Fall 2026 7 OSU SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES ↗ In 1938, a Benny predecessor made a special appearance at a football game. I received the Oregon Stater in the mail today and was thrilled with the cover of the various Bennys and Bernice, of course, as well as the article. I was Benny in the 1985-86 school year and was Benny/Bernice in the 1987-88 school year. Football was a little weary, but A.C. Green, José Ortiz and Gary Payton made basketball so exciting. I traveled to the NCAA tournament as well as the Pac-10 games on the West Coast. It was an absolute blast. Keeping it secret was a challenge, but that was easy to overcome after a while. The side stories will crack you up. Back in the day, I had to take the costumes to the laundromat. The first time around, we put too much soap in the washer and flooded the place. (Made for very clean costumes.) The owner went berserk until we told him what we were washing. (Top secret, of course.) He said he would keep mum as long as we got his assistance to wash the uniforms in the future. We went to Colorado for a Mascot Ski Race put on by the University of Colorado, Boulder. There were about 35 mascots, two of us being female. (The other was the Lobo from New Mexico.) It took a bit to be included with the others, but when I got second in the ski race, I got “confirmed” as a real mascot by the others. [Editor’s note: Watch video footage at beav.es/mascot-race.] The second time I went, we had both the Benny and Bernice costumes, and the tail was about 20 pounds of steel. When I tried to get off the chairlift, my tail got stuck. I went around the “roundabout” hanging by my tail. It was rather humorous. We got to the top of the mountain on future runs using a snowmobile. Like you said, the stories can go on and on. I’m still a true believer: My license plate is BNYBVR. My favorite color is orange. Thanks for a great article. —BETH (GIERS) JOHNSTON, ’88 My all-time favorite thing I did as Benny was the football game for Benny’s birthday when I rode into the stadium with Ken Austin. I just remember standing in the middle of Reser Stadium with the whole stadium singing “Happy Birthday” to Benny. I felt so honored to be a part of something so amazing. I got to do a number of events with Ken, and he was always so kind. It was funny because I would stick to the rule and I wouldn’t speak, not even to him, and a friend of mine told me he told that story years later. I actually never got to meet him out of costume, and I regret that because I would have loved to hear some of his stories. —ERICA (BLOCH) HEUER, ’ 14 I read your article on Benny Beaver with fervor, as I am a Benny Beaver alumnus. I was associated with Alpha Phi Omega, an all-male service fraternity associated with the Boy Scouts ofAmerica.As a junior, I noted that the cloth suit worn by Benny was absolutely horrible, with the crotch at the knees and poorly fitted. I came up with the idea to finance a replacement suit, so we approached the home economics club for someone to sew the suit. Up stepped Ann Hall, who sewed it together in the summer of ’65. The costume had a fiberglass head mounted on football shoulder pads, and the suit was a lightweight cotton to be cooler. I gave it to the Rally Committee, but about a week later, I was asked if I would wear the costume, as the man the chair originally picked was talking too much. (Remember the non-identity clause?) I did, and after the first game I realized the suit was still too warm. I recruited a friend, and we shared duties. This gave Benny much more attention, enough so that the athletics department paid for my friend to go to the basketball regionals in Los Angeles. RememberAnn Hall? She is now Ann Werner, and we have been married for 60 years this August, all because of a beaver. —ALAN WERNER, ’66 Prior to the start of the Civil War game, Benny and I — already in Bernice costume — headed out across the playing field from the locker room/dressing room to get to our fans who were tailgating in the parking lot. The Oregon band was practicing on the field, and we did as mascots do — we started to dance — while the whole band circled us! It started out as friendly and fun, and it was great “fellowship” with our rivals. Then my tail snapped and fell off — a big, heavy metal tail. I fell “MY FATHER, DOUG CHAMBERS, ’41, WAS THE FIRST STUDENT TO DON A BEAVER COSTUME.”
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