As a "townie", I transfered to Oregon from an eastern school with snotty notions of what I could get from the school in Eugene. I quickly learned that the English Department here was superior...by far... than the trendy place above the Potomac. In those days, our frats fought for jocks and "face men" and gloried in trapping a few of each. But in between dragging for dates on Fridays at Maxie's and too many beers we managed enough conversations to find out, perhaps for the first time, the immense value of friendships. And these, strong enough to last a lifetime.
We used to send our pledges to lock down seats at Hayward while we drank morning beers beyond the flower farm on the Willamette and came to the game with florid and generous expectations either way. We just wanted to have fun watching Oregon football for its own sake as some guy in a raccoon coat called Boola Boola was crowd surfed up an aisle.
Football was a part of the experience, but by far, was never the most valued or remembered. In fact, during my Nam days and after, I never gave football a thought until long after. After marriage and a trip to Rosarito Beach with my wife, where a bar just happened to be showing a one point Duck win over Arizona. In the meantime, the constant connection was the relationships made at Eugene which never lacked for contact and immense and lasting affection.
Oregon gave me a joy for the written word and history and the joy of lifelong friends. And there is pang of regret that the one point win in a Rosarito bar would reintroduce me to a game and an importance that I never experienced before while on campus. Bowl games followed and then...well...the remembered joys of English and History and friends was seduced away by the urgency of elite football.
There is something discordant about all of this when we reflect on our school and what it should mean to us. The fact that it should mean everything that prepared us to meet life did not require that we beat Auburn or OSU...or even Colorado. The fact is that football has become a false metaphor for institutional greatness. It doesn't produce astronauts or nobel laureates and may just only produce a dyspeptic discord that ruins a perfectly grand Saturday afternoon.
Love of school does not require a season of perfect football and in fact rejects it as an irrelevant, if not frankly mindless exercise in evaluating what is truly important. But when the game is treated as a value that exceeds the school instead of a positive adjunct is time to reflect and reconsider the notion of value and remembrance and put it in it's proper place. Oregon is mightier than football.
Always and forever a Duck....no matter what.
We used to send our pledges to lock down seats at Hayward while we drank morning beers beyond the flower farm on the Willamette and came to the game with florid and generous expectations either way. We just wanted to have fun watching Oregon football for its own sake as some guy in a raccoon coat called Boola Boola was crowd surfed up an aisle.
Football was a part of the experience, but by far, was never the most valued or remembered. In fact, during my Nam days and after, I never gave football a thought until long after. After marriage and a trip to Rosarito Beach with my wife, where a bar just happened to be showing a one point Duck win over Arizona. In the meantime, the constant connection was the relationships made at Eugene which never lacked for contact and immense and lasting affection.
Oregon gave me a joy for the written word and history and the joy of lifelong friends. And there is pang of regret that the one point win in a Rosarito bar would reintroduce me to a game and an importance that I never experienced before while on campus. Bowl games followed and then...well...the remembered joys of English and History and friends was seduced away by the urgency of elite football.
There is something discordant about all of this when we reflect on our school and what it should mean to us. The fact that it should mean everything that prepared us to meet life did not require that we beat Auburn or OSU...or even Colorado. The fact is that football has become a false metaphor for institutional greatness. It doesn't produce astronauts or nobel laureates and may just only produce a dyspeptic discord that ruins a perfectly grand Saturday afternoon.
Love of school does not require a season of perfect football and in fact rejects it as an irrelevant, if not frankly mindless exercise in evaluating what is truly important. But when the game is treated as a value that exceeds the school instead of a positive adjunct is time to reflect and reconsider the notion of value and remembrance and put it in it's proper place. Oregon is mightier than football.
Always and forever a Duck....no matter what.
Last edited:
