Pac-12 Tuesday: An Oregon State vs. Washington State Timeline

The Week 4 matchup pitting Oregon State vs. Washington State stood out even before both the Beavers and Cougars entered into the AP Poll, making this the first-ever Top 25 meeting between the programs.

That’s a remarkable tidbit, given the two Pacific Northwest land-grant universities have played consistently since 1903. This prompted me to revisit the series between the Pacific Conference’s last two members left standing.

Closest an Oregon State-Washington State matchup came to being Top 25 vs. Top 25 was 20 years ago in 2003. Washington State was in its peak era, the third of three consecutive seasons ranked in the top 10 of the final AP Top 25 poll and one year removed from representing the Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl Game.

Oregon State, long the punching bag out West, finished above .500 for the first time since 1970 in 1999, and reached its first bowl game since 1968. The Beavers’ trip to the Oahu Classic is noteworthy not just for the historic meaning it had for Oregon State, nor simply because it’s an opportunity to reference a personal favorite one-off gag from King of the Hill.

The ‘99 season provided a launch-point for Oregon State’s unforgettable 2000 campaign, in which the Beavers finished a program-best 11-1 with current head coach Jonathan Smith playing quarterback.

1999 also kicked off a stretch of nine above-.500 finishes over 11 seasons for the Beavers, and 6-of-8 from 2002 through 2009 when they won at least eight games.

Among those seasons was 2003, when the Beavers finished 8-5 in the first season of Mike Riley’s second tenure as head coach. Oregon State broke into the Top 25 in 2003 on the strength of a 5-1 start, including a four-game winning streak that culminated with a 35-21 romp at Cal — one week after Cal shocked USC in overtime.

Now, there’s a tendency among present-day football punditry to mock Pac-12 teams’ seeming tradition for undermining each other immediately after big wins. This didn’t begin in the Playoff era, though.

Two weeks (including a bye) after beating Cal and ascending into the Top 25, Oregon State hosted Washington…and lost, 38-17.

The defeat was enough to keep Oregon State away from the Top 25 for the remainder of the season, but most notably the following week when the Beavers visited the Palouse.

Following in this tradition, Oregon State ran out in front of sixth-ranked Washington State early, leading 25-14 — the first time in 229 minutes of game action the Cougars trailed that season, per The News Tribune recap.

Despite five interceptions thrown Washington State quarterback Matt Kegel, however, the Cougars rallied from a wild, 36-30 win to complete a day of harrowing comebacks for WSU.

See, earlier that day, the longstanding tradition of a Washington State flag flying on the set of College Gameday nearly expired just a few weeks into its inception.

The above Gameday feature on the flag notes some of the challenges that have been overcome to keep Ol’ Crimson on the scene. But on the same Saturday as Oregon State’s 2003 visit, the same month the tradition began, The News Tribune details overzealous Bowling Green fans — yes, BOWLING GREEN — nearly preventing the flag from flying.

Oct. 25, 2003 is just one history-rich and meaningful Saturday in the dozens on which the Beavers and Cougars have met, too. The following are some highlights:

Oct. 16, 1915

On its way to just the second-ever Rose Bowl Game — and the first of a continuous streak dating back ever since — Washington State trampled Oregon Agricultural, 29-0.

It was the first of five shutouts pitched by the Cougars that season, including a 14-0 defeat of Brown in the Rose Bowl.

Oct. 14, 1916

The seven-game winning streak Washington State built on its way through the 1915 season ended in the next year’s season opener. Oregon Agricultural scored a 13-10 win in Pullman thanks to, as the Associated Press report describes, “fumbles at critical times.”

One such fumble, committed at the Washington State 20, resulted in Oregon State’s first score.

Oct. 25, 1941

The 1941 Oregon State football team holds a unique place in not just the sport’s lore, but in American history. I have recommended Brian Curtis’ book Fields of Battle in this newsletter before, which dives deep into the unprecedented 1942 Rose Bowl Game, played in Durham, North Carolina.

The ‘42 Rose Bowl is a vital story in the greater tapestry of America during World War II. And, from a purely football perspective, Oregon State playing its way into the game was its own remarkable journey.

The Beavers dropped two of its first four Pacific Coast Conference games, including a 7-0 decision at Washington State the Saturday before Halloween.

So damaging was the loss perceived to Oregon State winning a Rose Bowl bid, this was the centerpiece of the Bellingham Herald’s coverage:

Nov. 6, 1976

Far from a game with championship implications, Oregon State and Washington State finished the 1976 season a combined 5-18. However, the 29-24 Cougars win is noteworthy for both Washington State rallying in the fourth quarter and quarterback Jack Thompson setting the single-season yardage record.

Thompson’s 345 passing yards seem downright quaint by today’s standards, as do his 2,079 total yards to that point in the ‘76 campaign. But it was enough at that time for Jackie Sherrill to take note in his postgame comments to The Spokesman-Review.

Oh, yeah, that’s another noteworthy item: This was the last of three wins for Washington State under the legendary head coach. Sherrill spent the lone season on the Palouse before bolting for Pitt, where he won a pair of national championships.

If there’s any consolation for Cougars faithful in losing Sherrill so abruptly, it’s that his collection of clowns vacated the Palouse along with him.