Canzano: Like bumping into an old friend
Oregon State beats Washington State in the first of two games.
CORVALLIS — I bumped into Ed Ray outside the Valley Football Center a couple of hours before kickoff of Saturday’s “Pac-2” Conference championship game.
Oregon State beat Washington State, 10-7. It’s been several weeks since the Beavers lost a football game. So long that I wonder if they’ve forgotten how to do it.
Before the game, though, I saw the 81-year-old former OSU President walking toward the football stadium gates by himself. A nest of white hair sat on top of his head. He wore wire-rimmed eyeglasses, a pair of khaki pants, and a black pullover fleece vest like the ones worn by the school’s marching band. It even had the word “BAND” stitched in small white letters on the left side of his chest.
Ray saw me approaching and stopped to chat.
“Your identity doesn’t mean shit anymore in college athletics,” Ray told me. “Alabama has the same goddamn problem that Oregon State and Washington State have — how much goddamn money can you raise? It’s all external. If you can’t raise the money externally, you don’t matter.”