LU RATZLAFF, ’78 COOKIE MAN 42 You might know Lu Ratzlaff for his dyed-orange gameday beard or his years of outrageous tailgating. (For the 2000 rivalry game, he towed a hot tub to Reser and set it up in the parking lot.) But the most important work of his fandom happens in the kitchen with Imperial butter and bag upon bag of chocolate chips. For more than two decades, Ratzlaff has baked cookies for all the baseball team’s home and away games, and for the gymnastics team to boot — more than 10,000 cookies a year. It began as a way to say thank you to an athletic trainer who hooked him up with a special helmet decal, and somehow just kept going. Many celebrity helpers have tied on an apron in Ratzlaff’s kitchen, from players to former OSU president Ed Ray and his wife, Beth Ray. Since Ratzlaff encountered health troubles recently, his wife, Dori Ratzlaff, ’78, helps more, along with a volunteer baking crew that comes every Thursday morning. Why has he kept it going this long? He’s in it for the fun, he says, but it’s now also part of OSU baseball tradition. “When Mitch took over, he was going to quit the cookies, because he wanted healthier things,” Ratzlaff says of Mitch Canham, ’11, the Pat Casey Head Baseball Coach. “The thing is, the first game that he was coaching, they had a rally cookie late in the game, and they rallied and won. He said, ‘[Redacted], we’re keeping the cookies!’” LOCATION: CORVALLIS, OREGON OCCUPATION: FORMER OWNER OF SCHAEFERS RECREATION EQUIPMENT/ SCHAEFERS STOVE & SPA
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==