Oregon State Beavers
The Oregon State Beavers are the athletic teams that represent Oregon State University, located in Corvallis, Oregon. The Beavers compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I level as a member of the Pac-12 Conference. Oregon State's mascot is Benny the Beaver. Both the men's and women's teams share the name, competing in 7 NCAA Division I men's sports and 9 NCAA Division I women's sports respectively. The official colors for the athletics department are Beaver Orange, black, and white.
The primary rivals of the Beavers are the Oregon Ducks of the University of Oregon, located south of the Oregon State campus in Eugene, Oregon. The football rivalry between the Beavers and Ducks, once known as the Civil War, was one of the longest-running in the country, having been contested 127 times through the 2023 season. Other regional rivals include the Washington Huskies and Washington State Cougars, having played each 108 times in football through the 2023 season.
As of February 2025, the Beavers have won one pre-NCAA team national championship and four NCAA team national championships. The 1926 wrestling team won the Amateur Athletic Union national championship, the 1961 men's Cross-country team won the NCAA title, and most recently the baseball team won the 2006, 2007 and 2018 College World Series. Other notable performances include a second-place finish in the 1973 and 1995 NCAA wrestling finals, two Final Four appearances by the men's basketball team, one Final Four appearance by the women's basketball team, the football team defeating Notre Dame by a 32-point margin in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl, eight appearances in the College World Series by the baseball program, reaching the College Cup of the 2023 NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament, and several individual NCAA championship titles in gymnastics, wrestling, and track & field.
Sports teams
Men's sports
Oregon State has four NCAA championships: three in baseball, and one in men's cross country. The school dropped its cross country and track programs in 1988 due to budget cuts, though women's track and cross country were reinstated in 2005. Periodically, some men continue to compete individually in an unattached status.Baseball
The Oregon State University baseball program was established in 1907. It has since had nearly 100 players go on to play in the minor leagues and more than 45 go on to play in the majors. Most notable of these major league players are New York Yankees outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Darwin Barney, New York Mets and San Francisco Giants outfielder Michael Conforto, Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan, and Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman.Oregon State players have been named All-Americans 45 times, as of the end of the 2024 season. Oregon State baseball has produced 16 conference players of the year winners and 1 Golden Spikes Award winner, Adley Rutschman in 2019. The Golden Spikes Award is bestowed annually to the best amateur baseball player in the United States.
The baseball team has won its conference championship 26 times and has reached the College World Series seven times, first in 1952 and as recently as 2018. They won the NCAA championship in 2006, 2007, and 2018. The team is led by head coach Mitch Canham and they play at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. Opened over a century ago, Coleman Field is located near the center of campus and is the oldest continuous use ballpark in the nation.
Basketball
The men's basketball team at Oregon State experienced periods of significant success from the early 1920s to the early 1990s—with 12 conference championships, 16 NCAA tournament appearances, and only 14 losing seasons from 1922 to 1991—but fell on hard times, suffering 19 losing seasons and made no NCAA tournament appearances from 1992 to 2015 before returning in 2016. The program has reached the Final Four of the NCAA tournament twice, the Elite Eight on six occasions, and 17 total tournament appearances. A number of former OSU players have gone on to have successful careers in the NBA, including 9-time NBA All-Star Gary Payton and "Iron Man" A.C. Green. OSU alumni have also won a total of 10 NBA championship rings and four Olympic gold medals.The team has defeated rival Oregon more times than any other team has beaten an opponent in a collegiate sport, with 195 victories over the Ducks as of 2023. The Oregon State men's basketball holds the NCAA record for most games played against a single opponent with 362 games played against the Oregon Ducks men's basketball team and the NCAA record for 2nd most victories against a single opponent with 195 victories against the Ducks. As of 2023 they also have played rivals the Washington Huskies men's basketball 310 times and Washington State Cougars men's basketball 308 times
Oregon State has had 75 all-conference and 32 All-America selections, five Pac-10 Players of the Year, 42 players selected in the NBA draft, and 24 players that have gone on to play in the NBA.
The basketball program has been eclipsed in recent times by the relative success of the OSU football and baseball programs, the latter of which has recently won three national championships.
Wayne Tinkle was hired as head coach prior to the 2014–15 season. His first team produced the program's second winning record in the last nine seasons and he then led the school to their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1990 in 2016. In 2021 he led the Beavers to a Pac-12 conference tournament title and an Elite Eight NCAA tournament finish.
Football
JaMarcus Shepherd is the current head coach, replacing Trent Bray.The football program has been a part of Oregon State University since 1893, working as a platform for over a hundred players to enter the NFL, such as Heisman Trophy winner Terry Baker, New England Patriots running back Steven Jackson, New Orleans Saints running back Jacquizz Rodgers, Tennessee Titans punter Johnny Hekker, Miami Dolphins wide receiver Chad Ochocinco, Oakland Raiders wide receiver T. J. Houshmandzadeh, New Orleans Saints wide receiver Brandin Cooks, Washington Commanders linebacker Nick Barnett, Miami Dolphins safety Jordan Poyer, Buffalo Bills quarterback Derek Anderson, Kansas City Chiefs safety Sabby Piscitelli, Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Sammie Stroughter, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Matt Moore, and Seattle Seahawks cornerback Brandon Browner.
Oregon State has had 53 first team All-Americans in the history of the program as of the end of the 2023 season, with 8 Consensus All-Americans and 2 Unanimous All-Americans.
Oregon State football has won seven conference titles, done through four different conferences, although two of them have links to the current Pac-12 Conference, as the conference claims the history of the PCC as their own, and the Athletic Association of Western Universities was the first name for the conference that later became the Pac-12 Conference.
Oregon State University has played in 20 postseason bowl games. The Beavers have also played in the Mirage Bowl, but this was a regular season game and a "bowl" in name only, not a post-season invitational bowl game. The Beavers lost the 1980 edition of the game against No. 14 ranked UCLA 34–3 in front of 80,000 at National Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan.
The 20 bowl game total does not include an invitation to play in the Gotham Bowl in 1960, when no opponent could be found for Oregon State. The Beavers are 12–8 in bowl game appearances.
Oregon State is the 2001 BCS Fiesta Bowl champions, 1942 Rose Bowl Champions, 1962 Liberty Bowl champions, 2006 & 2008 Sun Bowl champions, 2003 & 2022 Las Vegas Bowl champions, 1939 & 1948 Pineapple Bowl champions, 2004 Insight Bowl champions, 2007 Emerald Bowl champions, 2013 Hawaii Bowl champions, and has played in 3 Rose Bowls.
Soccer
The Oregon State Beavers men's soccer team was founded in 1988 and plays at 1,500 seat Paul Lorenz Field at Patrick Wayne Valley Stadium. They have had sustained success since the early to mid 2000s. The Beavers were Pac-12 Conference champions in 2021 and qualified for the NCAA national championship tournament on eight occasions, making their deepest runs in the tournament in 2021 reaching the quarter finals and in 2023 where they reached the College Cup. The team has produced one Hermann Trophy winner Gloire Amanda in 2020, seven NSCAA All-Americans and has had five players play for their respective national teams at the senior level. The team's all-time match record is 254–275–76 as of the end of the 2019 season.The current coach of the Beavers is Greg Dalby, who took the position in January 2023 after serving as an assistant coach at Penn State University. Dalby replaced Terry Boss, who was hired as the men's soccer head coach in 2017, after previously serving as the lead assistant coach for the 2013 season. Boss has coached the Beavers to one conference championship and three NCAA tournament appearances.
Golf
Golf was first introduced as a school-sanctioned sport at Oregon State College in 1928. Prior to that date, golf existed on campus as a club sport with an organized team, but with its participants not receiving formal recognition from the university. The first coach of the OSC team was Tony Sottovia, formerly a professional player from Portland, who headed the squad for three years.The Great Depression affected the golf program particularly leading to only one officially scheduled match 1931. Following that, there were no scheduled games for the next year. Golf again began to resurface in 1933 without official university support. In 1934, Ralph Coleman, head of OSC intramural athletics, was named golf coach. He would remain in this capacity until 1938, when he was named full-time baseball coach and basketball coach Amory T. "Slats" Gill was appointed to the position.
The Oregon State men's golf team finished the 1949-50 season 1st in the north division and 18th at the national championship tournament. In 1958-1959 they finished 2nd in the conference and 11th at the national championships. In 1965-1966 they finished 5th in the conference but 15th at the national championships. In 1993-1994 they finished 4th in the conference and 25th at the national championships. In the 2000-2001 season although finishing last in the conference they surprised many and finished in 12th place at the national championships. In the 2009-2010 season they finished 16th at the national championships and in the 2020-2021 season finished in 23rd at the national championships.
Oregon State men's golf has 3 individual conference champions
The Oregon State men's golf team has produced 12 All-Americans, 2 PAC-12 Scholar-athletes of the Year, 1 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, 31 All-Pac 12 selections, and many have become golf professionals.
The golf teams practice and compete at Oregon State's own Trysting Tree Golf Club, in East Corvallis. Built in 1988, the course is designed by the famed architect Ted Robinson and features many large, raised greens making approach shots very challenging. In 2017 Trysting Tree opened its new routing featuring three newly created holes by Native Oregonian and former Oregon State Golfer, Dan Hixson. This project also saw the addition of a new large practice facility for the Oregon State Golf Program. With five sets of tees the golf course can be played by all skill levels, and hosts many of Oregon's biggest championships including hosting the Pac-12 conference championships multiple times.