As the seconds wound down in last Saturday’s Civil War and Darron Thomas took a knee to seal a trip to the BCS National Championship Game, Jerry Allen fought to keep his emotions in check.
Oregon’s radio broadcaster since 1987, Allen couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. The Ducks had finally done it.
All of a sudden, 24 years of memories came flooding back to him. Images flashed of coaches and players who had given their all, but never quite made it to the promised land. And here Allen was, watching his Ducks celebrating jubilantly on the field. He couldn’t help it — he broke down.
“It just caught up with me,” Allen said. “I felt it coming; I tried to control it and stop it, but it’s just a true emotion I guess. I think a lot of fans felt the same thing, too.”
Allen’s tearful call was quickly put up on YouTube, and two separate videos have already earned a combined 37,000 views. As it turned out, Allen had put into words what scores of others were feeling: pure, unadulterated joy and relief.
Back in Eugene, a “Go Ducks” chant erupted across Patterson Street between Barnhart Hall and an apartment building opposite the dormitory. Immediately following the Civil War, a fan on the field at Reser Stadium exclaimed, “I’m in ecstasy right now.”
Call it BCS Fever. Throughout Eugene, fans are pinching themselves, wondering if this is really happening. One could hardly blame them, given the school’s history.
Since its founding in 1876, the Oregon football program has seen plenty of highlights. There have been Pacific-10 Conference championships, historic upsets, unbelievable plays, and, of course, heartbreaking losses.
Yet through all of its ups and downs, Oregon has never played for the ultimate prize. Fans will argue vehemently that it should have happened in 2001, when quarterback Joey Harrington led the Ducks to an 11-1 season.
Despite Oregon’s No. 2 ranking in the AP and Coaches polls, and Nebraska’s decisive loss to Colorado at the season’s close, the Cornhuskers were selected by the BCS to complete for the national championship.
“When the numbers came out, and Nebraska was still No. 2, we were devastated,” Allen said. “I remember being so hurt, frustrated, upset all at the same time.”
It was a perceived injustice that enraged fans, made even worse by the fact that Nebraska lost 37-14 at the hands of Miami while Oregon steamrolled Colorado 38-16 in the Fiesta Bowl.
Then, of course, there was the 2007 season. Cruising along with an 8-1 record and the No. 2 ranking, disaster struck in Arizona when quarterback Dennis Dixon was lost to a knee injury. Once a favorite to win it all, the Ducks lost their final three games and fell all the way to the Sun Bowl.
With that history in mind, fans waited for something similar to happen in 2010. They waited, and waited, but it never came. Finally, the Ducks had escaped the gauntlet unscathed.
“You’re almost holding your breath over the last few weeks,” Allen said. “And then you get to the Civil War, and you’re almost afraid to breath, because you don’t want somebody to get hurt or something to happen … When it finally ended, it was like this release.”
The players certainly understand the relief. Standing in a cramped hallway at Reser Stadium on Saturday, linebacker Casey Matthews tried to put it into words.
“It’s a pretty big deal for them,” Matthews said. “We have one of the most passionate fan bases in the country.”
Much to the relief of Eugene law enforcement, Oregon fans managed to behave themselves on Saturday night. There were no riots, no foolish actions that would have sullied the moment.
Perhaps, with their tickets punched to the program’s first ever national championship game, Duck fans chose to simply sit back and enjoy the moment.
It could be called poetic justice that the Ducks return to the Fiesta Bowl nine years after the unforgettable slight, this time in their rightful place as a championship contender. The crystal ball is finally within reach, so close that players and fans alike can almost taste it.
“We really worked hard for this throughout the whole year,” running back LaMichael James said. “We just came out and fought each and every day … this means a lot to our fans, and for the community at the U of O, and for the program.”
Now, with one of the most celebrated calls of his career behind him, Allen looks to the next football game he will call: at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. He is a little surprised at the attention he has gotten since Saturday, and careful to deflect praise to the team itself.
“I don’t want (the call) to detract from what the team accomplished,” Allen said. “It’s about the team and the coaches and what they’ve done, and I’m just one of those fans that happened to have a microphone in front of his face.”
Make no mistake, though. Allen’s emotional moment represented the feelings of Duck fans everywhere at the end of a long, harsh journey to the peak of the college football landscape.
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