Beavers lose 'a symbol and an icon'.

Byline: Bob Rodman The Register-Guard

He celebrated his 79th birthday less than a week ago. On Wednesday morning, after a prolonged illness and complications from diabetes and several strokes, Dee Andros died at his Corvallis home.

Oregon State lost more than a former football coach, athletic director and loyal Beaver. It lost a major piece of its identity, an ambassador dressed in orange who never needed a presidential appointment.

"He was a special man," said Craig Hanneman, a defensive tackle on three of Andros' teams (1968-70). "He was to Oregon State what Len Casanova was to Oregon ... a symbol and an icon."

Hefty but nonetheless spry, Andros time and again led his Beavers into what was then called Parker Stadium, a round mound of orange huffing and puffing and constantly warning his Beavers that "anyone who runs in front of me will lose his scholarship."

Andros combined longevity with loyalty, ability and compassion to endear himself to those in and out of football. But football, and the players who played it for him, were his first love.

"He was one of those people you meet and they impact your life forever," said Hanneman, now living and working in Salem. "He was a unique blend of tough and soft, an ex-Marine but one of the most kind-hearted people who has walked the face of the Earth.

"I think that's why he had that big body. He needed that much room to house his heart."

Steve Preece was a quarterback on Andros' famed "Giant Killers" team in 1967.

"But I learned much more about life and how to treat people than I did about football," Preece said. "Dee was like my second father."

Andros coached the Beavers for 11 seasons, from 1965 through 1975. His rotund figure draped in orange jackets and black pants led to his being labeled the "Great Pumpkin."

He helped define himself with orange cars, orange golf carts, orange desk, orange shorts, orange toilet paper in his house's orange bathroom and an Oklahoma twang as noticeable as that 300-pound frame.

But Andros' '67 OSU team defined his football program when it conquered some of the country's best en route to a 7-2-1 record, a season that would remain the Beavers' milestone for the next 32 years.

The "Giant Killers" defeated one No. 2-ranked team, Purdue, and tied another, UCLA - both on the road. Andros' reaction: "I'm tired of playing these No. 2 teams, bring on No. 1."

Top-ranked USC surfaced in Corvallis on a dank November day. The Beavers parlayed a gritty defense with the Parker Stadium mud and Mike Haggard's field goal to drop the Trojans 3-0.

"That season brought him into prominence," said Bob Grim, a receiver for the Beavers from 1964-66 who went on to play 11 years in the National Football League.

In 1968, the University of Pittsburgh did its best to lure Andros away from OSU.

"Pitt offered him a bunch of money," Grim said, "but he turned it down. He had signed a contract with Oregon State and he wanted to honor it. That kind of loyalty probably wouldn't hold up in today's world."

The glory would last a few more years, but the social and political upheaval of the 1960s eventually overtook the man who would finish with a 51-64-1 record that included five winning seasons.

Andros' 51 victories were one shy of OSU's 52 wins by his five successors - four years of Craig Fertig, five years of Joe Avezzano, six years of Dave Kragthorpe, six years of Jerry Pettibone and Mike Riley's first two seasons.

In his first seven years at Oregon State, Andros had a 43-28-1 record. In 11 Civil War games against Oregon, he won nine. But in his last four years as OSU's coach, Andros was 2-2 against the Ducks, 8-36 overall.

Prior to the Nov. 1, 1975 game against Stanford, Andros said he would resign if the Beavers lost. They lost, 28-22. He coached his final victory on Nov. 8, defeating Washington State 7-0 at Corvallis, then lost at UCLA and at Oregon to finish 1-10 and close the book on a remarkable chapter of Beaver football history.

He was born Demosthenes Konstandies Andrecopoulos on Oct. 17, 1924, in Oklahoma City, one of three sons of his Greek immigrant father who would shorten the family name.

At 18, Andros enlisted in the Marines. Two years later, on Feb. 19, 1945, the field cook was among the first wave of Marines to land on Iwo Jima during World War II.

Amid horrendous fighting against the Japanese in which 6,000 Americans were killed and 15,000 more wounded, Andros performed heroically and subsequently was awarded the Bronze Star.

"I think that Marine background influenced how he coached," said Bob Herndon, who first met Andros when Herndon was playing and Andros was coaching at Oklahoma in the early 1950s. "There was a job to do and he did it."

Andros could bellow with the best of them, often altering the English language as he ranted. His pregame speeches were the stuff of legend.

`He always would `guarantee that you're as good as any team in America,' ' remembered Grim, for the last 15 years the analyst for radio broadcasts of OSU games. "Dee was masterful at motivating guys to go out and play hard."

Herndon said the Pumpkin "would spit out his fiery speech and afterward you would not want to be anywhere near the door," said Herndon, who was on Andros' staff for seven years.

Andros played football at Oklahoma (1946-50) under coaches Jim Tatum and Bud Wilkinson. Among his Sooner teammates were Darrell Royal (who would become the famed Texas coach) and Jim Owens (the UW coach from 1957-74).

After assistant coaching stops at Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas Tech, Nebraska, California and Illinois, Andros became head coach at Idaho in 1962.

As the successor to Tommy Prothro at OSU in 1965, he coached a slew of notable athletes, including All-Americans Pete Pifer, Jess Lewis, Jon Sandstrom, John Didion, Bill Enyart, Hanneman and Steve Brown.

There was another name as recognizable, but for different reasons. In 1969, black linebacker Fred Milton opted not to shave his beard, in violation of the program's no-facial-hair policy, and was removed from the team by Andros.

Whether it was a human rights issue or a racial one, the fallout would take its toll on Oregon State. Amid a changing society Andros would soften the rules, but the storm clouds over Corvallis had arrived.

Recruiting black athletes to OSU became difficult. In 1971, the Beavers finished 5-6 - the program's first losing season since 1959. The next winning season wasn't until 1999.

"It was a hard situation," said Bud Riley, the father of current OSU coach Mike Riley and an assistant on Andros' staff for eight years. "Dee tried to handle it in a diplomatic way but it slowed the program down."

In 1976, Andros was named Oregon State's director of athletics. Ten years later, then-OSU president John Byrne sought a new image for Beaver athletics.

But the Pumpkin remained loyal, continuing to help in fund-raising for OSU and even doing television commercials for Oregon State until health problems forced his total retirement.

"Dee is one of the reasons why people love Oregon State so much," Mike Riley said.

"Dee Andros was an institution at Oregon State University," OSU director of athletics Bob De Carolis said.

Andros is survived by his widow, Luella, daughter Jeanna and grandson Nicky. A memorial service is being planned at a time and site to be determined.

The date is Oct. 31. Halloween. Andros would have wanted it on no other day.

THE GREAT PUMPKIN

Dee Andros coached Oregon State football teams for 11 years, highlighted by the "Giant Killers" season of 1967.

Year Record Pct.

1965 5-5-0 .500

1966 7-3-0 .700

1967 7-2-1 .778

1968 7-3-0 .700

1969 6-4-0 .600

1970 6-5-0 .545

1971 5-6-0 .455

1972 2-9-0 .182

1973 2-9-0 .182

1974 3-8-0 .273

1975 1-10 .091

Total 51-64-1 .444