Most people today are thinking about Thanksgiving tomorrow. Not me! Our kids will not be home ( they are coming home for Christmas)because our Son is in North Dakota and our Daughter is in Washington DC. No, I am thinking about the Friday after Thanksgiving when the University of Oregon Ducks play the Oregon State Beavers in Football. It's the "Civil War" game and they have been playing it for over 100 years.They have been playing the game since 1896. The game is in Corvallis at Oregon State and I will be there! A Friend of mine was able to come up with two tickets and we will leave Medford at 6:30 am for the game. Yes, the game is on the Friday after Thanksgiving the "biggest shopping day of the year." the Oregon State Athletic Director is so desperate for TV money he moved the game for TV.
This has not been a good season for the Oregon Ducks. They have lost to Cal, U$C Washington State and to Arizona. None of the loses were even close.... they were all "blow outs" and many Ducks fans have given up on the team. There were even boos
from the Duck fans at the last home game against Arizona last Saturday. The general feeling among Duck fans is the football team is talented lazy and soft. Insiders say they have lost their confidence. They think Dennis Dixon the QB is unable to read opposition defenses and can't throw deep. Most folks in the State of Oregon, including most Duck fans, are predicting an Oregon State Win. I will be in Corvallis at Parker Stadium for the Game. Mr Reser has not paid me to call it Reser Stadium!
I swore in 1998 I would not go back to Parker (Reser) Stadium. My son and I went up there in 1998 and saw the Ducks lose to the Beavers in double overtime in a rain swept game. There was a Beaver girl sitting next to me who screamed the entire game and went into the fetal position every time the Ducks did something good. I swear she was the girl who was hit by the goal posts after the game when the drunken Beaver fans tore down the goal posts. She was injured and her picture was in all the news papers.
In 1992 I went to the game in Corvallis with my two kids and it was another rain swept November game. We had seats on open bleachers in the end zone and it blew so hard our ponchos were in our faces and we had to hold them down. At half time the ducks lead 7 to 0 and we took a vote to "go or stay" for the second half and I lost! We left for the drive back to Medford and listened to the second half on the car radio. There was not another score in the game and the Ducks won 7 to 0. On the way back to the car a Beaver fan stole my young Son's Duck hat off of his head as he ran by. Now you know why I hate the Beavers.
My wife, before she was my wife went with me to Corvallis in 1974 for a rain swept game and has refused to ever go back.
Yesterday the University of Oregon Athletic Department said they had not sold their allotment of tickets for the game ..... apparently not many Duck fans want to go to Corvallis. Yesterday at our "Civil War" lunch, here in Medford, some duck fans were astounded that my friend and I were going to Corvallis for the game and warned us to be careful. They said to not leave any Duck paraphernalia on our car in fear that some drunk Beaver fan would damage it and were amazed we would wear Duck clothing to the game. Some Beaver fans ( notice to my Beaver friends I said "Some")are real "red necks" and hate the Ducks. An old time duck fan yesterday at our Civil War lunch said they would run up the score 100 point on us if they could!
In December of 1776 in the dark days of the Revolutionary war when it looked like the British would put down the rebellion in the American Colony's Thomas Paine said:"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."
Well I know this is not as important as the American Revolution and it's "just a game" but in this time of doubt and crisis for Oregon Ducks I will go to Corvallis and show my Duck colors and support the Ducks! The weather man predicts another rain swept game. Go Ducks!
