“Entitled.” Some people use it a weapon when discussing fan behavior. Sort of a “drop-the-mic and declare victory” moment.
Critical of the defense? “Oh, you’re entitled.” Critical of the coaching? “You should lose your entitlement attitude.” Disappointed over a season seemingly topping out with a minor pre-New Year’s Day Bowl? “You must be” — *fill in the blank* — “entitled, new, bandwagon, young or stupid.”
The Oregon Ducks are now a different program than we were in the ’70s and ’80s.
Blessed Be!
How did we get here? The money invested by thousands of small donors (not just the one big one, as our opponents would have you believe) and some serious coaching by some of the greats to ever walk a sideline, have helped. Some heroic play by some dedicated players has been a big part of it.
Who else still misses this guy?
And a certain amount of ineptitude elsewhere has helped a little, too.
“I saw real live bears playing for Baylor!”
Together these things have allowed a small school in a very small state to poke its head above the muck and mire of mediocrity.
Hey! Who put the Sun Devils under mediocrity? Edit! Rewrite! City desk! Stop the presses!
In defense of entitlement, let me add the ongoing and increasingly onerous investment required to be a season ticket-holding supporter of our Ducks.
“Honey! I can’t fit my donation to the Duck Athletic Fund into this envelope. Do you have … a truck?”
But it takes investment and commitment to be great. We are the Fighting Ducks of the University of Oregon! We are different! We could have grown up rooting for the Beavers.
And you can still go to their games for just a possum and bag of chitlins.
So, in closing, let me shout from the mountaintops! Go Ducks! Trim the Trees! We all deserve it!
Top Photo by deviantart.com
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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.”