By George Edmonston Jr.

Down the right field foul line at OSU’s baseball stadium, way in the back near the visitor’s bullpen, there’s a small cinder block building---a shed really---used by Jess Lewis and his groundskeepers to house the equipment they need to keep Coleman Field at Goss Stadium a showplace for college baseball.

Down one wall of the building, facing the field, is a bench. For years now, a small group of OSU fans has congregated at this spot to cheer the home team and smoke cigars. Smokers and nonsmokers alike often refer to the place affectionately as the "Cigar Corner."

The Cigar Corner group, pictured: Martin Mauer, Jonathan Smith, Al Kirk, Dee Andros, Paul Marriott, Doug Tindell, Craig McEldowney, Paul Valenti and Hal Cowan. Photo from the April 2000 Oregon Stater.

As surely as grass grows green in the spring, when OSU plays its first home game in a few months the affectionados will be there, as they always are, doing what they always do, talking balls and strikes, cowhide and hard ash, debating the merits of a fast ball over a curve or splitter, and blowing smoke. But something will be missing. Or someone. It will be their first season without their chairman of the board...Dee Andros.

A regular at home games for many years, who could always be found sitting on that bench enjoying a stogie, the Great Pumpkin passed away Wednesday morning, Oct. 22, from complications caused by the long-term affects of diabetes. As word of his death spread around the state and nation, the media literally gushed with tributes to this man who came to symbolize all that it means to be a Beaver Believer. The vast majority of the coverage centered on Dee’s career in college football, his talents for motivating young athletes, and his use and abuse of the English language. And why not? Dee Andros was one of a kind, the sort of coach and person who only comes along once in a lifetime.

But there was and is another side to the Pumpkin that went unnoticed, an aspect of his devotion to OSU I observed time-and-time again while enjoying the camaraderie of the Cigar Corner.

Simply put, Dee was never just about football.

At any given game in any given baseball season, he knew the names of the players, their batting averages, which pitchers were having a good season, and what it was going to take for the team to have a shot at the playoffs.

It was but the tip of his iceberg. He could also give you the latest on how the women’s softball team was doing or if the men’s soccer team had a chance for the post-season. Wrestling? No problem. Women’s gymnastics? The same.

Coach Dee Andros, the Great Pumpkin, is carried off the field by his happy team after the Beavers' upset of USC. Photo from the 1968 Beaver.

Hearing this, it was not much of a stretch to imagine that if suddenly one of these sports, or any OSU sport for that matter, needed a coach to sub in an emergency, Dee Andros was ready, big orange windbreaker and all.

Said Cigar Corner regular but nonsmoker Doug Cox of the OSU Alumni Association, "Dee was amazing in his knowledge of what was going in OSU athletics. He cared so much, he made it a point to know."

How true.

In the coming seasons, if we who knew Coach Andros only remember how devoted he was to this university and its athletic programs, we will have remembered enough. For future generations of Beaver fans, Dee Andros set a higher standard for wearing the Orange and Black.

Andros receives the Bronze Star in Hawaii after the Battle of Iwo Jima. Photo from the April 2002 Oregon Stater.

Demosthenes Konstandies Andrecopoulos, Oklahoma native, decorated Iwo Jima survivor, "Giant Killer," lover of all things OSU, devoted husband, father and coach, chairman of the board, lover of fine cigars, Great Pumpkin...rest in peace.

"Harry Missildine (of the Spokane Spokesman-Review) applied the nickname to Andros in 1966. This was during one of the periodic eras in which Charles Schulz’ "Peanuts" cartoons, which featured the original Great Pumpkin, were widely popular."

Said Missildine in an interview for Maves’ story:

"Dee came in here (WSU’s Martin Stadium) with his XXXXL orange jacket that year and had a team with Pete Pifer at fullback, Paul Brothers at quarterback and Bob Grim at wingback. They mopped up the field with the Cougars. The final score was 41-13. It was Oct. 29 (two days before Halloween), so the lead to my column was: ‘The Great Pumpkin came to Pullman for Halloween Saturday, and Brothers was it Grim.'"

Maves concluded:

"Missildine retired in 1982, but he’s still a regular in the Martin Stadium press box. When he retired, Dee came up for the party. He had just had a hip replacement operation but said, ‘I’d have crawled here for Harry’s retirement.’"

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