Central Oregon lost one of its football greats last month.

Prineville’s Darrel Aschbacher, who played on two Crook County High School state championship teams and went on to play for Oregon in the 1958 Rose Bowl before two seasons with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, died on July 15 in Prineville. He was 89.

The offensive and defensive lineman went on to become a commercial pilot for Delta Airlines for 36 years before retiring and living in Prineville on a ranch once owned by his father.

Aschbacher was a starter for Crook County’s 1952 and 1953 Oregon A-2 high school state champion football teams. He went on to play for Boise Junior College (now Boise State University) before transferring to Oregon in 1957.

He played two years there (1957-58) under legendary Oregon coach Len Casanova and was a two-way lineman for the UO team that lost to co-national champion Ohio State in the 1958 Rose Bowl. It was the Ducks’ first Rose Bowl appearance since 1920, and they would not go again until 1995.

Aschbacher played on the offensive line for the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles for two seasons. He also played professionally in Canada before quitting to become an airline pilot.

He played for the Eagles team that defeated the Green Bay Packers in 1960 for the National Football League championship, before the Super Bowl existed.

On the Eagles, Aschbacher was roommates with John Madden, who would go on to become a legendary coach and television announcer. Madden, on a “Monday Night Football” TV broadcast once called Aschbacher “the toughest player I ever saw. Not the best, but the toughest,” according to Aschbacher’s friend James Crowell, of Bend.

The Bulletin caught up with Aschbacher in 2011, when Oregon reached the national championship game for the first time, to reminisce about the 1958 Rose Bowl team.

Aschbacher called playing in the Rose Bowl “one of the proudest times of my life.” The Ducks lost the game after the Buckeyes made a late field goal, but he said Casanova called it a “moral victory.”

“They were supposed to beat us by three or four touchdowns,” Aschbacher recalled.

Aschbacher still had the jersey and helmet he wore in the 1958 Rose Bowl, and the ring he received for participating.

Aschbacher traveled to Arizona to watch Oregon fall to Auburn 22-19 in the 2011 BCS National Championship Game. He remained an ardent supporter of the Ducks.

“When we went to the Rose Bowl, I didn’t think THAT was possible,” said Aschbacher, whose UO teams played their home games on campus at Hayward Field — Duck teams have played off campus at Autzen Stadium since 1967. “I never really thought about (Oregon going to the national championship) until this year (2011).”

Aschbacher is survived by three children, five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.