sports - OSU Alumni Association

SPORTS
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OREGON STATER
SPORTS
A Heisman
won on the
field and in
the mailbox
It took running, passing and a lot of
work at the mimeograph machine for
Oregon State’s Terry Baker to make
history 50 years ago
by Kip Carlson
erry Baker’s discovery that he had won America’s top football
honor didn’t come in front of live television cameras in New York
City. Rather, it began with a message in class that he needed to hustle
over to Oregon State Athletic Director Spec Keene’s office in Gill
Coliseum.
There, the crew-cut engineering major took a phone call from the
New York Athletic Club informing him he would receive the Heisman
Trophy as the nation’s outstanding college football player of 1962.
“I didn’t even know it was being announced then or anything,”
Baker said as he reminisced about the experience. “It came as a total
surprise.”
This fall marks the 50th anniversary of Baker becoming the first
player from west of Texas to win the award, which will be celebrated at
events on campus during the Beavers’ football season. The trophy itself
sits in the lobby outside the Beaver football coaches’ offices, upstairs in
T
Terry Baker’s Heisman Trophy is displayed in the lobby outside the football
coaching offices in the Valley Football Center. PHOTO BY DENNIS WOLVERTON;
GAME PHOTO COURTESY OSU ATHLETICS
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the Valley Football Center.
“One thing I learned early on after having the trophy is, it’s almost
like a tattoo that’s put on you,” Baker said, noting that it’s been a positive experience. “No question, it stays with you the rest of your life.”
Having scaled back his work as a partner in the Tonkon Torp law
firm in his native Portland, he lives a comfortable life in Portland and
this fall will have time to attend the Heisman presentation for just the
third time since he won and for the first time in more than 20 years.
There he will be among other men who can relate to having “Heisman
Trophy winner” as almost part of their name.
That Baker won the award — that Oregon State had a Heisman
winner before Southern California or UCLA or other western schools
at a time when most Heisman voters paid little attention to West
Coast football — obviously had much to do with his prodigious athletic talents, but the road to the honor was paved by OSU’s then-sports
information director, John Eggers, ’50. His success in drawing attention to Oregon State’s star helped change the way colleges campaign
to help their top athletes get noticed so they can compete for and win
top awards.
Eggers’ approach was simple: Each week, he compiled a page containing Baker’s statistics, some quotes from OSU Head Coach Tommy
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SPORTS
Mostly retired as an attorney, Baker lives a comfortable life in Portland. His framed game jersey had to be retrieved from storage to be
used as a backdrop for his portrait. PHOTO BY DENNIS WOLVERTON
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Prothro and some words of praise about the
Beaver quarterback from the head coach of
Oregon State’s opponent that week. Mimeographed copies went in the mail to influential
sportswriters and sportscasters across the
country.
Baker didn’t even know it was happening.
“I was completely in the dark on that,” he
said.
There was no horserace- or presidential
election-style handicapping of the Heisman
race on a weekly basis on ESPN or in the New
York Times back then. No self-proclaimed
“Heisman pundits” pontificated on who had
worked himself into or out of contention on a
given weekend.
“I don’t think there was any of that, that I
was aware of. Zero,” Baker said.
Eggers’ direct marketing approach grew
into something of a cottage industry by the
late 1970s and early 1980s, as schools sent
away all sorts of items to draw attention to
their players.
“You got the little reporter notebooks with
the player’s picture on the cover and lots of
statistics and things like that,” said Rod Commons, ’65, who worked as Eggers’ assistant
at Oregon State before serving as sports information director at Washington State from
1976 until 2007.
Hal Cowan began his sports information
career in the mid-1960s, succeeded Eggers at
OSU in 1976 and headed the Beavers’ athletic
media relations until retiring in 2003. He
believes high-profile Heisman marketing got
a major boost when John McKay, Southern
California’s head coach from 1960-75, “told
his SID, ‘You call Oregon State and find out
how Eggers did it.’ John told them what he
did and I think SC put more money and effort
into it. It still wasn’t the fancy stuff that you
see today, but I think they were the first ones
that openly started campaigning and they’ve
got, what, six of them?”
It was soon a side competition to see which
school could send the most unique item. In
2005, Memphis sent toy racecars to boost the
chances of running back DeAngelo Williams. In 2008, Missouri distributed a sort of
Viewmaster disc and viewer with highlights of
quarterback Charles Daniels. Last fall, Baylor
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sent out autographed trading cards of eventual 2011 Heisman winner Robert Griffin III.
On behalf of Cougar quarterback Ryan Leaf
in the late 1990s, Commons mailed a single
leaf to each voter.
Baker helped with a campaign when OSU
promoted running back Ken Simonton for
the Heisman in 2001. Wearing his OSU letter
jacket, he posed with Simonton for a photo
that was used on the cover of notebooks and
other promotional materials.
“He was willing to do it,” Cowan said of
Baker. “He was happy to; he said, ‘I hope he
has a chance for it; if I can be of any help,
that’s fine.’ He was more inclined to help that
way, I think, than he would have been in his
own case.”
As a former winner, Baker is a Heisman
voter and has received many such marketing
pieces.
“I’d get these press books on what various schools were dubbing as their Heisman
candidate,” Baker said. “But the trouble with
that is, when these are coming out early in
the year, so many things can happen during
the course of the football season — primarily
injuries.”
All it takes is one play that ends with the
featured player writhing on the ground, gripping his knee, and all that money has gone
for naught. Also, Cowan suspects that a lot of
voters toss the items in the trash because they
don’t want to be seen as being bought.
Commons notes that with the Internet and
cable television, there are now many shows
and other opportunities to provide a mass audience with information and highlights at far
less expense, and so many more games are on
television that voters can see for themselves.
While the techniques may have changed
over 50 years, the key points in winning the
Heisman remain the same: The voters need
to be aware of the candidate and then the
candidate has to perform on the field — and
being on a winning team also helps.
Baker had the trifecta in 1962. Eggers got
the word out as Baker passed for 1,723 yards
and 16 touchdowns and rushed for another
538 yards and five touchdowns. The Beavers,
playing independent schedules in those early
1960s seasons, went 8-2 and were invited to
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the Liberty Bowl.
While on an early awards trip to the East
Coast — he made several that late fall and
early winter — Baker and the Look magazine
All-America team were taken by train from
New York to Philadelphia for the Army-Navy
game. At halftime, they were introduced to
President John F. Kennedy.
“When he shook hands with me, he said,
‘Well, you’re going to see my brother in a
couple of days,’” Baker said. “And I didn’t
even know about it, but he knew that I was
going to be getting the Heisman Trophy from
his brother, Bobby.”
Indeed, U.S. Attorney General Robert F.
Kennedy presented Baker with the trophy in
New York. A little over a week later, Baker
Baker got a cryptic tip from President John F.
Kennedy that he would soon be meeting his brother,
Attorney General Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy, who
was presenting the Heisman that year. PHOTO
COURTESY OSU ATHLETICS
elevated his legend with a 99-yard touchdown
run that gave the Beavers a 6-0 win over Villanova in the Liberty Bowl.
Baker would be named Sports Illustrated’s
Sportsman of the Year for 1962, and then
complete one of the greatest athletic years
ever by a collegian, starting at guard on the
OSU basketball team that reached the 1963
Final Four, further securing his spot as a history maker. q
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SPORTS
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Playing the Open with Dad on the bag
by Kip Carlson
When OSU’s Nick Sherwood got it in his
head that he wanted his father to caddy for
him at the U.S. Open, he made sure to ask in
advance.
Like about 17 years in advance.
“Nick has played golf since he was about 4
years old and he’s always told me, ‘Dad, the
first time I get to a major, you’re going to be
on my bag,” said his father, Bill Sherwood,’89.
Thus it came to pass that when Nick, a
senior-to-be at Oregon State, qualified for
the U.S. Open as an amateur in June, Bill got
the chance to tote his boy’s clubs around the
Olympic Club in San Francisco.
“That sounds good when he’s 4,” said Bill,
who was a basketball standout at OSU in
the late 1980s. “It’s a little more intimidating
when he’s 21 and it actually happens.”
The elder Sherwood got the chance partly
because Jonnie Motomochi, Nick’s OSU
teammate who caddied for him at the regional
qualifying tournament, was busy with graduation the weekend of the U.S. Open.
“There was no better Father’s Day present
than to ask him to caddy in the U.S. Open,”
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Nick said of securing his father’s services.
Bill had caddied for Nick in several junior
tournaments; now he was traipsing the course
in practice rounds with his son and three-time
major champion Vijay Singh and 2010 PGA
Tour rookie of the year Rickie Fowler.
Bill sought advice from the professional
caddies: “I just tried to talk to them about
what not to do. ... I was just trying to blend
in and stay out of peoples’ way. ... I was getting the divots, getting his bag, going to the
next shot, putting the bag down, finding the
marker, walking it off, looking at my book —
it was a lot of work.”
In the opening round, Nick was paired with
club pros rather than big names. On the first
hole, before a large gallery — including about
50 of the Sherwoods’ family and friends —
Nick drove his tee shot more than 360 yards
down the middle en route to a birdie.
“Birdying the first hole and being ahead of
Tiger and being under par at a major championship is something that can never be taken
away from me,” Nick said.
In the end, Nick missed the cut, finishing
Once OSU golfer Nick Sherwood earned a chance
to play with the greats at this year’s U.S. Open,
he made good on an old agreement to have his dad,
Beaver basketball alum Bill Sherwood, caddy for
him. PHOTO BY RICH HEINS
the first two rounds at 18-over-par 178, but
he got the chance to see how close he is to
having a shot at the PGA Tour.
“It’s always been my goal, but it just reassured me: ‘You’re going in the right direction,
you’re doing things right,’” Nick said.
Bill is best remembered for hitting a
three-pointer to beat Oregon at Mac Court in
1987, capping a nine-points-in-one-minute
comeback by the Beavers. He figures making
it to the Open boosts his son above him in
OSU sports lore.
“I made a jumper in a Pac-10 game and it
just happened to be at the Ducks,” Bill said.
“But it (Nick’s appearance) is equivalent to
hitting a jumper to go to the NBA Finals.
The U.S. Open — very few people can say
they played in that.” q
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SPORTS
Athletics building boom continues with
Student Success Center, track ready
for use; hoops facility under way
In the space of four days this fall, Oregon
State will open a pair of athletic facilities on
the south end of campus — including one
that isn’t just for athletes. And a third product
of the recent building boom is under way.
OSU will cut the ribbon — perhaps it
should be a finish tape? — on the first phase
of the new Whyte Track and Field Center
on Sept. 14. On Sept. 18, the Student Success Center opening celebration will be held.
And ground was broken June 21 for a new
basketball practice facility, slated for completion next spring.
In addition to those three projects, Reser
Stadium and Prothro Field received new artificial turf playing surfaces this summer and
the Lorenz Field soccer facility saw its natural
grass playing surface renovated.
The ceremony for the Whyte Track and
Field Center celebrates the completion of the
running track, field event areas and lights; it is
named for former student-athlete Jim Whyte,
’70, ’72, the lead benefactor to the $3.5-million project. It sits just southeast of Patrick
Wayne Valley Field, OSU’s track and field
home from 1974 until the program was cut
in 1988.
Among those at the ribbon-cutting will be
former Beaver coaches Berny Wagner, Sam
Bell, Chuck McNeil, ’65, Steve Simmons and
Pat Ingram, along with Olympic high jump
champion Dick Fosbury, ’72, and a host of
former OSU track and field athletes. The
public is invited to attend.
“It’s amazing to watch the facility grow
from an empty lot to an outline of the facility
and now to a nearly completed track and
infield,” said Beaver Head Coach Kelly Sullivan, who was hired to revive track and cross
country at OSU in 2004-05.
The Student Success Center, east of Gill
Coliseum and north of the CH2M HILL
Alumni Center, is a $14 million, three-story
building housing academic support and counseling services and programs to help students
transition from high school to college. It
includes classrooms, a computer lab, study
lounge, commons area, counseling offices,
meeting rooms and tutoring areas.
The building was first conceived as an
academic support center for athletes but its
mission was expanded to include programs for
all students.
“When it comes to student success, nobody
is privileged and nobody is excluded,” OSU
President Ed Ray said at the building’s
groundbreaking ceremony. “If you enroll here,
our expectation is that you will succeed.”
The new basketball facility will ease a
scheduling overload in Gill Coliseum, where
OSU’s men’s and women’s basketball teams
and women’s volleyball team hold both practices and games; the wrestling and women’s
gymnastics teams also compete in Gill but
practice elsewhere.
“Being a student-athlete, this definitely
opens up a lot for us,” OSU men’s basketball
player Roberto Nelson said at the groundbreaking. The as-yet-unnamed $15 million,
four-story facility will include two practice
courts plus coaches and staff offices, locker
rooms and training areas for the OSU men’s
and women’s basketball teams. It is being
built as an addition to the Sports Performance
Center, just west of Gill Coliseum.
Put
your
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on anD
get
LouD!
From the
purveyors of
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With Reser Stadium reflected in its windows, the Student Success Center sits almost ready to become
OSU’s home for several programs that support academic performance for students inside and outside the
athletic programs. PHOTO BY KEVIN MILLER
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OREGON STATER
SPORTS
Make a night of it.
Hey Beaver Believers!
If you can’t make it live, catch all the OSU games on our 17 flatscreens.
Live entertainment and a great bar menu with NW micro-brews and domestic beer on tap.
FALL 2012
HWY 18 • GRAND RONDE, OR • SPIRITMOUNTAIN.COM
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SPORTS
Beavers Without Borders finds effective partner on Ethiopia trip
OSU’s Stephanie McGregor, the only gymnast
on this year’s Beavers Without Borders trip to
Ethiopia, finds that her athletic skills are handy on
a construction project. PHOTO COURTESY HOLT
INTERNATIONAL
A chance meeting in Frankfurt is having effects felt in Corvallis and around the globe.
In the summer of 2011, a group of Oregon
State student-athletes traveled to Macedonia to help build a home for a family there.
They were the second contingent of Beavers
Without Borders, which sends OSU studentathletes overseas on service-oriented trips.
While changing planes in Germany, Taylor
Kavanaugh, ’09, a former Beaver football
player who was the driving force behind
starting Beavers Without Borders during the
2010-11 school year — crossed paths with
fellow OSU graduate Patric Campbell, ’98.
Campbell was on his way back from Ethiopia, where he had been working with Holt
International to build a Mother and Child
Health Center.
The contact led to Beavers Without Borders teaming with Eugene-based Holt International for this past summer’s trip to Ethiopia. While Holt is best known as an adoption
agency, it also promotes family preservation
projects; Beavers Without Borders’ efforts to
build homes meshed with Holt’s goals.
Kavanaugh was absent on the Ethiopia trip
— he is working to have it operate independently of his direct involvement. One of the
14 participants representing 11 sports was
Stephanie McGregor of the gymnastics team.
The senior-to-be from Calgary, Alberta, had
always wanted to do an international service
trip and the mission to Ethiopia fit into her
time considerations.
Two of McGregor’s teammates had been
on previous trips —Mandi Rodriguez to
Guatemala and Jen Kesler to Macedonia —
and McGregor had heard their recollections
and reflections.
“After talking to them, I had high expectations — and they were exceeded in every way
possible,” McGregor said.
McGregor and the others had to raise
$3,000 each to make the trip. She said visiting
a health clinic and seeing the lack of resources
there was harder than the physical labor of
building the houses.
(McGregor blogged about the trip; her online observations can be found at www.osubeavers.com/sports/w-gym/spec-rel/061812aaa.
html.)
Pac-12 Networks up and running with more OSU content than ever offered
What’s on TV tonight? On just about every
evening the answer could involve some sort of
Oregon State athletic event.
Pac-12 Networks — a set of networks, all
in HD — means a big boost in the number of
events available to Oregon Staters everywhere,
especially in the West.
“It’s really amazing,” Steve Fenk, ’88,
OSU’s associate athletic director for communications, told the Corvallis Gazette-Times.
“People are going to be impressed. I’m sure
there are going to be glitches to start out, but
it’s going to be awesome for us — for small
schools like us. We’ll be on TV more than
most of the schools in the country.
“This is blowing by the SEC (Southeastern
Conference) and the Big Ten networks.”
Pac-12 Networks is the umbrella organization for a national cable network and six
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regional networks, one for each geographic
pairing of schools: Oregon, Washington,
Northern California, Southern California,
Arizona and Mountain (Colorado and Utah).
Viewers will receive the network targeted
to their area; those outside the conference’s
regions may receive the national channel.
Between those networks and the conference’s agreements with ESPN and Fox Sports,
all football and men’s basketball games will be
televised live. If a game is televised live on one
of the regional networks, it will be shown on
a delayed basis on the national network and
other regional Pac-12 networks.
Pac-12 Networks has reached agreements
with Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox
and Bright House Networks, among others, to carry its programming. Talks are still
underway with other cable, satellite and telco
distributors who might carry the networks.
Pac-12 Networks will carry at least 50
women’s basketball games and a host of other
sports such as soccer, gymnastics and softball.
The around-the-clock programming will also
include classic games, studio programs with
guests and feature stories from around the
conference.
The conference’s visibility will also be
heightened by the Pac-12 Digital Network,
which will allow fans access to programming
through mobile devices, tablets, gaming consoles and internet-connected televisions.
To find out channel numbers for Pac-12
Networks in their area, OSU fans can go to
www.pac-12.org/SPORTS/Pac12Networks/
ChannelFinder.aspx. Information regarding
Oregon State events on Pac-12 Networks will
be posted at www.osubeavers.com.
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Winners in horsepower, horsemanship
While they seldom draw the attention bestowed upon major varsity
sports, groups of OSU students compete often with their cohorts —
and acquit themselves quite well — in a wide variety of sports and
other activities on the national and international level. Two of the most
recent successes happened in spring term, with the Global Formula
Racing team winning its third straight national title and OSU’s intercollegiate equestrian team winning its first national title in western
riding at the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association 2012 National
Championships.
The Global Formula Racing team is a partnership with Duale
Hochschule Baden-Wurttemberg-Ravensburg in Germany. The group of
engineers, builders and racers from the two schools have established a
dominating record in competition with teams with far greater funding
and support from the auto industry.
Meanwhile, in the words of Tara Christiansen of The American
Quarter Horse Journal: “Oregon State University’s close calls with a
western national championship, in 2009 and 2011, finally came to an
end as the Beavers, coached by animal sciences instructor Dawn Ross,
clinched the 2012 AQHA trophy western team championship.”
“This is truly a team; it’s not just about those who represented us at
Nationals,” Ross, ’03, told Christiansen. “It took the whole team to get
us to where we are now. They had the optimism to think positive, the
faith to believe in themselves, the vision to think big, the enthusiasm
to enjoy the challenge, the determination to take big risks and, most
of all, the perseverance to try until the goal — the national championship — was achieved.” PHOTOS COURTESY GLOBAL FORMULA RACING
TEAM, OSU IHSA TEAM
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Beaver NatioN
Black and orange. Own it. Wear it.
Wear orange to these games:
Wear black to these games:
10/20
9/08
11/17
10/06
11/03
11/24
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OREGON STATER