To night my wife and I went to the Oregon Club of Southern Oregon's annual "Civil War" dinner at the Rogue Valley Country Club. University of Oregon Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny and Assistant AD Jim Bartko came down from Eugene for the dinner. Football Coach Mike Bellotti spoke from Eugene on a telephone speakerphone. We had a nice time and it's always good to get together with Duck Fans. The Dinner had the feel of a reception after a funeral. The kind where people celebrate the life of the deceased rather than morn the deceased. As some one said it's hard work being a Duck Fan. When I got home I found a nice column from today's Eugene Register Guard by non sports, lifestyle columnist Bob Welch. He talks about where he was when he heard the news that Dennis Dixon had torn his ACl and would never play for the Ducks again and compared him to Steve Prefontaine in the mythology of Oregon sports history. He talked about what it was like being a Duck fan. He says in part:
.....Amid the absolute best — and, at the moment, worst — Oregon football season in history, I’ve been thinking about those of us who consider ourselves sports fans. And I’ve concluded that hitching your wagon to a team or player is a lot like hitching your wagon to anyone or anything.
In every relationship, there’s a price to pay for the benefit you receive. For Duck fans, the bill simply came at the worst possible time — Oregon positioning itself for a run at a national title and quarterback Dennis Dixon for a run at the Heisman Trophy. And was far higher than the usual we-lost-a-game variety......
Against the odds, Duck football had arrived this fall. And so when Dixon went down, I found myself thinking: Is this really happening?
After the Ducks’ loss to UCLA last Saturday, the answer was as stark as a visitor’s “0” on the Rose Bowl scoreboard: Yes, it is.
Our worst nightmare.
It’s not fair, some have said about the Ducks’ riches-to-rags season. Nope. But, then, if sports is a microcosm of life, why would we expect it to be?
Some deadbeat dad wins the lottery while model parents lose a child. Hurricane Katrina hammers the poor while O.J. beats the rap.....
And so it is that some choose, in the Simon-&-Garfunkelian model, to not commit or de-commit, because “a rock feels no pain.” True, but a rock also feels nothing. Ever.
After the 2002 Seattle Bowl, in which Oregon was humiliated by Wake Forest while Husky backers laughed in our rain-splattered faces, I returned home thinking this fan stuff just wasn’t worth it.( My son and I were there and felt the same way as we drove from Seattle back to my sisters home in Portland..... it rained so hard on the trip down I-5 I though God must have been crying I know I felt like it..... we stopped in a McDonald's about an hour from Seattle on the freeway and It was full of Duck fans and the place was sooo quite)
But four games later, I watched UO beat Michigan in endless Autzen sunshine. It felt like a perfect day. This season alone, I’ve watched or heard three unbelievable wins over Michigan, USC and Arizona State.....
I’ve seen Dixon emerge from the depths of despair to join Pre and the two Lukes as UO athletes for the ages......
But what will never bedoesn’t wipe out what was. Or preclude Duck fans from hoping for better days, be it next year or Saturday.
On paper, of course, there’s nothing to suggest Oregon can muster the offense to beat Oregon State in the Civil War. But the wonder of sports is that you never know.....
He ends by essentially saying we keep coming back because we want to know what happens next.
Our daughter is flying out from Washington DC for the weekend and will go with me to Eugene for the game. She made her reservations before Dennis Dixon when down. We know the odds are against an Oregon win which will make a victory all the more sweet and will dull the feeling of defeat if the Duck do go down. Regardless of the score we will spend the day together and in the grand scale of life that is a win.
Beat the Beaver....... Let's go Ducks!
( To read Welch's full column click on the title for a link)
