Ross Hernried had every reason to be an Oregon State fan growing up.
The Corvallis native grew up a five minute bike ride away from Reser Stadium, home of the Beavers. He played the sport with friends who went on to play at OSU and others whose parents coached for the football team. Hernried’s father taught civil engineering at the university, and his mother shared a dog-walking route with former Beavers’ head coach Mike Riley’s wife. But growing up with memories of sneaking into Reser and playing hide-and-go seek wasn’t enough for Hernried to declare his allegiance to his hometown team.
“As a kid, I decided I wanted to be a Duck fan,” he said. “I had no reason to not like the Beavers. I wanted to be different from the pack, I guess. I thought the Ducks were cool because they were different.”
Though he admits, his favorite NFL player remains running back Steven Jackson, a two-time All-American at OSU.
“In the early 2000s, OSU was a really competitive school, actually. They had a lot of star athletes like Chad Johnson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Steven Jackson and [Ken Simonton],” Hernried said.
During the annual Civil War meeting between the Ducks and Beavers, Corvallis devoted an entire week to the matchup, says Hernried. At school, Benny the Beaver, the Duck and OSU football players visited the classroom in support of the rivalry that began in 1894.
However, the Civil War has unquestionably lost some of its appeal in recent years. Oregon is one win away from tying the all-time winning streak shared by both teams — the Beavers’ eight-game winning streak lasted from 1964-71, the Ducks’ from 1975-82.
Yet, those past streaks were largely annual positives in otherwise uninspiring seasons. Whereas, over the Ducks current seven-game winning streak, Oregon has appeared in two National Championship games, won two Rose Bowls, four conference titles and two other bowl games.
Within a decade, Oregon has flourished as a national powerhouse while the Beavers have remained a respectable, but not intimidating program just north of its long-time rival. It has resulted in a Civil War matchup that, in terms of the Ducks’ season, can be overlooked.
The change from mutual excitement to one side finding it “hard to care” because it’s “so lopsided,” as Hernried puts it, came in March of 2009, when Mike Bellotti, Oregon’s winningest coach (116 wins), passed the mantle to his offensive coordinator, Chip Kelly.
“That’s when it was competitive,” Hernried said, thinking of the Bellotti era. “They’d be good games, too. Chip definitely changed things.”
Kelly never lost to Oregon State during his tenure, and his first Civil War victory secured the Ducks’ first Rose Bowl berth since 1995. It also ruined the Beavers’ chances of returning to the oldest bowl game in college football, a game Oregon State still hasn’t played in since 1964 or won since 1942.
“That was really the first year that the [Oregon] program seemed like it turned around in a positive direction,” Taylor Alie, a Eugene native and Ducks quarterback, said of the 2009 Civil War.
It wasn’t long ago when the Civil War offered a marquee matchup, that not only affected each team’s season, but had national implications. Between 1997 and 2006, every single Civil War was won by the home team – a pattern never previously witnessed.
One of the best of these games came in 2000, when No. 5 Oregon visited No. 8 Oregon State with the Pac-10 title on the line. Oregon needed a win to secure the conference title for itself. However, the Beavers took the victory and forced a three-way tie between the Ducks, Beavers and Washington Huskies.
“Back then, I thought it was more fun because it was so 50/50 every single year,” Oregon running back Jarret Lacoste said.
LaCoste grew up 10 minutes away from OSU, in Albany. His dad Joe played running back for the Beavers and his mom Joene got her degree in Corvallis. The junior estimates he went to 60 or 70 Beavers games growing up, about seven per season.
“I grew up a really big Beavers fan until about two years ago when I came here,” LaCoste said. “I was shunned the first couple of years, but now they kind of give into the Ducks when we play in the Civil War. It’s still a bit of a house divided.”
LaCoste and Hernried both agree that the Civil War represents tradition more than anything.
Oregon linebacker Tyson Coleman, a Lake Oswego High graduate, remembers half his high school dressed in Ducks gear, the other in orange and black, with “constant trash talking” around the halls.
“It’s something everyone has to give into, whether it’s competitive or not, it’s always going to be fun,” LaCoste said. “Both crowds are the same, no matter what stadium you fall into, whether that be 10 years ago or today. It’s not just going to be some blowout. Whether at the end of the game it is or not, it doesn’t feel that way.
Friday’s game figures to be another win for the Ducks. The Beavers remain in the bottom of the Pac-12 conference without a conference win while Oregon is riding a five-game winning streak. But, come kickoff, you never know what could happen.
“This is [the Beavers’] big game. Every year, it’s like their Rose Bowl,” Hernried said. “It’s a huge deal, they always think they can win, no matter what. For whatever reason, [OSU fans] really put their heart into this game.”
Has Oregon’s national success diminished relevance of Civil War?
Andrew Bantly
November 24, 2015
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