Quarterback Terry Baker won the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, and was the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.

He walked on to the football team in 1960 after head coach Tommy Prothro invited him to drop baseball and attend spring drills.

Baker entered the game 161 total yards short of the Oregon State career record, held by Ken Carpenter.

The Beavers drove 62 yards, the final 31, coming on a Baker-to-Burke touchdown pass with two seconds left in the first half to pull Oregon State within eight at halftime.

Baker looked at Burke, but threw to Jerry Neil, who caught the ball at the Iowa State five and ran into the end zone for a 43-yard touchdown with 29 seconds left.

Jerry Neil, who caught the winning touchdown against Iowa State was converted into a tackle to add depth on the offensive line.

At approximately five o'clock in the afternoon, the Columbus Day Storm, the strongest 20th-century extratropical cyclone in the United States, struck.

The ball sailed over Baker's head and the Huskies' Rick Redman recovered the fumble to end the Beavers' last real threat of the game.

Pacific converted the drive into a 14-yard touchdown pass from Jack Sparrow to Ted Watkins with 10 seconds left in the first half to cut Oregon State's lead to 26–6.

West Virginia responded by scoring a touchdown on a seven-yard pass from Dick Jones to Gene Heeter with 9:58 left in the first half.

The first time the Mountaineers got the ball in the second half, they drove 48 yards in eight plays for a touchdown on Glenn Holton's three-yard plunge.

Williams scored a touchdown on a four-yard carry with 10 seconds left in the third quarter, and Clark kicked the extra point, which pushed Oregon State's lead to 22.

Oregon State's starting center, John Farrell, was injured in the West Virginia game and did not return to action until the Civil War.

The Cougars then beat Indiana and Stanford in consecutive weekends to run their record to 4–0–1, Washington State's best start in more than a quarter century.

Oregon State line coach Bob "Tiger" Zelinka, who scouted the game, called it "the worst possible thing that could have happened", because he believed that the Cougars would be motivated against the Beavers.

At the start of the second quarter, the Beavers' Fred Jones recovered a Ken Graham fumble on the Oregon State 46.

On the Cougars' next drive, back-up quarterback, Dale Ford, led Washington State 57 yards in nine plays to cut the Beavers' lead to 18–12.

The drive was kept alive, when Oregon State made multiple substitutions while the clock was running, a five-yard penalty, on fourth down.

The Cougars drove 36 yards in six plays before Espalin made his third and final interception at the Beavers' three to preserve the Oregon State win.

Before the game, first-year Idaho head coach Dee Andros drained the pond at Neale Stadium and set out beaver traps.

After an unnecessary roughness penalty put the ball on the three with 56 seconds left in the first half, Bruce Williams ran twice for the final three yards and a touchdown.

Colorado State lined up for a field goal, but the Rams' quarterback, John Christensen faked it and threw to Alex Humackich for a touchdown with 53 seconds left in the first half.

Then, Williams knocked over a couple tacklers en route to a 28-yard touchdown scamper to put Oregon State up 19–6 four minutes after the Beavers had gone up 13–6.

Beaver halfback Espalin had noticed that the end and linebacker on his side of the field were dropping back to cover Burke's hook pattern on plays that it was called.

The Bluebonnet, Cotton, Orange, and Sugar Bowls quickly filled up with Big Eight, SEC, and Southwest conference teams.

Many newspapers championed the Beavers to be Penn State's opponent, but the Gator Bowl announced it would match the Nittany Lions with the winner of the upcoming Battle of the War Canoe between Florida and Miami.

As a result of being named the most outstanding scholar-athlete on the West Coast by the National Football Foundation, Baker was invited to attend the Army–Navy game with President John F. Kennedy on December 1 in Philadelphia.

Villanova got the first break of the game in the first quarter when William Sherlock's 52-yard punt was downed nine inches from the Oregon State end zone by Larry Glueck.

On January 22, Baker accepted the Glenn (Pop) Warner Memorial Award as the most valuable senior college player on the Pacific Coast.

The award was presented in Palo Alto, California by Ernie Nevers, who was eventually elected into the NCAA and NFL Halls of Fame.