By George Edmonston Jr.

OSU athletics will welcome back a couple of "old friends" later this year when cross country and track are officially re-instated under the guidance of new head coach Kelly Sullivan, the former and highly regarded coach of the men's and women's cross country and track and field programs at Willamette University in Salem.

Men's and women's programs in both sports at OSU were dropped in 1988 due to budgetary considerations. The university will field women's-only teams in cross country in the fall, indoor track in the winter, and outdoor track in the spring of 2005.

Sullivan, a 1979 NAIA All-American in the steeplechase and cross country at Willamette, was named the 2003 Northwest Conference women's cross country Coach of the Year after leading the Bearcats to the Northwest Conference title in 2003.

(Note: For a detailed look at Kelly Sullivan's impressive career, see below.)

In honor of Sullivan's historic appointment, let us now look back to some of the greatest moments in the history of track and field at Oregon State, to the days when All-Americans and world-record holders walked our campus and brought national fame to the Orange and Black.

1893: The sport of track and field begins at OSU, known then (unofficially) as Oregon Agricultural College, when the school sends its "athletic team" to participate in two meets, one at Brownsville, Ore., on May 4, and another in Portland against the Multnomah Athletic Club on May 30.

Photo of the 1893 Athletic Team from the Orange & Black.

Events were held both indoors and outdoors and included (but were not limited to) boxing, softball, bicycle racing and sprints. It is believed these are the first athletic teams in school history to wear Orange in combination with Black.

Photo of Coach Trine from the '08 Orange.

1905: OSU's hires its first track and field coach, W. O. "Dad" Trine. Two years later, Trine is dead of throat cancer and is replaced in 1907 by Roy Heater, who served for only one year.

1906: OSU wins its first dual-meet ever, with a crushing defeat of the University of Washington by a combined score of 100-22. A second dual-meet, against the Oregon Ducks, results in a reversal of fortune, with the UO smashing OAC, 76-46. Oregon State would not triumph over the Ducks in the sport until 1918, where the Beavers would then win the next six in a row.

1908: Forrest Smithson wins the Olympic gold medal in the high hurdles in London, thus becoming the first of over 30 Oregon Staters to both compete and win medals at the world's most prestigious sporting event.

1923: Athletes up and down the Pacific Coast shouted for joy when the 1923 track season was over. It meant they would no longer have to compete against Oregon State's Grant "Doc" Swan, who had finally used up his eligibility and who went through his entire collegiate career without ever losing a race. He was a specialist in the mile.

1924-26: Still considered a "golden age" at OSU for relay teams, coach "Dad" Butler's lads finish in either first or second place in each of these three seasons at the nation's most storied track meets: the Kansas Relays and Drake Relays. Of all the talented athletes who would compete for the program during this three-year period, no team member would live a more amazing life after graduation than Ray Edgar Dodge, who would go on the play a key role in the design and manufacture of Hollywood's OSCAR. His biography in the National Encyclopedia of American Biography reads:

Butler pictured with his four-mile relay national champions. Photo from 1926 Beaver.

Ray Edgar Dodge, a manufacturer, was born in Woodburn, Ore., Aug. 4, 1900. His father was president and manager of the Dodge Department Store, Inc., at Eugene, Ore. Ray was graduated A.B. at Oregon State College in 1924. A champion middle-distance runner, he was a member of the U.S. track team at the Olympic games in Paris in 1924 and in the following year won events at the international games in Berlin. Later he won many championships in the United States, Canada, and Europe, including the 600-meter indoor (Canadian), the 1000-meter outdoor (British), the Norwegian 1500-meter outdoor and the 1000-meter indoor national championship in Chicago in 1927. In 1927 Ray Dodge and Vernon Ascher organized the firm of Dodge & Ascher in Chicago to manufacture high school and college jewelry. All the stockholders in the firm were outstanding members of the 1924 Olympic track team. Dodge introduced modern designs in class rings and advanced methods of sales policy, and the new enterprise met with success. Soon he became interested in the business of distributing medals and trophies. As sales of these approximated in volume the amount of his manufactured product, he decided to undertake their manufacture and leave the college jewelry field. Accordingly, he accepted an offer from a competing firm and sold his interests in the firm of Dodge & Ascher in 1930. He then organized and became president of Dodge, Inc., of Illinois, and Dodge, Inc., of California. Factories for the manufacture of medals and trophies were set to work modeling and sculpturing the most extensive line of figures and interchangeable trophies ever attempted. The sales doubled in the second year and trebled in the third. In 1935 two competitive firms were absorbed and a stock room was opened in New York City. With this accomplished, Dodge in 1936 extended his activities into other fields. A New York assembly and finishing plant was purchased, and early in 1937 he began to manufacture hollow ware, flatware, gift items and kindred lines. In 1939 he personally purchased all common and preferred stock of McClelland Barclay Art Products, Inc., and Pompeian Art Products, both of New York city. With its four factories (two in New York city, one each in Chicago and Los Angeles), Dodge, Inc., (became) the world's largest trophy manufacturer and one of the world's largest gift and souvenir manufacturers.

1927: Under the guidance of Head Coach Michael H. "Dad" Butler, OSU's famed four-mile relay team generates much excitement by winning the prestigious Drake Relays in Des Moines against the nation's best, then follows with a first-place finish at the Washington Relays in Seattle where the foursome turns in the year's best time to solidify Oregon State's claim to a national championship in the event. The four-mile relay was the banner moment at Drake, where a very strong field of 11 teams included favorites Illinois and Oklahoma. Team captain Royce Clayton anchored for OSU and helped pull off the major upset by winning with a margin of less than half-a-yard.

1931: An Oregon State shuttle relay team, under the direction of Dick Newman and including runners Jack DuFrane, Bob Prentiss, Marsh Dunkin and Ken Martin, sets a world record in the event with a time of 1:01.6.

Photo of OSU's world record setters from the 1932 Beaver.

The feat was a major news item during its day and remains one of the shining moments in the history of OSU track and field.

Photo of Dale Story from the 1987 Oregon Stater.

1961: Running barefoot, captain Dale Story leads OSU to what is still the school's first and only NCAA national team championship. Cross Country Head Coach Sam Bell's squad also featured the talents of Bill Boyd, Cliff Thompson, Jerry Brady and Rich Cuddihy.

1968-69: Arguably, the greatest two-year period in the history of men's track and field at OSU, Head Coach Berny Wagner's squad featurs no less than five All-Americans and an Olympic gold medal winner. Writing for the September 1987 issue of The Oregon Stater, sports historian Chuck Boice recounted the important highlights of this brief but historic moment:

When Dick Fosbury competed for Olympic Gold in the summer of 1968, he was already well-known to OSU track and field fans. He had won the NCAA high jump crown at Berkeley with a leap of 7-21/2 to follow the Northern Division and Pac-8 titles. In '69, he duplicated the three championships, in every case employing a revolutionary new jumping technique he had developed in Corvallis known for all-time as the "Fosbury Flop." Wagner's '68 team won its first Northern Division Crown since 1946, as brilliant Willie Turner led the way with victories in both sprints and a winning anchor leg in the 440 relay. Rival Oregon was beaten 80-65 and OSU placed sixth in the NCAAs. In addition to Fosbury, discus thrower Tim Vollmer and Pac-8 880-champion Terry Thompson were named All-Americans. Most of these athletes were back for the > '> 69 season and there were points to spare in the high jump as Wagner showed two more 7-footers with Steve Kelly and John Radetich. This team defeated all eight dual meet opponents, including powerhouses UCLA and Oregon and the Beavers would go on to their best showing ever in the NCAAs at Knoxville, tying for overall third-place with 40 points and crowning three individual national champions: Fosbury, Jim Barkley, who posted an NCAA record 844.4 in the steeplechase, and Steve DeAutremont with the first of two national titles in the hammer throw. Vollmer finished second in the discus to give OSU four All-Americans.

Photo of Joni Huntley from the 1987 Oregon Stater.

1975: With the re-emergence of women's varsity athletics around the nation in the mid-1970s, Oregon State quickly gained national prominence in several sports, including gymnastics and track and field. With the latter, one athlete stands out as one of the greatest Beavers of all time. In January, 1975, Joni Huntley high jumped 6-2 1/2 outdoors at the New Zealand Games, setting in the process a new American record. In March, she duplicated the height indoors in a dual meet against the Soviets, a first-ever for an American woman. Along the way, she was chosen to receive the Hayward Trophy as Oregon's Outstanding Amateur Athlete. Following an OSU tradition, Huntley employed the "Fosbury Flop." She received coaching and encouragement from both Berny Wagner and high jumper Tom Woods, the latest NCAA men's champion from Oregon State. In the spring of '75, OSU and Corvallis hosted the AIAW National Track and Field Championships, the biggest women's intercollegiate track and field meet ever held, and Huntley won both the high jump and long jump crowns. Over 500 athletes from 103 schools were in attendance. Later that year, she won gold at the Pan American Games with a meet record of 6-2 1/2. In 1976, and again in 1980 and '84, Huntley would represent her country in the Olympic Games and would earn the Bronze Medal in Los Angeles in her last appearance with the U.S. high jump team with a personal-best leap of 6-5 1/2. During her career, she was ranked No. 1 in the U.S. five times while being included in the U.S. Top 10 a remarkable 13-straight years.

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

Kelly Sullivan Bio: From the OSU Athletic Department's web site: The Nehalem, Ore., native guided the WU men's track and field team to a sixth-place finish nationally in 2003, while the men's cross country squad was fifth in 2002. In the fall of 2003, his women's cross country team placed eighth nationally - the highest finish in school history. In 2000, Sullivan led the Willamette women's cross country team to its first NWC title in the history of the program. In over 23 years of coaching, Sullivan has earned 24 conference or regional Coach of the Year honors in cross country and track and field, including the 2002 and 2003 NCAA West Region Track Coach of the Year for men and women. In addition to coaching Division III national champions Jimmy Watts (decathlon; 1999-2000), Beth Fitzgerald (800 meters; 1999) and Nick Symmonds (800; 1,500 meters, 2003) at Willamette, Sullivan has amassed an impressive coaching record since completing his collegiate career in 1979. Before coaching the Bearcats, he served a 12-year stint as the head men's and women's cross country and assistant track and field coach at Auburn University (Ala.) from 1984-96. During that time, Sullivan's female athletes broke every Auburn distance record and earned their first and only two NCAA Cross Country Championships appearances in 1994-95. At Auburn, Sullivan coached 36 All-Americans in cross country and track, including 1988 steeplechase Olympian and former indoor recordholder Brian Abshire. Sullivan also coached the first female distance All-Americans in school history. Sullivan mentored 23 Division III All-Americans at Willamette, including individuals who won five national championships. Prior to coaching at Auburn, Sullivan headed the cross country program and was the assistant track and field coach at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City, Ore., coaching 24 NJCAA All-Americans from 1980-84. In 2001, Sullivan served as an assistant track and field coach for the USA World Track and Field Championships in Edmonton, Canada. Oregon State previously fielded varsity women's track and field and cross country teams from 1975 to 1988; both the men's and women's programs were discontinued after the 1988 season. The Beavers produced three U.S. Olympic women's team members, as high jumper Joni Huntley earned spots in 1976 and 1984, 800-meter runner Kathy Weston qualified in 1976 and heptathlete Cindy Greiner was on the 1984, 1988 and 1992 squads. In those 14 seasons of intercollegiate competition, OSU had 12 All-America finishes and four national champions in the AIAW (1975-81) and NCAA (1982-88) national meets. Oregon State had 14 regional champions in the years prior to women's track becoming a Pac-10 sport in 1987; the Beavers then competed just two years in the Pac-10 before dropping track.