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The University of Oregon Ducks football team is the intercollegiate American football team for the University of Oregon located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The team competes at the NCAA Division I level in the Football Bowl Subdivision and is a member of the Pacific Ten Conference. Known as the Ducks, Oregon's first football team was fielded in 1894. The team plays its home games at the 54,000 seat Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. The team's main rivals are the Oregon State Beavers and the Washington Huskies. The Ducks and Beavers end each regular season by playing each other in the Civil War. Chip Kelly currently serves as the Ducks head coach.
[edit] History[edit] Early years The football program began in 1893 and played its first game on March 24, 1894, six months before the season started, defeating Albany College 44-2 under head coach Cal Young.[1][2][3] Cal Young left after that first game and J.A. Church took over the coaching position for the rest of the season. The Ducks then finished the season with two additional losses and a tie, but went undefeated the following season, winning all four of its games under head coach Percy Benson.[2][3][4] In 1899, the football team left the state for the first time, playing the California Golden Bears in Berkeley, California.[1] Oregon's largest margin of victory came in 1910 when they defeated the University of Puget Sound 115-0.[5] In the 1916 season, Oregon went undefeated with five wins and one tie under head coach Hugo Bezdek, shutting out all their opponents except California. They opened the season against Willamette University, defeating them 97-0. The game against Washington ended in a 0-0 tie. The tiebreaker for the Rose Bowl went to Oregon due to their larger margin of victory against California, their common opponent. This was Oregon's first trip to Pasadena to play in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 1917. The Ducks defeated the heavily favored University of Pennsylvania 14-0.[5] The Ducks returned to the Rose Bowl at the end of the 1919 season, losing to Harvard University 6-7.[6] Despite an overall winning record during the time span, the Ducks did not go to a bowl since the 1920 Rose Bowl until the 1948 season when the Ducks played Southern Methodist University in the Cotton Bowl Classic, after being the Pacific Coast Conference Co-Champions.[6][7][8] [edit] Len Casanova and Jerry Frei eras
Len Casanova left the University of Pittsburgh to join the football program in 1951, taking over an Oregon team that went 1-9 the previous season.[10] Casanova eventually led the Ducks to a winning record in 1954 then led the team to a 10-7 loss against number one ranked Ohio State University in the Rose Bowl.[9][10] During his tenure, he would lead the Ducks to two more bowl games before becoming the second athletic director for the Oregon Ducks in 1966, replacing Leo Harris.[1][9][10] Future NFL Hall of Fame members Mel Renfro and Dave Wilcox were both players under his tutelage. Many of his assistant coaches such as George Seifert, John McKay, and John Robinson went on to have their own successful coaching careers.[9] He ended his Oregon head coaching career with a record of 82-73-8, the highest number of wins recorded by a head coach at the university.[10] The Oregon athletic center, Len Casanova Center, is named in his honor[9] and has received lofty praise from his successors such as Bill Moos and Mike Bellotti. Assistant coach Jerry Frei became head coach after Len Casanova moved on to athletic director in 1966.[9][11] Although he never made it to a bowl game and did not end his Oregon career with a winning record, he coached NFL Hall of Fame members such as Dan Fouts and Ahmad Rashad.[12] In 1970, he coached the Ducks to an improbable comeback against UCLA, scoring 20 points in the final four minutes of the game to beat UCLA 41-40.[13] Two months after the 1971 season, Jerry Frei resigned amid disagreements between him, university boosters, and the athletic director Norv Ritchey.[11][12] Following his resignation, the student body president at the time, as well as numerous published letters to the editor of the Register Guard voiced their support of Frei.[11] [edit] Rich Brooks eraRich Brooks became head coach in 1977 and got off to a shaky start, finishing with a winning season just once until the 1984 season.[14][15] After hovering around .500 seasons the next few years, the team posted an 8-4 season in 1989, going to the Independence Bowl.[16] Brooks would achieve two more bowl games before his final season in 1994.[17]
The pinnacle of Brooks' Oregon career came in his final year when his team became the Pacific-10 Conference Champions with a 9-3 regular season record and a Rose Bowl appearance.[17] The defining moment of the season came in the game against the number 9 ranked Washington Huskies known as "The Pick".[18] Prior to that game, the Ducks had won only three games against the Huskies in 20 seasons, including many heartbreakers in the heated rivalry.[19] Late in the game, as the Ducks were up just 24-20, Washington was in good position to score and take the lead when the Huskies' quarterback Damon Huard threw an interception to Kenny Wheaton who returned the interception for a 97-yard touchdown, sealing the win for the Ducks. The Pick is replayed on the big screen at Autzen Stadium before each football game.[18] Following the Washington game, the Ducks finished the rest of the regular season without a loss, but lost to the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Rose Bowl.[17] After the 1994 season, Rich Brooks announced that he would leave the university to coach for the Los Angeles Rams.[20] Although Brooks did not have as high a winning percentage, he surpassed Casanova's number of wins with 89 to become the winningest coach in school history.[21] The field at Autzen Stadium is named Rich Brooks Field, in honor of Rich Brooks.[22] [edit] Mike Bellotti eraMike Bellotti, then the offensive coordinator for the Ducks, was elevated into the head coaching position after Rich Brooks vacated the position in 1995.[23] During his head coaching career, Bellotti significantly elevated the expectations of the Ducks football program. Certain season records in the past that have been deemed acceptable or even laudable at the time have become failures and mediocrity.[22] Bellotti was instantly successful, posting a 9-3 record his first year and an appearance in the Cotton Bowl.[24] Despite achieving a winning season in 1996, the Ducks were denied a bowl game. Bellotti would fail to make a postseason appearance only once more during his career at Oregon.[6] In the 2000 season, Bellotti coached the team to his first Pac10 Championship, shared with the Washington Huskies and the Oregon State Beavers.[25] Oregon lost one of its three preseason games to the Wisconsin Badgers, then ranked number 6 in the nation.[26] Two weeks later, Oregon bounced back with wins over 8th ranked UCLA and 6th ranked Washington at home.[27][28] Later in the season, the Ducks played against the Arizona State Sun Devils on the road which turned out to be a double overtime thriller. Down a touchdown and only seconds left, Arizona State turned the ball over on a fumble which led to a Ducks touchdown to tie the game. Arizona State would fail to convert a two-point attempt in the second overtime and lose 55-56.[29] The Ducks lost the Civil War to the Beavers who achieved their first winning season since 1970, dropping the Ducks from the Rose Bowl to the Holiday Bowl where they would face the Texas Longhorns.[30] The Ducks defeated the Longhorns 35-30 for the first 10-win season in program history.[31]  The Ducks built on its success from 2000 in the 2001 season. Senior quarterback Joey Harrington, a Heisman Trophy finalist,[32] led the Ducks to its first 11-win season in program history and an outright Pac-10 championship.[33][34] The season was riddled with close games, 6 of which ended with a spread of one score or less, coining the nickname "Captain Comeback" for Harrington.[35][36] The only loss of the season came to the Stanford Cardinal at home. [36] At the end of the regular season, the Colorado Buffaloes routed the number two ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers[37] and then edged the number three ranked Longhorns in the Big-12 title game,[38] sending the BCS rankings into a tizzy. The Ducks ended up with a number two ranking on both the AP and Coaches polls, but the computers dropped them down to a number four ranking, eliminating them from the national title game. Instead, the Huskers went on to play the Miami Hurricanes for the national title at the Rose Bowl.[39] This caused the BCS committee to alter the ranking system for subsequent years to a formula which, if applied in 2001, would have placed Oregon in the national championship game.[40] The Ducks instead played at the Fiesta Bowl against Colorado. Oregon's run defense stifled Colorado's running game, holding them to just 49 yards on 31 carries. Harrington passed for 350 yards and led the Ducks to a 38-16 win.[41] The Ducks hoped that Nebraska would pull off a win in the Rose Bowl for a share of the national championship, but Miami would defeat Nebraska 37-14[42] and Oregon had to settle for a final 2nd place ranking in both the AP and Coaches polls.[43] Following the season, offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford left the University of Oregon to become the head coach for the California Golden Bears.[44] Andy Ludwig was hired on to replace Jeff Tedford in the 2002 season. Oregon started off what seemed to be a promising year, winning six straight games, but went 1-5 for the rest of the season, finishing 7-5 for the season and a loss to Wake Forest in the Seattle Bowl. The following season proved to net a slightly better record, highlighted by a big win against the 5th ranked Michigan Wolverines in the fourth game of the season, ruining Michigan's aspirations of a big season during a trip to a west coast game for the third time in four years.[45] The Ducks would lose the next three games and finish the season 8-5 with a trip to the Sun Bowl. The 2004 season was the only season an Oregon team coached by Mike Bellotti would end the season without a winning record.[46] Problems arose immediately in the season, losing to the Indiana Hoosiers. The Ducks would out-gain the Hoosiers 495 yards to 298, but couldn't overcome a seven to two turnover ratio for a 24-30 loss.[47] Oregon finished the 2004 season 5-6 and without a bowl game.[35] Andy Ludwig resigned after the 2004 season and joined the Utah Utes for a similar position.[48] Following Ludwig's departure, Gary Crowton was hired to take the vacated offensive coordinator position.[49] The 2005 season saw a dramatic improvement from the 2004 season, going 10-1 in the regular season with its only loss to the number one ranked USC Trojans.[50][51] In the eighth game of the season against the Arizona Wildcats, the senior starting quarterback for the Ducks, Kellen Clemens, suffered a spiral fracture in his ankle, ending his season and his collegiate career.[52] Despite losing Clemens, the Ducks won the game as well as the rest of their regular season games but lost the Holiday Bowl to the Oklahoma Sooners.[50] The 2006 season started off well, winning four games to open the season,[50] including a controversial win against Oklahoma in the third game where there were questionable reviews by the officials late in the game,[53] although some have noted there were terrible calls throughout the game that also went against the Ducks.[54] However, the team fell apart later in the season, going 3-5 for the remainder of the regular season, doomed by frequent turnovers.[50][55] The Ducks were selected to play against the BYU Cougars in the Las Vegas Bowl, losing 8-38 in a dismal performance.[56]  The offensive coordinator, Gary Crowton resigned for the offensive coordinator position at Louisiana State University after the 2006 season and Chip Kelly was later hired to replace him.[57] Kelly's first season was a big success, with the 2007 Ducks losing only one game in the first nine games and averaged 46.6 points in the first seven games.[50] In the second game of the season, Oregon's offense put up 39 points on the Michigan Wolverines while the Wolverines only managed to score 7 points, making it Michigan's worst loss since 1968.[58] In a game where the number 9 ranked USC Trojans were the underdogs, Oregon at number 5 beat the Trojans 24-17, putting the Ducks in the driver's seat for the Pac-10 championship.[59] The Ducks would beat the number 6 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils in the next game[60] to send the Ducks to a number 2 national ranking with national championship game aspirations,[61] but a plague of injuries suddenly hit Oregon, losing four quarterbacks in four straight weeks.[62] The Ducks would lose the next three games, without a single quarterback finishing the game they started.[50][62] With their record, the Ducks went to play the South Florida Bulls in the Sun Bowl. Without starting quarterback Dennis Dixon, or the next two backup quarterbacks Nate Costa and Brady Leaf, redshirt freshman Justin Roper started the bowl game for the Ducks and ended up winning the game 56-21, with the Oregon junior running back Jonathan Stewart amassing 253 rushing yards for a Sun Bowl record.[63] With the starting quarterback Nate Costa re-injuring his knee in fall camp to lose him for the season, another quarterback controversy brewed in the beginning of the 2008 season. In the season opener against the Washington Huskies, three Duck quarterbacks saw the field. Justin Roper started the game but suffered a concussion early in the game and first-year sophomore Jeremiah Masoli from City College of San Francisco stepped in with true freshman Chris Harper finishing the game off. The Ducks would win the game 44-10.[64] The loss to the Boise State Broncos three games later gave Masoli a concussion early in the game after a hit by BSU safety Ellis Powers which Bellotti indicated was illegal and wrote an official complaint to the Pac-10 officials saying Powers should have been ejected. Another BSU player, Jeron Johnson was ejected in the game for another illegal hit.[65] Oregon rallied a comeback in the fourth quarter but eventually lost by five points.[66] Oregon would only lose two more games the rest of the season. In the Civil War, the Oregon State Beavers' Rose Bowl aspirations were crushed in a 65-38 loss to the Ducks.[67] The Beavers were demoted to the Sun Bowl while the Ducks went to the Holiday Bowl.[68] In a clash of two teams with high powered offenses, Oregon beat the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the 2008 Holiday Bowl and finished the season with a number 9 and number 10 ranking in the polls.[69][70] In December, prior to the Holiday Bowl, Mike Bellotti named the offensive coordinator Chip Kelly as the head coach in-waiting for the Oregon Ducks football program. In March 2009, Bellotti announced that Kelly would take over as the head coach as Bellotti was elevated to athletic director.[71] Bellotti left the program as the winningest coach in Oregon history, with 116 wins and a 67.8 winning percentage.[6] [edit] Venues and facilities Autzen Stadium, the home of Oregon's football team, is named for Thomas J. Autzen of Portland. His foundation, the Autzen Foundation, gave the university $250,000 for construction of the facility, which was completed in 1967.[72] The 54,000 seat stadium is known as a very intimidating and loud place to play. Standing room around the rim of the stadium allows the capacity to swell to almost 60,000. On October 27, 2007 in a game against USC, the crowd of 59,277 was able to reach a noise level of 127.2 decibels, the loudest ever recorded at a college football game.[73] Moshofsky Sports Center, named in honor of the former University of Oregon football letterman (1940-42) and long-time university supporter Ed Moshofsky, was dedicated in August, 1998, as the first indoor practice and training facility in the Pacific-10 Conference. Located south of the Casanova Athletic Center, the Moshofsky Center accommodates the majority of the University’s intercollegiate athletic programs. The $14.6 million facility includes an enclosed full-length artificial surface football field and 120-meter four-lane synthetic surface running track and an automated system in place to lower a batting cage for use by the softball team, as well as protective netting that transforms the facility for use by the men’s and women’s golf teams.[74] A combination of indirect lighting and two parallel skylight panels contribute to an energy efficient system which allows the flexibility to alter lighting conditions.[75] [edit] Bowl game historyMain article: Oregon Ducks bowl game history The Ducks won their only Rose Bowl in 1917 against the University of Pennsylvania and have been to three Rose Bowls since, losing all three.[76] However, the Ducks did play in and win the 2002 Fiesta Bowl against the Colorado Buffaloes which took the Pac-10 champions in years where the Rose Bowl is reserved for the national championship game like 2002.[77][78] Since the two Rose Bowls in 1917 and 1920, the Ducks have had little success in making bowl games until 1989, with the exception of a sparse string of bowl games between 1949 and 1963. Under head coach Rich Brooks, the Ducks went to four bowl games including the 1989 and 1992 Independence Bowls, the 1990 Freedom Bowl, and the 1995 Rose Bowl.[76] During Mike Bellotti's tenure as head coach between the 1995 and 2008 seasons, the Ducks have been to a bowl game every year with the exception of the 1996 and 2004 seasons.[79] [edit] RivalriesThe Civil War game between Oregon and Oregon State was originally called the "Oregon Classic" or the "State Championship Game."[80] The Oregon-Washington rivalry rivalry has been ongoing since 1948 and has incited particular passion from fans of the respective schools.[81] [edit] Notable playersMain article: List of University of Oregon people The University of Oregon football program has sent hundreds of players to play football in the professional ranks.[82] Between 1996 and 2008, five players have been selected in the first round of the NFL Draft including Jonathan Stewart in 2008, Haloti Ngata in 2006, Joey Harrington in 2002, Akili Smith in 1999, and Alex Molden in 1996.[83] A number of former Oregon Ducks football players have also been inducted to the NFL Hall of Fame including Gary Zimmerman, Dave Wilcox, Norm Van Brocklin, Dan Fouts, and Mel Renfro.[84] Tuffy Leemans is another NFL Hall of Fame inductee that played for the Ducks but spent the majority of his collegiate career at George Washington University.[85] Other former players such as John McKay, Jack Patera, John Robinson, and Norv Turner, have become head coaches for NFL and college teams.[86][87][88][89] Dan Fouts and Ahmad Rashad have become sportscasters after their professional careers.[90] [edit] Uniforms The University of Oregon football team is known for their unique uniform style in recent years, occasionally to the criticism of alumni and football purists,[91] though they have been often praised by football recruits.[92] The new schemes are designed by the nearby Nike Corporation, who have the outfitting rights for the Ducks.[93] The football team used nine different football combinations in the 2005 season, but introduced even more combinations in the 2006 season.[94] The new uniforms in 2006 provided 384 possible different combinations of jerseys, pants, helmets, socks, and shoes. A metallic-yellow colored helmet with silver flames debuted in the 2006 Las Vegas Bowl increased the possible combinations to 512.[95] These uniforms were more technologically advanced than other uniforms, 28% lighter when dry, 34% lighter when wet, and greater durability with reinforcing diamond plating patterns at the joints.[93] The Ducks wore the previously announced white helmets for the first time on October 20, 2007 in Seattle, when they played the Washington Huskies.[96] In 2008, during the Arizona-Oregon game, they wore new, all black uniforms nicknamed "lights out", but instead of the typical metal diamond plated shoulder pads, the new uniforms had a wing pattern.[97][98] On June 23, 2009, Nike unveiled a new uniform design based on the "lights out" design from the previous season featuring the "wings" pattern on the shoulder pads as well as a more simplified uniform design, while retaining the number font style of "Bellotti Bold" and the colors of green, black, white, yellow, and grey. You can track the 2009 uniform combinations at the Oregon Ducktracker. [edit] Chronology of Oregon head coaches
[edit] School records
[edit] Team records[edit] Game
[edit] Season
[edit] Individual records[edit] Scoring
[edit] Rushing
[edit] Receiving
[edit] See also
[edit] External links[edit] References
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