KEEPERS OF THE DAM FLAG ANDY LAKE, ’81 LOCATION: DENVER, COLORADO OCCUPATION: OWNER, IAG PACKAGING TODD BUTLER, ’87 LOCATION: ELKMONT, ALABAMA OCCUPATION: RETIRED SENIOR OPERATIONS PLANNER, U.S. ARMY 43 After the Pac-12 as we knew it disintegrated in 2022, leaving Oregon State and Washington State behind,Todd Butler had an idea.Washington State fans had waved their flag on ESPN’s College GameDay broadcasts since 2003. In the name of solidarity, he thought, Oregon State should be there, too. That weekend’s show was in Alabama. Butler bought a flag, got in his car and drove.Afterward, he posted photos on the Beaver Blitz message board and posed a question: Can someone in Colorado do the same next week? “I saw that and I thought, ‘That’s really cool,’” says Andy Lake. In that moment, a homegrown Beaver movementwas born.With advice from the WSU group; help from the OSU Alumni Association; and, soon, social media coordination by Ben Forgard,’12, the effort took off. Butler and Lake started shipping flags from fan to fan. They haven’t missed a single broadcast in the two seasons since. With locations announced just a few days in advance, sometimes that means scrambling to book last-minute flights across the country. “Number one, we’re diehard Beaver fans,” Lake says. “After the pain of what happened to us and the Pac-12, you can either curl up in a ball and just give up or you can do what we’re trying to do, which is to get people motivated and get the Beaver flag noticed on national TV.” To grow the tradition, Butler created custom tokens and certificates for volunteers who sign up to wave the flag. “Through all the years ESPN GameDay has been on, it’s been part of Saturday mornings,” Butler says. “But to see it live and feel the energy — when you get a crowd that’s really fired up, you can feel it in your chest, the noise. It’s really cool to see our flag flying next to Washington State’s Ol’ Crimson. It’s also a little bit of a poke in the eye to ESPN, who contributed to this destruction.” Get involved at bit.ly/dam-flag. It’s really cool to see our flag flying next to Washington State’s Ol’ Crimson.
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