Beavers Building Big Crowds in Pendleton Era
October 11, 2024 | Wrestling
CORVALLIS, Ore. – As the college wrestling world was turning its focus to the national championships in Minneapolis' U.S. Bank Stadium in March 2020, the world – as we knew it – changed. The coronavirus – better known as COVID-19 – threw life – and college sports as a whole on its head.
Quarantines were rampant, schools – including colleges and universities – went remote to continue the school years and people outside of essential medical professionals needed virtual connections to keep the world going. People were urged to stay inside and due to the worries of the virus' spread, crowds – like at sporting events – were banned.
Amid the halting of normalcy, the Oregon State wrestling team made a leadership change to spark a reset to the program.
Following a six-season stint as an assistant coach at former league foe, Arizona State, Chris Pendleton took the reins of the program in Corvallis on March 30, 2020.
With the exception of cardboard cutouts and essential staff at the press table and around the facility, Gill Coliseum – and other venues across the country – sat empty for the 2020-21 season. The Pac-12 mandated masks for everyone in the venue but student-athletes could compete without them.
To minimize travel amid the constant uncertainties from the virus, the schedule emphasized multi-team-meets packed with neutral matches to guarantee strong competition in an effort to ensure a path to the postseason was as "normal" as possible.
Following three quadrangular meets and a pair of abrupt cancelations, Pendleton finally made his home debut as a head coach on February 7th. The home opener also ended up serving as the season finale due to a pair of cancelations: the scheduled senior day and a final tri-meet slated for Fresno, Calif., against Fresno State and Oklahoma.
Usually a big draw in a "normal" season, the 2021 Pac-12 Championships were hosted in Gill but fans had to watch on TVs from afar. Just the cardboard cutouts of diehard fans and essential personnel were permitted in the venue to see the student-athletes battle and keep their dreams alive of chasing a championship.
Although Beaver fans couldn't be at the events did not mean they could not follow along and see what was building under Pendleton's guidance. By the time fans were allowed back inside Gill for the 2021-22 season, the Beavers were coming off a campaign that saw four punch automatic berths for the NCAA Championships.
The four qualifiers from the NCAAs in '21 progressed to a program-best four All-Americans (since the 1994-95 season) in 2022 as fans came back in attendance. The energy from the fanbase – despite the 15% limit – helped push the team to a 3-1 mark in front of the Beaver faithful.
While the virus was still a concern to many, it was dissipating enough to a point where fans could be back in the venues, including the seats of legendary Gill Coliseum by the 2021-22 season. Not completely back to the way things were before March 2020, there still was a sense of "normalcy" slowly coming back for Pendleton's second year in charge. With three home duals in the campaign, Gill Coliseum saw averages of 950 fans per event, or 2,851 all season.
For the first time as a head coach – in his third season, the 2022-23 campaign – venues did not have limitations on capacity or requirements for a negative test or vaccination status.
Thanks to a six-match home schedule – including a visit from blueblood Oklahoma State – the Beavers averaged 6,240 fans through the doors at Gill during 2022-23. The dual with the Cowboys set a sport-best crowd with 6,764 fans packed on one Sunday afternoon to open that January.
While a record was set, records are meant to be broken.
Fresh off the Pac-12 team title and sending five to the NCAAs in 2022-23, Oregon State was looking to make more noise. The Beavers had an unbalanced schedule (in regards to home and away duals) backloaded without a home dual until January. On top of that, Beaver Nation would only be treated with a pair of home duals in 2024 but that did not stop them from coming when it mattered.
With then-twice-defending national champion and top-ranked Penn State serving as the opposition for the 2023-24 home opener this past January, Beaver Nation was ready to bring the energy against another blueblood.
They brought enough energy that the previous season's mark of 6,764 fans was shattered when almost 9,000 (8,540) poured into the Coliseum for the dual on the first Friday in January. Despite the dual not going the Beavers' way, the fan support was unlike anything that could have been imagined. From the first bout at 125 all of the way to the heavyweight, the crowd didn't wane.
Fans kept coming in the final two times they could last season as 1,941 attended the Cal Poly dual a few weeks later on senior night and 4,748 showed up to the 2024 edition of the Pac-12 Championships in early March.
As the 2024-25 season creeps closer, we're proud of the progress but realize again that records are made to be broken. Oregon State is still pushing to be the standard in not only the northwest, but on the west coast.
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