I learned last night that our Ducks can stay with a very good Louisville team. Nine times out or ten we’re going to go down to defeat to them, but we played them tough, won the game over the last 37 minutes, and comported ourselves well in a Sweet 16 game. We also covered the spread, which did me no good because I was afraid that we would not play well and would lose by 40. Flog me very many!
But I learned things during the game that taught me a great deal about life. With 15:44 to go in the first half I learned that men are pigs, but that really cute girls are into that sort of thing.
With 11:17 to go in the first half I realized that those AT&T commercials with the kids in the classroom are scripted. Watch the little girl to the boy’s right as she mouths his lines.
With 3:59 to go in the first half, I saw a familiar Kia Soul commercial, but realized that the little critters look like Oregon State’s new logo.
I muted the sound during halftime because I didn’t need to hear Charles Barkley say, “This what we were expecting from an overmatched Oregon team.” I’m sure there were things that I could have learned at halftime but it wasn’t worth it to me.
With 15:46 to go in the game I learned that the Beavers may be inept on the field, court, pitch, ice, track, and diamond but that they rock the opera house.
With 6:11 to go in the game I learned that someone had been secretly filming me when I ran with the bulls in Pamplona.
Finally, with less than 4:00 to go in the Oregon season, I learned that the nightmares of freshman year in high school can recur thirty years later.
Good season, Ducks. You made us proud!
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Kim Hastings is a 1984 graduate of Northwest Christian College. He cut his journalistic teeth as sports editor of a paper in his home town of Fortuna, CA, and, later as a columnist for the Longview Daily News in Longview, WA.
He saw his first Oregon game in 1977 and never missed a home game from 1981 until a bout with pneumonia cut his streak short in 1997. He was one of the proud 3200 on a bitterly cold night in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1989 for the Independence Bowl, and continues to be big supporter of Oregon sports. He is an active participant on the various Oregon Ducks messageboards as “TacomaDuck.”
