As the Ducks and Huskies get ready to renew a rivalry that began in 1900 (with a 43-0 Ducks victory), there is a lot to play for, be it for this year’s squads with bowl and championship dreams, or as another chapter in a more than century-long conflict. Perhaps more than any other program, Washington seems to represent for the …
FishDuck Game Review: Flags Fly As Ducks Cruise Past Golden Eagles
There is no cheering in the Autzen Stadium press box. No asking for autographs from players, or having your photo taken with players or coaches. It is the third rail in the life of a sports reporter, do not touch it. There is no wearing Oregon’s colors, unless green and yellow happen to be part of your business casual ensemble. …
Winged Victory: Oregon’s Uniforms Balance Boldness and Restraint
As Oregon’s 2012 season began on Saturday, not only were quarterback Marcus Mariota and a host of new Ducks making their playing-field debuts, but so was the latest generation in Oregon’s constantly-evolving collection of uniforms. After debuting a shiny metallic helmet with a winged-feather pattern in the Rose Bowl eight months ago, on August 22nd the team unveiled a corresponding …
Forgiving Cam Newton: After Cancer, A Duck Fan’s Changed Perspective
If you had told me on the morning of January 11, 2011 that I’d ever be ready to forgive Cam Newton, I’d have asked how your straight-jacket is fitting. But just as we sometimes end up learning something cold but truthful about our team sometimes after a devastating loss, so too can going from 0-0 to 1-1 with cancer in …
Icons don’t need nametags: Oregon’s new helmets reconsidered
I once heard former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz say he wished he could have put the school’s ND logo onto the helmet (in order to mark his era and signify moving forward), but that the tradition of the wordless Golden Dome inspired helmets, free of insignia, was too strong to allow such change, and the Irish would have been …
Thomas’ Rose Bowl 91-yarder Joins Shortlist of Oregon’s Most Transcendent Touchdowns
There it was: all those years of rooting and hoping, all the dreams and disappointments and surprises, and suddenly one ten-second moment transforms your whole world as a Ducks football fan. The first quarter of the Rose Bowl was just about in the books with just three seconds left. Oregon had already proven it could score, trailing Wisconsin 14-7 and …
Cas Center project may be just an appetizer before Autzen expansion
In recent weeks, the $63 million expansion to Oregon’s Len Casanova Center has been in the news as construction has begun on the 130,000 square foot project. Some attention has gone to the unique private-public partnership behind the deal, in which a Phil Knight-owned development company leases the university’s land in order to build there (without following university construction …
Chip or no Chip, now the Rose Bowl means even more
“You guys can do better than that,” announcer Don Essig implored to the Matthew Knight Arena crowd, which had already been cheering joyously for the Oregon football team as its players gathered at midcourt during halftime of Saturday’s basketball game against UCLA. “That’s your Pac-12 and Rose Bowl champion!” And with that, the crowd really roared to new eardrum-piercing heights. …
The 85-scholarship era and Oregon’s rise to power
In college football, the modern era is generally considered to have begun after World War II ended. But it was actually in 1994 that the game solidified around the NCAA’s 85-scholarship limit. Isn’t a game only relevant so long as there is a reasonably level playing field? And as Oregon fans know, it is precisely that year, ’94, in which …
The 19 Greatest Seasons in Duck Football History (with a 20th slot reserved for this year)
Win or lose the Rose Bowl on January 2, this year’s Oregon squad has already earned a special distinction: one of the 20 greatest seasons in the history of a team that has been playing football since 1894. After all, this year’s regular season produced only the Ducks’ fifth outright conference title (along with 1994, 2001, 2009 and 2010) and …
LaMichael James: Greatest Duck Ever?
He has yet to even finish his career at Oregon. There is still a Rose Bowl game remaining and, though unlikely given his NFL prospects, the potential of a senior season. Yet as LaMichael James wraps up his third year of play for the Ducks—which happens to also be the greatest three-year stretch in team history—it may be time to …
Beating the Beavers never gets old
It wasn’t quite the same feeling at Autzen Stadium on Saturday as in classic Civil Wars past. The crowd was enthusiastic about the 49-21 win, but not necessarily at the stadium’s raucous peak. And understandably so: Instead of clinching a conference championship and January bowl birth by beating the Beavers, as has happened the last two seasons as well as …