By George Edmonston Jr.

With the official announcement on April 30 that OSU will begin construction on the long-awaited expansion of Reser Stadium, and tomorrow's annual spring game elevating football to the top of the local sports news, it seems an appropriate time to honor Bell Field, the home of Oregon State football from 1910-1953 and track and field from 1910-1973.

Photo from the September 2000 Oregon Stater.

Located on the same spot now occupied by the Dixon Student Recreational Center and directly behind what is today Langton Hall, Bell Field by 1924 had a seating capacity of 24,000, with covered grandstands constructed as a horseshoe wrapped around the south end zone. Until the 1940s, every seat was protected from bad weather by a roof, with stands behind the south end zone built in a double-deck arrangement.

Photo of Bell Field from the 1993 April Oregon Stater.

OSU was nearly unbeatable in football at Bell Field, compiling an overall record of 99-28-13 in the storied stadium. (Note: It is important to remember that throughout the life of Bell Field, Oregon State played a number of "home" football games at Multnomah Stadium (now PGE Park) in the city of Portland, sometimes as many as four in a single season.)

In 1921, what had been simply called the "College Field" was renamed in honor of John Richard Newton Bell, a local Presbyterian minister known to his generation as the school's most visible and passionate athletic booster.

Bell was born in January 1845 and moved west after serving, by his own admittance, in the Confederate army during the Civil War. According to records in the OSU Archives, beginning in 1874 and for several years after, the popular cleric was a member of the college's Board of Trustees.

Photo of Bell circa 1926.

As things evolved, J.R.N. Bell, as he was known, was Oregon State College's official "mascot" right up to his death in 1928, and is so pictured and written about in early school yearbooks. A Corvallis Gazette-Times newspaper article from March 1922 quotes Bell as saying he took on this role for athletics in 1893.

Bell's chief claim to fame was his ritual of marching to the Mary's River after each OSU Civil War victory to toss his top hat into the water as a token of celebration. The first time was in 1894, after Oregon State College's initial victory over the U of O. The event grew into one of Corvallis' most anticipated social events and by the 1920s was an established tradition in the community. Everyone perceived the act as totally out of character for Bell, a factor that helps explain why so many found it so appealing for so long. In addition, on Nov. 15, 1952, student volunteer George Kenneth Austin Jr., dressed in a makeshift costume, entertained a large Bell Field crowd as OSU's first-ever Benny Beaver. It would be the lovable mascot's one and only appearance at the facility. The grandstands were razed in 1953, also the inaugural year for what is today known as Reser Stadium.

As with all historic stadiums, it's not the structure itself that is cherished as much as the people and events that made it historic. For Bell Field, the memories still linger and are worth remembering.

Notre Dame's fabled Knute Rockne conducted his football coaching clinic here each summer from 1925-1928.

In addition, nine football All-Americans built their careers at Bell Field. They include Herman Abraham (1916), Gap Powell (1921), Howard Maple and "Hippo" Dickerson (1928), Red Franklin and Ade Schwammel (1933), Bill Tomsheck (1934), Vic Sears (1940), Quentin Greenough (1941), and Bill Gray (1946).

The famous Pyramid Play, photo from the '38 Orange & Black.

It was also here that Oregon State's immortal 1933 "Iron Man" football team both created the controversial "Pyramid Play" and prepared for the game that would bring it everlasting fame--a 0-0 tie in Portland with the No. 1-ranked and twice defending national champion USC Trojans, in which the Beavers under head coach Lon Stiner played the entire contest using no substitutes.

Other football players of note who saw action at Bell Field include Webley Edwards, famed World War II broadcast journalist and creator of one of America's most popular radio variety shows, "Hawaii Calls"; Dallas Ward, who left Oregon State in the 1926 to eventually become a legendary coach at the University of Colorado; and Wes "Iron Horse" Schulmerich, a teammate of Ward's who turned in a stellar career in major league baseball. Jim Dixon, after whom the Student Rec Center is named, was also a gridiron standout at the stadium in the mid-1920s.

As was mentioned at the beginning of this story, Bell Field was a two-sport facility, also serving as home to OSU track and field from 1910-1973. Track served to extend the life of the venerable old stadium another 20 years after the football grandstands had been razed in 1953. Of the many All-Americans who performed Bell Field for such notable head track coaches as Sam Bell (no relation to J.R.N.) and Berny Wagner, it was on this ground that high jumper and OSU student Dick Fosbury perfected his "Fosbury Flop," a technique that revolutionized his sport and earned for him a gold medal at the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico City.

The two years, 1968-69, in men's track and field at Oregon State, are among the best in school history in any sport.

Cross country team training, photo from the 1969 Beaver.

Head Coach Berny Wagner's 1968 thinclads won OSU's first Northern Division crown since 1946, as the brilliant Willie Turner led the way with victories in both sprints and a winning anchor leg in the 440 relay.

Rival Oregon, also fielding a strong team, was thrashed 80-65, and the Beavers went on to place sixth in the national championships. High jumper Dick Fosbury, discus thrower Tim Vollmer, and Terry Thompson, winner of the Pac-8 880, were named All-American.

Most of this outstanding squad returned for the '69 season. Coach Wagner found himself particularly blessed with high jumpers. Along with Fosbury, both Steve Kelly and John Radetich could clear 7 feet or more, an unheard of strength in the event. As expected, OSU defeated all eight opponents in dual meet competition by convincing scores, including powerful UCLA 87-67 and Oregon 91-63.

Women's track and field at OSU did not begin until after Bell Field had been permanently shut down. The last football game of any kind to be played here was a freshman football game in 1953 between the Beavers and the Ducks. As this writer recalls, but will not double-check to make sure, the Ducks won. Two years earlier, in 1951, varsity football had moved across the railroad tracks south past Gill Coliseum to a brand new facility, Parker Stadium, now Reser Stadium, after a name change in 1999.

At present, the university plans later this year to have installed near the main entrance to the Dixon Rec Center a historical marker honoring the history of Bell Field.

George Edmonston Jr. is editor of the Oregon Stater and Eclips.