It seems that if there were an appropriate way to end the 2008 season, it would be in San Diego.
There, four months ago, Oregon coaches and players poured into The Rock Church on a typically sunny San Diego day to mourn the death of redshirt freshman Todd Doxey.
Doxey drowned in the McKenzie River after jumping off the 40-foot bridge on July 13, and was pulled into the boat of passing fisherman nearly 10 minutes after hitting the water. The ensuing CPR on the defensive back was unsuccessful, and Doxey was pronounced dead six minutes after eight o’clock, nearly five hours after his jump.
Floating the river was a tradition for the football team, with players meeting up with their tubes after they surfaced from the jump.
Doxey surfaced, but couldn’t keep his head above the 62-degree water.
Less than a week later, Nike co-founder Phil Knight paid for a plane to carry Oregon coaches and players to arrive in San Diego for Doxey’s official funeral, where more than 3,000 gathered.
Yesterday, on a gloomy, nondescript December day, the players learned they would be playing their final game of the season in Doxey’s hometown, only seven miles from Hoover High, Doxey’s alma mater, and on the same Qualcomm Stadium field that Doxey played the final game of his prep career on.
“It really just hit us a couple days ago,” Javes Lewis, one of Doxey’s roommates, said. “I mean, I think all the events that happened, it was a picture perfect story.”
It’s a story that left an entire community broken since July. Hoover, one of the most diverse and poorest schools in San Diego, was revived by the success of its sports teams when Todd and his friends played there, Hoover athletic director Ron Lardizabal said in July. And with one jump in the river, it came crashing down.
“When I went to bed, I just broke down,” close friend and football star Bryan Russell said in July. “I couldn’t sleep these last couple of nights.”
Lewis knows almost better than anyone on the team. He, Will Wallace and Jeff Maehl moved in together during the summer with Doxey, the only player in Hoover High history to have his number retired – let alone while he was still attending classes there. He still talks with Doxey’s family at least twice a week, checking in to update them on the team’s progress.
It’s also a chance to check on theirs, too.
“They’re getting better,” Lewis said.
The Ducks, of course, are playing in Qualcomm Stadium because of their magical run, winning five of their last six games. The Ducks were cast out of the conference race after losing to Cal, so you can understand much of their energy has been spent on winning every game since. After beating Oregon State, the players had time to think about their season, and Doxey came to mind.
And so this city will host thousands of fans from Oregon and Oklahoma State in three weeks, pouring in with sun and sand on their minds.
For Oregon fans, there should be something – someone – else.
It’s unlikely the many stories of Doxey’s generosity would have surfaced this season to the public as a role player in the Ducks’ defensive secondary. He was third on the depth chart behind Patrick Chung and Marvin Johnson. How he gave his tickets last season to a boy confined to a wheelchair. How he would sometimes sneak back into his grandmother’s house, unannounced as a surprise, when he would return to San Diego from Eugene his freshman year. Every time he would go down his block, visiting his extended family.
“I don’t think one person I knew that didn’t like him,” Russell said.
Four months after his death, it seems hard to believe anyone who knew him will forget him, either.
When Oregon’s defense takes the field for its first play on Dec. 30, only 10 players should take the field. In San Diego, Todd Doxey’s hometown, it’s only appropriate.
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