Oregon State Football (Images of Sports Series) »

Author Kip Carlson is an assistant sports information director at Oregon State University and has also covered OSU football as a sportswriter. Carlson began following Oregon State athletics in the early 1970s while growing up in Corvallis, just about the time the Beavers began that streak of 28 straight losing football seasons. The author maintains that the Beavers' 2000 season, culminating in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl, was undoubtedly worth the wait.

Oregon State University began its football program in 1893 and has been a study in contrasts ever since. The Beavers went to the Rose Bowl after the 1941, 1956, and 1964 seasons and to the Liberty Bowl in 1962. There was also a streak of losing seasons that lasted from 1971 until 1998. Two years later, the Beavers competed in the Fiesta Bowl and ranked among the top five teams in the country. From the Iron Men of 1933 to the Civil War rivalry between OSU and the University of Oregon, and from Terry Baker the first Heisman Trophy winner on the West Coast to a pair of bowl victories over Notre Dame, this entertaining and informative volume presents many seldom-seen images and the stories behind them over a century of Oregon State football.