Sports-The Oregon Sttater 12-04

Hall of Fame induction
Oregon State’s Sports Hall of Fame gained a basketball player who spent most of a season at No. 1, a two-way baseball standout, a three-time Olympian, a four-event gymnastics All-American and a championship football team during induction ceremonies held Sept. 17 at the Truax Indoor Center.

Included in the Hall of Fame’s class of 2004 are Ray Blume, a guard on the Beavers’ top-ranked 1981 men’s basketball team; Dave Brundage, who excelled as both a pitcher and position player; Cindy Greiner, a U.S. heptathlete in 1984, 1988 and 1992; Amy Durham, who counted a NCAA title in the floor exercise among her All-America honors; and the 1964 football team that played in the Rose Bowl.

“As the Beaver family, we’d like to thank you,” OSU Athletic Director Bob De Carolis told the inductees. “Thank you for your athletic accomplishments in the gym, on the field, on the court, on the diamond and around the track.

“But most importantly, we’d like to thank you for the great representation of Oregon State, proud alumni, and the ambassadors that you are for this great institution.”

Blume lettered at Oregon State from 1978 to 1981, earning All-America honors in 1980 and All-Pacific-10 honors in 1980 and 1981. He helped the Beavers to Pacific-10 championships in his final two seasons, and OSU was 86-27 in his four years and rose to the nation’s No.1 ranking for most of his senior season. He expressed his thanks to family and a number of his former coaches.


Ray Blume	Cindy Greiner	Amy Durham	Dave Brundage

“And if Ralph were here, I’d have to tell Ralph Miller thank you,” Blume said of his late head coach at OSU. “He had faith in me. He put me out on the court and played me. He changed a lot in the four years I was here. When I came here, he was a hard man; by the time I left, we’d broken him down and he understood that we were young men and we could play basketball, and he treated us so … he taught me a lot, and I carry a lot of the things he taught me with me in my personal life.”

Brundage lettered at OSU in baseball from 1984 to 1986 and as a punter in football in 1984. Brundage was baseball’s Northern Division Most Valuable Player and earned All-West Region and All-America honors in 1986. He also punted one season for OSU’s football team.

“I’m very, very honored to be standing here amongst these people and noticing the names that are on such an elite and distinguished list,” Brundage said. “My family, being from Oregon State and such huge Beaver fans, it means the world to me.”

Durham lettered at Oregon State from 1990 to 1993 and is one of just two OSU gymnasts to earn All-America honors in four events, including winning a national title in the floor exercise as a senior by scoring a perfect 10.0; she recorded two of just four floor exercise 10.0s in OSU history.

“I think the one thing I noticed as I thought over my career is how little I had to do with it all. I look back and I think what a wonderful experience I had here at Oregon State because the community was so supportive of the team,” Durham said, going on to credit many others for her success and adding, “God blessed me with ability, and he made me short so that I could be a gymnast.”

Greiner lettered at Oregon State in 1980-81, earning All-America honors as a senior when she placed fourth at the AIAW Championships and set the United States record for the heptathlon with 5,420 points. She also won the regional championship that season. In Olympic competition, Greiner placed fourth in 1984 and eighth in 1998. She was the U.S. champion in the event in 1984 and 1990.

“Oregon State has been so good to me,” Greiner said, noting she had started her collegiate career at Oklahoma and “done okay. But I got to Oregon State and I got to Corvallis, and there was so much of a sense of community here and I really blossomed … just like I think I’ve heard from all the other athletes here, we had special coaches here who really believed in us and they really made us what we were.”

The 1964 football team marked Oregon State’s return to a conference schedule after spending five seasons as an independent. The Beavers went 8-3 overall and 3-1 in the Athletic Association of Western Universities, earning the nod over co-champion Southern California for the conference’s berth in the Rose Bowl. In Pasadena, OSU fell 34-7 to fourth-ranked Michigan.

“It’s a tremendous honor and really exciting for someone of our era to be honored here,” quarterback Paul Brothers said. “But I look at somebody who played in 1932-33 (the late Bill Tomsheck) and think of what a thrill it must be for them to receive a (OSU Hall of Fame) blazer … it’s a piece of clothing, but it means so very, very much to all of us.”

Oregon State Sports Hall of Fame class of 2004

Oregon State Sports Hall of Fame class of 2004

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