Since 1893, the year Oregon State first fielded a football team, the Beavers have gone to eight bowl games, including the one yet to be played in a few weeks against the Fighting Irish in Tempe. Here's a brief rundown of OSU's history in bowl games, beginning with its first appearance in 1940 in the Pineapple Bowl.

1940/Pineapple Bowl - played on January 1, 1940, the Beavers thrashed Hawaii 39-6. Over 15,000 fans saw OSU take a 19-0 lead in the first quarter and never look back. Hawaii's lone score came just before the half. Oregon State chalked up 452 yards in total offense to 177 for the Rainbows. A little known fact concerning this trip is that the bowl game itself was the second game OSU played during the trip. On Christmas day, in an exhibition game, they defeated the Healani town team by an unknown score.

1942/Rose Bowl - OSU's first trip for the Roses was against heavily favored Duke slightly less than four weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result, and for security reasons, the game was moved to Durham, North Carolina (Duke's home turf). Known to sports historians as the "Displaced Rose Bowl," this is the only Rose Bowl game in history played outside Pasadena and remains Oregon State's most prestigious bowl win, a 20-16 whipping of one of the nation's elite programs. The winning score came on a 68-yard pass from Bob Dethman to Gene Gray. The Duke quarterback was Tommy Prothro, who later coached OSU and UCLA to Rose Bowl appearances. The 56,000 tickets printed for the game sold out in three days.

1949/Pineapple Bowl - The score this time was 47-27 in favor of the Beavers but the Rainbows won much of the statistical war, with more total yards, more first downs, and more passing yards by game's end. Hawaii running back Jyan Hirota scored three touchdowns against OSU to lead all scorers. The attendance was 15,000.

1957/Rose Bowl - A 35-19 defeat at the hands of Iowa greeted OSU on its second Rose Bowl trip. The score was 21-6 by half and by game's end, Iowa had outgained Oregon State 408 yards to 296. OSU's head coach Tommy Prothro was just in his second year as Beaver boss. Iowa quarterback Ken Ploen was named "Player of the Game."

1962/Liberty Bowl - Won 6-0 by OSU, this was the game that virtually locked-in the Heisman Trophy for Beaver quarterback Terry Baker. His 99-yard run from scrimmage for the game's only score remains one of the great moments in OSU football history. The run came with 9:24 to go in the first quarter. Of OSU's total offensive output for the game...309 yards...Baker was responsible for 260.

1965/Rose Bowl - won 34-7 by Michigan, OSU was still in the game in the third quarter but couldn't rally when the Wolverines scored 15 unanswered points in the period to put the victory away. Michigan's Mel Anthony scored three times and was named "Player of the Game." OSU radio personality Bob Grimm was a part of this team and an assistant coach to Tommy Prothro was Bob Mckittrick, who went on to earn five Super Bowl rings as an offensive line coach for the San Francisco 49ers.

1999/Jeep O'ahu Bowl - played on Christmas Day, the University of Hawaii stunned the Beavers 23-17 in a nationally televised game from Honolulu. The Beavers compiled an impressive 438 yards passing and running, with Ken Simonton responsible for 156 yards on 18 carries. But it was not enough as 40,974 watched the Beavers lose in their first bowl appearance since 1965.

2001/Tostitos Fiesta Bowl - played before 75,428 fans on Jan. 1, 2001, OSU's smashing 41-9 triumph over storied Notre Dame in ASU's Sun Devil Stadium might arguably be Oregon State's greatest bowl game victory in school history. Clearly, the Beavers played their best game of the season in routing the 10th-ranked Irish in the 30th annual Fiesta Bowl, totally dominating the men from South Bend almost from the opening whistle. Though leading only by a 12-3 margin at half, Notre Dame was probably thankful the score wasn't higher as OSU had rolled up 278 yards in the first two periods and scored on three of its first four possessions. On the one possession the Beavers did not score, they drove the ball 83 yards in nine plays and didn't quit until they were stopped on fourth down at the Irish 1-yard line. So dominant was the Orange defense, Notre Dame managed to generate but 8 yards total offense on six offensive plays in the first quarter. The third quarter was truly historic, resulting in a 29-point deluge that put the game away for good. The quarter was highlighted by a bizarre punt return for a TD in which OSU wide receiver T. J. Houshmandzadeh returned a ND punt from the Beaver 27, was hit hard at the 50 and fumbled, only to have teammate Terrell Roberts field the ball in the air to take it the rest of the way for the score. Quarterback Jonathan Smith was named Offensive Player of the Game after completing 16 of 24 passes for 305 yards and three touchdowns. Linebacker Darnell Robinson was named Defensive Player of the Game after recording seven tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss, a pass breakup and a pass interception.

Bowl Game 2002 - will it be to play the Air Force Academy on Dec. 25th in the Las Vegas Bowl or will the opponent be West Virginia in the Insight Bowl on Dec. 26th? Right now, nobody knows where the Beavers are headed, but the best analysis we've seen so far here at the Alumni Association comes from Brooks Hatch of the Corvallis Gazette-Times who says: "The truth be told, nobody knows exactly where the Beavers will play until the regular season concludes on Dec. 7 and the Bowl Championship Series announces its pairings on Dec. 8.

"Several things are crystal clear," Hatch goes on to say. "The Pac-10 champion will play in the Rose Bowl and the runner-up will play in the Holiday Bowl unless it's an at-large BCS selection. If the Pac-10 runner-up goes to the BCS, every remaining team will move up a slot in the pecking order.

"After that, the picture becomes muddled because if ties are involved the bowl organizers are free to choose whomever they want from the deadlocked teams. If UCLA and Arizona State lose their final games, there will be a five-way tie for third place among OSU, UCLA, ASU, and Washington, and California, which is on NCAA probation and not eligible for a bowl. At that point, the wheeling and dealing would begin. The Sun Bowl has first pick, followed by the Insight, Las Vegas and Silicon Valley bowls. So it's possible OSU could play in any one of four locations if the third-place logjam still exists when the regular-season dust settles."

For the complete text of Mr. Hatch's story, see this issue of E-Clips.

--George Edmonston, Jr.