 Andros, c. 1970 | |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1924-10-17)October 17, 1924 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Died | October 22, 2003(2003-10-22) (aged 79) Corvallis, Oregon, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| 1946–1949 | Oklahoma |
| Position(s) | Guard |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1951–1952 | Oklahoma (assistant) |
| 1953 | Kansas (assistant) |
| 1954–1955 | Texas Tech (assistant) |
| 1956 | Nebraska (assistant) |
| 1957–1959 | California (assistant) |
| 1960–1961 | Illinois (assistant) |
| 1962–1964 | Idaho |
| 1965–1975 | Oregon State |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 1976–1985 | Oregon State |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 62–80–2 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Awards | |
| Second-team All-Big Seven (1949) | |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Service |  U.S. Marine Corps |
| Years of service | 1942–1946 |
| Rank |  Sergeant |
| Battles / wars | World War II Pacific theater Battle of Iwo Jima |
| Awards |  Bronze Star |
Demosthenes Konstandies Andrecopoulos (October 17, 1924 – October 22, 2003) was an Americancollege football player, coach, and athletics administrator.[1][2] He was the head coach at theUniversity of Idaho from 1962 to 1964 andOregon State University from 1965 to 1975, compiling a career record of62–80–2 (.438). A native ofOklahoma and aWorld War II veteran, Andros playedcollege football as aguard at theUniversity of Oklahoma. After retiring from coaching, he was theathletic director at Oregon State from 1976 to 1985.[3]
Born Demosthenes Konstandies Andrikopoulos inOklahoma City, Andros was the second of three sons of aGreek immigrant father.[4] He graduated fromOklahoma City's Central High School in 1942, and then enlisted in the military at age seventeen duringWorld War II.[5] Andros served four years in theU.S. Marine Corps; a cook, he picked up a rifle and was awarded theBronze Star and spent more than a month under heavy fire on the island ofIwo Jima in 1945.[5] He was present at the famed moment when six Marinesraised the American flag onMount Suribachi.[6][7]
Andros played college football atOklahoma from 1946 to1949, underhall of fame head coachBud Wilkinson.[5] He was selected in the 14th round (177th overall) by theChicago Cardinals in the1950 NFL draft.[8] Dee's older brotherPlato(1922–2008) was anAll-American in 1946 at Oklahoma and played four years in theNFL for the Cardinals.[9][10] His younger brother Gus (Dick)(1926–2009) was aballet dancer and choreographer.[6][11]
Andros' coaching career included stops as an assistant atOklahoma,Kansas,Texas Tech,Nebraska,California, andIllinois. Hisbowl games as an assistant were theSun Bowl in January1956 withTexas Tech and theRose Bowl in January1959 withCalifornia.
Andros became a head coach at age 37 atIdaho in February1962. He took over inMoscow forSkip Stahley, who stepped down after eight seasons and remained as athletic director.[12][13][14] Andros' starting annual salary was just under$12,500.[15]
The 1962 team was 2–6–1,[16] but thefollowing year he led Idaho to its first winning season (5–4)[17] in aquarter century.[18][19] The tenth and final game in 1963 atArizona State on November 23 was canceled, following theassassination of President Kennedy.[20][21]
The Vandals won their opener in1964, but then lost four straight, the latter two were close ones toOregon andOregon State. The 10–7 loss to theRose Bowl-bound Beavers in Corvallis came by a late third quarter OSU punt return.[22] The Vandals rebounded and the next week won theBattle of the Palouse for the first time in a decade, defeating neighborWashington State28–13.[23] The Cougars were led by first-year head coachBert Clark, a former Sooner teammate; the Vandals split the final four games to finish at 4–6.
While Idaho had been a driving force in the founding of theBig Sky Conference in 1963,[24][25] it was primarily to alleviatebasketball scheduling and the Vandals remained anindependent for football through 1964 under Andros. Only one conference foe was played during the first two Big Sky seasons, a 1963 game withIdaho State that was previously scheduled. Idaho was in the University Division, while the other Big Sky members were in the College Division (which becameDivision II in1973) for football. After Andros left, Idaho began conference play in1965 under head coachSteve Musseau, Andros' defensive coordinator.
Andros spent three years on thePalouse at Idaho, with an overall record of 11–16–1 (.411).
One of his first-year hires at Idaho in 1962 was alumnusBud Riley(1925–2012),[26] then the head coach and athletic director atLewiston High School, thirty miles (50 km) south of Moscow.[27] A former Vandal halfback forDixie Howell, he coached the Idaho freshman team for Andros and went with him to OSU in 1965.[28] Riley was a defensive assistant in Corvallis for eight years before moving on to theCanadian Football League in 1973 and became a head coach the following year. His eldest sonMike (b.1953) was the head coach at Oregon State for fourteen seasons and later at Nebraska.[28][29]
Andros was hired as the head coach at Oregon State in February1965.[19][30] He replaced the legendaryTommy Prothro, who left after ten seasons in Corvallis forUCLA, just ten days after leading the Beavers in theRose Bowl.[31][32] Andros compiled a51–64–1 (.444) record in eleven seasons at OSU. In theCivil War games against theOregon Ducks, he won his first seven and split the last four, for an overall record of9–2 (.818). Andros was nicknamed "The Great Pumpkin" for his bright orange jacket and large physical size,[3][4] first dubbed by aSpokane sports columnist during the41–13 homecoming rout of WSU inPullman on Halloween weekend in1966.[6][33][34] It was his first game on the Palouse since he left Idaho; his last Palouse game as Vandal head two years earlier was also a win over the Cougars, 28–13.[23]
As OSU head coach, Andros was 8–3 against Washington State and split the first ten games withWashington while headed by former Oklahoma teammateJim Owens; Oregon State was beaten35–7 by theHuskies inSeattle in1975,Don James' first season at UW and Andros' last in coaching. He was also2–0 against his former team, beating the Idaho Vandals by two inBoise in1965 and by seven in Corvallis in1966.
Andros is best known for his incredible1967 season in which his team, dubbed the "Giant Killers", went7–2–1. Led by junior quarterbackSteve Preece, the Beavers beat No. 2Purdue, tied the new No. 2UCLA, and then beat No.1USC. But because Oregon State lost toWashington and tied UCLA, USC won the conference title by a half game and earned the berth to theRose Bowl, where they defeated theBig Ten'sIndiana Hoosiers14–3 and won thenational title. Oregon State finished with a No. 7 ranking in thefinalAP Poll. In1968, the Beavers were ranked sixth in the pre-season andfinished fifteenth after a7–3 campaign. There was no bowl game for the Beavers in either year, as both the Pac-8 and Big Ten forbade their teams from postseason participation outside of the Rose Bowl until the1975 season.
Andros expressed an interest in the open position atOklahoma State University inStillwater in December1968,[35][36][37] and several weeks later, rejected an offer from theUniversity of Pittsburgh,[38] but improved his situation in Corvallis.[39][40]
Although it wasn't apparent at the time, Andros' tenure at Oregon State crested with the 1968 season. Following two six-win seasons in 1969 and 1970, his teams would only win a total of 13 games in the next five years, the start of 28 straight losing seasons.
Following an eighth straight loss to open the1975 season, Andros announced his resignation, effective at the end of the season.[41] Days after the final game, he was namedathletic director to succeed the retiring Jim Barratt.[42][43] Andros retired as AD in the spring of 1985, and continued to serve as a special assistant within the Beaver Athletic Scholarship Fund until health problems forced him to remain at his Corvallis home. He spent nearly four decades withOregon State athletics.
Though he spent only three years atIdaho, he was still held in high regard inMoscow. In1989, Andros was invited by new head coachJohn L. Smith to lead one of the sides in the annual Silver & Gold spring game, opposite former 1970s head coachEd Troxel.[44]
In 1992, his "Giant Killers" team of 1967 was inducted into theOregon Sports Hall of Fame.[5] In the spring of 2003, Andros was awarded the Martin Chaves Lifetime Achievement Award at the Fifth Annual Bennys celebration at Oregon State. Andros married Luella Andros, and they had one daughter named Jeanna.[5] He died in Corvallis on October 22, 2003, at the age of 79.[5]
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Coaches# | AP° | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Idaho Vandals(NCAA University Division independent)(1962) | |||||||||
| 1962 | Idaho | 2–6–1 | |||||||
| Idaho Vandals(Big Sky Conference)(1963–1964) | |||||||||
| 1963 | Idaho | 5–4 | 1–0 | NA | |||||
| 1964 | Idaho | 4–6 | 0–0 | NA | |||||
| Idaho: | 11–16–1 | 1–0 | |||||||
| Oregon State Beavers(Pacific-8 Conference)(1965–1975) | |||||||||
| 1965 | Oregon State | 5–5 | 1–3 | 7th | |||||
| 1966 | Oregon State | 7–3 | 3–1 | T–2nd | 19 | ||||
| 1967 | Oregon State | 7–2–1 | 4–1–1 | T–2nd | 8 | 7 | |||
| 1968 | Oregon State | 7–3 | 5–1 | 2nd | 13 | 15 | |||
| 1969 | Oregon State | 6–4 | 4–3 | 4th | |||||
| 1970 | Oregon State | 6–5 | 3–4 | T–6th | |||||
| 1971 | Oregon State | 5–6 | 3–3 | 5th | |||||
| 1972 | Oregon State | 2–9 | 1–6 | 8th | |||||
| 1973 | Oregon State | 2–9 | 2–5 | T–6th | |||||
| 1974 | Oregon State | 3–8 | 3–4 | T–5th | |||||
| 1975 | Oregon State | 1–10 | 1–6 | 7th | |||||
| Oregon State: | 51–64–1 | 30–37–1 | |||||||
| Total: | 62–80–2 | ||||||||
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