Story by Jody Murray
Photos by Martha Stanton, Jimmi Harris, and
Bob Baker
Cover photo by Bob Baker
jf
^J sually, the words "Civil War are suf
ficient to send an Oregon or Oregon State football
player s heart a-pumpin and eyes a-biazm This
year, however, there's another word that will
spark some extra adrenalin for the 82nd edition of
this Northwest free-for-all
The word is "frustration
The Beaver camp in Corvallis is particularly
afflicted by frustration this season OSU s per
sonal hell began with the opening season kickoff
and hasn't ended, except for a brief respite three
games ago when the Beavers upset Stanford The
remainder of the time, the Beavers have lost
miserably, stumbling to a 2-8 record Their coach
Craig Fertig. will be on the Oregon State sidelines
for the last time this weekend against the Ducks
after being fired at mid-season
Meanwhile, the Ducks are coming into the
rivalry straight out of the meat grinder of a 35-0
loss to UCLA last Saturday The defeat not only
destroyed Oregon s slim chances for a bowl
invitation, but put a serious dent in their growing
reputation as an up-and-coming team
So, needless to say. the desire to win will be
doubly high on both sides this Saturday Oregon
State will be striving to grasp an oasis o» satisfac
tion m a bleak desert of a season while Oregon
will be trying to save face after the humiliating loss
to UCLA and finish with its first winning season
since 1970
But what happens on the field is only part of the
story The Civil War game has. over the years,
been the catalyst for student emotions and ac
tivities as well as those of the players and
coaches Pranks have ranged from parades to
dynamiting the big "O ' on Skinner s Butte
Most of these occurrences, however, are a
thing of the past, as the unrest and political
awareness of the Vietnam era stole away the
fervor from sports in general and the Civil War in
particular
"It's never just another game as far as the
players are concerned says Len Casanova who
coached the Ducks from 1951 -66 and now serves
the University as athletic director emeritus But
in the late 60s and early 70s, students became
apathetic and lost their interest in athletics "
Lately, indications of increasing school spirit
have appeared The efforts to resurrect the
homecoming game this year is a case in point
ut will the fever and activities surround
ing the Civil War ever return'? Admittedly, it would
be difficult to recapture the ritualistic rapture that
surrounded the game before the late 60s slump
Take preparation for the 1935 game as an
example On the agenda the week of the contest
was a rally, two dances, the "noise pa ade and
the burning of a wooden O' on the butte People
with tickets for the rooter s section were required
to wear white shirts and rooter's hats or they
wouldn t be admitted to their seats
Among the most important of the pre-game
events was the bonfire Freshmen were assigned
to erect and guard the woodpile and try to prevent
OSU saboteurs from setting off the torch ahead of
schedule
Another mainstay was the noise parade Each
living organization would create a float equipped
with horns, sirens.and other means of audio
destruction and try their hardest to bring down
every building in Eugene Awards would be given,
of course, for the most ear-assaulting displays
And then there were the incidents that no one
could find on a schedule of events
In 1937, some industrious individuals Irom
Corvallis snuck onto Hayward Field, distracted
the attention of the freshman guards, and then
burnt OSU" into the mid-field turf Oregon
covered up the letters with cut grass, bui couldn t
stop the Beaver football team, which won 14-0
Frustrated Oregon students retaliated by kidnap
ping a few OSU students and using their bodies to
paint the 50-feet-long O on the butte
regon alum Warren Mack, who now
teaches high school journalism in Cupertino, Cal.,
recalls a game at OSU in the late '50s in which an
inebriated Oregon fan got more than he bar
gained for
According to Mack, the Beavers junior varsity
team was deployed throughout Parker Stadium
during the varsity game as a kind of vigilante
squad With only minutes left in the game, the
intoxicated Oregon fan stepped into the endzone
and began dancing and shouting a string of
obscenities at the OSU fans
The OSU jayvees jumped the hapless lush who
emerged from the melee wearing only a belt and
a sock and still cursing, while bleeding from every
pore. Mack reealls
Sometimes the student aggression was direct
ed at the teams themselves The week before the
1955 Civil War. the Ducks were dealt a sound 44-7
thrashing by Stanford The Oregon student body
hung ooach Casanova in effigy on game day
Later that afternoon, as Cas recalls, he was
crowned by the students after his team crushed
the Beavers, 28-0
Casanova has seen some strange things hap
pen on the field during the 15 Civil Wars that he
has coached In 1962, the Ducks came into the
OSU game with a 6-2-1 record and an invitation to
the Bluebonnet Bowl However, the players had
no know lege of the bowl invite since Casanova
feared that it might steal away some of their
intensity
"I figured that I'd wait until halftime to tell
them.' says Cas When he did, the Ducks were
leading at the half, 17-7 In the second half, the
Beavers closed to 17-14 Luckily, time was run
ning out and OSU had to punt
We blocked their punt, but we were called for a
penalty They kicked again Mel Renfro was
standing on the three and decided not to field it,
but it bounced and hit him on the leg An OSU
player pounced on the live ball, the Beavers won
the contest 20-17, and the 1962 Bluebonnet Bowl
went the way of the 1979 Garden State Bowl
/ n 1955, the community began to crack
down on student pranks Six University students
were charged with destruction of state-owned
property after they burned a 12-feet-long UO
into the grass at Parker Stadium Each student
was fined $50
By the mid-'60s. the merriment was on its way
out, but not before the Daily Emerald made a pact
with the Oregon State Barometer In 1965, the
publications made a bet - the paper of the losing
school would publish its next issue with the
masthead of the winning school s paper The Civil
War score that year: Oregon State 19, Oregon 17
That Monday, the Daily (Emerald) Barometer was
a gracious loser, but noted that the issue was
"undoubtedly the finest piece of journalism ever
to appear under the Barometer nameplate "
if they had known what was to come, perhaps
the Emerald staff wouldn't have made the bet in
the first place Oregon State was in the midst of an
eight-game Civil War winning streak (1964-71),
the longest for either team in the rivalry's history
By 1971, the Ducks were in the pit of disillu
sionment This, combined with the spectre of
Vietnam, marked the downfall of Oregon Civil War
spirit As the sports editor of the Emerald noted
before the 71 game, "Since those days when
frats, beanies and homecoming weren't ir
relevant, Oregon has lost every year
(Continued on Page 8B)
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