{"id":423,"date":"2008-10-15T15:28:29","date_gmt":"2008-10-15T23:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/?p=423"},"modified":"2010-04-12T09:09:48","modified_gmt":"2010-04-12T17:09:48","slug":"beaver-believer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/2008\/10\/15\/beaver-believer\/","title":{"rendered":"Beaver Believer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ken Austin, OSU’s First Benny Beaver, Returns to the Homecoming Parade<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n \"An\n
An early version of Benny Beaver<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

When Ken Austin was chosen to be Oregon State College\u2019s first Benny Beaver in the spring of 1952, his budget was less than $100, and he had no costume and no notion of what a student mascot would do at a football game. After all, at the time, only two other Pac-8 schools \u2014 Cal and Stanford \u2014 had live student mascots, and Austin had never attended their games.<\/p>\n

So he took his meager funds to a costumer in Portland, who fashioned him a tail and a head made out of papier-m\u00e1ch\u00e9, and covered both in brown shag carpeting. He drew inspiration from the clowns at the St. Paul Rodeo near Newberg, Ore., where he grew up. And then he performed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI had to create my own ideas,\u201d Austin says, \u201cI was having fun. And I think the crowd was having fun, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Beaver football games, Austin went wherever the action was. He once climbed onto the goalpost to taunt an approaching Stanford offensive line \u2014 until the referee threatened to hit the Beavers with a 15-yard, unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Austin encouraged the Tail Flappers \u2014 the men\u2019s cheering section \u2014 to be louder, and got the Beavers\u2019 crowds to laugh.<\/p>\n

According to Austin, today\u2019s Beaver fans are even more vocal and involved than when he was Benny. \u201cStudent participation is great. It\u2019s a much louder and stronger voice than we had,\u201d he says. \u201cEverything was so much more reserved in the 50s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austin\u2019s dedication to OSU hasn\u2019t changed, though. At 77, he is returning this
\nyear to serve as the marshal of OSU\u2019s annual homecoming<\/a>
\nparade, which takes place at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 1. \u201cI\u2019m loyal to
\nOregon State,\u201d he says. \u201cI came back because they asked if I would.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a student, Austin loved participating in Oregon State\u2019s homecoming traditions, namely the bonfire and the noise parade. His ambition, he says, was to build the loudest float in the parade, and he usually succeeded. In his first year, he borrowed Newberg\u2019s air raid siren and hitched it to a trailer. The following year, he built a cannon, which he and his fraternity brothers from Delta Tau Delta shot off during the parade.<\/p>\n

Austin graduated in 1954 with a degree in industrial administration and later founded the prominent dental equipment company A-dec with his wife, Joan. The two were the force behind the Austin Family Business Program<\/a> as well as the Austin Entrepreneurship Program<\/a>. A major gift helped renovate Weatherford Hall, where
\nentrepreneurship students live. Both Ken and Joan were inducted into the College of Business Hall of Fame in 2003.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how to be grateful enough to Oregon State for allowing me to follow my passions,\u201d Austin says. \u201cThat\u2019s why we supported the entrepreneurial program at Weatherford Hall. We wanted to see other students follow their passions, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benny Beaver photo courtesy OSU Archives; P017:0032<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ken Austin, OSU’s First Benny Beaver, Returns to the Homecoming Parade When Ken Austin was chosen to be Oregon State College\u2019s first Benny Beaver in the spring of 1952, his budget was less than $100, and he had no costume and no notion of what a student mascot would do at a football game. After… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1732],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-students-and-campus-life","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":676,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions\/676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}