Quentin Carl Greenough (January 13, 1919 – August 1, 2005) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player.

Football career

Greenough was born in

Porterville, California Porterville is a city in the San Joaquin Valley, in Tulare County, California, Tulare County, California, United States. It is part of the Visalia Metropolitan Area, Visalia-Porterville metropolitan statistical area. Since its incorporation in 1 ...

and later moved to

San Gabriel, California San Gabriel (Spanish for " St. Gabriel") is a city located in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California. At the 2010 census, the population was 39,718. San Gabriel was founded by the Spanish in 1771, when Mission San Gabriel Arc ...

. He attended Alhambra High School, then enrolled at Oregon State College (later

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

) where he became the starting

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

. In the 1941 season, he was credited with leading Oregon State's 10–0 defensive effort against

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

, which behind its new

T-formation In American football, a T formation (frequently called the full house formation in modern usage, sometimes the Robust T) is a formation used by the offensive team in which three running backs line up in a row about five yards behind the quarterba ...

had not lost a game since 1939.Clark Shaughnessy Says Best Team Won
''Eugene Register-Guard'', October 12, 1941. Greenough was chosen as an All-American, helping the Beavers to a

Pacific Coast Conference The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was a college athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pac-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, with eight of the ten PCC members (including a ...

championship and berth in the

1942 Rose Bowl The 1942 Rose Bowl was the 28th edition of the college football bowl game, played on Thursday, January 1, 1942. Originally scheduled for the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, it was moved to Durham, North Carolina, due to fears about an attack b ...

. With Greenough anchoring the offensive line, the

underdog An underdog is a person or group in a competition, usually in sports and creative works, who is largely expected to lose. The party, team, or individual expected to win is called the favorite or top dog. In the case where an underdog wins, the ...

Beavers won their first (and so far, only) Rose Bowl, upsetting

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

20–16. He later played in the 1944

East-West Shrine Game East West (or East and West) may refer to: *East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture Arts and entertainment Books, journals and magazines *'' East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salm ...

, and after his college career, served in the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

and played on the Coast Guard's football team.

After football

When his playing career ended, Greenough became an assistant football coach under Beavers head coach

Lon Stiner Alonzo L. "Lon" Stiner (June 20, 1903 – March 8, 1985) was an American football player and coach. He was the head coach at Oregon State College—now Oregon State University—from 1933 to 1948, compiling a record of 74–49–17. Stiner led th ...

. He married Rae Ardis DeMoss, becoming the brother-in-law of his Rose Bowl teammate

Don Durdan Donald Edgar Durdan (September 21, 1920 – June 28, 1971) was a professional American football and basketball player. Early life Durdan was born in Arcata, California and attended Eureka High School, where he played running back on the high sch ...

, who was married to another DeMoss sister. (Another sister was Oregon golf champion

Grace DeMoss Grace DeMoss Zwahlen (born 1927) is a former competitive women's American amateur golfer from Oregon. She was the first Pacific Northwesterner to be named to the United States Curtis Cup team in 1952 and then again in 1954. After retiring from c ...

.) Greenough later set up his own

general contractor A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...

business in

Corvallis, Oregon Corvallis ( ) is a city and the county seat of Benton County in central western Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2020 United ...

. Greenough was named to the

Oregon Sports Hall of Fame The Oregon Sports Hall of Fame honors Oregon athletes, teams, coaches, and others who have made a significant contribution to sports in Oregon. The first class was inducted in 1980, with new inductees added in the fall. Operated by the Oregon Sports ...

in 1981< and the Oregon State University Hall of Fame in 1991. He died in Corvallis in 2005.

References

1919 births 2005 deaths American football centers Alameda Coast Guard Sea Lions football players Oregon State Beavers football coaches Oregon State Beavers football players Sportspeople from Alhambra, California Players of American football from Los Angeles County, California Players of American football from Tulare County, California People from San Gabriel, California People from Porterville, California Coaches of American football from California United States Coast Guard personnel of World War II {{Offensive-lineman-1910s-stub