Huard is going to go back to throw the ball. Sets up, looks, throws toward the corner of the end zone and it is INTERCEPTED! INTERCEPTED! THE DUCKS HAVE THE BALL! DOWN TO THE 35, THE 40! KENNY WHEATON IS GONNA SCORE! KENNY WHEATON IS GONNA SCORE! THE 20! THE 10! TOUCHDOWN! KENNY WHEATON! AN INTERCEPTION! THE MOST IMPROBABLE FINISH TO A FOOTBALL GAME!”
There are a lot of places where one can start a story about the rivalry between the University of Oregon and the University of Washington, but few are more appropriate than this memorable call by Duck announcer Jerry Allen when Oregon played the Huskies on Oct. 22, 1994. With 1:05 left in the game and the Ducks clinging to a 24-20 lead, Washington was looking to score. The team was on the UO eight-yard line and had the 44,000-plus fans at Autzen Stadium in a state of despair, thinking the same thing:
Here comes another loss to the hated Huskies.
But in a play that took a mere 16 seconds from freshman cornerback Kenny Wheaton’s interception to his touchdown 97 yards later, the hopes and dreams of an entire university and city were changed. All of a sudden they were winners and on the inside track to the Rose Bowl.
“We went from feeling low and crushed to elation,” Allen said. “It was the biggest emotional swing ever … It was amazing. We just lost control. We became fans.”
Any Duck fan who has been to a game at Autzen has seen the highlight of that moment — commonly referred to as The Pick — right before the team runs out onto the field, but it’s not just that play that makes this rivalry something more than mere animosity between teams. It’s bred deep, and one has to look back all the way to 1948, when California and Oregon tied for the best record in the old Pacific Coast Conference. Back then when there was a tie, the championship was decided by a vote from each team in the league. There were two divisions with six teams in the Pacific Northwest and four teams in California, and as a result people thought Oregon would get the Rose Bowl berth.
But instead of going with convention, Washington and its head coach voted for California and convinced Montana (then a member of the PCC) to also vote for Cal. Oregon fans were stunned and madder than hell at the Huskies, and people haven’t forgotten.
Since then, there have been other incidents. In 1973, the Ducks blew out the Huskies 58-0, and the Dawgs rubbed it in a year later, 66-0. But nothing quite stands out as the defining moment of why Oregon-Washington is such a big game for both fan bases like The Pick did in 1994. Same goes for the players. There’s just a lot of dislike.
“That’s something the coaches instill in us,” junior quarterback Nate Costa said. “We don’t like Oregon State, but we hate Washington. That was something that’s been taught to me. It’s continued and we always look forward to it.”
Allen calls it a case of haves and have-nots, as in, Washington has a national championship and Oregon doesn’t. But Costa hit on the head what most-die hard Duck fans think: A win against the Huskies is just as sweet as a win in the Civil War.
“I saw one shirt that said, ‘Ted Bundy was a Husky,’ and it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen at a football game,” Costa said. “It ramps up and everyone is talking shit about purple and all that good stuff. The fans definitely raise the bar when it comes to the Huskies.”
This year’s group of seniors also talk of when the Huskies beat the Ducks in 2002 and then danced on the O at midfield of Autzen Stadium. A lot was made of that incident and it was recent enough that coaches can connect past slights to the present.
“This is one of our better rivalries,” senior tight end Ed Dickson said. “I remember when I first came in they showed us a tape of them dancing in our O and that was just disrespectful. You have to bump it up for the rivalry.”
Both sides have undoubtedly perpetuated it until the past has been forgotten and only pure animosity remains. However, senior defensive back T.J. Ward says that lately, he hasn’t noticed a whole lot of talk about it. That would be because the Ducks are 6-2 against the Huskies since 2000 and winners in the last five years.
“The rivalry hasn’t been as heated in my four years because they haven’t been as good,” Ward said. “But they’re looking like a pretty good team and it’s looking like the rivalry might heat back up. They have a lot of good players and good coaches. It’s going to be a big game. I’m expecting a dog fight up there.”
And for all the young guys on the team who will get their first taste of it this Saturday at Husky Stadium in Seattle, senior running back Andre Crenshaw says they have to experience it for themselves to realize what it’s like.
“I don’t think the young guys know much about the history,” Crenshaw said. “They won’t know until they go up there. It’s tough. You really don’t know. But once they run out the tunnel, they’ll know. This is always a big game.”
In the end, the rivalry between the two schools is exactly what makes college football so enjoyable to fans. There’s been dominance, drama, intrigue and just about everything in between. So go ahead and watch The Pick again on YouTube. Because no matter how many times you watch it, Kenny Wheaton is going to score and the pure joy and elation of Jerry Allen’s call makes you smile.
Unless you’re a Husky fan.
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No pageantry, all of the hate
Daily Emerald
October 22, 2009
Jarod Opperman
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