All those decades of frustration and failure. Then the burgeoning promise of the last 15 seasons. Culminating in the first-ever college football playoff national championship game.
Unreal.
Five years after falling in the last second to Auburn, the Ducks were back.
And lost. Crushed, I find there’s only one thing left to say:
Mahalo, Hawaii.
There’s more to Hawaii than surf and palm trees.
Mahalo, for sharing Marcus Mariota with us.
Mahalo for reminding us, through him, that the world still produces young men of character, humility, and dignity.
Mahalo for inspiring us, through him, helping us remember that greatness does not equal boasting, that leadership and loutishness are not synonymous, that speaking softly while carrying a big stick is a pretty good combination after all.
And mahalo for injecting the mainland, through him, with a much-needed douse of aloha spirit. Lord knows we all need as much of that as we can possibly get.
The Ducks may have lost tonight, but everyone on the planet who follows and loves college football won.
Thanks to him. And you.
Mahalo, Hawaii.
Top photo from Video
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Randy Morse (Editor and Writer) is a native Oregonian, a South Eugene High and U of O grad (where he played soccer for the Ducks, waaay back in ’70-‘71). After his doctoral work at the University of Alberta he launched a writing & publishing career – that plus his love of mountaineering has taken him all over the world. An award-winning artist, musician, broadcaster, and author, he’s written 8 books – his writing on media & democracy earned him the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting’s 2014 Dalton Camp Award. He swears he taught LaMarcus Aldridge his patented fade-way jump shot, and is adamant that if he hadn’t left the country (and was a foot taller) he would be the owner of a prosperous chain of fast food outlets and a member of the NBA Hall of Fame by now. If there is a more rabid Ducks fan in the known universe, this would come as a major surprise to Morse’s long-suffering family. He resides in the tiny alpine village of Kaslo, British Columbia.