Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal is only two years into the Civil War, but instilling the importance of the rivalry to his players was paramount.
“It’s important for our players to understand how important this game is to everyone in this state,” he said. “When your team has so many guys from so many different parts of the country, you’d hate for them to never understand how deep-rooted the feelings and emotions that go into this rivalry.”
The history he probably did not teach the Ducks was that of the Platypus Trophy, the unofficial prize for the winner of the Civil War, now passed between student alumni associations. The two-foot wide, 18-inch tall trophy is carved from maple and depicts the beaver-tailed, duck-billed mammal, native to Eastern Australia.
It currently sits in the office of the Student Alumni Association on Oregon’s campus, but its journey to that point is far from linear.
Warren Spady was an Oregon art student in 1959 when he was directed to create the trophy a month before the game. The trophy was unfinished when the game approached, but Oregon was expected to win, keeping it in Eugene.
Instead, Oregon State pulled the 15-7 upset on Hayward Field and the trophy went 42 miles north to Corvallis.
“[Oregon] fully expected to receive this, that they were going to be the first name on the plate,” Wil Post, Oregon State’s student body president at the time, told the Corvallis Gazette Times in 2009.
From there, the Platypus’ journey is part chance, part urban legend. It was stolen multiple times soon after, returning only when Spady found it at UO’s Leighton Pool in 1986. It was engraved with victories, but instead from Oregon water polo in ‘64, ‘65, ‘67 and ‘68.
It disappeared again. The trophy returned in 2004 when Oregonian columnist John Canzano asked why the Civil War doesn’t have a trophy. Spady wrote in saying there was one — kind of — and Canzano sparked a search where it was found in a closet in McArthur Court.
From there, starting in 2007, the trophy is passed between SAAs.
It currently resides on the desk of Susan Ordonez, the staff advisor for the SAA. “Platy,” as she commonly refers to it, is a staple in the office.
“We all have an affinity for the trophy we have in our office now, so we don’t like to give it up,” she said.
They have only had to give “Platy” up once after Oregon’s loss in 2016. There was a photoshoot and all, as Oregon students handed it over to the Oregon State students.
It’s part of the SAA’s current plan to make the trophy a more prominent piece of the rivalry. Attempts to make it official have failed in the past, and it is tough to get both schools on the same page.
“OSU is not really inclined to bring it back if they’re not going to win, and we aren’t really inclined to bring it back if we aren’t going to win,” Ordonez said.
They’ve had the trophy engraved with the scores of the games from 2007 to present, which is in favor of Oregon 10-2.
As for Ordonez, having a maple platypus as a decoration is far from the usual ornament.
“It’s a trophy that grows on you,” she said. “When you first look at it, it’s this wooden carving of a platypus, and you’re like, ‘Alright, interesting trophy.’”
