CREDIT TK During Homecoming weekend, the OSU Alumni Association revealed a new campus landmark: a life-size bronze sculpture of Benny Beaver seated on a bench outside the OSU Alumni Center. The installation, made possible through a philanthropic gift from alumni Holly and Todd McKinney (both 1991 graduates), now greets fans and visitors just steps from Reser Stadium and invites them to sit down beside OSU’s beloved mascot. “The crowd’s reaction and the nonstop line of photo-seeking Benny fans told the full story,” said John Valva, executive director of the OSU Alumni Association. “We love Benny Beaver as the spirit and soul of fandom.” Anticipation had been building in the days leading Benny’s New Bench up to Homecoming. The Alumni Association teased “Benny’s Birthday Surprise” ahead of the Oct. 11, 2025, football game, drawing hundreds of fans for the reveal. With help from the OSU Marching Band, Benny and Bernice, the celebration quickly became one of the weekend’s most photographed moments. The idea began during an Alumni Association board meeting, when Valva described a bench he’d seen at the University of Utah, depicting their red-tailed hawk mascot, Swoop. He recalled Holly McKinney rushing up to him during a break with an emphatic response: “We need that bench!” The sculpture was created by artist Virgil Oertle of Mascot Benches, known for similar installations at universities nationwide. Now installed outside the Alumni Center on Southwest 26th Street, Benny’s bench offers fans a place to pause, celebrate and capture a bit of Beaver pride. —Molly Rosbach ← Todd and Holly McKinney joined their children, Max McKinney, ’21, and Madison McKinney, ’20, on the Benny bench after its grand unveiling. Benny Beaver Live! It was the week of the 2021 Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl, and Anders Rosenquist, ’22, and another Benny were driving to Los Angeles with the Benny suit. On the way, they found that the next night the Beavers would attend the Jimmy Kimmel Live! television show. The idea hit: “We said, ‘What if we put on the suit and just waltzed into the Jimmy Kimmel set — do you think anyone would stop us? Or would they think, “Oh, you’re part of the team, you should just get in,”?’” Rosenquist recalled. The answer? The first three or four layers of security figured they belonged.At the last checkpoint, though, Benny’s name wasn’t on the list.They gave it the “Oh, I thinkwe should be on there” try, but security started calling OSU officials to check whether Benny was part of the OSU contingent. “We kind of realized we bit off way more than we could chew,” Rosenquist said. They tried to leave but someone on the show’s staff said the writers had heard Benny was there and wanted to write him into the show. The premise, Rosenquist said, was that Kimmel would mention Benny was in the audience, but that Bernice had gone missing several years earlier during a spate of unsolved missing persons cases in Oregon. Then the camera would zoom in on Benny and ask him if he had anything to do with Bernice’s disappearance. OSU officials nixed that plan. “So maybe Scott Barnes got a good call on that one,” Rosenquist said. Later, Rosenquist parlayed his Benny background into a gig as Slyly, the mascot of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of the Japanese baseball major leagues. 38 OregonStater.org KAI CASEY
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==