The 1951 Oregon State Beavers football team represented Oregon State College as a member of the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) during the 1951 college football season. Led by third-year head coach Kip Taylor, the Beavers compiled an overall record of 4–6 with a mark of 3–5 in conference play, placing sixth in the PCC. The Beavers scored 204 points and allowed 180 points on the season.Homer F. Cooke Jr. (ed.), The Official National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Guide, 1952. New York: National Collegiate Athletic Bureau, 1952; p. 140. The team finished the season ranked at No. 25 in the 1951 Litkenhous Ratings.
The season was played under the NCAA's unlimited substitution rules, which made the two-platoon system practicable."Official NCAA Football Rules," in H.D. Thoreau (ed.), 1951 Official NCAA Football Guide. New York: National Collegiate Athletic Bureau, 1951; rule section p. 21, rule 3, section 11.
Schedule
Background Spring drills for the 1951 college football season opened for the Oregon State College Beavers on Monday, April 2, with head coach Kip Taylor and his three assistants — line coach Len Younce, backfield coach Bump Elliott, and freshman head coach Hal Moe — on hand to drill an expected 100 prospects for the fall season."Beavers Spring Grid Drills Open Monday," Corvallis Gazette-Times, March 29, 1951, p. 9. The team's first practice was completely open to any OSC student, regardless of previous football experience. Although the Pacific Coast Conference allowed only 30 days of spring practice, coach Taylor scheduled 36 sessions for the team, noting that Oregon's fickle spring weather was apt to force the cancellation of at least six dates. Spring practice was set to terminate on May 12, with the playing of the annual intersquad game, pitting the Grays against the Blues.
Ultimately, 65 hopefuls attended the first practice session, including 18 returning lettermen from the 1950 OSC team"OSC Opens Grid Drill," Eugene Guard, April 3, 1951, p. 11. and more than 30 candidates from the 1950 freshman team."OSC Spring Grid Practice Underway," Corvallis Gazette-Times, April 3, 1951, p. 9. Included among these were two African-American halfbacks, Dave Mann and Bill Anderson — the first black players to lace them up for an Oregon State varsity team.Both Mann and Anderson played for the 1950 OSC freshman team, making that the date in which the school's color barrier was officially breached. "14 Gridmen to Play on Pacific Coast Schools," (Oklahoma City) Black Dispatch, Sept. 22, 1951, p. 6.
Anderson and Mann were quick to make their presence known, each scoring rushing touchdowns and heralded as stars of the team's first full-length regulation scrimmage, between a squad headed by Len Younce and newly hired ends coach Butch Morse and another led by Hal Moe and Bump Taylor."Whites Defeat Blues 14 to 9 in Gridiron Tilt," Corvallis Gazette-Times, April 16, 1951, p. 7. Anderson was particularly electrifying, sending the estimated 2,000 people gathered to their feet with a spectacular 93-yard touchdown gallop in the third quarter.
Tales of the pair's gridiron exploits made their way up and down the coast, with one columnist for the Los Angeles Times alerting Southern California fans that the "two Oakland Negroes" were "rated as sophomore halfback whizzes" and being added to Kip Taylor's complete returning backfield of starters for the 1951 season.Braven Dyer, "Sports Parade," Los Angeles Times, May 3, 1951, part 4, p. 1.
Weekly action Week 1: Michigan State Spartans
Oregon State College began the 1951 season with one of the toughest opening game tests in school history — traveling to East Lansing, Michigan, to take on the preseason #2 ranked Michigan State College Spartans.
The scheduling of MSC, not a traditional opponent of Pacific Coast Conference teams, might seem perplexing. The match-up was not attributable to third-year head coach and former Michigan Wolverine Kip Taylor, however, since the two teams had met annually ever since 1948, when Lon Stiner coached the Beavers.E.C. Krieger (ed.), Official National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Guide, 1948. New York: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1948; p. 213. The 1951 meeting was the second consecutive season-opener between OSC and MSC and was again spotlighted as "Game of the Week" and telecast nationally by ABC and by radio via the Mutual Network.Fred Stabley, "Spartans, Beavers Meet Again in National 'Game of the Day,'" Spartan Gridiron News (game program), Sept. 22, 1951, p. 3.
Whereas in 1950 Michigan State had crushed OSC by 25 points, the 1951 contest would be a close one, decided by a trick play run by MSC from the one-yard line in the second quarter.George S. Alderton, "Spartans Edge Past OSC To Win 1951 Opener, 6-0: Ellis Paces Team With Long Runs," Lansing State Journal, Sept. 23, 1951, pp. 1, 53. The Beavers' best chance to score came in the second half, when they returned the kick and proceeded to reel off five consecutive first downs driving the ball to the Spartans' 14-yard line, only to throw a goal line interception.
The real hero of the day, however, was "21-year-old Negro" Jimmy Ellis, "a long-limbed fleet sophomore from Saginaw," who picked off three Beaver passes, including a goal line grab that stopped the first drive of the second half, earning himself a game ball from Spartan head coach Biggie Munn.
The game was played evenly, with the Spartans out-gaining the Beavers, 215 yards to 207. Oregon State made 15 first downs to 14 for Michigan State. MSC was extremely sloppy on the day, fumbling the ball a total of eight times, but would improve throughout the 1951 campaign, finishing the year ranked No. 2, with an undefeated 9–0 record and a claim to the national championship.
Week 2: Utah Redskins
The friendly confines of Bell Field, an undersized and out-of-date 22,000 seat venue for which replacement fundraising had begun,"Our Guests... Oregon State," in Spartan Gridiron News (game program), Sept. 22, 1951, p. 43. would be the location of Oregon State's second game, against the visiting Utah Redskins. Utah was coming into the game confident, the beneficiaries of an 82–13 scoring differential against their first two opponents of the season, Montana State and Arizona. In Corvallis they would be put on the other side of a lopsided score by Oregon State College.
Records would fall in the 61–28 mismatch. The Beavers set a new high water mark with 703 net yards gained in a game that was essentially over by halftime, with the Beavers holding a 28–6 lead at the intermission."Beavers Crush Utah 61–28; Records Fall," Corvallis Gazette-Times, Oct. 1, 1951, p. 9.
Fullback Sam Baker scored three touchdowns, with halfbacks Dave Mann and Ralph Carr adding two each to the total. Reserve backs Ken Brown and Bill Anderson added one touchdown each, with defensive end and placekicker Jim Cordial putting seven of the nine points-after-touchdown through the goal posts.
Dave Mann was particularly spectacular, amassing 233 yards with just 11 carries, a new Bell Field record, shattering the old mark of 190 set by Ken Carpenter in 1949. A total of 616 yards rushing were gained by the Beavers in their dominant performance, with an additional 87 yards gained passing out of coach Kip Taylor's single wing offense.
Oregon State's tight battle on national television with No. 2 Michigan State and massive win over Utah earned the Beavers recognition among the country's sportswriters and OSC made their appearance in the national AP poll with a No. 15 ranking in the first poll of the 1951 season.
Week 3: Idaho Vandals
Memorial Stadium in Spokane, Washington, provided a neutral-field venue for the Week 3 matchup between OSC and the Idaho Vandals. In a sparsely-attended contest Oregon State powered past Idaho by a score of 34 to 6.
Scoring was opened up in the first quarter on a 30-yard interception returned to the end zone by defensive end Jim Cordial.United Press, "Oregon State Beavers Batter Down Stubborn Idaho Squad, 34 to 6," Medford Mail Tribune, Oct. 7, 1951, p. 2. Idaho was able to put points on the board with their only score of the day, later in the first period, but long OSC scoring drives of 77 and 53 yards soon tilted the balance. A 38-yard touchdown reception by Mann on a pass from quarterback Gene Morrow nailing shut Idaho's coffin late in the second quarter, with the Beavers opened up an insurmountable halftime 26–6 lead.
The Beavers were 9-for-9 passing in the first half, with the arm of star left halfback Dave Mann on full display, and extended their completion streak to 10 with the first pass after intermission before missing on their next two throws."Oregon State Takes to Air to Top Idaho's Fighting Vandals, 34–6," Spokane Spokesman-Review, Oct. 7, 1951, Sports p. 1. The team would connect on only 1 of their last 11 throws, finishing the afternoon a rather pedestrian 11-for-21 passing.
OSC rested its starters for most of the second half against an overmatched Idaho team, but still managed to score on a short run by fullback Bob Redkey. The Beavers' pass defense was stellar, picking off a total of 7 Vandal passes.
The Beavers outgained the Vandals by 309 yards to 175 yards on the day.
Week 4: USC Trojans
Despite a close loss to Michigan State in the opener and two resounding victories against lesser opponents, the Oregon State College Beavers fell to No. 18 in the second weekly Associated Press college football poll. Next on the agenda was a trip to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California for a battle with the USC Trojans, a team coming off an impressive victory over the Washington Huskies.
OSC took a quick lead in the first quarter when defensive end Jim Cordial blocked a USC punt, with the Beavers recovering the ball on the 32-yard line.Associated Press, "Trojan Field Goal Snaps Oregon State Win Streak," Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, Oct. 14, 1951, p. 13. Beaver halfback Dave Mann broke off a 14-yard run, followed shortly after by a critical Trojan roughness penalty that brought the ball to the 1-yard line. Fullback Sam Baker plowed over the goal line on the next play and Cordial converted on the kick, putting the Beavers ahead 7–0.
One minute later, following an OSC kickoff, USC halfback Frank Gifford was hit hard by 235-pound defensive guard Jim Clark and fumbled the ball, with the Beavers recovering on the 11. The brief red zone drive was capped by an 8-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Gene Morrow to end John Thomas.
The Trojans scored an answering touchdown in the second quarter but missed the conversion, leaving the score 14–6 at the half. Gifford led USC on a 43-yard drive during their second possession of the third quarter, capped with a 10-yard pass by him to right halfback Bob Buckley to make the score 14–13. The legality of Gifford's pass was questioned, with some observers believing he was beyond the line of scrimmage when the throw was made.United Press, "Legality of Trojan TD Pass Questioned," Vallejo Times-Herald, Oct. 14, 1951, p. 18.
The tie was broken later in that quarter by an OSC strategic error when head coach Kip Taylor called a fake Sam Baker punt 4th-and-10 and deep in their own end. Baker was tackled short of the first down marker, setting the Trojans for what would prove the game-winning field goal by Gifford, the final score in the 16–13 game. After the game, Coach Taylor indicated that he would take "full responsibility" for the ill-conceived fake punt call.
Week 5: Washington State Cougars
Despite two convincing wins and two tough losses, Oregon State fell out of the national Top 20 rankings following the USC game, never to reascend in the 1951 season. Next on the slate would be a game with OSC's sister school to the north, the Washington State College Cougars. The experience would not be edifying.