This exhibit explores the ways in which Oregon State students have cultivated and celebrated their campus community since 1868.
Amongst Oregon State’s values is community engagement to build relationships between students, faculty, staff, and more broadly, the Beaver community. One way to foster these relationships is by invoking school spirit. Some of the ways the Oregon State community enacts its school pride include wearing school colors, participating in school traditions, and representing the university through sports, clubs, and activities.
OAC athletes, Harriet’s Photograph Collection, 1868-1996, P HC
Beavers and the colors orange and black weren’t always a part of the Oregon State community. Some reports share that in 1896, students adopted orange as the primary school color in honor of Robert Reed Gailey, a Presbyterian missionary and popular former football player for Princeton University. At the time, he was visiting the Albany Collegiate Institute (now Lewis and Clark College), whose colors were orange and black. While visiting Oregon, students from Oregon State invited him to coach the football team for several days. In his honor, they chose orange as their school color. While black wasn’t officially adopted, it was used as a background color. Now, the Oregon State community proudly wears orange and black to show school spirit.
At the time of the university’s origin, mascots served a different role in academic communities. They were more akin to class pets, and were often real animals or even people. Early Oregon State mascots included “Jimmie” the Coyote and “Doc” Bell. Bell was a member of the Board of Regents, well-known for his tradition of marching to Marys River after each of Oregon State’s rivalry game wins and throwing his hat into the water to celebrate the victory.
The beaver was eventually adopted as Oregon State’s official mascot after the school newspaper and yearbook used the name, “The Beaver”. Reports say that in 1951, graphic illustrator Arthur Evans (who famously designed a majority of the college mascots of the twentieth century) drew the first cartoon beaver mascot for Oregon State. In 1952, student Ken Austin showed up to a school rally dressed in a hand-made Beaver costume. These first renditions of “Benny the Beaver” are the origin of Oregon State’s modern mascot.
Ken Austin with Benny, Beaver Yearbook Photographs, 1998-2005, P003:6500.
School spirit and tradition are closely related. Traditions are often used by students to portray a sense of pride in their institution by honoring those students who came before them. While traditions may play a role in school spirit, they are not an exclusive means of promoting school pride.
Historically, some traditions have been exclusionary, whether intentionally or not. For example, in the early-mid twentieth century, freshman students (known then as “rooks” and “rookesses”) were made to wear green on Wednesdays until the ritual “Burning of the Green” at the end of the academic year. This rule was enforced by sophomores and upperclassmen.
Burning of the Green, Graham & Wells Photograph Collection, 1919-1925, P021:026.
At sporting events during this time, there were also dress codes for student spectators. These students were also not allowed to “fuss”, meaning they could not sit or mingle with students of the opposite sex at sporting events. These days, campus has moved towards a more inclusive approach, allowing students of all levels to wear whatever they wish to classes and removing clothing and gendered restrictions for students attending sporting events.
Other traditions are still practiced today. Among them are songs and cheers used at sporting events and academic celebrations, like convocation and commencement. The “Spirit and Sound of OSU”, Oregon State’s marching band, helps maintain these traditions and promote school spirit by performing at campus and sporting events. While playing music, they often form impressive shapes and scenes related to their performance.
Beaver songs, MSS MC Box-Folder 177.5.
Visual representations of school spirit are not the only means of building community at Oregon State, however. Many students participate in clubs and activities, pursuing hobbies or passions while at the same time representing the university at competitions and events. There, friends, family, and fans cheer them on.
One of the most popular ways to show school spirit is to support Beaver athletics. Baseball is one of the most popular sporting events at Oregon State, with good reason. The Beaver baseball team won back-to-back NCAA championship titles in 2006 and 2007, and again in 2018. After each win, Oregon State students and community members gathered to celebrate the team after their homecoming.
Oregon State students have also competed internationally, to the excitement of the Beaver community. In 1964, Oregon State student Jean Saubert earned a silver medal in the giant slalom and a bronze medal in the slalom in the Winter Olympics. She also participated and placed in the World Championships in 1962, 1963, 1964, and 1966 as a member of the US Ski Team. Saubert graduated from Oregon State in 1966. Her accomplishments were celebrated in 1991, when she was inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame.
Jean Saubert, MSS MC 140.9.
Other clubs and organizations in which Oregon State students have participated or competed include Greek life, music groups and clubs, cultural groups, affinity groups, and more.
Ultimately, there’s no one way to enact school spirit. Whether you wear orange and black to show your school pride, attend a volleyball game to support the student athletes on that team, compete in philanthropy events to fundraise for a good cause, or advocate for students’ rights, school spirit is about fostering and supporting the community around you here at Oregon State.
~ Grace Knutsen
Grace Knutsen is the lead student archivist at Special Collections and Archives Research Center. She has HBAs in history, French, and German from OSU and is an MLIS student at Indiana University Indianapolis.