Breathes there a sports fan in the Pacific Northwest who doesn’t struggle to view the University of Oregon’s sudden football success as more than a fantasy?  Perennial Pac 10 cellar dwellers and strangers to major bowls for much of their grid history, the Ducks’ winning ways in the past eight years have established  them as a national power.  And this success has not gone unnoticed among the country’s elite prep grid stars.

That lil’ ol’ Oregon shoe maker, Nike, recently staged a one day football ‘camp’ for high school seniors-to-be at Duck home base in Eugene.  The June affair attracted the attendance of 158 prep grid stars from throughout the West…those considered to be the premier college recruiting targets in 2003.  Camp participants were asked to name the colleges at the top of their wish list for scholarships.  Oregon’s wide open offense seems a powerful magnet for prep ball movers.

QB’s make it unanimous

All 14 quarterback prospects at the Nike function listed Oregon of “prime interest” for their matriculation, and one of these selectors, Johnny DuRocher of Bethel, WA, has already given the Ducks a verbal commitment.  No less than 20 of the 21 wide receivers, six of the seven tight ends and 12 of the 14 running backs at the camp picked Oregon as one of their most favored schools to attend.  (it couldn’t have hurt the Ducks’ standing among these prospects that the latter were working out in the shadow of the dramatic expansion of Autzen Stadium, to be unveiled this August)0.

No other university came close to this many mentions.  Oregon State, with its recent revival in football fortunes, was named by some 50% of the campers as a favored school and the Beavers finished ahead of all other Pac 10 schools except Oregon as a preferred playing destination.  The Beavers have already extended a scholarship invitation to QB T.C. Ostrander of Atherton, CA , named the “most valuable player” at the Eugene camp.

Nike campers were each registered for height and weight and measured for their ability in a standing jump, 40-yard dash and the bench press.  Offensive and defensive linemen, defensive secondary players and kickers were also at the camp, and Oregon also led all college choices among these positions, but not with the unanimity of the backs and receivers.

Ducks, Beavers defy naysayers

Those of you past the age of 30 will recall when Northwest sports scribes called for the banishment of both Oregon and Oregon State from the Pac10 as a penalty for chronic losing that tarnished the league’s reputation and cut into the television take, to say nothing of poor stadium gates.  My, how times have changed!  Oregon’s stadium expansion will be celebrated by staging a record eight home games, each projected as a sellout.  Until Oregon State can pungle up alumni funding for a new stadium, the Bevos’
rise to national notice will be handicapped with low home attendance and a relatively weak schedule.

Nonetheless, our state’s two major bastions of higher ed have definitely erased their doormat pasts and made football among the firs a proud pastime.

Roses & Raspberries…Portland State’s attempt to return the Viking grid program to national notoriety at the Division IAA level rates a Rose, but scheduling Oregon at Autzen this fall is far from likely to help…Raspberries to the French World Cup soccer squad for failing to even score a goal while following their ’98 world championship with total collapse in current title play…A pack of posies to our fellow insomniacs who’ve managed to view this edition of the World Cup live, undaunted by the wee hours scheduling…Raspberries to Cup teams (yes, we mean England) who play for a tie to stay alive and fail to strive for a win…Roses to the concept of keeping Portland’s Memorial Coliseum a viable venue, and let’s never exorcise the ghosts of a 1977 Blazer national championship in this building, which to these eyes is a more pleasing place to watch a contest than the overhyped, overspent Rose Garden.
 

© 2002 Oregon Magazine