Off the Beat

Chris Kowitz was sports editor of the Corvallis Gazette-Times from September 14, 1953, to April 18 or 19, 1957. Besides attending countless sporting events and writing hundreds if not thousands of articles, he wrote four hundred ninety-six “Kriss Kross” columns and fifteen “Woods and Water” columns. “Off the Beat” was a daily column that appeared on page one of the Gazette-Times for many years, beginning June 23, 1952, typically under a different byline each day of the week. Chris wrote the column every Tuesday from September 22, 1953, to April 16, 1957, except for two weeks each August when he was on vacation, and Christmas Day 1956 and New Year’s Day 1957, when the newspaper was not published.