On any college campus with enough athletics to fund football, the summer months represent a "down time" for school sports, with fans using June through August to predict what the coming gridiron games will bring for the home team.

As a way of using our History Minute weekly feature to help kick off the hot months ahead and to give Beaver fans something to talk about other than the old pigskin and what are Ken Simonton's chances of picking up OSU's second Heisman, we at E-clips thought it might be fun to look at some other achievements recorded by the OSU family over the last, say, 100 years.

We'll let you decide if any of these are "athletic" in nature... or not... but they are all 100 percent true.

Which brings us first to our "tractor" story.

In the month of April, way back in 1930, someone in OSU's Agricultural Engineering Department decided it might be a good idea to have the department try and break the world's record for what was called a "tractor endurance run."

Whatever the old record might have been, our friends in Ag Engineering shattered it with a 20-day, 1,000 mile non-stop run on the college experimental farm, pulling disks, harrows and other tractor implements along the way.

Drivers from the faculty, staff and students took turns at the controls of the tractor, which had no name but was officially designated PT2407.

Dick Wagner eats a snack while driving the midnight shift of PT2407's record setting run in 1930. Photo appeared in the April, 1995 issue of the Oregon Stater.

To begin the run, the tractor was christened in a special ceremony using a bottle of Oregon prune juice. A special parade and pageant signaled the end of contest and Governor A.W. Norbland was in attendance.

So whatever happened to PT2407? A few years ago, OSU Archivist Elizabeth Nielsen became curious about its whereabouts and began digging around. She found it, through the help of Portland collector Harry Cruchelow and his connections with the Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owners Club. At least at that time, 1995, the tractor was the property of the Halton Tractor Company of Portland and was on public display.

Other firsts:

OSU's Poultry Science Department was probably the best in the world before World War I. The department's star was a laying hen named "Lady McDuff" (listed in research papers as hen C-521), who set a world's record in 1913 by becoming the first chicken to lay over 300 eggs in a single production year! Lady McDuff was under the guidance of professor James Dryden, who, in 1991, became the only poultry scientist ever to be elected to the National Agricultural Hall of Fame.

James Dryden Two of OAC's World Champion Layers. The chicken on the right is Lady McDuff. Both photos from The Orange, 1915

In 1960, Oregon State entomologist Robert L. Goulding developed the world's first flea collars for dogs and cats. His "collar" was made available to the public in 1964.

When Oregon State hired Captain Benjamin Boswell to teach military instruction in 1873, he became the first U.S. Army officer on active duty to teach military science at a land grant institution in the West.

Six years later (1889), Dr. Margaret Snell would establish another first for OSU (known then as State Agricultural College) by starting the first Department of Household Economy and Hygiene in the West. This would eventually become OSU's College of Home Economics.

As most Beavers know, Ernest H. Wiegand developed the process used in the making of the maraschino cherry. Few, however, know it was also Wiegand who developed the first horticultural products program in the U.S. This was in 1919.

Beaver Head Coach Bill Hargiss had a hand in introducing the huddle to football in 1918. Photo from The Beaver, 1920.

Although many schools over the years have laid claim to being the birthplace for football's "huddle," the record clearly indicates Oregon State was one of the very first schools nationally to use the formation in a game. It happened against the University of Washington in Seattle in 1918. That day, the UW players were having much fun decoding all of OSC's plays. Little was working because the boys from Seattle seemed to know what was going to happen before it happened. Beaver Head Coach "Bill" Hargiss watched for awhile then, fed up, told his players at half-time about a children's game he had years ago in which signals were whispered. He instructed the starters that once they returned to the field, they were to stand 10 yards behind the ball before the beginning of each play and whisper to one another what they were going to do next.

Looking on, UW's players found the new antics of the Beavers somewhat "odd," as if they were grouped together to have a prayer meeting. An eyewitness to the game was veteran Seattle sports columnist Royal Brougham, whose stories of the contest give testimony today to OSU's early use of this pioneering new formation that would forever change the game of football.

-- By George Edmonston Jr.