The 1962 Oregon State Beavers football team represented Oregon State University as an independent during the 1962 NCAA University Division football season. In their eighth season under head coach Tommy Prothro, the Beavers compiled a 9–2 record and outscored their opponents 279 to 148. They played three home games on campus at Parker Stadium in Corvallis and three at Multnomah Stadium in Portland.
Quarterback Terry Baker won the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, and was the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year. The team captain was guard George Gnoss and the Beavers won the Liberty Bowl over Villanova in Philadelphia.
The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) disbanded in the spring of 1959; this was the fourth of five years that Oregon State and Oregon competed as independents.
Schedule
Game summaries Before the season The Pacific Coast Conference dissolved in the spring of 1959. That year California, Southern California, Stanford, UCLA, and Washington formed the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU), or Big Five. 1962 Washington State joined the AAWU in 1962, which became primarily known as the Big Six. Oregon State was an independent for a fourth consecutive year in 1962.
The Beavers' quarterback was Terry Baker, heavily recruited to play football, basketball, and baseball, but came to Oregon State on a basketball scholarship. He walked on to the football team in 1960 after head coach Tommy Prothro invited him to drop baseball and attend spring drills. Baker was the backup halfback in 1960 but still amassed 302 total yards in a 30–29 loss to Washington and 1,473 total yards in 1960, both Beaver records. In order to maximize his talent, Prothro made Baker the quarterback and scrapped the single wing in 1961 in favor of the T formation. Because of an injury to backup Rich Brooks in 1961, Baker was instructed not to run until the final ten minutes of any game. As a result, Baker wound up gaining fewer yards in 1961 than in 1960 but was still eleventh in the nation in total yards.
Because of injuries, the line only averaged , more than less than some of the other lines that they squared off against. The line was nicknamed "the Light Brigade" after the "Charge of the Light Brigade" poem drafted by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Prothro did not like having backs or receivers be captains, because he felt that they got enough glory. Guard George Gnoss was the team captain in 1962.
A rule change in 1962 allowed teams to down the football after a punt inside the opponent's 10. Previously, doing so resulted in a touchback.
Iowa State
The Iowa State-Oregon State game featured three intriguing story lines. The first was that the Cyclones' coach, Clay Stapleton, was an assistant coach in Corvallis under Prothro from 1955 to 1957. Prothro had changed Oregon State's offense from a single wing to a T formation in 1961. In 1962, Stapleton installed a winged T at Iowa State. The second story line was the battle between two potential All-Americans: the Cyclones' Dave Hoppmann and the Beavers' Baker. The game was a passing of the torch, of sorts, as Hoppmann led the nation in total yardage in 1961 and Baker led the nation in total yardage in 1962. Despite finishing 11th in total yardage in 1961, Baker still led Hoppmann by seven career total yards. Baker entered the game 161 total yards short of the Oregon State career record, held by Ken Carpenter. The third was junior Vern Burke making his first start at split end for the Beavers.
Hoppmann opened scoring with a 48-yard first quarter run to put Iowa State up 7–0. Midway through the second quarter, Baker knotted the score at seven after a two-yard touchdown run. Later in the quarter, the Cyclones had fourth-and-goal from the one-foot line but fumbled. A weak Oregon State punt gave Iowa State the ball at the Beaver 30. Five plays later, the Cyclones were up 14–7. Iowa State converted an Oregon State fumble into a 21–7 lead. Oregon State got the ball back at their own 38 with 1:40 left. The Beavers drove 62 yards, the final 31, coming on a Baker-to-Burke touchdown pass with two seconds left in the first half to pull Oregon State within eight at halftime.
Hoppmann came out in the second half, throwing three straight passes to Dick Limerick, the final one a 12-yard touchdown pass to put the Cyclones up 28–13 with more than 12 minutes left in the third quarter. Six minutes later, Baker responded with a 42-yard run to cut Iowa State's lead to nine. In the fourth quarter, the Beavers drove 70 yards on 14 plays, the final yard on a fourth-down Baker run with 11 minutes left to pull Oregon State within two. Fullback Rich Brooks gave Oregon State the ball at the Cyclone 14 after an interception. Three plays later, Baker hit Burke for a 10-yard touchdown pass to give the Beavers a 33–28 lead. Shortly thereafter, Limerick turned a short pass into a 58-yard touchdown to put Iowa State up 35–33. With two minutes left, an Oregon State drive ended at the Iowa State 20. Steve Clark's 37-yard field goal attempt was blocked, the Cyclones' second blocked field goal attempt of the quarter. However, the Beavers had all three timeouts. Oregon State held Iowa State for no gain on a third-and-one, and the Cyclones were forced to punt. The Beavers got the ball back at their own 36 with 1:07 left. Because intentionally spiking the ball was not legal at the time, Burke intentionally dropped multiple passes on the drive to preserve time. Oregon State drove to the Iowa State 43. Baker looked at Burke, but threw to Jerry Neil, who caught the ball at the Iowa State five and ran into the end zone for a 43-yard touchdown with 29 seconds left. The Cyclones could not answer the touchdown strike. Despite the fact that the Beavers only led for less than five minutes in the entire game, Oregon State won 39–35.
The Beaver win is the only meeting ever between Oregon State and Iowa State, and Hoppmann finished with 230 total yards, two rushing touchdowns, and a passing touchdown. Baker finished with 317 total yards, three rushing touchdowns, and three passing touchdowns. The 317 total yards broke his own Oregon State single game record, and Baker's six total touchdowns set a Beaver record. It also gave him 3,020 career total yards, another Oregon State record. Burke caught 12 passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns. Burke set Beaver records for receptions and receiving yards in a single game.
Iowa
In the seventeen seasons from 1956 to 1972, Oregon State and Iowa played twelve times, more than Oregon State played conference opponents California and UCLA in the same period. The Hawkeyes won the first three meetings. Two Beaver starters on the offensive line—John Farrell and Tom Holley—were unable to make the trip, due to injury. Jerry Neil, who caught the winning touchdown against Iowa State was converted into a tackle to add depth on the offensive line. Iowa hopped out to a 13–0 first quarter lead. In the second quarter, the Hawkeyes scored on a 36-yard touchdown pass. Iowa lined up for an extra point but faked it for a two-point conversion and a 21–0 Hawkeye lead. The teams traded touchdowns in the second half.
Stanford
In 1961, Stanford beat Oregon State 34–0 in Corvallis. It was the Beavers' worst loss in Corvallis between 1954 (against a UCLA squad that went on probation the following year for paying players) and 1972 (the second year of "the Streak"). Prothro accused the 1961 team of "quitting." The week before the Beavers and Indians met in 1962, undefeated Stanford beat sixth-ranked Michigan State. Stanford's line outweighed Oregon State's line by an average of , nd the Indians were six-point favorites.
Stanford was the only team to threaten in the first quarter, but the Indians' 45-yard field goal attempt hit the crossbar. The near miss seemed to jump start Oregon State's offense. Shortly after the second quarter began, Baker hit Burke for a 34-yard gain and first down at the Stanford nine. Two plays later, Baker ran in untouched for a touchdown. The Indians were offside on the extra point, so the Beavers went for it. Baker went off right tackle for a two-point conversion. On an ensuing drive, Oregon State faced fourth-and-goal at the one. Baker went over right tackle for another touchdown with 18 seconds left in the first half. Tim Ankerson's extra point was good to give the Beavers a 15–0 first half lead.
In the fourth quarter, Dan Espalin scored a touchdown on a 16-yard interception return. The extra point was blocked, making the score 21–0 Beavers. After Stanford turned the ball over on downs at their own 42, Baker was replaced by second-string quarterback Gordon Queen. On third-and-ten at the Indian 15, Queen hit Len Frketich for a touchdown with 11 seconds left. The two-point conversion failed, giving Oregon State a 27–0 win. Baker completed 11 of 15 passes for 175 yards. He also gained an additional 42 rushing yards, for 217 total yards. Stanford had 206 combined total yards. Prothro said that Baker was "not only the greatest player in the country" but that he had never seen any other quarterback that was close. Burke caught eight passes for 107 yards. The 27–0 victory was the Beavers' largest ever over the Indians. In fact, it was the first time Oregon State had managed to tally 27 points against Stanford. It remains the Beavers' most lopsided victory at Stanford.
Washington
In between 1925 and 1965, Washington did not play a game in Oregon south of Portland, just across the river from Washington, muting much of the home field advantage Oregon State otherwise enjoyed. The Huskies started the season playing Purdue, Illinois, and Kansas State and were undefeated against that slate. Washington was ranked seventh in the AP poll and sixth in the UPI poll. The recent Beaver-Husky battles had been close. In the past four meetings, each team had two wins, and the four games were decided by a combined margin of thirteen points. In Washington's last four visits to Portland, the Huskies had also gone 2–2. In those games, the combined margin of victory was a mere five points. Despite the recent close contests, the Huskies entered as 6½-point favorites.
Until 1971, Columbus Day was celebrated on October 12. In 1962, it fell on a Friday, the day before the Washington-Oregon State game. At approximately five o'clock in the afternoon, the Columbus Day Storm, the strongest 20th-century extratropical cyclone in the United States, struck. At Cape Blanco on the Oregon Coast, winds reached before the weather station was destroyed. The person in charge of the station estimated that the wind exceeded ; winds were milder in Portland but still exceeded . As the front passed Portland, the temperature increased in ten minutes, and the winds wrought havoc at Multnomah Stadium. A portion of the roof had flown off and destroyed several seats. Long-distance lines were severed throughout the western half of the state, and most local television and radio stations were knocked out of commission. Once the storm died down, clean-up crews began removing debris from the field. The field was in such bad shape that clean-up crews were still removing debris early in the game. Multnomah Stadium did not regain power until after the game had ended. The teams dressed and undressed by candlelight, and the scoreboard remained out for the entire game. The press described the field conditions as "turf resting on water."