Was this the greatest ever?
Last Monday, on a baseball field in Omaha, Neb., Beaver Believers finally came face-to-face with what "believing" is all about--a national championship--earned in what may be the NCAA's most grueling post-season tournament.
It was done, we now know, before record-breaking audiences on both the ESPN's, as millions sat glued to their television sets night-after-night to see if an unheralded group of young men from the Pacific Northwest could defy the odds and win college baseball's most coveted prize. In proving who was best in 2006, Pat Casey's team brought home only the second NCAA team championship OSU has ever won.
So what should we make of this remarkable achievement? Is this the greatest moment in OSU sports history? Greater than Terry Baker's Heisman? Greater than the Ironmen of 1933? The Giant Killers of '67? The 1981 men's basketball team that stayed atop the rankings most of that season? Carol Menken-Schaudt's Olympic gold medal or, dare we even bring it up, the 2001 Fiesta Bowl crushing of storied Notre Dame?
For me, the Fiesta Bowl is still tops in the modern era. Oregon State's win over the Irish just five years ago boosted school pride to levels almost unmatched in the over 110 years OSU has competed in college athletics.
The effects are still being felt...in alumni and corporate donations, in student enrollment, and, for our purposes here, in the quality of athletes OSU has managed to recruit in the last few years, in all sports. Look at men's and women's basketball. Both are on the rebound and within reach of a respectability not enjoyed in a long time. Soccer has never been better. Wrestling and gymnastics continue to be nationally competitive. And the women's softball team? No big shakes, except that the ladies won their first-ever PAC-10 championship last year and went to the College World Series this year, another school first.
Without the Fiesta Bowl, maybe none of this happens. Maybe Buck and Canham and Gunderson and Kunda and Nickerson, or any of the other members of this extraordinary team, enroll at another school. Or bypass college altogether and go directly to the pros. Without them no Omaha, probably no PAC-10 titles.
But gosh, this baseball thing is awfully, awfully close. First OSU team in history to win a "major" NCAA championship. First team since USC in 1998 to win the championship from the loser's bracket. First "northern climate" program to win the title since Minnesota in 1964 and Ohio State in 1966. First OSU team in any sport to finish a season ranked No. 1 in all the polls.
These guys dispelled myths by the bucketful and set a standard of excellence that will inspire athletes from around the state for decades to come. They have, and this wasn't easy to do, given their generation its very own "Ironmen," the embodiment of the words to a song we all know well...
"Watch our team go tearing down the field,
those of iron their strength will never yield...."
History and Traditions Editor
OSUAA Updates
Navigate New Zealand's North & South Islands
Aboard the 128-Passenger Clipper Odyssey
Oregon State University invites you to explore New Zealand during the austral summer with President Ed Ray and his wife Beth, along with Jeff Todd, Executive Director of the OSU Alumni Association aboard Clipper Cruise Line. Departing February 18 – 28, 2007. |
