George Edmonston Jr., former editor of E-clips and the Oregon Stater, has retired and assumed the title of History and Traditions Editor of the Oregon Stater, he is closing out his involvement with E-clips by sharing a list of the 20 historical events he considers to be the most important in school history. He'll cover one event each week.

#4 John M. Bloss

John McKnight Bloss, who served as OSU president from 1892-1896, places high on our list of defining moments for this reason: More than any of his predecessors, it was Bloss who expanded the college experience for students to include extracurricular activities not directly tied to academics. Under this quiet and unassuming educator from the Midwest, OSU begins intercollegiate athletics; adopts orange and black as school colors; introduces the college's first cheer to generate school spirit (no small achievement because it would have been considered frivolous and unbecoming by prior administrators) and establishes the tradition of the marching band.
Born in 1839 near the small Indiana town of New Philadelphia, OSU's third president entered Hanover College in 1854 and graduated in 1860.

For the next 12 months, Bloss served as a school principal in Livonia, Ind. This brief, early exposure to public education would have a major impact on the rest of his life, for it is the profession he returned to after the Civil War and the one which would give him the most success in life.

During the war years, as a sergeant in the 27th Indiana Regiment, Bloss achieved considerable notoriety in the Union Army when he helped discover what historians have often referred to as "Lee's Lost Order," a hand-written sheet of paper on which Confederate General Robert E. Lee had outlined the disposition of his troops prior to the Battle of Antietam, fought Sept. 16, 1862. The event is generally considered one of the most important military security blunders in history.

By coincidence, Bloss was at Gettysburg with Benjamin Hawthorne, later to be a member of the Corvallis College faculty. The two fought on opposite sides ...Hawthorne in Confederate gray at Pickett’s Charge, Bloss at Culp’s Hill.

As hostilities drew to a close, Bloss was promoted to captain, but then received wounds that would force him to resign his commission. In 1865, he returned home to New Philadelphia. Two years later, he was made principal of an academy in Orleans, Ind. He also served as superintendent of schools for Orange County, Ind. For the next 25 years, Bloss served in a variety of administrative positions in public school systems from Muncie to Topeka, Kan.

He moved to Corvallis in June 1892 to lead what was then officially known as State Agricultural College, although Oregon Agricultural College or OAC had been in popular usage since 1889. He held the rank of professor of mental and moral science and taught courses in political economy, psychology and ethics.

In athletics, Bloss was responsible for elevating football to varsity status. William "Will" Bloss, a Purdue graduate and Oregon State’s first football coach and quarterback, was his son. It was also during Bloss' presidency that most of OSU's core traditions were established, the majority of which are still around. School colors changed from navy blue to orange and black. A school cheer or yell was approved for student gatherings, the first in OSU history...Zip Boom Bee, Zip Boom Bee, OA, OA, OAC. And Bloss gave the go-ahead for the cadet band to perform at the school’s first football game, Nov. 11, 1893, the start of the campus' longest-running musical show.

In addition to these start-ups, Bloss increased the size of the campus and budget. By 1896, enrollment had reached a record 397 men and women, all of college standing, since Bloss cared little for the school’s longtime preparatory department and had suspended its operation early in his tenure. The faculty grew to an impressive 21 full-time instructors.

The total value of property owned by the college during his tenure exceeded $167,000,  extraordinary for that day, and appropriations from the state reached the unprecedented sum of $50,000. He also was the first OSU president to encourage large numbers of women to major in agriculture, thus fulfilling the spirit of Professor Joe Emery, established 20 years earlier, that "young women be encouraged to take practical work in gardening, landscaping and floriculture."

Bloss introduced the "Farmer’s Short Course" to supplement instruction given by the college’s larger "Farmer’s Institutes," then took over as director of the agriculture experiment station. In this capacity, he placed new emphasis on research in such areas as soils, fertilizers and drainage; feeds for livestock; farm pests; and the production of prunes and flax.

Recognizing the school’s library needed help, Bloss allocated $300 a year to buy books for the collection, which at 2,300 volumes, was a poor showing for a state land-grant college. To put the new acquisitions to good use, he helped launch a number of new literary societies...the most important of which were the Websterians and the Ciceronians. Semi-secret and semi-fraternal in character, they provided outlets for the "social needs" of the student body at a time when membership in a literary society carried more prestige than the football team.

It was also under Bloss that students produced OSU's first "college annual." Titled The Hayseed and issued in 1894 by Editor Austin T. Buxton of the junior "mechanical" class, this nifty pamphlet is generally considered the forerunner of both the Daily Barometer, OSU’s student newspaper (founded 1896), and the Oregon Stater, OSU’s alumni magazine (founded 1915).

In military science, Bloss took one look at the Confederate gray uniforms used by his predecessor, B. L. Arnold, and issued an immediate order for a change to Union blue! This included the cadet band.

Two campus buildings, Mechanical Hall and the "Station Building,"  were constructed during his administration. Mechanical Hall, which housed a variety of campus activities and services, and was Oregon State’s first real athletic facility (it contained an indoor practice space for a variety of sports, plus lockers for equipment), burned to a shell in 1898 and was not replaced. Today the "Station Building" is the Women’s Center.

Because of failing health, Bloss returned to Indiana in 1896. He died at his home, "Blossom Acres," in Hamilton Township, Ind., on April 26, 1906. In the Midwest, he is still given credit for developing the concept of the consolidated school, a reputation he earned for his involvement in establishing the Royerton consolidated school system in Hamilton Township in 1902.

In his heart and spirit, John McKnight Bloss remained a "soldier" his entire life. Often, he could be seen walking on campus wearing his old Union Army-issue "Great Coat." Despite his many contributions to public and higher education, all that is written on his gravestone is a simple inscription: "Finder of Lee’s ‘Lost Order.’ " Today, his legacy is preserved by photos and letters housed in the OSU Archives and a co-ed dorm named Bloss Hall.