CORVALLIS — Reser Stadium stands mightily behind a line of trees on the south side of the Oregon State University campus as the setting sun turns the sky from blue to pink, and finally, to orange.
The Beavers’ home venue, not at all large by Division I-A standards, looks like an oversized high-school stadium. One wouldn’t guess that its field will hold the state’s most meaningful football game in history Saturday.
But it will, and Corvallis is in a frenzy because of it.
Walking across town — which can be accomplished in minutes — it’s impossible not to notice the Beavermania which has gripped the community.
“We haven’t been 9-1 in a long time,” said Bret Hopkins, an Oregon State graduate and employee at the downtown Headline Cafe. “It’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and all the closet Beaver fans are coming out.”
Barber shops, jewelry shops, bookstores; name it, and there’s probably orange on it. Some stores paste their windows with several small orange ‘Go Beavers’ signs, while others hang flags embroidered with the school mascot — that grinning, two-toothed Benny Beaver.
Then there are community members who express their Oregon State loyalty in less conventional ways. One downtown candy shop decorated its exterior with a scarecrow-turned-Beaver-fan, complete with a straw hat and an orange-and-black T-shirt. Kitty-corner to that shop, a massive “Go Beavs!” is painted in cursive letters across the windows of another building.
Orange is everywhere — at every turn, down every street.
“This year is the first time that we decorated because we’re partly surprised that the Beavers are doing so good here,” said Pearl Hadder, an employee at Leading Floral Co. downtown. “We said, ‘Hey, lets root them on.’”
“I have a blast at the football games, and I’m really glad to see that everyone’s getting so much into this,” said Jeanne Walters, an Oregon State senior and Hadder’s co-worker. “I’m really glad to see the Beavers are doing well. I think [Dennis] Erickson has been great for the team. He’s really doing a good job, and so is [athletic director] Mitch Barnhart.”
The floral shop where Hadder and Walters work sports a large, stuffed football in its display window, complete with Beaver banners.

“It’s a friendly rivalry. I don’t hate them — I have a niece who goes to the U of O,” Hadder said. “Some people really get fired up about Oregon, but most of the time I hear friendly banter.”
Not all Oregon State fans are so gentle.
“The Ducks could be playing the Soviet national team, and I’ll root for the Soviets,” Hopkins joked.
The community craziness is evident on the Oregon State campus, too. Even as the sun sets, wandering students are decked out in full Oregon State gear. Dorm halls are decorated with spirited posters and paintings in favor of the students’ beloved Beavers.
Inside the Memorial Union — which overlooks the “quad” courtyard, where students sold raffle tickets and with them the chance to smash a car decked out in Duck paraphernalia — an archway of orange, black and white balloons spans the main staircase, beneath which sits a sandwich board proclaiming that the “Civil War is here.”
A large sheet of orange construction paper covers a section of the wall at the top left of the main staircase. Here, Beaver fans such as Oregon State junior David Neese leave their words of wisdom about Saturday’s game.
One message reads: “Got the Feaver?”
“To have a Rose Bowl chance and a ranking in the top 10, it all feels pretty cool,” Neese said. “After watching the last Civil War here, this is an exciting game and it deserves the hype.”
Can the Ducks possibly pull out a win in the midst of this fired-up community?
“If we play our second string,” Neese said, grinning a grin that Benny himself would be proud of.