FREAKIN' STANFORD: Why…Why Must it always be freakin’ Stanford?

FREAKIN' STANFORD: Why…Why Must it always be freakin’ Stanford?

Originally posted on CampusAttic.com on November 1st, 2013

    With next Thursday night’s big football matchup between Oregon and Stanford, a game that has been highly anticipated for a solid year now, it is difficult not to dwell on the past and ponder…why is it always freakin’ Stanford?

    Long before Stanford was considered one of the top football powerhouses in the country, before the days of Harbaugh and Luck and Shaw, the Cardinal continued to be the thorn in the Duck’s webfoot, the fly in the ointment, the pain in the…part of a duck that is considered to be water tight. Damn you, freakin’ Stanford…

    Even when the Stanford Cardinal have been at their lowest point, even when Duck fans outnumbered Cardinal fans in their own stadium, even when Oregon manages to come out with the W, somehow it’s always freakin’ Stanford that makes life miserable for Oregon.

    It is difficult not to be worried about the pending matchup, even as Stanford has looked less than stellar on the year considering their lofty incoming expectations coming off a Pac-12 Championship year in 2012, losing earlier this year to Utah and having difficulty getting past UCLA and Oregon State.

    Yet no team on the schedules seems to bring out the stomach butterflies for Oregon fans more than the team named after a color (they were the Stanford Indians until it was decided to switch to a more P.C. name of simply “cardinal”), and there is historic precedent to completely validate those concerns over next Thursday night’s primetime battle in Palo Alto, CA.

    There is no team in the Pac that has done a better job of playing spoiler for Oregon’s plans over the years than Stanford. Washington and Oregon State may get the blood boiling more than any other team, but a glimpse through the past reveals that perhaps it should be Stanford that draws our ire.

    When expectations are raised, Stanford plays the role of the roadblock providing the biggest challenger and pooper of parties, nobody plays the role of Oregon’s arch-villain better than the Stanford Cardinal.

    It is one of Oregon’s oldest rivals, the first game between the two schools held in 1900, the first game Oregon ever played against an out-of-state opponent. Stanford won that game 34-0, and for over a century have found a way to create Duck tears ever since, but their ability to bully Oregon around has reached a new level of frustration over the past three decades, starting in 1980.

——————

1980 – Stanford 35 Oregon 25

An Ogburn-Elway showdown never came to be, and the Cardinal have been terrorizing Oregon ever since. (courtesy: CBSsports.com)

    In 1979 Oregon had shown signs of life, after a decade of mediocrity. The team had won six games behind the showstopping play of JC transfer quarterback Reggie Ogburn, and with Ogburn returning for his senior year in 1980 the Ducks were thinking the long bowl drought since 1963 would finally be over…the opening game of the year was hyped up as a matchup between Oregon’s Ogburn and Stanford’s John Elway, but an off-season NCAA probe revealed that four schools including Oregon violated rules. Coaches were fined, players were suspended, scholarships were docked, and the great matchup of Ogburn and Elway never came to be.

    Stanford won the game 35-25 to open the year at Autzen Stadium, while Ogburn had to watch from the stands. Once Reggie returned, Oregon was off and running, winning six games including a 34-10 victory over Washington in Seattle (Oregon’s wouldn’t win in Seattle again until 1997), but that opening season Stanford loss prevented Oregon from reaching a bowl.

    With Ogburn’s graduation following the 1980 season Oregon’s winning ways dissipated, slipping back to seasons of two and three wins, Oregon wouldn’t make it to a bowl game for almost a decade until the 1989 Independence Bowl.

1987 – Stanford 13 Oregon 10

Oregon quarterback Bill Musgrave had a great career, but Stanford proved a problem.

    With Bill Musgrave at quarterback, there was energy and excitement back in Oregon football. The Ducks were on the rise in the Pac-10 with a group of young players making a big impact, but a 13-10 loss to Stanford would once again be the hindrance from Oregon finally breaking its bowl curse.

    Oregon had led the game 10-0 at halftime, but a 3rd quarter safety and field goal had given the Cardinal hope. Stanford took the lead on a touchdown with 39 seconds left in the game, but Oregon quickly drove back in position to score, reaching Stanford’s 21 yard line. Rather than attempt a field goal for the tie, Coach Rich Brooks gambled and elected to go for the win, but Musgrave’s pass intended for Terry Obee was knocked down as time expired.

    Just like in 1980, Oregon would finish with six wins, lamenting the Stanford loss as the roadblock to reaching a bowl.

1989 – Stanford 18 Oregon 17

    In 1989 Oregon had cracked the top-25 rankings, but Stanford still managed to spoil the party. Just like in 1987, Oregon had led the game at halftime, holding a seemingly commanding 17-0 lead late in the game, but with seven minutes left on the clock in Palo Alto, Stanford quarterback Brian Johnson found Gary Taylor for a 21-yard touchdown. Johnson would be knocked out of the game, but after Oregon was forced to punt, Johnson’s backup led a touchdown drive and two-point conversion to bring the Cardinal within striking distance at 17-15.

Stanford quarterback Brian Johnson (courtesy: Fanbase.com)

    Stanford executed a perfect onside kick, recovered by Corey Booker, setting up what would be the game-winning field goal as time expired, 18-17.

    Oregon would recover from the loss and finish the year with seven victories, enough to be bowl eligible. But with fewer bowls in this era, it wasn’t guaranteed the Ducks would have a postseason game. Having to buy-in with a promise of ticket allotment sales, Oregon was finally able to reach a bowl game, the first since the 1963 Sun Bowl, reaching the 1989 Independence Bowl.

    Oregon beat Tulsa 27-24 in Shreveport, LA at the Independence Bowl, on a night memorable for the freezing weather as much as the on-field play, and for its importance in establishing the trend of Oregon’s changing uniforms that have come to largely define the program on a national perspective. Despite yet another painful Stanford loss, Oregon had finally made it over the hump. Unfortunately there would be Stanford heartbreak to come.

1992 – Stanford 21 Oregon 7

Glyn Milburn led the nation in yards in 1991. (courtesy: Fanbase.com)

    Oregon entered Stanford the underdog coming off an opening season loss to Hawaii, but the Duck defense came prepared, forcing four turnovers. Oregon led 7-0, but after two years of stymieing Stanford’s superstar Glyn Milburn (the 1991 all-purpose yardage leader in the country) for two years, Milburn finally broke loose against the Ducks. Stanford racked up three scores on a record-setting day for Milburn and quarterback Steve Stenstrom, while Oregon’s offense was anemic, the lose score being the result of two penalties.

    By the 4th quarter Oregon coaches had seen enough, benching quarterback Danny O’neil in favor of backup Doug Musgrave, but the Musgrave pedigree couldn’t muster the same magic as his older brother, and the Ducks lost 21-7.

    It was the first 0-2 start for Oregon since 1983, but the Ducks would win five of the next seven to salvage a year filled with much promise, finishing with six wins and an invite to return to the Independence Bowl. The Ducks lost to Wake Forest in the return trip to Shreveport, 39-35.

1993 – Stanford 38 Oregon 34

    Again, a year of promise proved disappointing, and Stanford twisted the knife deeper. The Cardinal weren’t the ones to inflict the initial damage, that happened when Oregon (3-0) gave up a 30-0 halftime lead at Cal to lose 42-41, the largest deficit ever overcome in NCAA history.

Stanford quarterback Steve Stenstrom was a repeat offender in breaking Oregon’s heart. (courtesy: Bleacherreport.com)

    The season spiraled out of control from there, losing four of the next six games leading to the November 13th, 1993 Stanford game at Autzen Stadium. With a win, Oregon would still be bowl eligible, and Oregon looked motivated to salvage to the season, walking right into the Stanford buzz saw.

    Once again Stanford quarterback Steve Stenstrom broke the record books, surpassing marks set by Stanford quarterback John Elway a decade earlier. Stanford at one point led by as many as 22 in Autzen Stadium while holding Oregon to only a field goal at the half, then kept the Ducks at bay during a late surge, Stanford again spoiling Oregon’s chances with a 38-34 victory.

    The loss to Stanford eliminated Oregon’s chances for a bowl game in 1993, further cemented by the lackluster loss in the Civil War game the following week. After two disappointing years in a row, little was expected of Oregon in the 1994 season, picked to finish 9th in the conference, thankfully for one year at least Stanford wouldn’t prevent Oregon’s dreams.

1995 – Stanford 28 Oregon 21

Safety Jaiya Figueras broke his leg on a day Oregon would like to forget.

    After the Rose Bowl run of 1994, expectations were through the roof for Oregon in 1995, and rightfully so, returning a team arguably more talented than the 1994 Pac-10 champion team. Three big wins to open the season, the last two being last-minute victories over Illinois and UCLA in back-to-back weeks thanks to herculean efforts by safety Jaiya Figueras had the Ducks rolling, but a somber wake-up call came the next week vs. Stanford. Not only did the Ducks lose to Stanford, but Figueras suffered a devastating leg injury that would take until the 1997 season to fully recover from.

    The 28-21 loss to Stanford on September 23rd, 1995, grounded the 12th-ranked Ducks, once again in heartbreaking fashion. Oregon had rallied to tie the game 14-14 as the third quarter ticked down, but on the ensuing kickoff following Oregon’s score Stanford’s Marlon Evans returned it 96 yards for the go-ahead score. Three interceptions thrown by Oregon quarterback Tony Graziani didn’t help the cause, setting up Stanford for another score, which proved the game-winner.

    The loss proved to be extra bitter, in not only losing a rising star in Figueras, but the loss would prove to be the deciding factor in Oregon not repeating as Pac-10 conference champions. Resigned to the Cotton Bowl vs. Colorado, the Ducks would get throttled by the Buffaloes 38-6, noted and definitely not forgotten for Colorado head coach Rick Neuheisel’s decision to fake a punt late in the game while ahead by nearly 30 points. It spawned the start of the “neweasel” catchphrase and hatred of ‘Slick Rick’ that has never subsided among Duck fans during Neuheisel’s follow-up coaching stops at Washington and UCLA.

1996 – Stanford 27 Oregon 24

    Oregon’s 1996 season derailed halfway through following an injury to quarterback Tony Graziani, but there was still a chance for redemption…until Stanford.

Kailee Wong beating Oregon was extra painful knowing he grew up in Eugene a Duck fan. (courtesy: Bleacherreport.com)

    The Ducks had opened the year with the first regular season overtime game in NCAA history, defeating Fresno State 30-27, but the overtime rule would come back to bite hard, as Stanford took down the Ducks in Palo Alto on a field goal in overtime, 27-24. It was Stanford’s fifth win in the last six matchups, Oregon’s lone victory coming in the 1994 Pac-10 championship season.

    Oregon seemed assured of victory following Patrick Johnson’s 95-yard kickoff return to give the Ducks a 24-14 lead, the return sparking vindictive memories of Marlon Evans’ return the year prior at Autzen sinking Oregon’s chances. Then came the 4th quarter, where Stanford scored on two of their last three possessions while Oregon couldn’t muster a single first down, sending the game to overtime.

    The Stanford late defensive effort was led by Kailee Wong, a North Eugene High School graduate. In the first overtime, it was Wong who tracked down Graziani from behind as the quarterback scrambled, causing a fumble that Stanford recovered. A short field goal later, and it was all over.

    The 1996 loss was the fourth in a row for Oregon, and would be followed by a bad loss to Washington before Oregon rallied to finish off the year with three straight wins. However the mid-season stretch was too much to overcome, the Ducks finishing 6-5, and left out of a bowl game when Cal (6-5) was picked to represent the Pac-10 in the Aloha Bowl over Oregon, despite Oregon beating Cal 40-23 that year. It was one of only two years that Oregon would not go bowling during head coach Mike Bellotti’s tenure.

1997 – Stanford 58 Oregon 49

    In a season where defense was optional for Oregon, the 1997 matchup against Stanford proved a microcosm of the whole year–at times invigorating, other times frustrating. At one point in the game Oregon scored two touchdowns in seven seconds, in a back-and-forth battle of two offenses showcasing their firepower.

    In the end though, Oregon’s offense blinked, while Stanford continued to roll over the Ducks D in a whoever-scores-last-wins matchup more akin to a basketball game. Stanford’s 58 points was the most scored against an Oregon team since Oklahoma racked up 62 on the Ducks in 1975, while Oregon’s 49 were the most at the time ever scored by a losing team in a regulation Pac-10 game.

    Jason Maas threw for five touchdowns and wide receiver Patrick Johnson had the best game of his career, pulling in 13 receptions for 179 yards and two touchdowns, but it wasn’t enough as Stanford scored its highest ever total vs. Oregon.

     The game was capped off with a safety by Stanford’s Kailee Wong, the local Eugene, OR product who had forced a fumble in overtime setting up Stanford’s victory the year prior.

2001 – Stanford 49 Oregon 42

    The Oregon-Stanford series thankfully took a scheduling respite for a few years following the tumultuous 90s, but the Cardinal came back in a big way with arguably the most devastating, heartbreaking, jaw-dropping victory in history between the two teams.

Oregon had no answer for Teyo Johnson’s size. (courtesy: AP/DonRyan)

    2001 had #5 Oregon rolling on a rampage through the Pac-10 seemingly destined for the Pac-10 title and a shot at the national championship. Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington was a legitimate Heisman trophy candidate, and Oregon touted the longest-active home winning streak in the country at 23…they would hold the record for only one week.

    Oregon was handling Stanford cruising to a hard-fought but apparent victory…then the 4th quarter happened. In a mind-boggling display of WTF and disbelief with Oregon ahead 42-28, Stanford blocked two punts and intercepted a pass leading to 21 points, taking full advantage of a height advantage of over a foot between Stanford’s Teyo Johnson and Oregon’s Rashad Bauman, repeatedly throwing up jump balls that Johnson brought down like an easy rebound in the paint over a point guard.

    A last second hail mary pass fell flat, and Stanford walked away with a shocking 49-42 victory, ending Oregon’s home winning streak and undefeated season. The Ducks wouldn’t lose again that year, capturing the Pac-10 title, but the loss to Stanford would prevent Oregon from playing in the BCS national championship, a 10-1 Nebraska team that finished 3rd in the Big-12 getting the nod over the Ducks.

    Oregon would destroy Colorado, the Big-12 champions, in the Fiesta Bowl 38-16, forever leaving a what-if and shoulda-been hypothetical matchup lingering in people’s minds, would Oregon have put up a better fight against the 2001 Miami Hurricanes than the pathetic showing of Nebraska? Yeah, probably, but we’ll never know. Thanks Stanford.

2004 – Oregon 16 Stanford 13

    For as painful as Stanford had made the 1980s and 1990s, the 2000s were Oregon’s chance for revenge, 2001 not withstanding. While Oregon walked away with the victory in 2004, it wasn’t without a lot of wrecked nerves. In pouring rain at Stanford Stadium Oregon had ground out a tough victory behind the legs of Terrence Whitehead, but a Whitehead fumble late in the game set up Stanford with a chance.

    A dubious catch that appeared to be out of bounds and after the clock had expired was ruled in-bounds and with one second left on the clock, giving Stanford a chance for a field goal to send the game to overtime. For once karma actually swung back Oregon’s way, as the bad call on the catch didn’t matter once Stanford’s kick went wide.

    Oregon escaped with a W, but the luck in the bay area went the other way two weeks later, when Oregon receiver Keith Allen dropped a pass on 4th down that hit him in the hands, which would have likely led to a game-winning score over Cal in Berkeley. The Cal loss gave the Ducks a 5-6 mark on the year, it would be the only losing season in Mike Bellotti’s head coaching career at Oregon.

2009 – Stanford 51 Oregon 42

    The coming out party for then freshman Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck and the start of the short-but-memorable Jim Harbaugh era at Stanford, Oregon and Stanford battled on the farm in a back-and-forth affair with Jeremiah Masoli and Andrew Luck both having career days.

Toby Gerheart set a school rushing record vs. Oregon in 2009. (sfgate.com)

    Oregon had its chances to come back, but a dropped pass on a wheel route by LaMichael James that would have scored proved too costly to overcome, while Heisman Trophy candidate Toby Gerheart repeatedly moved the chains on Oregon’s defense grinding out yards between the tackles, racking up a school-record 223 yards rushing.

     Jeremiah Masoli threw for 334 yards and 3 TDs, while LaMichael James rushed for 125 yards a touchdown plus 89 more through the air, but it wasn’t enough as time simply ran out on Oregon’s comeback against an unrelenting Stanford attack. Whether on the ground behind Gerheart or Luck’s precision passing, the Ducks defense simply couldn’t get off the field on 3rd down.

    The Stanford loss was the only in-conference defeat of the season, as Oregon captured the Pac-10 title and earned a trip to the Rose Bowl, but the game signaled a changing of the guard. Both Stanford and Oregon defeated USC that year in back-to-back weeks, giving the Trojans the two worst defeats in school history, marking a transition in the traditional powers. For the foreseeable future, all roads to the Pac-10/12 championship would go through either Eugene or Palo Alto.

2012 – Stanford 17 Oregon 14

    If the 2001 loss wasn’t devastating enough in hindsight preventing Oregon from a shot at the national championship, Stanford’s BCS-blocking ways came back with a vengeance 11 years later. Oregon had beaten Stanford two years in a row, but the wins hadn’t come easy, in high scoring affairs.

    The 2012 game was a shockingly defensive battle. Oregon was plagued with self-inflicted wounds, repeatedly dropping passes, and quarterback Marcus Mariota looking uncomfortable for the first time all season amidst a relentless Stanford pass rush.

    Two ominous signs early in the game showed that it might not be Oregon’s day, as a long run by Mariota was stopped short of a touchdown when De’Anthony Thomas outpaced Mariota for the endzone rather than blocking the lone defender capable of tackling him. Oregon would be stopped on 4th down, followed not long after by a missed easy field goal by Alejandro Maldenaldo. The two plays would come back to bite Oregon badly.

…and Zach Ertz is STILL out of bounds! (courtesy: nwsportsbeat.com)

    A highly controversial call swung the game in Stanford’s favor late in the game, when an apparent touchdown catch by Stanford tight end Zach Ertz showed on replay to be out of bounds, yet was upheld by the referees as a touchdown, tying the game 14-14. The replay proved that Ertz had bobbled the ball, not retaining possession until his shoulder and head both were clearly out of bounds.

    In overtime, Oregon kicker Alejandro Maldenaldo missed wide on a field goal again, giving Stanford a chance to once again break Oregon’s heart. Still, Oregon had a chance to push it to double OT, as linebacker Michael Clay stripped Stanford QB Kevin Hogan of the ball, but was unable to reel it in, and Stanford kicked a game-winning field goal to take it 17-14.

    Just like in 2001, Stanford’s win ended Oregon’s chances at playing for the national championship, and ended a winning streak for the Ducks, coming into it with a 13-game streak, the longest active streak in the country.

——————

     Then of course there is 1954, 1964, 1972, 1976…Dammit, Stanford. Why, why does it always have to be freakin’ Stanford?

    With Oregon and Stanford still atop the Pac-12 conference as the two premier football powerhouses west of the Mississippi, the battles are destined to be tense, nerve-wracking experiences…and chances are Stanford will at some point again in the future break Oregon’s heart. As history has proven, they are quite adept at playing the role of spoiler when it comes to Duck dreams of grandeur. Hopefully come Thursday night, it will be a game that won’t be added to this list of painful memories.

THEORETICAL UO CAMPUS: Ewok Villages, Duck Domes, Giant Bubbles and other could’ve beens

THEORETICAL UO CAMPUS: Ewok Villages, Duck Domes, Giant Bubbles and other could’ve beens

Originally published on CampusAttic.com on October 9th, 2013

2013 marks yet another achievement by the University of Oregon, raising the bar once more in world-class unrivaled athletic facilities, amateur or pro, anywhere in the world. The new football operations center, named the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex (the term HD fitting Oregon’s swag a little too perfectly), is the envy of every school and professional team around, and the additions to the north side of Autzen Stadium further adds to the aesthetic of gamedays in Eugene as one of the best fan experiences anywhere.

The new Hatfield-Dowlin Complex Football Operations Center. (Nate Barrett/Emerald).

The HD Complex is true to its name, embellished with flat-screens and luxuries at every turn more typical of McMansions not college student training centers. It is only the latest in what has been a long-term process at the UO stretching back decades, developing top-notch facilities both athletically and academically to attract the best athletes to Eugene in order to maintain Oregon’s competitiveness on a national scale.

The success of on-field athletics causes a trickle-down effect positively impacting the entire school, despite inevitable griping from some that believe the emphasis on athletics detracts from the overall point of a college as an educational institution. Yet it still is a business, and the most accessible form of profits for the business of higher education comes through athletic ticket sales, hence what’s good on the field translates to what’s good in the classrooms.

The Lillis Business Center, one of the many modern buildings to appear on campus in recent years. (©UO Special Collections)

Just consider the overall facelift to the entire school that has taken effect since the success of the 1994 football season, when the team improbably won the Pac-10 title (picked to finish 9th in the conference in the preseason), reaching the Rose Bowl, which sparked an influx of donations and ticket sales. Those donations and investments have resulted in not just amazing new football facilities, but improvements to structures throughout all of academia at the UO.

While it may have started a little slow, as momentum was gained on the field it fueled expedited construction and even an overall re-branding of the entire school on a national level, no longer the block intersecting UO but now simply known as the O.

The late 90s saw a change in logo.

Despite critics, for an institution such as the University of Oregon this spending spree to maintain on-field success as a low comparative local population in the state of Oregon simply doesn’t generate enough top athletes. In order to sustain a competitive athletic program in all sports, attracting out-of-state talent is imperative.

Current students only know of success at what is today one of the best and most popular collegiate athletic programs in the country, Oregon thanks to a multi-decade campaign is now considered as a national brand. That didn’t happen overnight, nor has it always gone to plan. The end results instill pride in fans and breed on-field success, but long before the flashy uniforms and towering monuments to sport existed, Oregon’s teams competed in rather sorrowful conditions.

Talk to athletes who competed on the football field of Hayward before Autzen Stadium was built in 1967, they’ll wax poetic of sitting on lawn mowers and garbage cans in the meager locker rooms under the stands. Talk to athletes who competed in Mac Court of its facilities, and hear stories of how the walls would ooze in the lower recesses of the old building where the locker rooms were located, from the bathroom pipes above.

Yet even Autzen Stadium itself, a monument in its original form to thrifty and expedited construction (its basic berm design completed in 1967 for barely over a million dollars), has undergone some interesting variations in its evolution. The original architectural designs for what would become Autzen Stadium definitely went outside the box, amidst the height of the drive-in theater/restaurant craze why not make a drive-in stadium? The original designs of the football stadium to replace Hayward Field included endzone parking for fans to watch from the comfort of their cars.

Early designs for what would eventually become Autzen Stadium included endzone parking. (Benzduck.com)

This change in Oregon’s personality from humble low-income blue-collar worker to the spoiled rich kid didn’t happen overnight. Phil Knight, Nike’s former CEO and famous philanthropic uber-booster, didn’t suddenly snap his fingers and suddenly there were trophies. Regardless of how great a locker room or treatment center may be, Oregon’s success has and always will be about the people first, the coaches and players. It is not the uniform that wins a game, but the individual within the uniform.

This is certainly evidenced by history, whereas claims today of best year ever for the UO athletic program in terms of on-field performance are justified, records show that 1976 was quite possibly the best year in the history of the program’s existence in terms of overall athletic performance, despite run-down facilities and an abysmal football program while facing major budgetary issues.

Matthew Knight Arena, the Casanova Center and its repeated upgrades, the Moshofsky Center, PK Park, Jacqua Athlete Center, Pape’ Field, Student Tennis Center, Student Rec Center and more; construction crews have been busy for the past two decades taking Oregon from among the worst to first. Older structures like Howe Field, Autzen Stadium, and Hayward Field have received repeated upgrades to give the older structures new life, while only McArthur Court’s future hangs in doubt as to its future after its nearly 90 years of service.

For every one of these projects realized, there have been previous attempts to solve an inherent issue, some more successful than others. From the 19th century to the 21st, the University of Oregon has been consistent in its outside-the-box thinking of trying to find the best means to compete.

Space to build has been a common issue, finding a suitable location to address inherent needs occasionally trumping the construction plans, or causing some interesting solutions. Take for example the 1963 plan to build new structures on stilts and raised walkways and bridges above the graves of Pioneer Cemetery, utilizing the valuable space of the graveyard while still keeping the grave sites intact. This plan thankfully fell through, and the pioneer cemetery remains in its original state.

Might this have been Oregon’s campus above the cemetery?

Other innovative ideas though have come to fruition, such as the construction of Onyx Bridge in 1961, elevating the new science wing above ground spanning Onyx St. to permit at least partial traffic to pass below.

In the university’s early years it was becoming clear that Deady Hall and Villard Hall were not enough alone to house the expanding university, so what was Oregon’s solution? Buy the house of one of the school’s professors nearby and convert it into a library, and transform its barn and garage into classrooms and an observatory to replace the unusable observatory on top of Skinner’s Butte. This bold move thought at first to be a quick temporary fix, completed in 1890, resulted in Collier House and Barn Hall. While Barn Hall was razed long ago to make room for more permanent structures, Collier House remains a useful building for the university now into its third century, currently housing offices for the music department across from the EMU.

Other times initial failures have been re-envisioned years later, such as the Moshofsky Center. Built in 1998, “the Mo” was the first indoor practice facility in the Pac-10, a landmark building providing indoor facilities for football, track, softball, acrobatics and tumbling, and other sports needing an opportunity to get out of the rain. The Mo has clearly been a vital cog in the progression of Oregon football success to becoming one of the top programs in the nation.

The Balloon Field House. (©UO Special Collections)

But while the Mo was indeed the first indoor practice facility in the Pac-10, it wasn’t in the Pac-8. Indeed, Oregon had attempted an indoor structure three decades prior. In 1968 Oregon football was in its second year under coach Jerry Frei, with Autzen Stadium barely a year old. Coach Frei wanted a way to work out of the rain, and lobbied for any means to do so. The result was the Balloon Field House, a pneumatic structure (think of a giant balloon or inflatable geodesic dome) on campus that in theory provided room to practice inside. The Field House though was fraught with problems, leaks, and other issues making it largely unusable, leading to its sale and removal in 1971.

The University of Oregon has also had a long-standing, if albeit unofficial, policy of recycling structures whenever possible. Buildings once designed for one purpose have over time evolved and been remodeled to incorporate the foundations for newer structures. Much of the Lillis Business Complex is comprised of the previously separate structures Gilbert Hall, Peterson Hall, and Commonwealth Hall. Esslinger Hall, home of the physical education school (which partially burned down in the 1970s) next to McArthur Court, now incorporates Leighton Pool and the Student Rec Center. 

A portion of the original Architecture Building (1914) and Mechanical Hall (1901) now comprise portions of Lawrence Hall. Emerald Hall was transported from Corvallis to the UO campus after World War II and utilized until its demolition in 1987 to make room for Willamette Hall. The examples of structures for other purposes as the campus has evolved goes on and on.

Space is the primary issue today facing Oregon, with one highly desired athletic facility yet to see fruition–an indoor track facility. It seems odd that Tracktown USA would be lacking in track facilities, but such is the case. Whether or not funds could be raised to build a state-of-the-art indoor track is not in doubt, but where to put it is definitely a problem.

The possible solution exists in demolishing historic McArthur Court and Howe Field, but then where to put a new softball field? Well, there is a teeny tiny sliver of the original Autzen Stadium parking lot that could provide the solution for a new softball field, but the outcry over the destruction of two historic campus landmarks and the total loss of tailgating for fall Saturdays may be too much to overcome the necessity of an indoor track.

While construction crews working both on campus and across the river at the Autzen complex have become such a familiar site in recent years it could be said that the work crews have spent more time in classrooms than students, the roots of this construction boom can be traced back to 1984. It was that year that Bill Byrne was hired as the athletic director for the University of Oregon, from that point Byrne and then Oregon head football coach Rich Brooks worked together to forever alter the landscape of the university and community.

For as much resistance and calls for Brooks’ head existed until his departure to the NFL after the 1994 season, not nearly enough credit in hindsight is given to Byrne and Brooks in establishing Oregon’s march to facility-victory. The field at Autzen Stadium was branded as Rich Brooks Field in 1995, but it is Brooks’ and Byrne’s efforts off the field rather than on-field performance that really deserves honors.

The first step in the Byrne-Brooks masterplan was simple, raise funds. Byrne got to work fast, generating $19 million in a 1985 campaign. Bill Byrne was named the National Fundraiser of the Year by the NAFA for his efforts, while the “Quack Attack” ad campaigns began getting national press for its efforts to brand the university beyond its traditional regional reach.

Plans to make Autzen a dome came closer than people think. (Register Guard)

So what were the funds intended for? A radical change to match their outside-the-box thinking to make Oregon stand out–turn the nearly twenty-year old Autzen Stadium into a dome. The added bonus of making Autzen into a dome was to make the football facility double as a replacement basketball arena for the aging McArthur Court, hanging a curtain from the roof dividing the field to set up a court in an endzone, similar to how the Alamo Dome was utilized for the San Antonio Spurs.

While plans for the Autzen dome fell through, the funding went to good use on plan B, the construction of the sky suites on the Autzen Stadium north side. Through the funds generated from the sale of suites and other fundraising over the next three years, this set the path towards the construction of the Casanova Center beginning in 1989.

For further funding Oregon spearheaded a statewide campaign, utilizing lottery funds in a new program called “Sports Action,” receiving much controversy over the association of gambling and sports tied in with academic institutions. While it had its critics, it served its purposes, raising much needed funds for Oregon and other schools, but it also had its negative side…the NCAA to have NCAA Tournament basketball regional rounds take place in the state until Sports Action was halted, something much desired by Nike and the city of Portland after construction of the Rose Garden–home of the Portland Trailblazers.

The Cas Center brought stability to the entire athletic program, and marked the first identifiable watermark step forward in transforming Oregon from little-known also-ran into perennial contender. While it took several years to complete the Casanova Center, with multiple upgrades made to the building such as new locker rooms, expanded offices, and a treatment center; the Casanova Center stands as the monument to the new University of Oregon.

The Autzen Stadium complex now has everything, except maybe room for parking.

Prior to the Cas Center there had been a culture of repair and maintain, such as Hayward Field’s multiple restorations in the 1920s, 1950s, 1970s, and 1980s, now after the Casanova Center the age of modernism and a cavalier spare-no-expense attitude permeates. What was once nothing but parking lot surrounding Autzen Stadium has now become a massive all-encompassing athletic complex. The Moshofsky Center, PK Park (home of the revived Oregon baseball program), Pape’ Field (lacrosse, soccer), the HD complex, practice fields, treatment centers. The area around Autzen now has everything a collegiate athletic program could ever ask for…except maybe room for fans to park.

Across the river, Campus too is now glitz and glitter. The Jaqua Center stands as the premier student-athlete academic center, in stark contrast to the cramped dank offices in the basement of McArthur Court that previously held those offices. The Knight Law Center across the street from Hayward Field sparkles, the journalism program has a completely remodeled Allen Hall, and Hayward Field with its new Powell Plaza and upgrades looks nothing like a 94-year old facility should. Everything, even the old buildings, have bright new polish, a shiny exterior of a bustling futuristic university of the 21st century.

 This is the fruition of the University of Oregon in the new era, and has brought with it new ideas of how students have the opportunity to attend college-the state of Oregon now leading efforts to alter how students afford a college education. While new buildings go up, old ones are utilized for new purposes. Some see a new life, while innovative ideas are presented to address campus needs. Some of these come to fruition, such as the HD complex, while others like the Duck Dome or cemetery ewok village remain rarely mentioned distant memories.

Just one part of the ever-evolving University of Oregon identity.