OREGON STATE FAITHFUL FAITHFUL HAVE STOOD BY STOOD BY THE BEAVERS THROUGH EVERY HIGH AND LOW — from notorious losing streaks to heart-pounding wins to Olympic podiums. Through it all, they’ve shown up, loud and proud, to cheer with friends and celebrate what it means to be part of Beaver Nation. But there are fans and there are superfans. In a world where college sports seems always to be in flux, we went on a quest to find some of the special people at the heart of school pride — the ones taking fandom to the next level. Still, this is just a small sampling. Know a superfan? Tell us about them at stater@osualum.com. @MARVINBEAVERMAN LOCATION: MILILANI, HAWAII OCCUPATION: RETIRED TEACHER MR. BEAVERMAN MARViN YONAMiNE, ’87 40 Marvin Yonamine knows what it’s like to love a sport that doesn’t love you back. As a student, he endured Oregon State Football’s record- breaking 28-year losing streak. He told friends that if the university ever had a winning season, he’d wear Beaver gear nonstop. The streak ended in 1999. On Jan. 1, 2001 — the day OSU trounced Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl — Yonamine kept his word. By the time you read this, he will have worn Beaver shirts for more than 9,000 days in a row. Fifteen years in, Daily Barometer reporter Josh Worden, ’17, discovered the Twitter account (there’s now an Instagram account, too), where Yonamine documents his daily exercise in Beaver pride. “From there,” Yonamine says, “it just took off.” He’s been celebrated by OSU teams, met former OSU president Ed Ray and was even written up by The New Yorker. But he wants to be clear: “People think a university is only its sports. And I really hate that,” he says. “Being a college sports fan is only 25% of my love for OSU. The other 75% is my love for the whole university.” He met lifelong friends and his wife, Laurie Satomi Yonamine, ’87, here. (As first-year students inbound from Hawaii, they sat together outside the Eugene airport for four hours waiting for a shuttle.) His father, daughters and son are Beavers, too. “You should be proud of your university, not only in the good times, but also in the bad times,” he says. “I thank all those Oregonians who sat through 28 losing seasons, and they still supported OSU.”
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