How deep do your memories of Oregon football go? Would you remember anyone from the 1983 season? What about the 1983 Spring Game? If we looked back, who would we recognize? Let’s play Where’s Waldo? with this photo and see if you can guess who the participants are: Likely, you recognize the subject of the red arrow. That’s Rich Brooks. …
Oregon Unknowns: Ducks still feeling the Byrne
A new Friday series are the OREGON UNKNOWNS, where we look at interesting aspects about our beloved Ducks that few fans know about. Some are amusing facts or stories from the inside, while others are the humorous incidents that we fans rarely hear about. Emerging out of a dark era in Duck athletics, the University of Oregon needed to find …
Oregon Unknowns: The Last Bad Years
It’s been awhile since Oregon has truly failed in football. Certainly, games have been lost and teams have failed to meet expectations over the years, but the simple fact is that since the early 80’s there have been few seasons when the Ducks have fallen flat. From 1984 until 2012 Oregon has had twenty-four seasons at or above .500, and …
1987: Low Expectations and Setting the Stage
Chris Miller was gone, off to the Atlanta Falcons as a first round draft-pick. The team was young, and would be led that year by a redshirt freshman named Bill Musgrave. The experts didn’t see much out of this team, and picked them to win only two or three games. Hogwash, according to Rich Brooks. He expected his young guys …
Oregon Unknowns: The Year Rich Brooks Resigned
This new Friday series are the OREGON UNKNOWNS, where we look at interesting aspects about our beloved Ducks that few fans know about. 1980 was a bizarre year. 1979 had seen the Ducks rebound from some less-than-stellar years, and they were expected to contend for the Pac-10 title. Instead, scandal rocked the conference before the season began. Oregon was found …
What Rich Brooks DID to us…?
I have often thought about what Coach Brooks achieved at Oregon, but the real accomplishment is where he brought us from when he began. But what about later? What was left after he moved up to the NFL, and later to the SEC at Kentucky? Coach Brooks turned Kentucky into a winner in the ruthless SEC and set a school …