Since at least the 1940’s, many bowl games have been giving participating teams watches to commemorate playing in the games. OSU players and staffed received this Girard Perragaux made watch during the 1965 Rose Bowl, which they lost to Michigan. This watch is similar to the 1962 Liberty Bowl watch I wrote about earlier which was made by Hamilton.
I have previously posted some items from OSU’s 1962 Liberty Bowl game in which the Beavers, led by Terry Baker, defeated Villanova 6-0. This Hamilton brand wristwatch was a memento I’m assuming was given to players and coaches for playing in that game. Even today watches are a common gift given by bowl game hosts to the teams who play.
This watch was made by Hamilton, a Swiss company that made its first watch in 1893, and still makes high-end watches today. Vintage Hamilton watches are desirable collectors pieces for some watch enthusiasts. I haven’t seen (or researched) a lot of Hamilton watches that were made for bowl game, but they must have made them for a handful of years, as I did see ones from the 1955 Orange Bowl and 1962 Tangerine Bowl.
This particular watch features a round case with triangular and Arabic hour markers as well as alpha style hands and seconds subdial. The stem wound watch has 17 jewels. While similar Hamilton watches of this era aren’t particularly expensive (usually less than a few hundred dollars) some of the higher-end Hamilton models of that era can be several thousand dollars. Unfortunately they weren’t giving the players the highest-end models back then! Either way they are neat mementos from bowl games long ago which can still be worn today.
I have previously posted some items and info on 1942 Rose Bowl game between Oregon State and Duke, which is most famous for being the only Rose Bowl played outside of California. Due to concerns over WWII, the game was played in Durham, NC, where Oregon State upset a heavily favored Duke team by a score of 20-16.
While some memorabilia from this game can be found, one of the more rare items is the trophy that players and coaches were awarded from that game. All Oregon State coaches and players received the trophies and we know at least the Duke coaches received them as well, because there was a story about a man in NC finding one of these trophies in the trash back in 2014, which had belonged to one of the Duke Coaches!
The pictures below include the trophy that was found in the trash (and later auctioned off), as well as the trophy from Oregon State player Leeland “Lee” Gustafson, who is pictured below (bottom row – far right on the team picture). The trophy stands about 20 inches tall and is a beautiful example of the way trophies looked back when they had true character and style!
This full size black felt Oregon State University pennant dates to the leather helmet era of football back in the 1930’s-1940’s. The picture and lettering were both screen printed on the pennant. Very few pennants from this era had pictures of players, making this one unique, and the style of uniform and helmet are what help approximate its age.
This “Oregon Aggies” pinback is somewhat of a mystery to me for one simple reason… the colors are green and yellow instead of black and orange! I have seen two of these pins and both appeared to have been originally printed in these colors, as opposed to maybe the orange fading to a yellow and/or the black fading to a green tint. Very disturbing for an Oregon State fan!
As far as I know, Oregon State, or Oregon Agricultural College as it was known in the early 1900’s, was the only group/organization in Oregon to be referred to as the Oregon Aggies. I haven’t found reference to any other sports group or organizations who may have also been called the Oregon Aggies. I also know Oregon State was still referred to as the Aggies until at least 1926. While the school’s animal mascot had become the Beaver during the prior decade (at least on some pennants and in the yearbooks), I’m guessing the official “Aggies” name may have been dropped and the Beaver officially took over when the school changed names from Oregon Agricultural College (OAC) to Oregon State College (OSC) in 1927. These facts would seem to put the age of this pin, which is slightly smaller than normal pin – about the size of a half dollar, sometime in the late-teens-to-mid-1920’s.
Now as for the colors, Oregon State had officially adopted Orange and Black as its school colors by 1893. And their rivals to the south, the University of Oregon, had adopted green and yellow as their colors in 1894. So why would an Oregon State pin have been printed in green and yellow? Was it an early prank by the Ducks on their Beaver neighbors? Or was this perhaps tied to a topic I posted about earlier, where back in 1917, the “Rooks” (aka freshman) on campus were forced to wear green caps so they could be identified? After all, the 1917 “Rooks” poster was printed with green text, the caps were green… so I wonder if they could only wear green pins too? However, the letter on the green cap back then was orange and not yellow! So why the yellow? Because if there’s two colors we know Oregon State alumni and fans despise… it’s green and yellow! This may go down as one of OSU’s great mysteries!
This roughly 6.5 inch tall ceramic beaver mascot figurine, with the OSC (Oregon State College) on its hat, is one that I hadn’t seen before until I recently came across it at an online auction site. It appears to be hand painted, and given the style of the hat, my guess is it’s from the 1940’s or 1950’s. I don’t know the manufacturer because there is no stamp on the bottom of it. Anyone recognize this or have any ideas???
Beaver Relics 