Where I Come From: How I Became an Oregon State Beaver

It’s probably a good time to tell people that I’m 14 and that I’ll be attending Central Catholic High School in the Fall. Alright, now on to my story.

Like Jake, I was born into a family of Beavers. My dad gratuated from Oregon State, and he’s been a rabid Beaver fan all his life. Being competitve as a young child, and the fact that I am distantly related to Joey Harrington, I was a Duck fan early on. That didn’t mean I didn’t like the Beavers, but yes, I was on the Dark Side.

Also like Jake, my first Beaver game was a great one. Just three years old, my dad took me to the 1999 Oregon State-California Game. Why is that so special you ask? It was our 6th Win of the season. Still, why is that so special? It clinced the Beavers first winning season in 28 Years. Of course, I didn’t know that back then, but I vividly remember my dad lifting me over the wall that seperates the field from the stands, and then holding his hand and running out onto the field with him.

Over time, my love for the Beavers and my hatred for the Ducks grew. My family first got Season Tickets in 2003, and I have not missed many games since then. I remember telling my 1st Grade classmates every Friday how awesome the next day would be, a Division 1 College Football game at Reser Stadium. It didn’t get much better than that.

I first discovered Building the Dam in the Summer of 2008, while looking for information on the Sammie Stroughter situation. I became hooked on the website, but I always thought it cost money to join! I found out in 2009 that it indeed DIDN’T cost anything, and I have been commenting and posting ever since.

I have had so many great Oregon State memories that it is tough to just choose one. I rushed the field when we beat USC in 2006, and then again in 2008. I was at Cal Memorial when Kevin Riley ran off of the field with the ball, and running down to the bottom of the Beaver Section to celebrate with the players. And I was at Autzen when a Freshman named James Rodgers scored in Double Overtime, and then watched Jonathan Stewart get stuffed on a 4th and 1 to end the game.

I am thankful every day that I am a Beaver Fan, and part of the best nation in the world.

BEAVER NATION

From SoCal, never really followed college sports. All I knew was I hated USC, so if anyone asked “USC or UCLA”, I said “UCLA”. But I knew that I didn’t really care. But let’s back up.

First, the only sport I liked was baseball. But soon, I grew to love and enjoy any competition, even competitive eating. And soon I realized I was closing myself off from great competition by not following college sports. That’s when I realized my great-uncle (or something like that) had been a professor at OSU for a very long time (Dont remember his last name, sorry).

 I knew the Beavers were in the same division of USC, and I’d always enjoyed Oregon, so I figured “Why not?”

But now comes the sad part of my story. I’ve never been to a beavers sporting event. I’ve been trying to change that, but something always come up. BUT, I am hoping to see them play UCLA in November, and maybe see the baseball team if they come down here.

I wouldve joined BtD earlier, but I didn’t know the wonders of SBN.

GO BEAVS

the Beavers were not just good, they were real good, in the days of the giant killers, with the likes of Bill "Earthquake" Enyart, Paul Brothers, et al, and the Ducks weren’t. It didn’t hurt that Jess Lewis came from Cascade, the same high school whose’ football lights I was growing up under, and he was one of the Beavers.

During those days, my dad worked in Albany, and I’d work for him for pop money Saturdays. In the fall, we closed up at noon, and with all home games kicking off at 1:30, we could get there, whereas Eugene was too far away. So, like a lot of kids, I grew up with Oregon St., and the Pac-8.

We lost dad about the time we lost the football program, but around that time Ralph Miller took the basketball program that had been one of the biggest challengers to the "Big Bad Bruins", and made them nationally relevant. And he did it with a lot of local kids, many of whom I had seen play as high schoolers.

Also, we had Darrell Aune, who could make even the losing football games exciting to listen to.

So even as the football program went in the tank, and eventually the basketball program would follow, college football in general, with the bands, and the atmosphere, and to a degree college basketball, was the best thing going. And the Pac(now)-10 had some of the greatest teams, and players, even if Oregon St., and to a degree, Oregon, were mostly on the losing end. You still got to see players like John Elway and Reggie Miller before the nation found out how good they were.

And Aune was as astute as anyone. I can still remember, after the first time Oregon St. went up against Elway, after the game, Darrell said in the postgame show, that Elway would soon enough be one of the top quarterbacks in the country. Boy, did that turn out to be right!

Fast forward to when Oregon first made it to the Independence Bowl, which I maintain was one of the turning points in the state’s sports history. Every time I hear someone go off about there being too many bowl games, and whether teams should even go to the so-called crummy bowls, I think about what Rich Brooks said at the time about it being imperative for Oregon to go to the Independence Bowl, even if it meant they lost money. Because, as he explained, it was the first step to getting "on the map". Which they certainly succeeded at.

In the years that followed, watching Pac-10 football meant watching more Oregon games than Oregon St. games, because the Ducks were starting to win more, and on tv more, and the Beavers weren’t yet.

But with Oregon raising the level of their program, as we all know, Oregon St. finally figured out that they needed to as well. Games like the 1998 Civil War signaled everyone that football was relevant again in the state, which led to it being relevant nationally. And it was becoming easy to be a fan of the once woeful programs again.

The "four hour war" in Seattle was as intense an evening as I had ever experienced, and it was no surprise, really, when the Huskies won the Rose Bowl, the Beavers the Fiesta Bowl, and the Ducks the Holiday Bowl later that winter. Oregon St. had arrived as one of the consistently competitive teams.

Fast forward again to a couple of years ago, and my daughter had determined that Oregon St. was the best fit for her academically. And being an accomplished musician, was also one of several kids from her school, the same one that I referred to above, that was recruited for the Oregon State University Marching Band. Being a band geek myself back in the day, that was beyond belief.

At about the same time, local politics and bad management led to layoffs where I had worked for years. But good fortune opened an opportunity to go to work for Oregon St. Which allowed for the opportunity to actually get to meet and get to know some of the great kids and coaches that are the reason the Beavers are so dear to so many of us.

Fate seems to have brought me all the way back to the Oregon St. I had loved back in the day.

As many know, I was already also working in the sports journalism business, focused primarily on high school sports, with Oregonprepsports.net. Something several of us had gotten into for the same reasons Jake had entered the business. The internet afforded the technical opportunity for some of us who were not satisfied with the state of sports journalism to do something about it. And so once I got settled in at Oregon St., it was a natural next step to start working for Jake, giving added coverage, and perspective, with BuildingTheDam.com.

Other than the usual family ties to OSU, I became a Beaver as a middle schooler (when I first consciously started following sports—I was kind of a space cadet pre-5th grade) out of convenience, tradition and love.

I loved the colors.

I loved that they were underdogs in, well, everything (hoops hadn’t died YET, but it was on its way out).

I loved that it meant that I had MY team. In NE Portland, everyone I knew was a duck or a husky. I loved rooting for the Beavers, win or lose, against the other NW teams.

For me, at 28, the 1998 CW cemented things for me. I was visiting a friend’s older brother as part of a preview weekend thing and had scored tickets to the game. I was 17, buzzed off of jello shots and a few beers and on top of the world. I watched grown men let tears of joy loose and look incredibly relieved as young men (boys, really) ran around like maniacs, grinning ear to ear.

Anyway, I had no real choice in whether or not I’d be a Beaver fan. It was kind of just in the blood. It was a no-brainer, something I had absolutely no choice in. But still, it’s something that’s brought me enough joy that I simply don’t care much about how it happened, I’m just glad it did.

Not sure this is all that exciting to be honest, but here goes…

I’m a bit on the flip-side of Jake and Connor in that I grew up in Eugene and as such I went competitive the other way in my youth and decided to become a Beaver fan, plus my father was a “little” bit critical of the UO athletic program (and this was even before the big Knight influence years, so don’t think the UO was all down-to-earth even back when it was a bit more humble in facilities and success).

Yes this made school a bit painful at times, but you know what watching Johnson, Blume, Sitton, Green, and Payton all play made it much easier to take.

The family also had season tickets to football during the ugly years and we were in those funky bleacher endzone seats, but it was a blast nevertheless and a great growing up experience for me and my brother going to games and doing the tailgating deal.

I’m not going into my age here (!) but I did end up going to OSU for my undergrad and at first I was a bit of a cranky and insecure freshman, but over time OSU and Corvallis really grew on me. Yes, yes I have been cranky for many years, way I’m wired I guess. Anyway, our neighbor was a HUGE OSU alum/fan and there was no way in heck I was getting out of my obligations to him to help continue his own kids tradition of going to OSU! He passed away suddenly years ago, and I have to say his influence on me to attend OSU is something I will never forget and will always honor.

I still live in duckville, but I greatly enjoy my trips up to Corvallis and the campus for games and visiting in general. New Morning Bakery! Great place to bridge my Corvallis/Eugene experiences!

To give you all yet another hint of the age deal I was lucky enough to go to school at the same time as Payton (but I’m not telling you all how many or which seasons that was!). Yes, football pretty much stunk when I went to school and remember the most, and all too well, sitting through the rain and getting destroyed by UW one year and for whatever reason me and my friend sat through the whole damn game. Things have changed! Well, not the part about sitting through whole games, for that still happens!

Over the years basketball went to hell and football got darn good, but what I have really connected with the most over the last few years is the OSU baseball team, which when I went to OSU I actually thought about walking on to tryout! Which either says a lot about my thoughts about my skills or about the overall level of the teams at the time, but again that’s all in the past!

I joined up BtD during baseball 2008. Being used to the fun wide world of the web for sports blogs and message boards I found what Jake had set up here to be a wonderful change of pace. Over time, and as Jake is known to do, Jake slowly roped me in as an “author” and been enjoying the community we have all built up over the last couple years.

Go Beavs!

I wanted to say great stories everyone!

And for kaguinn welcome to the BtD, great story.

Thanks for sharing everyone.