of Lee Corso, "not so fast, my friend!" In digging deeper, I discovered that, while not an inherently racist event, it was the catalyst sparking an already-present mood around campus. My final impression: stupid people did stupid racist things, so later, a harmless event channelled the existing tension and sparked a fire.

Fast-forward to the fall of 1990. The coordinator for the Black Cultural Center on campus was walking near campus when a van drove by. A member of the van hurled racial slurs, and the van sped off. Some accounts say the van even forced him to move out of the way, though the van driver was eventually cleared of all wrong-doing. In protest, the coordinator closed the BCC that Wednesday. His protest brought attention to tensions on campus which had been a real problem. In fact, he even claimed that similar events had happened at least two times prior. Fortunately, support on campus was so overwhelming that the center reopened two days later. The event also proved to have lasting effects as the university acknowledged a student request for a new educational requirement, the Difference, Power, and Discrimination portion of the Baccalaureate Core. While I personally bemoan the requirement as yet another annoying hurdle unrelated to my major (math, science, and DPD are not too separated on my interest scale), I do appreciate its importance and view its addition as a step in the right direction.

Skip ahead to 1996. Two students hurled racial slurs and attempted to urinate on a black student from an upper floor of their dorm. Coupled with the defacing of a political poster (a black student running for ASOSU President), the event sparked outrage, and led by the Black Cultural Center, the All OSU Boycott was organized. Between 1400 and 2000 (depending on the source) students participated in a silent march through campus, ending in the Quad with speeches. The two students were charged and convicted with hate crimes, and again, the tensions on campus were brought to the forefront. State-wide media covered the event, and letters to the editor at the Daily Barometer were in abundance for months. The poster-defacer was also banned from student housing for two terms. It is worth note that the victim of the urination was also the victim of another event in 1999, although no charges were filed.

As I am fairly observant of the fine line between either dwelling on the past to a fault or forgetting the past, I think revisiting events like these are healthy to do, especially on days like this which focus on such revolutionaries as Martin Luther King Jr. and the dream for which he fought. As I walk on campus in 2012, reading about past racism at OSU is shocking to me as the culture I have witnessed is vastly different from even 1996. Hopefully I am not blind about events on campus, but it seems to me that the last 15-16 years has seen great improvement at OSU.

Research Topic

Today is the start of Winter Term. In the context of this blog, that means I am about to become an expert on one topic in the OSU Archives. I am taking History 407 (a large research project), and pretty much all I know for sure is that my topic will be related to OSU history. Although that is all I know for certain, I do have a few possible ideas, though nothing set in stone. I have considered researching OSU's athletic success, and also independently observing its academic statistics, and trying to identify any correlations. Another option might be something about racism on campus if only because I have done a bit of research on the topic already for another patron. I should know before the week is out what I will be researching, but if you have any fun ideas, let me know in the comments!

The Rose Bowl

To commemorate 70 years of bragging rights before Toilet Seat U ended its 95-year skid in the Rose Bowl this year, I hope you enjoy a couple of clips, courtesy of the OSU Archives! (I tried to embed them, but sadly, the coding isn't compatible.)

Clips from the 1941 Civil War and Homecoming Celebration
http://media.oregonstate.edu/index.php/show/1942_rose_bowl_pre-game_activities?id=0_4i04513i

Clips from the 1942 Rose Bowl
http://media.oregonstate.edu/index.php/show/1942_rose_bowl_game_footage?id=0_2dkbgo89

Captain America

Today I got to view the first-ever Captain America comic, or at least the micro-fiche version. Our library had the entire comic series on loan from Stanford, so during my lunch break, I took advantage of our fiche readers (fiche is like micro-film, but one sheet instead of a reel). Sadly, our readers are only in black and white while the fiches were actually in color, so the images were only awesome instead of incredibly awesome.

I scanned a couple images from the book, but in an effort to adhere to copyright usage guidelines, I limited my reproduction to just the cover and an ad, and will only post the ad. (I am using the wikipedia fair use rules as a guideline and basically only posting one panel from the issue.)

Bottom of Issue 1, page 2

It is worth noting that this deputed in 1941, hence the request to join the "Sentinels of Liberty" and do your patriotic duty of searching for evil spies. Cool, huh?