OSU
Sports History Minute - January 12, 2001
Part
12 of 10 (Second Bonus Issue): Consistency
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Jack
Hinman, 7, is just one of the many Beaver
fans who hope the football team can sustain
their success.
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Now
that the Beaver football team has just completed
its best football season in history, OSU
fans are chomping at the bit waiting for
the 2001 fall season to roll around.
Expectations are running high that next
year's team will be another bowl team and,
given a little luck, could even be competing
for the national championship in next year's
Rose Bowl game in Pasadena.
But
first, Oregon State will have to break the
"jinx of consistency" that has plagued the
program most of the 20th century.
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The
historical record shows that every time the Beavers
have turned in a great campaign and had expectations
running sky high for the next, they have always
followed with disappointing seasons that had fans
scratching their heads wondering why.
For example, the 1914 team finished the season undefeated
with two ties. The next year, which was also the
year the Beavers helped form the Pacific Coast Conference
(now the Pac-10), they finished a disappointing
5-3.
In 1926, Paul Schissler's Orangemen turned in a
7-1 campaign but could do little better than 3-3-1
the next year
The 9-1-1 '39 team finished the 1940 campaign at
5-3-1, and the 1941 squad, at 8-2, could not do
better the next year, finishing at 4-5-1.
Kip Taylor was 7-3 in 1949 but 3-6-0 a year later.
This was followed by four consecutive losing seasons
before the program was turned over to Tommy Prothro
in 1955. As well as Prothro did in the nine years
he served as Beaver football boss, his 1957 team,
at 8-2, was followed by a mediocre 6-4 in 1959,
then 3-7 in 1960.
Dee Andros' 1970 season at 6-5 was followed by 28-straight
losing seasons, an NCAA record.
At two winning seasons in a row and counting, plus
the best coaching staff in OSU's history on board
and sticking around for the next few years, 2001
may finally be the year Oregon State sheds its "jinx
of consistency" and establishes itself as one of
nation's most respected football programs. A 41-9
Fiesta Bowl win over Notre Dame on national television
certainly didn't hurt.
--George
Edmonston, Jr.
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