Archives West Finding Aid

The Intercollegiate Athletic Board was formed by OSC President George Peavy in 1936 in connection with the administrative separation of intercollegiate athletics from other extracurricular activities on campus. The board's executive committee included the college athletic director as well as student, faculty and alumni representatives. This group effectively ran the school's athletic department, holding sway over administration of the department's budget, personnel, expenditures, merchandise sales and many other activities, up to and including ticket pricing and the awarding of varsity letters. The board typically met once or twice per academic quarter with special meetings called as warranted. Over time the board evolved away from a decision-making entity and more toward an advisory council to the university president. It was eliminated by OSU President John Byrne in 1985.

The records of the Intercollegiate Athletic Board are a major resource for research on department activities in the 1930s-1950s and the 1970s-1980s. The minutes held in this series include supporting materials such as budget itemizations, transcripts of letters and internal reports meant to be reviewed by the board in their deliberations.

The Athletic Advisory Committee was created in late 1985 by OSU President John Byrne as a replacement for the disbanded Intercollegiate Athletic Board. Still in existence, the committee meets as needed and is charged with advising the OSU athletic director on issues of department policy. In this, the committee is empowered to review program and budget objectives, the academic performance of student athletes, and department compliance with regulations issued by the Pacific-12 Conference and the NCAA. The committee is also meant to express the viewpoints of students, faculty, alumni and supporters of OSU athletics. As such, the group is represented on search committees charged with the hiring of athletic directors and head coaches.

The Athletic Advisory Committee meeting minutes held in this series often include supporting materials such as budget itemizations, correspondence, press releases and internal publications meant to be reviewed by the committee in their deliberations. The series' Athletic Department Structure and Activities Binders were given to committee members to provide background information on department affairs. With some variation, they were generally arranged into the following sections: Organization; Academics; Compliance; Development; Marketing/Sports/Events; Facilities; Tickets; Finance; and Personnel.

The Administrative Support Staff of the OSU athletic department typically met every two weeks to provide updates on recent work, discuss day-to-day activities within the department, refine policies, and plan for upcoming events, including facilities work and meetings with donors. These records are detailed and provide valuable insight into the culture and daily affairs of the department in the late 1980s and 1990s.

The 1998 Senior Staff meetings were held weekly and included Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart, Associate Athletic Directors Bob De Carolis and Marianne Vydra, and other managers within the athletic department. These meetings were used to provide updates on activities within the department and to chart action plans for upcoming events as well as longer term objectives, including facilities improvements and changes in personnel.

"Administrative Advance" was the title given to athletic department retreats, generally held in the late Spring and lasting two to three days. The retreats were devoted to skill-building exercises, strategic planning of larger initiatives, and specific planning and assignment of particular tasks to individual staff members for the coming year.

Pacific-10 Conference meeting minutes were compiled and distributed by the conference. They reflect discussion of agenda items at monthly meetings attended in person or over the phone by representatives of each member institution. Chief Executive Officer and Pac-10 Council meetings are included in this series, as are meetings of the conference's Men's Administrative Committee and Women's Administrative Committee. Discussion at several meetings required use of extensive Agenda Supplements, which are included as identified. These supplements often include the minutes of previous meetings of conference working groups.

The materials in this series document the finances of OSU's Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, with particular focus paid to the difficult financial conditions faced by the department in the 1970s and 1980s. Hamstrung by poor performance on the football field and the dip in revenues that ensued, the department regularly operated at a deficit throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In 1988 the OSU men's and women's track and field programs were eliminated in a budget-cutting move. The situation was worsened by the passage in Oregon of Ballot Measure 5, a property tax limitation initiative that deeply impacted budgets university-wide.

Materials related to the department budget for 1946-1947 are available in the microfilmed department records, described in Series XIII - Subject Files.

The construction and renovation of OSU athletics facilities are the primary focus of the materials held in this series. Beaver baseball has been played at Coleman Field since 1907, making it the oldest college baseball facility still in use. Parker Stadium, renamed Reser Stadium in 1999, has been home to OSU football since its dedication on October 24, 1953. The football complex has been renovated and upgraded numerous times, with major expansions including the building of the Valley Football Center in 1990 (later enlarged in 1996) and the construction of a new east grandstand in 2007. Oregon State basketball has been played at Gill Coliseum since 1949 and Wayne Valley Field served the needs of the university's track and field program from 1974-1988.

Detailed documentation of the first modern renovation and expansion of Parker Stadium is held in this series. Completed in two phases, this chapter of the stadium's improvement schedule included the creation of a new VIP section and installation of aluminum seating to replace existing wooden bleachers (1987), and later the addition of a new press box, twelve skybox suites, a roof to cover much of the west grandstand and various infrastructure upgrades (1991).

Home to OSU football operations, the Valley Football Center was expanded from its original footprint of 12,000 square feet to over 59,500 square feet in 1996. Once enlarged, the Valley Center absorbed the football program's locker room, equipment area and training facilities.

A disparate collection of reports comprises the bulk of this series. Included are annual reports, strategic planning proposals, budget reviews, a self-study, an early compilation of sports statistics and a scholarly publication on patterns of drug use among student athletes. The lists held in this series provide a useful compendium of varsity letter recipients from 1950-1983 and also include a roster of department staff in 1973-1974.

The majority of this series is made up of materials documenting a lawsuit filed against Oregon State University by former softball coach Vickie Dugan, alleging hiring and wage equity discrimination. The series also includes records of an ACLU complaint filed on behalf of a group of female student athletes, both current and former, (Petersen, et al.) claiming sex discrimination within the athletic department. Law, et al. vs NCAA was a class action antitrust lawsuit arguing against NCAA rules that, at the time, restricted the range of salaries that could be offered to assistant coaches working at the collegiate level.

The materials in this series primarily consist of documentation compiled by the athletic department for use by the NCAA in determining OSU's continued fitness for membership as a Division I athletic program. The series likewise includes items related to peer review of the University of Madison-Wisconsin athletic department, also for purposes of NCAA certification.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, enacted by the 92nd United States Congress, stated that "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." The impact of this legislation on high school and collegiate athletics programs was profound, as the act typically required a significant increase in expenditures supporting women's athletics to achieve parity with existing men's programs. In many cases, this shift meant creating new women's athletics programs, a situation that came to bear at OSU. Prior to Title IX, only crew (1967) existed as a women's intercollegiate sport within the Oregon State athletic department. Following passage of the legislation, women's golf, gymnastics and swimming were immediately established (1972), followed by softball (1975), women's basketball and volleyball (1976) and, later, women's soccer (1988).

Most of the content held in this series documents a U.S. Department of Education - Office of Civil Rights audit of compliance with Title IX regulations by the OSU Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. Note the large volume of restricted material held in this series. Researcher access to this component of the collection is limited to summary review by a staff archivist.

Consisting mainly of souvenir programs for sporting events held at Oregon State University, this series also includes season ticket order forms and schedules, scorecards, and programs produced by other universities and organizations for away games and post-season contests. Programs collected from the Benny Awards, an annual ceremony celebrating all OSU student athletes, are also a part of this series. In most cases, the series includes programs for multiple games within the listed years. However, certain years may correspond to only one item.

Programs are held in Series X for the following sports and corresponding years: Baseball, 2006, 2010, 2013. Men's Basketball, 1927, 1930, 1936, 1941, 1949, 1950-1987, 1995-1998, 2011-2013. Women's Basketball, 2011-2013. Benny Awards, 2001-2002, 2004-2005. Crew, 2013. Football, 1908-1909, 1912, 1914-1915, 1919-1922, 1924, 1925-1930, 1932-1941, 1945-1946, 1949-1955, 1957-1975, 1977, 1979, 1986-1987, 1991, 1993, 1996-2001, 2007-2008, 2011-2012. Gymnastics, 1982, 1984, 1988-1990, 1993-1996, 1999, 2002, 2013. Men's Soccer, 2012. Women's Soccer, 2012. Softball, 2013. Track and Field, 1929. Wrestling, 1960-1961, 1964, 1969-1971, 1973-1981, 1983-1984, 1991-1992, 2012-2013.

This series consists of press releases produced almost entirely by the Sports Information Office (previously known as Athletics Media Relations). Press releases were distributed weekly and might typically include a list of home and away sporting events, radio and television coverage of games, probable starters, team statistics, player features, notes and commentary. Information describing the 1941-42 OSC basketball team, champion of its division, can also be found in this series.

This series is comprised of various publications including sports newsletters, intercollegiate athletic recruitment brochures, team yearbooks, an OSU basketball history, the Pacific Coast Conference Records Book, and a guide to those visiting the sports facilities on campus. The series' newsletters include Beaver Line, produced by the Corvallis Gazette-Times; Beaver Game Day; The Gnaw; and Beaver Sports, a publication of the OSU athletic department.

The Subject Files series consists largely of materials assembled by athletic department staff documenting specific projects, issues or themes existing within the purview of the department. The bulk of these materials date to the late 1970s and 1980s. Two noteworthy sets of materials that do not fall within this general description are the series' six oversize publicity and technical drawings created for the OSU crew team, and the microfilmed records detailing department activities conducted in the 1940s.

This series consists of five scrapbooks documenting Oregon State athletics endeavors in 1937 and 1956-1962. Comprised primarily of newspaper clippings, the scrapbooks focus mostly on football, basketball and rally, and also reflect the historical rivalry between Oregon State and the University of Oregon. The 1937 scrapbook is in fragile condition and should be accessed primarily through a digital surrogate that has been created for researcher use and that is available upon request.

This series consists of multiple audiovisual formats as well as print materials related to various aspects of OSU athletics. A primary focus of the series is the 2001 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, in which OSU defeated the University of Notre Dame by a score of 41-9.