He also staged an amazingly successful attention-getting event designed to put the young campus on the map: the "First Intercollegiate Elephant Race in Human History," held in 1962.

The elephants were rented from a Hollywood studio, and the largest was ridden by the editor of the Harvard University student newspaper, the Crimson.

Becker was well respected by his players on the team from team captain Mitchel Saadi '64, Dennis Silver '63, Ken Smith Jr., Ernie Lopez '64, Jim Blondin '63, Tony Keeling, Ben Wade '63 and George Rentfro '62 who all also looked at him as a father figure and mentor.

The event was televised live and was one of the Associated Press' Top 10 stories of 1962, and it put the Orange County school into national level awareness.

[8] Harvard's The Crimson coverage in 1962 includes mention that "Orange State, a new school in the California state college system, is scheduled to grow to more than 25,000 students within 15 years," and that "the school has large tracts of unimproved land which, according to Becker, 'make ideal elephant pastures.