The campus at the University of Oregon is stunning on a fall day when the sun is shining. Leaves — in all shades of reds and oranges and greens — hang from majestic trees standing on the grounds. Old buildings mix with the architecture of new ones and the light of the sun bounces off windows to create a shining display of grandeur.
Everywhere you walk through the 295-acre campus, there’s history.
The Pioneer Mother statue sits serenely behind Johnson Hall in the heart of campus, and has ever since it was dedicated in 1932. Deady Hall — the university’s first building, built in 1876 — stands just off of Franklin Boulevard on the edge of campus. Further away, just on the other side of the Erb Memorial Union and the state-of-the-art recreation center stands perhaps the campus’ most famous piece of architecture—McArthur Court. The building has housed a national championship basketball team in the thirties and on nights when the basketball team is at home, one can hear the cheers from across campus.
There are other places worth mentioning as well, for instance Hayward Field on the corner of East 15th Avenue and Agate Street, where the Eugene’s nickname “Track Town, U.S.A.” was born. However, this weekend the focus will be on another iconic structure owned by the University of Oregon. Located just across the Willamette River from campus, Autzen Stadium — home of the Oregon Duck football team — stands tall and can be seen from Interstate 5 through the trees. The gigantic yellow “O” on the end of the scoreboard is a beacon for any Duck fan and the familiar bowl-shape design of the stadium makes any true Duck weak at the knees.
It’s a holy place to many and a place where fans have lovingly fostered a reputation for it being one of the loudest venues to play in all of college football despite its medium size.
Head coach Chip Kelly has said on numerous occasions throughout this season that Autzen is the best place to play college football. Players get a little glassy-eyed when they talk about running out of the tunnel into the midst of a maelstrom of yellow and a noise level that beats even a Boeing 747.
And on Saturday, there is a perfect storm brewing, with Autzen Stadium being in the direct center of the path. The No. 4 USC Trojans are in town to take on Eugene’s own No. 10 Oregon Ducks. Two 6-1 teams trying to establish dominance over the Pac-10 title race.
The Trojans are the clear favorites on paper. They have been the conference champions the last seven years. They’ve gone to Columbus, Ohio, and knocked off Ohio State in front of 100,000-plus. They’ve gone to South Bend, Ind. and played Notre Dame.
But if you tell any of that to a Duck fan, you might get a strong remark about how paper isn’t worth as much nowadays and you can’t trust stats when it comes to a game of passion. Especially when the Ducks are playing under the lights on Halloween night.
It almost seems too good to be true.
And it could be, if Oregon isn’t careful. Yes, they have won six straight games after losing to Boise State on Sept. 3. Yes, they’ve shown that despite injuries, they can play some of the best defense in the nation and they are undefeated at 4-0 in the conference. But if Oregon beats USC on Saturday, the season isn’t over. There will still be four more teams on the Ducks’ schedule wanting to knock them off their pedestal.
Kelly has been good about keeping his team in the moment and focused at the task at hand, but if this team truly is Rose Bowl material, how it performs under the national spotlight will go a long way to showing the nation that it is ready—especially with the added focus of ESPN College GameDay bearing down on Eugene.
But while Kelly says his team isn’t concerned with who is going to be in town, he says it’s a great honor for the University of Oregon and he’s thrilled that this town and campus full of crazed football fans will get another shot at the limelight on ESPN.
“I think it’s awesome,” Kelly said. “This is a special place and the more notoriety it can get is great for the University. … I’ve always said that the University of Oregon is a special, special place and the fact that College GameDay will come here is well deserved.”
GameDay was in Eugene twice in 2007. Once for the California game on Sept. 29 (a game the Ducks lost) and again on Nov. 3 when Oregon beat No. 6 Arizona State 35-23. So while this isn’t the first time Duck fans have seen the orange set and Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard, it might as well be. The chance to show how great of a team the Ducks are and show the nation the spirit of the University of Oregon on national television is something that never gets old.
Students will start to camp out at the GameDay site on Friday morning and signs will picket the grounds. The Daily Emerald will even get in on the action, with Dylan Sylwester (the Daily Emerald’s multimedia editor) and myself canvassing the event, getting footage of the spectacle to put up on collegegameday.com.
Then eight hours after Corso slips on the Duck mascot head, fans will stand shoulder-to-shoulder inside Autzen (probably in the rain, but that won’t for one second bother them) for the main event. The noise will be beyond anything any of us have ever heard.
And perhaps the noise will even be loud enough to drift the mile or so back to the heart of campus, where the University’s other great landmarks stand silently, on display for the rest of the nation to see just what a truly beautiful place it is.
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