On Oregon State’s historic takedown of Troy, along with a look at that win back in 1960, and a nod to the late Steve Hall
Pontificating on one of the biggest Oregon State football victories this century …
• Every 61 years, the Beavers beat Southern Cal on its home turf.
The way they did it Saturday night in a 45-27 dismantling of the Trojans in LA Memorial Coliseum was impressive.
This isn’t a great USC team, and it seems in some disarray following the Sept. 13 dismissal of Clay Helton as head coach.
That doesn’t lessen the impact that the victory has on Oregon State’s program in the fourth year under Coach Jonathan Smith.
The day I got the best of Barney — and inspired his career game
By Bob Robinson
(Editor’s note: Robinson, now 87, wrote sports for Oregon newspapers for 42 years, the last 37 at The Oregonian. “Robbie” was the paper’s beat writer for the Trail Blazers when they won the NBA championship in 1977. The Central High and U of O grad was a renowned golf writer at The Oregonian and is the author of four books.)
When Barney Holland died on July 21 at 89, it brought a flood of memories to sports followers in Oregon — including me.
During a long high school basketball coaching career at Lebanon, North Eugene and Aloha, the
former University of Oregon athlete compiled a record of 406-224 (.644) and won three state championships and seven league titles.
Holland earned several individual awards, too, including McDonald’s National Coach of the Year selection in 1977 after his North Eugene team won the second of back-to-back state AAA titles and lost only one of 54 games over two seasons, with All-American Danny Ainge leading the way.
With Scott Barnes and Bob de Carolis, talking everything Reser Stadium
On Tuesday, five days after the seismic announcement that Oregon State will “complete” Reser Stadium, I spoke for a half-hour with Scott Barnes via telephone.
The Beavers’ athletic director seemed flush with emotion over reaction to plans for a $153-million project that will upgrade the west side of Reser and augment the $80-million renovation to the east side that was completed in 2005.
On the Trail Blazers’ lousy start, Hassan Whiteside and my former boss, Alabama’s long snapper, a Texas grad assistant and all those $$ tossed around in college football
Things on my mind as we kick off a new (and hopefully far better) year …
• A statistical analysis of the Trail Blazers’ disappointing seven-game start to the 2020-21 campaign portends that the local NBA quintet is fortunate to be 3-4.
The off-season emphasis by general manager Neil Olshey was help at the defensive end, something that was a near-constant during Terry Stotts’ first eight years as coach.