1974 ‘Northwest champions’ whoop it up, 50 years later

The 1974 Oregon State Beavers, 50 years later (courtesy Mark Holman)

CORVALLIS — It had been a half-century since the gang had been together.

And Oregon State’s 1974 football team made a weekend of it. The former players toured the school’s football complex, played golf together and attended the Beavers’ 38-21 victory over Purdue at Reser Stadium.

The major activity, though, was a Friday night dinner at Trysting Tree Golf Club, co-hosted by ’74 senior co-captains Jerry Hackenbruck and Greg Krpalek and former quarterback Scott Spiegelberg.

Thirty-eight ex-players attended, with tackle Craig Spiegelberg (no relation to Scott) coming the furthest, he and wife Jeanne from Kansas City, Mo. They arrived from Washington and California and Arizona and, of course, from all parts of Oregon.

Head coach Dee Andros has passed on, but assistant coaches Rich Brooks and Jim Sherbert were on hand for a night of dinner and adult beverages, short speeches and tall tales and a barrel full of laughs.

Coach Rich Brooks (second to left) flanked by, from left, running backs Leon McKenzie and Elvin Momon and offensive tackle Jeff Hart (courtesy Mark Holman)

When it was over, quarterback Alvin White wondered aloud, “Why did we wait so long to do this?”

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The 1974 Beavers went 3-8. Nothing to celebrate there. But the three victories were over Northwest rivals Oregon, Washington and Washington State. The front page of the Friday night banquet program was headlined, “Northwest champions 1974.”

In those years, “The Northwest championship was something special,” Brooks told the group at Trysting Tree. “Everybody wanted to win it. Dee emphasized that from Day One: ‘We have to win the Northwest championship.’ You guys did it.”

A sweep of the Northwest has not been done often. Since 1974, Oregon State has accomplished the trifecta only twice: In 2004 and ’07, both under Coach Mike Riley.

“Our junior year, we beat Washington and Oregon but lost to Washington State,” said Hackenbruck, a 6-4, 240-pound senior defensive tackle on the ’74 team. “We could have had it two years in a row.

“People say the ’70s was a lost decade for Oregon State football, but (the ’74 Beavers) were a shining light during that period. More than anything else, we had a lot of fun and made a lot of great friends.”

The conference was the Pac-8 in those years. In 1974, all four Northwest programs were down, finishing fifth through eighth in a conference that included Southern Cal, UCLA, Stanford and California.

Andros was in the 10th of 11 seasons as Oregon State’s head coach. Andros didn’t have a losing campaign until his seventh year, but the Beavers had gone 2-9 in both 1972 and ’73.

Greg Krpalek was the cover boy alongside Dee Andros for the 1974 Oregon State press guide

Several changes had been made by 1974. Andros had lost what most regarded as his top three assistant coaches — defensive coordinator Brooks and offensive coordinator Sam Boghosian to the NFL and secondary coach Bud Riley to the CFL. Oregon State didn’t have the funding to compete for top assistants on the West Coast. In ’74, the coordinators were Jerry Cheek on offense and Mike Dolby on defense. Fifty years later, it is clear the players didn’t hold either coach in high regard.

“We had a heck of a team coming back from my junior year,” said Krpalek, a 6-5, 250-pound senior center on the ’74 team who would win All-Coast honors and play in the Hula Bowl that season. “The problem was, we had lost three great coaches. That was a big loss.”

In 1973, Andros had switched from his trademark Power T offense to the more pass-oriented Pro-Style. He had recruited a quarterback out of Orange Coast JC in Costa Mesa, Calif., Alvin White, to run the offense.

Quarterback Alvin White chats with linebacker Tom Chamberlain (left) and receiver Grant Boustead (courtesy Mark Holman)

“They said, ‘We’re bringing you up here to throw the ball,’ ” White told me after the Friday night dinner. “That was their promise to me.”

The ’74 Beavers were a veteran group on offense, with seniors White, Elvin Momon and Dick Maurer in the backfield and a line featuring three seniors — tackles Jeff Hart and Ken Maurer and Krpalek — along with guards Mike Kobielsky, a junior, and Jimmy Walker, a sophomore. Hart would go on to a seven-year career, the last five as a starter, in the NFL.

Event organizers Jerry Hackenbruck (left) and Greg Krpalek emceed at Trysting Tree alongside a photo of “The Great Pumpkin” (courtesy Mark Holman)

The Beavers were younger on defense, featuring Hackenbruck and sophomores Fred Anderson and Dennis Boyd on the line, junior Bob Horn and sophomore Rob Nairne at linebacker and seniors Kirk Byers and Dennis Downey in the secondary. Anderson, Boyd, Horn and Nairne would all go on to play at least four seasons in the NFL.

Jerry Hackenbruck (left) and Greg Krpalek were captains for the ’74 Beavers. Hackenbruck rivaled Ron Stewart for the team’s best Afro hairstyle

With a year under their belts in the new offensive system, the Beavers entered the season with optimism.

“Everybody was focused,” Krpalek said. “We had good talent, good depth. Our expectation every week was to go out there and win.”

The problem was, the schedule was anything but forgiving. Oregon State opened with four games on the road — at Syracuse, at Georgia, at Ohio State and, after a bye week, at Southern Methodist.

The Beavers didn’t play a home game until Oct. 5 against Washington and had only four games at Parker Stadium all season. They were supposed to have a Sept. 21 home game against Wake Forest, which would go 1-10 that season, but the Demon Deacons pulled out of the commitment the previous winter. Looking for a money game, OSU athletic director Jim Barratt scheduled a road contest against Ohio State, which had gone 10-0-1 and beaten Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl the previous season.

The Beavers received $140,000 for going into Columbus and exiting with a 51-10 loss. Most noteworthy moment in that game for the losers came when defensive tackle John Cantlon inadvertently clobbered Buckeye coach Woody Hayes on a play close to the sidelines.

Asked about it by media after the game, Hayes quipped, “I didn’t have enough lead blocking.”

In the season opener, Oregon State lost 23-15 against a Syracuse team that would go 2-9.

“That was one we should have won,” Hackenbruck said.

The Beavers put up at battle at Georgia before falling 48-35, then were steamrolled at Ohio State. The No. 2-ranked Buckeyes, led by Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin, rushed for 386 yards (and completed 4 of 7 passes for 47 yards). Then came a 37-30 loss at SMU in which the Beavers stormed back from a 30-9 deficit to make it a game, with White throwing for 242 yards in the game’s final minutes.

When the Beavers finally returned home, they dominated the Huskies 27-9. Over the next three weeks, they lost close games to Cal (17-14) and Stanford (17-13) and fell 31-10 at USC in a game in which they led 10-0 late in the first half.

Next came a 17-3 win over Washington State and a 33-14 loss to UCLA in which Oregon State trailed 13-7 late in the third quarter and amassed 22 first downs and 450 yards total offense.

The season-ending Civil War game was in Corvallis. Andros went into the annual affair with an 8-1 career record against the Ducks. In his mind, the game was played for “the right to live in the state of Oregon.”

The Beavers were stocked with players who had grown up in the state. Hart and Horn were South Salem graduates. Hackenbruck was from Corvallis, Krpalek and defensive tackle Casey Keller from Albany. Boyd (Winston), the Maurers (Prospect) and Walker (Bridge) were from small-town Oregon. The in-state rivalry mattered to them.

Linebacker Bob Horn noted several of his former teammates had 50 years of marriage. “I got in 40 — with four wives,” Horn cracked (courtesy Mark Holman)

The Maurers’ older brothers, Andy and Mike, had played at Oregon. Dick and Ken opted for Oregon State.

“In my five years with Oregon State football, we beat Oregon four times,” Dick said. “I’m proud to be able to say that.”

As a junior in 1973, Dick had dislocated a shoulder against UCLA in the game leading up to the Civil War.

“I was despondent,” he said. “It would be my only chance to play Oregon at Autzen.”

Andros told Maurer on the Sunday before the Civil War that he considered the injury serious and that his season was probably over.

“Coach Andros said I would have to get down and give him 10 pushups by Wednesday if they were going to let me play,” Dick said. He rested, iced the shoulder, and on Wednesday headed to Gill Coliseum to meet with Andros and Boghosian.

“I got them in the hall and said, ‘Watch this,’ ” Maurer said. “I did my 10 pushups. I got up and said, ‘I’ll see you at practice.’ I got on my bike, rode all the way home and cried like a baby (from the pain).”

Maurer played in the game at Autzen, scoring the winning touchdown in a 17-14 victory.

Fast forward to 1974, with the game at Parker. Oregon jumped to a 10-0 lead in the second quarter. White had started the game 0 for 6 passing. On second down from the OSU 20, a pass play was called from the sidelines.

“I said to Maurer, ‘I feel like running the ball,’ ” Krpalek said. He nodded to Kobielsky, Walker, Hart and Ken Maurer, “Let’s run the ball.” Everybody was in.

“I said, ‘Power 52, right off my ass and Kobielsky’s,” Krpalek said. “We took the ball and went 80 yards down the field for a touchdown.

“We called plays on the field the rest of the game. What were the coaches going to say? Hey, it was our last game. No way were we going to lose to the Ducks. We just crushed them. We kicked their fannies. Of all the football I played, my last game is the one I remember and cherish the most.”

White connected with Grant Boustead on a 30-yard touchdown pass, but the Beavers won the game with their ground attack. Dick Maurer ran for 116 yards and two touchdowns.

“Those boys up front controlled the line of scrimmage,” he said. “It was old-time Beaver football. Coach Andros always told us, ‘You’ll never forget the final game of your career.’ He was right.”

Had the Beavers pulled out victories in the tight losses to Cal and Stanford, they would have been 5-2 in league games and finished second behind USC in the standings.

“I thought we would be real competitive in the Pac-8, and we were,” Hackenbruck said. “But we couldn’t put the close games away.”

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Everyone who wanted to speak had a turn at the microphone Friday night.

Hackenbruck and Krpalek got first crack. The two Valley League rivals — who ironically shared a birthday, Aug. 15, 1953 — were under-recruited and came to the program on partial rides.

“Jerry and I grew up loving Oregon State,” Krpalek said. “Dee knew that. He took a chance on us.”

Each got a full ride after his freshman year. By the time they were seniors, they were captains and team leaders. Krpalek was honored as first-team All-Coast. Hackenbruck was second-team All-Coast and was named the team’s Most Valuable Defensive Player.

Hackenbruck said Andros’ influence was strong enough to help steer many of his players toward coaching. Among those who turned to coaching in high school and the college ranks: Hackenbruck, Walker, Boustead, Steve Gervais, Jay Locey, Ray Taroli, Leon McKenzie, Mike McLaughlin, Mike Taylor, Gene Dales, Gerald McEldowney, Dan Wood and Tom Chamberlain.

Krpalek offered a moment of silence for 14 players from the ’74 team who have died: McEldowney, Downey, Kobielsky, Charlie Smith, Dave Brown, Juan Campbell, Everett Davis, Troy Gusick, Matt Hammack, Steve Hansen, Mike McKinney, Brian Miracle, Ron Stewart and Jeff Worth.

Brooks had left Oregon State after the 1973 season for the San Francisco 49ers, but such was the OSU players’ respect for him that they wanted him to be there for the ’74 team’s reunion.

Brooks had played at Oregon State from 1960-62 — he was a starting defensive back and backup QB behind Heisman Trophy winner Terry Baker — and met his wife Karen there.

“She was a Pi Phi,” he said. “I was a Phi Delt.”

Brooks coached the OSU Rooks in 1963 and was an assistant under Andros from 1965-69, working with the defensive line. Such was the relationship between Brooks and his D-linemen that, when he was inducted into the state of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 2018, 10 of them bought a table at the banquet. Only two players from his 18 years as head coach at Oregon attended.

“Dee Andros would be Santa Claus at Christmas for a party for all of the athletic department people,” Brooks said. “Everybody in the department supported everybody else. It was a wonderful environment.

“For me, I don’t think it was ever quite as good at other places I coached as it was at Oregon State. It has a very special place in my life. …  I have always admired how Beavers stick together. There are very few places in college football like Corvallis, Oregon.”

Sherbert was an All-Pac-8 defensive end who played at OSU from 1969-71 and was a young assistant coach in ’74. He has maintained a strong affinity for his alma mater through a successful career as a businessman.

“Oregon State does things for people you don’t get to see in the rest of your life,” Sherbert told the group. “As a CEO for several companies, never have I seen the spirit that we have here. Look at this room. Look at how many people are here. It’s just fantastic. Try to keep it going as long as you can. Keep connections with everybody. It’s a spirit you can’t replace in any other way.”

Horn lives in San Diego, where he played the first six of his eight NFL seasons.

“I haven’t seen any of you for a long time,” he said with a smile. “I have learned that a lot of you guys have in 50 years of marriage. I got in 40 years — with four wives.”

Horn told a story about running back Bill Cecil. While being tackled during a ball-carrying drill at practice, Cecil had his helmet split in two.

“The helmet is still in my office,” Cecil barked out from the crowd.

“Oh, you stole that, too,” Hackenbruck cracked to roars of laughter.

“(Equipment manager Don) Shelley gave it to me,” Cecil offered.

“Shelley never gave anything to anybody,” Hackenbruck countered.

Cecil provided a highlight of the evening with a copy of an Andros pre-game pep talk he had secretly tape-recorded before the Beavers played Cal in 1974. The room grew silent. All of a sudden, there was the “Great Pumpkin” delivering his patented motivational “fire-up speech,” no doubt with a bit of chew in his mouth.

“You didn’t want to sit in the first couple of rows, or you would be in the line of fire,” Gervais observed later. But after Andros’ talk was through, “You couldn’t wait to get out of the theater seats and play football for him.”

Gervais — White’s backup in 1974 but the starting QB for the Beavers as a senior the next year — is a coaching legend in the state of Washington. He won six state championships in 32 years coaching at Eatonville and Skyline high schools.

“I was going to go to Washington State, but at the last second I said, ‘Nope, I’m going to Oregon State,’ ” Gervais told the group. “They were pissed at me up there. Now I’m around Huskies and Cougars all the time, and the one thing we all have in common, none of us can stand the Ducks. No matter where you go, it’s ‘The hell with the Ducks.’ ”

Gervais said he learned something during his coaching career — how important linemen are to a team’s success. He asked all of the Beaver offensive and defensive linemen to stand and be recognized.

“If you want to win and be successful, you have to have these guys in the trenches,” he said.

Hart paid tribute to Boghosian, who coached offensive linemen in the NFL for 13 years after leaving Oregon State.

Said Hart: “I remember him telling me, ‘If I’m not jumping on you, it’s one of two things. You’re perfect or I’ve given up on you.’ He never stopped yelling at me. The coaches at Oregon State had a tremendous amount of influence on me. That helped carry me to the NFL.”

Then Hart looked out at the crowd.

“In all my years of pro football, the people I keep in contact with are the people in this room and in my (Sigma Alpha Epsilon) fraternity,” he said. “Those things stay with you long after your playing days are done.”

Gene Dales, a sophomore linebacker on the ’74 team, coached high school football in the Northwest for 46 years. Over that time, he perfected an impression of his college coach.

“Dee would get in that squat and say, ‘Men, when I get in this position, I could whip the world!’ ” Dales mimicked in Oklahoma drawl to the delight of the crowd. “The senior linemen would circle around him like it was a cult. He would say, ‘Men, I’d give you the shirt off my back. But those SOBs in that other locker room, they’d steal your girlfriend if they could!’ ”

It was a different world in 1974. Little attention was paid to injuries. If you got knocked out, you would be administered smelling salts. Dales recalled a short-lived tackling drill called “Machine Gun,” where a running back had to plow through three linebackers. One day it was a murderer’s row: First Horn, then Nairne, then Dales.

“Three guys go down with injuries,” Dales said. ”The third guy is Cecil. They are hauling him off toward Gill (Coliseum), and as he goes by Downey he yells, ‘Dennis, they broke my arm.’ We never ran that drill again.”

White came to Oregon State as an outsider, a JC transfer from California. He said he was taught a lot about football from Andros, but also a lot about life.

“He was a man of compassion,” White said. “After my first year with the Beavers, I get a phone call from my mother that my adopted nephew had died in a car accident. I was totally distraught. I talked to Dee. He said, ‘You are on the next plane out of here.’

“I don’t know what rules he broke, but he got me a ticket and I went home to be there for my sister’s son’s memorial. I will never forget the love this man showed. He was a tough individual, but there was a genuine love for anyone who was part of his team. I learned a lot about teamwork from him that I carried on to my post-football career.”

Alvin and wife Donna — who worked in the office at Crescent Valley High when her husband was at OSU — live in Reno now, but their allegiance to his alma mater remains.

“Fifty years later, I still bleed Beaver orange,” said White, who has enjoyed a long career in the construction industry. “We went through some rough times, but it’s a memory I love and cherish and will never forget.”

Near the end of the evening, Cecil stepped to the podium to read “Man in the Glass.” It’s a poem Andros recited before every Civil War game. As Cecil read it, some heads bowed. A few tears shed. Indelible memories stirred.

Every player was presented with a plaque bearing the poem that meant so much to each of them so long ago.

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Due to a back injury, Spiegelberg took a medical retirement during spring ball before his junior season. The son of legendary Medford High coach Fred Spiegelberg, Scott stayed on scholarship and coached the Beaver JVs for three years. He served in several positions with Oregon State athletics, including marketing director, executive director of the Beaver Club, director of Beyond Football and director of the Varsity O Club. Nobody made a greater impact on Spiegelberg than Andros.

“Dee was like my second father,” Scott said. “Players would run through a brick wall for that man. He and (former OSU coach and administrator) Paul Valenti were the guys I had the most respect for.”

Hackenbruck and Krpalek felt the same way. Hackenbruck’s father was in and out of his life during childhood, and after his mother died, Jerry lived with an older brother as a senior in high school. Krpalek’s father died when he was a senior in high school. “Dee was a mentor and father figure to me, too,” Greg said.

Spiegelberg, Hackenbruck and Krpalek provided the impetus for the ’74 team’s reunion. In 2022, Scott and Greg attended the pandemic-delayed 50-year reunion of the 1970 OSU team, organized by defensive tackle Craig Hanneman.

“At the end of the evening, chills went down my neck,” Krpalek said. “It was neat seeing all those guys back in Corvallis and how much they loved each other.

“I told Scott, ‘We gotta do this.’ I called Hack. I called some of the seniors to help us fund the thing. Guys stepped up to the plate. We picked up enough money that we’ll be able to write a check to the Varsity O with the money left over.”

On Saturday, from the terrace outside of the Valley Football Center, the former Beavers watched the current Beavers trounce Purdue 38-21. They agreed that the weekend had been a success.

“We are not the lost decade of Oregon State football,” Krpalek said. “I think if you asked most everyone in the room if they would do it all over again, they would say absolutely. I know I would. Wouldn’t think twice about it. The friendships, the camaraderie in this group —  it’s still there after 50 years.”

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