Breaking news: It is being reported that Oregon State head football coach Mike Riley will only be able to dress twenty players for the Oregon game. The rest of the players will have to get dressed by themselves!!
Eugene and Corvallis are separated by one highway, but the separation between the Green/Gold and the Black/Pumpkin Orange is much greater. In Eugene we have a saying, if you see a Beaver with a Championship ring, call the Police, He’s a thief!!
The Civil War, Ducks vs Beavers, is not so civil!!! There couldn’t be bigger differences between the two schools that are only about 47 miles apart. The rivalry is like Big Brother vs Little Brother, the Haves vs the Have-Nots, or the popular vs the unpopular kids. The Beavers look at themselves like blue-collar, hard workers who are the meat and potatoes of this country. They feel they earn everything they get, but we get everything handed to us on a silver platter. So when the Beavers play the Ducks they have a big chip on their shoulder, because they live in the humongous shadow of the “O”. If the Beavs feel the Ducks look down on the kids that play for Corvallis, they should. We do! OSU is a team to be respected and never taken lightly, but Duck players and fans feel we should never lose to “little brother”. The guys from Corvallis take our hand-me-downs and left-overs. We didn’t want Orange so they took it. We get the newest uniforms, they get what is left. We get nationally televised games, they get the occasional regional broadcast plus radio. The Ducks are striving higher for National Championships while the Beavers are trying to climb fast to where we currently are.
Why is my disdain for the Beavers so great? Simple. I’m a Duck. During my four years at Oregon the Beavers beat us twice!!! That includes a 45-24 Shellacking in Corvallis my last year at Oregon. Until 3 days ago I had blocked that memory out of my mind. Honestly until I was reminded I really thought we won (I’m blocking, I know lol). It still haunts me. So yes, when we get a chance to knock off the Beavers for a Pac-10 championship and a Rose Bowl Bid, I’m going hard.
Classic Civil War story: One time during the week of the civil war Samie Parker, Onterrio Smith and I were in Red Robin and I saw TJ Housh “Your daddy” (OSU wide receiver) sitting there with his wife and daughter. I had our waitress deliver him a note that said we were gonna beat the breaks off of him. TJ is a friend of mine now and a great guy. I was talking to him about that before the season started and he said, “man, I thought I was gonna have to fight ya’ll with the family there”. LOL, it was all done in good fun. TJ got the last laugh tho, Oregon State won the game.
What makes the “Un”-Civil War so great? You never know who is gonna win. What’s on the line in this game? BRAGGING RIGHTS! Two great programs competing with their whole heart and soul to represent the state of Oregon. If you win no one can say a word to you, if you lose you have a year of heckling to deal with. Both schools alumni have so much pride and love for our perspective schools that a loss is devastating. In addition, we want to be the team to represent the Conference of Champions (Pac-10) in the Rose Bowl.
This is the Biggest game in recent UO/OSU history. Winner goes to the Rose Bowl. The Ducks haven’t been to the Rose Bowl since ’95 (We did go to Fiesta Bowl in 02′ though). The Beavers haven’t been since 1965… That’s a long time for both schools. And the intensity in Autzen Stadium will be nothing less then ELECTRIFYING!!!!
21 Comments
Thanks for the blog. Graduated in '02. Always loved watching you play!
I don't care about the Rose Bowl right now. All I want is a year of bragging rights. GO DUCKS!!!
Thanks for the blog and your play at Oregon. You will enjoy this! I am on a business trip in Troy, Ohio, near Cincinnati. Last evening, I saw a woman wearing an Oregon Duck sweatshirt, so I yelled out, “Go Ducks!” She seemed a little perplexed, so I walked over and asked her if she was a UO grad. She replied, “No, but my favorite football player went to school there.” “Who is it?” I asked. She replied, “TJ Houshmandzadeh.” I didn't have the heart to tell her. GO DUCKS!
Go Ducks! Great blog GW!
I can't remember being so damn psyched for a duck game in a long time…..tick tock. Go Ducks
Go Ducks!!! Great blog. Nice work on trash talking but maintaining some sort of objectivity.
How do you know when a Beaver fan has found a girlfriend?
There's chew spit on both sides of the pickup.
Thanx for the love… I love the feed back
Wrighster:
You da man! One of my favorite Ducks and you are funny as hell! Nice!
Sean-DuckinWI
I've had the same 45-yd line seats for past 37 years. Many great times there, and looking for a memorable game tomorrow night! Miss you George; you left too soon. Thanks for the blog, and your insights.
Thanks, George. Awesome blog, great pictures…especially of you and 'lil 87.
George, you have always a been a true Duck at heart. Awesome Autzen memories of you crushing opponents while racking up the yardage after catch! Wishing you continued NFL success and appreciate your fond memories of being Duck. Once a Duck, you'll live on in Oregon football history. Go Ducks, Beat Down the Bark Rats!!!
Duck Fan from Grants Pass, OR
George, so glad that you were a Duck and not a smelly beaver. You do us proud!
Great post Big George. Hopefully the Ducks can back it up on the field tomorrow.
Don't you still have a year of eligibility left, George?
Glad to hear you will be with us all in Eugene tomorrow. If you can't play, you'll just have to scream like everyone else. Go Ducks!
ive always admired you in the nfl… just now realized you were a duck once upon a time. i wish more duck fans thought like you… obviously biased but not an a**hole about it. go jags bro and don't let that punk from ucla (lewis) beat you out for the #1 TE spot! gotta say you're gonna be mighty disappointed tomorrow though… ducks are gonna get quizzed on. GO BEAVERS!
Enjoy the game my friend! Give me a call if your ever near Pa/Nj
MKetchens
what is the difference between a TE at Oregon and a TE at Oregon State?
answer: George just jumped over you sorry beaver trash…
okay that is a bit dated, but that was the kind of stuff my friends and I talked about back in the day.
Im so happy! I was in attendance when my Ducks earned a ticket to the "Grandaddy of them all, The Rose Bowl" (in my best Keith Jackson voice!)
Go Ducks! On a side note, hey GW, where's that MJD video ? 😉
another year of bragging rights – how many schools called OSU do we have to beat? last year we knocked around the beavs then took care of OK State. this year we got one over on the beavs again and next up is the buckeyes. I think that when we beat them they are no longer allowed to call themselves "the ohio state" and that we can start calling ourselve THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON – GO DUCKS!!! gotta love the bragging rights