Gazette-Times reporter

Time passes and legends are made. Memories make players faster, plays bigger, teams better.

Victories sweeter.

Oregon State fans have heard the story for years: The day in 1967 that USC rolled into town with that top-dog ranking.

The Trojans brought a team loaded with defensive stars. Adrian Young, Mike Battle, Jimmy Gunn and Tim Rossovich became All-Americans.

On the offensive line, there was Ron Yary, a huge and dominating tackle who eventually took a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame after a long career with the Minnesota Vikings.

Oh, and there was O.J. Simpson, the focal point of the Trojans’ offense.

OSU coach Dee Andros had spent the week reminding the Beavers about Simpson’s speed and power. Defensive tackle Jess Lewis and his teammates knew stopping Simpson was the key to winning the game.

“They ran the ball a lot, they tried to grind it out,” Lewis said. “The thing that people don’t realize about O.J. is he was fast and a good runner, but he was a real deceptive runner because he was kind of a floater. It would be like he was gliding along and you’d take an angle at him and it’d look like you could get him, but a lot of times you’d take that angle and he’d be gone.”

The state was ready for the game. The Beavers were on the way to earning the “Giant Killers” title, having already defeated second-ranked Purdue on the road and tying UCLA 16-16 after the Bruins had moved into the No. 2 spot.

The weather was in the Beavers’ corner. As is common in the late fall in Oregon, it was wet.

Parker Stadium’s turf was already worn and torn from several games and the conditions were muddy. That didn’t sit well with the Trojans. Accusations of watering down the field were made.

Lewis chuckled at the notion.

“It was muddy, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t real severe. I’ve seen worse fields,” he said. “We had some pretty long cleats that the equipment manager set us up with, which gave us a little bit of an advantage probably, but they had to play on the same field that we did.”

Simpson didn’t seem slowed by the mud. He slogged through the Beavers for 188 yards.

Neither team could get into the end zone. The Beavers took a 3-0 lead when Mike Haggard hit a 30-yard field goal in the second quarter.

Andros preached the bend, don’t break, philosophy. The Beavers bent on several drives, but the Trojans could not break into the end zone.

That’s where The Tackle comes in.

Years of recounting the play have changed the facts slightly, according to Lewis.

The story goes that O.J. Simpson had slipped into the open and was headed for a touchdown.

Suddenly, Lewis raced in from an angle and pulled Simpson down, saving the TD and the game.

Lewis did make the tackle, but said Simpson got caught up in some traffic and was not at full speed.

“I couldn’t catch him in an open field. No way,” Lewis said. “There were some people that slowed him up, so he had to turn and he kind of turned into me and I did catch him.

“I always say that one of the things that happened is Yary had me blown off the line so far that I was back there anyhow and O.J. just tripped over me.”

The 3-0 lead held. It was the first and only win by an Oregon State football team over a top-ranked opponent.

The Beavers were surprised by their accomplishment, but they took it in stride. They really had no concept that the win would be a hot topic 41 years later.

To this day, fans approach Lewis to say they watched him from the stands that day.

“No. We didn’t think this would last (41) years. We had no idea at the time,” Lewis said. “Sure, the fans went crazy and the town went crazy and we went crazy, too. But we had no idea that this would last.”

On Thursday, another No. 1 USC team comes to town.

Lewis has been on the field with one great USC team and has seen the current group. There’s no Simpson or Yary, but the team is loaded.

“They were good,” Lewis said. “They say they’re good now and they are. I watched some film the other day up there in the coach’s office and boy, I tell you, these guys are good. I’m not saying we can’t do the same thing. It’s possible. That’s what I tell these guys.

“It’s going to take a good game, but I’ll tell you what, they could do it. I know it’s tough, but any given day it’s possible. It’s possible.”

Kevin Hampton is a columnist for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at kevin.hampton@lee.net.