This humble scribe has witnessed at the scene several notable Rose Bowl 
collegiate grid classics, but none more dramatic than the legend just 
composed by Texas QB Vince Young on this historic turf. T’is fitting that Sir
Young will leave early to join the NFL, since we can’t imagine any 
subsequent collegiate performance he could compose to top his final seconds toppling of the Trojans, whom we had already anointed as the most powerful squad yet known to the undergraduate sports world.  

Young’s leadership was incredible, but he performed behind a Longhorn 
offensive line perhaps without parallel. The value of those massive men who
populate the trenches can scarcely be overestimated, and isn’t it nice that 
Oregon’s 10-2 Ducks return all their starting up front blockers for the 2006 
campaign?! Come next September this crew of Ducklings get another chance to clash with their Holiday Bowl nemesis, Oklahoma. Hopefully the UO  coaching staff will abandon the alternating QB syndrome that caused their downfall in San Diego.

The Ducks are our state’s sole Division I campus whose athletic program 
pays for itself. Sports teams at Oregon State and Portland State required 
subsidies of over $7 million in student fees and administrative donations that
underline the deficits in academic financial support and the rising tuition fees. UO produced $39.8 million in 2005 athletic revenue, OSU generated $32.8 and PSU $4.7. 

These figures were augmented by $4 million in university support at OSU and $3.1 million at PSU while UO teams were self-supporting, including all full
and partial athletic scholarships (UO and OSU shell out for 85 football 
scholarships, PSU for 63). Unfortunately, PSU football has shown 
deteriorating ticket revenue since moving up from Division II in 1996, despite being performed in an urban core setting. This can be partially attributed to the fact that the down-state schools have significantly upgraded their gridiron marketability in the past decade, while PSU has declined in ticket sales appeal.

Roses and Raspberries ... a bundle of boos for the sad state of a Duck  basketball program that had seemingly been headed for national  prominence (can coaching foibles be blamed? ).. .posies are warranted  for a Lincoln-led victory revival of a decades-dormant Portland  Interscholastic League football scene ... no plaudits for the Rose City’s 
insistence on being a minor league sports center, though we’ll view with interest the debut of the Lumberjax pro lacrosse franchise and hope the 
mayor and city council don’t seem too foolish in hosting the Florida 
Marlin major league baseball carpetbaggers looking for a new 
community to subsidize their club (that opportunity to join the civic 
sports big time was blown almost irreparably by the Katz city hall 
crowd when Montreal was a definite MLB vagabond) ... roses to Nate McMillan’s coaching effort to restore respectability to Portland’s NBA franchise whose proud history was demolished by GM Bob Whitsitt and a naive trillionaire owner.

© 2006 Oregon Magazine