Hours after the sun went down and Oregon’s official pep rally ended, Duck fans were still making their presence felt in downtown Scottsdale, Ariz.
The streets were packed with Oregon fans, and every so often a distinct “Go Ducks” cheer could be heard from a car as it drove by pedestrians.
Yes, the Oregon fan base was out in full force on Sunday for the pre-game rally. With just about 24 hours remaining before the big game, excitement had reached its crescendo.
Standing on the field in Old Town Scottsdale in the minutes before the pep rally started, Kendall Ellingwood stopped to take it all in.
“For me it’s like a once in a lifetime thing,” he said. “Because when I was going to school, we weren’t very good. So you never thought it was going to happen.”
At that point, his friend Louis Vivas chimed in.
“We were 6-5, back then we were excited,” Vivas said. “But now, we’re going for the national championship.”
A member of the University of Oregon class of 1990, Ellingwood traveled all the way from Hawaii for the game. Once the Ducks won the Civil War back in December, it was never a question that he would make the trip to Arizona.
“As soon as the Oregon State game was over,” Ellingwood said. “The next second we were online.”
Vivas, meanwhile, had just a short commute from his home in Arizona.
“I’ve been waiting for this day since the season started,” Vivas said.
Once the rally officially began, the venue was packed nearly to capacity. Fans could also be seen looking over the railings on three different levels of the parking garage across the street.
Heavy metal singer Sebastian Bach opened things up for an announced crowd of 14,708, delighting fans with a rendition of the “Oregon Ducks Power Ballad” that he performed last week on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show. The famed student rap group Supwitchugirl also made an appearance, along with University’s men’s a cappella group On The Rocks, as well as Otis Day and the Nights.
To cap things off, Oregon head coach Chip Kelly took the stage and cracked a few jokes for the crowd. When the event finally came to an end, the crowd filtered out into the streets.
The night was still young, and the pre-game party was only getting started.
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