2000: The Buildup To The Game Vs. Oregon

This fall marks the 20th anniversary of one of the greatest football seasons in Oregon State history. The 2000 Beavers tied for the Pacific 10 conference championship and defeated Notre Dame in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl, finishing with an 11-1 record and ranked in the top five in the country. That OSU team is among the 2020 inductees into the Oregon State Sports Hall of Fame, and osubeavers.com is recapping that season with a series of stories this fall.

By Kip Carlson

The front page of the Oregon State Daily Barometer on Monday, November 13, 2000, told the story in terms of the northern troops and southern troops having stormed the West Coast all autumn earning victory upon victory.

"Now, both regiments return home and converge in Corvallis for the 104^th time, to renew the longest-running rivalry west of the Mississippi – only this time, more than pride is on the line," the Barometer story read.

In five days, Oregon State and Oregon would meet at Reser Stadium to conclude their Pacific-10 football seasons with both teams possessing Rose Bowl aspirations. Across the state, anticipation had been growing week by week as the Beavers and Ducks both marched to 9-1 overall records.

"We've been looking at Oregon the whole year, and it's finally going to come down," OSU linebacker Richard Seigler said. "We're going to dance."

Oregon was 7-0 in the conference; a win for the Ducks and they'd have sole possession of the Pac-10 title and the New Year's Day appearance in Pasadena. OSU was 6-1 in the conference, tied with Washington; a Beaver win would assure at least a share of the title, then Oregon State would have to hope for Washington State to beat UW later Saturday for the Beavers to make their first Rose Bowl since the 1964 season. If OSU and Washington both won, the Huskies would also share in the conference title and go to the Rose Bowl, leaving Oregon State hoping for a berth in another Bowl Championship Series game.

Also on the line for both teams was a first-ever 10-win football season; neither the Beavers nor the Ducks had ever reached double figures in the victory column.

Oregon went into the game ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press media poll while Oregon State was No. 8; in both the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll and the BCS rankings, the Ducks were No. 7 and the Beavers were No. 9. The game would be televised regionally on ABC and was set for a 12:30 p.m. kickoff.

"It's great to have a game like this – a game that's going to be for all the marbles," said Dee Andros, the former OSU athletic director and football coach who had a 9-2 record against Oregon. "But more than anything, you still play this game for the right to live in Oregon."

After winning at Arizona 33-9 the previous week, Oregon State led the Pac-10 in scoring offense (33.6 points per game), total offense (412.7 yards per game), scoring defense (19.0 ppg) and total defense (298.7 ypg). Oregon was second in scoring offense (31.1 ppg), third in total offense (402.7 ypg), second in scoring defense (19.6 ppg) and third in total defense (32.43 ypg).

A key matchup would be Oregon State's defense, with a terrific pass rush and a secondary that had picked off 17 passes, against Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington, who had a 13-1 record as a starter and was passing for an average of 236 yards and two touchdowns per game.

"The guy finds a way to win," UO linebacker Matt Smith said of the Duck nicknamed The General. "It gives us confidence because we know that if it's a close game in the fourth, all we need to do is get a stop and he will lead the offense in for the points we need."

The Ducks' perfect conference record included two overtime victories and three other wins by one-score margins; their largest margin of victory had been 19 points over UCLA back in their Pac-10 opener. Comparisons were made to the Beavers' relatively large margins of victory over Stanford, Washington State and Arizona but OSU head coach Dennis Erickson was having none of that.

"They're outstanding," Erickson said of the Ducks. "You don't go undefeated in the Pac-10 without being awfully good. You don't win the close games that they've won without being awfully good.

"You can all say what we want about them with the rivalry and all, but you have to give them credit for the things they've done. They've done it when they've had to do it, and they control their own (Rose Bowl) destiny."

Early in the week, oddsmakers installed OSU as a three-point favorite. Said Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti: "Personally, I like to be the underdog. That's more my nature."

Oregon State's Memorial Union Program Council had come up with a week's worth of ways for Beaver believers to "Smack the Quack." The events included daily "Duck Hunts" for a rubber duck somewhere on campus, with those finding the faux fowl earning a prize.

Additionally, Wednesday through Friday an individual wearing a giant football mask would wander the MU with a band of kazoo-playing comrades; students able to sing the words to the fight song would get a prize from the OSU Bookstore. Friday, there would be a pep rally in the MU Lounge during which former Beaver players would share personal memories of the matchup. Finally, students without tickets could gather Saturday to watch the game on a big screen in the MU Lounge.

By then, the Ducks were recalling another battle – at least in their mind – occurring two years earlier. It came in the closing moments of Oregon State's 44-41 double-overtime win in the 1998 game in Corvallis: OSU appeared to have won in the first overtime and Beaver fans stormed the field, but a late penalty flag meant the game was not yet over. Officials managed to clear the field, but rather than going back into the seats the multitudes crowded into the area between the sidelines and the stands for the remainder of the game.

"The year we lost in Corvallis was the worst loss I've had in my life," UO defensive tackle Jason Nikolao said. "I walked off that field feeling like a failure, like they just took every ounce of pride of me and threw it on the floor. Their crowd was spitting on us and treating us like dogs. I'm not playing just for me and my teammates; I'm playing for revenge. I've just got this great feeling of heat inside of me I'm going to unleash on them, their crowd and everybody over there in Corvallis.

"It's my last game here in Oregon. I've got a month to recuperate (before a bowl game) so I'm going to let it all hang out. If I break my knee, I'll tape it up and go out there and play some more. I'm not going off the field unless I'm dead – dead with a victory."

Said Bellotti of the unhappy memory: "There was no security, no attempt to remove fans from the sidelines. They were standing in between players and coaches; it was a very difficult situation. Our kids remember that, I remember it. It's something I'll never forget."

If Seigler's response was indicative of the Beavers' reaction to the hubbub, it wasn't exactly causing much worry.

"Their players have been doing a lot of talking, I guess," Seigler said. "They've been talking about our fans, been talking about our program or whatever. We're not sweating that, you know, we'll let them do their talking. We're going to let our pads do the talking on Saturday.

"We've been listening. We hear everything they say. We just smile and laugh. Obviously, they're talking because they have to be nervous or something, coming in here, playing us. So we're going to let them do their talking. It doesn't affect us."

Oregon State athletic director Mitch Barnhart offered assurances there would be no repeat of the 1998 occurrence this time around. He told reporters there would be 350 security staffers on hand, up from the 220 usually working a home game.

"Safety for the fans, the coaches and the players are very important to us," Barnhart said. "We've worked for a month and a half on this. We're working with Corvallis police, the Benton County Sheriff's department and other security people. I've met with (Oregon athletic director) Bill Moos about what we plan to do, and he seems fairly comfortable with what we have in place."

Some of the fans attending would be paying far more than the $44 face value for their tickets. In Tuesday's Corvallis Gazette-Times, sportswriter Brooks Hatch noted tickets were literally worth their weight in gold, which was selling for $264 per troy ounce. The story reported one eBay offer of four tickets under cover on the 40-yard line and a parking pass for $2,000. Another had five seats for $2,500, and the G-T and Albany Democrat-Herald published classified ads offering tickets for up to $200 apiece.

Larry McIntyre, a Corvallis resident and season ticket holder, had recently won two additional tickets at an auction and told the newspaper he was trying to sell them for at least $300 each to help finance a trip to whichever bowl the Beavers went to. Said McIntyre: "I've had lots of bites. I've already had two or three offers at $300, but I'm trying to get more. Two sold on eBay today for $500 apiece, and four sold for $1,600. I want to sell them to a Beaver."

That morning's Daily Barometer carried a front-page story that Oregon State would begin a New Media Communications program in the fall; the OSU's journalism department had been cut in 1991-92 as a result of budget cuts. Inside, columnist Jake TenPas provided a satirical interview with one of the tarps covering some of the student seats at Reser Stadium. OSU athletic department officials had covered the seats because students standing in the front rows of the east grandstand blocked the view from the reserved seats behind them; students had been protesting that the tarps should be removed to provide more seats for the game against Oregon.

After his description of an argumentative, insult-filled back-and-forth with the canvas character, TenPas concluded, "I learned that the average tarp is as ugly inside as it is outside. So take down the goddamn tarp, Mitch (Barnhart). While I respect your commitment to the season ticket holders, the students demonstrate much more commitment to the team by showing up every week and pouring their hearts into STANDING UP and cheering for their beloved Beavers."

Excitement wasn't limited to the Oregon State student body. The Eugene Register-Guard ran a story talking about how the entirety of Corvallis was wrapped up in the season in general and this game in particular.

"I never really followed Oregon State football, or any other kind," Joanne Thomas, a secretary in the Corvallis city manager's office told reporter Bob Rodman. "But I'm on the bandwagon now."

Added Mickey Piefer, a waitress at the Big O Restaurant: "People are putting flyers in their windows, wearing Oregon State shirts and all they're talking about these days is Oregon State football. I can remember when you'd go to Beaver games and nobody was there."

The weekly Beaver Sports Talk radio show, broadcast from the Headline Café in downtown Corvallis on Tuesday nights, drew a huge crowd with fans coming from as far away as Salem to watch live as OSU radio announcer Mike Parker interviewed Erickson. Said Parker: "This is the biggest crowd we've had for size and enthusiasm."

Wednesday, the Barometer ran its regular "Yeas & Nays" editorial, with all the entries alluding to the rivalry with Oregon. Among them: "Yea to OSU: We may be serious about our studies, but we're never pretentious. Nay to UO: They may be serious about being pretentious, but never about studying."

Oregon State's weekly media luncheon and interview session included reporters from not only every newspaper and television station in the Willamette Valley, but also reporters from national outlets. OSU sports information director Hal Cowan said over 400 media credentials had been issued. Almost 170 of those were for print media – including most of the West Coast's major daily newspapers - and that was more than the Reser Stadium press box would hold, so an auxiliary press box would be set up on the second floor of the Valley Football Center.

"This is what a big game always felt like at Tennessee," said Barnhart, who had worked there for 12 years before coming to OSU. "You had a lot of media around, a lot of national attention, and people coming in to talk about your program and how you're going to fare."

The national media presence included perhaps the biggest name when of all when it came to covering college football: Keith Jackson, widely regarded as the voice of the sport, who would handle play-by-play for the ABC-TV broadcast. The Oregon State vs. Oregon game would be seen not just up and down the West Coast, but also in other areas across the country – including, for the first time ever, New York City.

"I'm looking forward to seeing the game and selling it to the East Coast," said Jackson, who hadn't been to Corvallis since 1968. "I want to tell them that in this beautiful Willamette Valley, we line up and kick the crap out of each other, too.

"I've been in the big stadiums so much the last few years, it will be nice to be in a stadium so intimate that the fans can reach out and touch the players. This is my first Civil War – and I've done all the big rivalries over the years: Auburn-Alabama, Michigan-Ohio State, even Harvard-Yale – and I think this is going to be one hell of a football game."

One angle explored extensively during the week had to do with OSU tight end Marty Maurer, whose father, Andy, played for Oregon, and uncles, Dick and Ken, played for Oregon State. Marty Maurer grew up a Duck fan, but his family switched sides when Oregon dropped its recruitment of him and he became a Beaver.

"First, I want to apologize to all the die-hard Beaver fans, because yes, I did grow up rooting for Oregon," Maurer joked to reporters. "Because of your dad, you follow him emulate his footsteps. But things change. This is a new time, a new era. This is a Beaver state. I mean, that's what the flag says.

"The Ducks are the Ducks. I don't like 'em. My favorite college football team is the team that's playing the Ducks. That's who I'm rooting for. Now this week, we get to play them. We get a chance to knock them off."

Some national stories dug into the rivalry's history: Oregon State students painting – or dynamiting - the "O" on Skinner's Butte orange on numerous occasions, Oregon students kidnapping the OSU homecoming court in 1957, the postgame riot in 1910 that led to the cancellation of the 1911 game and then the 1912 game being played on neutral turf in Albany … even the infamous "Toilet Bowl," the 0-0 tie in 1983 that was the last scoreless game in major college football.

Much of the country wasn't aware of the ferocity of the rivalry because the game had often been little noticed due to both team's struggles over the decades. Wrote Landon Hall of the Associated Press: "Throughout their histories, the teams have taken turns being awful. This is a rare year when both are outstanding."

Terry Baker, who won the 1962 Heisman Trophy as Oregon State's quarterback and had a 2-0-1 record against Oregon, told Hall, "I don't think there's every been a time when they've each had such wonderful opportunities. It's great for the state of Oregon."

That was a theme on the editorial pages of several of the state's newspapers during the week.

On Friday morning, the Statesman-Journal offered, "Even if you're not a sports fan, you should appreciate that this week's rivalry is good for Oregonians and gets people talking about the universities. The national coverage builds interest among prospective students and donors and helps spread the word about the schools' academic and athletic programs … Saturday's contest brings together two dynamic teams with bowl berths on the line for what should be an exciting game. It's already a winner for Oregonians."

The goodwill included student-athletes, Greek Life students and mascots from both schools – Benny Beaver and the Duck – visiting Harding Elementary School in Corvallis and Edison Elementary School in Eugene during the week. One of the organizers, Chip Setzer of the Delta Upsilon fraternity chapter at Oregon, told the Harding students: "Even though we're from two different schools, we're all friends."

The Statesman-Journal ran a story on the relationship between the OSU and UO marching bands, talking with two longtime friends from the Salem-Keizer area. "We don't really hate each other – it's not like a competition between the two of us," Oregon State drum major Mitchell Blake said. Added Oregon drum major Tyson Wooters: "It's a chance for us to share with them what we can do."

On the other hand, the Barometer's Friday morning edition was dominated by a picture of the UO Duck next to a photo of a roast duck dinner. Under the headline "There's more than one way to cook a duck" were recipes for sausage-stuffed duck, stir fry duck, tasty honey duck, wild duck, duck salad and curry-glazed duck eggs.

The mayors of Corvallis and Eugene, Helen Berg and Jim Torry had raised the stakes from their bet of the previous season. The loser would still have to wear the sweatshirt of the winning school to a city council meeting, but added this year was the loser having to host a barbecue for the winner and four friends at Diamond Woods Golf Course near Monroe.

By Friday afternoon, fans were arriving for a weekend-long party. One of the biggest setups belonged to Lu Ratzlaff, owner of Schaefers Recreation Equipment in Corvallis: he had finally towed a hot tub from his shop to the parking lot at 26th Street and Western Boulevard after he and his buddies talked for years about doing it.

"We've got five motor homes and probably 50 people that are going to be there," Ratzlaff told the Gazette-Times. "We'll have some fun."

That afternoon several hundred Oregon State students and fans made their way into the Memorial Union ballroom for the pregame pep rally, cheering and singing the fight song.

In a column headlined "These OSU fans deserve to cheer and be cheered," The Oregonian's Chuck Culpepper told tales of the LBSF – Long-Suffering Beaver Fans – who were finally being rewarded: "It starts getting to be about life when it gets to those who straddled the Beaver Bandwagon when it was but one log, who kept coming when Beaver fever was frozen dormant through 28 consecutive non-winning seasons, who grew neighborly with empty seats and chronic numbness."

Culpepper listed a number of such fans: Manning Becker of Gresham, who saw his first Oregon State game in 1939; Gene and Helen Hansen of Corvallis, who had attended every home game since Parker / Reser Stadium opened in 1953; Bert Babb of Eugene, who had seldom missed a game in the past four decades; Bob and Susan Schmidt, who had been at every home game since 1974.

"I just tell people I'm not very bright, but I'm very loyal," Becker told Culpepper, who concluded: "All will wake today, if they slept at all; all will convene at Reser; most will tailgate, with the Schmidts confining their menu to orange-and-black food; and one durable group of optimists will dot their old haunt, the stadium, find none of their old cronies, the empty seats, and greet the kind of kickoff they never expected to see."

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