Steve Mims of the Register-Guard has a great story on former Oregon State track star Dick Fosbury and the "Fosbury Flop" that he reinvented. Fosbury was a 1965 graduate of Medford High School, and ran track and field at Oregon State, where he perfected the flop. It was at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, however, that he changed the future of high jumping forever. After Fosbury won gold with the bar set at seven feet, four and one fourth inches, the old "straddle" method of jumping suddenly went on the decline. Here's video from those 1968 games. Note the two separate styles, and the atmosphere surrounding "the flop".

Jon Wilner of The Sporting News is running through the top 50 College Football teams in preparation for the season, and Oregon State comes in at #47. That puts the Beavers at sixth in the Pac-10 behind USC (#3), Oregon (#15), Arizona State (#17), Cal (#31), and UCLA (#43). Non-conference opponents Penn State and Utah come in at #29 and #32, respectively. If these rankings are correct, the Beavers would go 1-2 in non-conference (beating Hawaii), and 4-5 in conference play (beating UW, WSU, Stanford, and UA). Put those numbers together, and the Beavers would have a 5-7 record at the end of the year.

Dave over at Addicted to Quack has a story up regarding his love of college sports and the recent decision to move the Sonics out of Seattle. While I also am a huge college fan and not much of a professional sports fan, Dave's point seems a bit elementary to me. College sports take place at universities. Every university has it's campus. It's not like someone is going to buy out Oregon State, pick the university up and move it to Wyoming. It just isn't going to happen. But with professional teams that are not tied to an academic institution, things like that can happen. And maybe that's what Dave is trying to get across... Maybe I'm taking this too seriously. But I mean, yeah. A college team isn't going to pick up and move. Still, the post is worth the read.

GO BEAVERS!

--JB--