In the final 50 days before Chip Kelly and the Ducks return to the field to defend their status as Pac-12 Champions, the Emerald sports desk will take a look back at one Oregon alum each day whose jersey number corresponds to the number of days left before the season opener against Arkansas State. Today’s featured former Duck is Dick Patrick, a hard-nosed two-way player from the colloquially named “leatherhead” days of football.
A linebacker and center from 1949 to 1951, Patrick represents the quite pedestrian past of Oregon football. Patrick was drafted by San Francisco in 1952, but never had a significant professional career. To put his era in perspective, Patrick never played on a team that beat Oregon State or Washington. Patrick played for head coach Jim Aiken in his first two seasons before the iconic Len Cassanova took over in 1951.
The program that Patrick played for was a far cry from today’s budding powerhouse — there was no Moshofsky Center, no Cassanova Center and Autzen Stadium was still over a decade away from its groundbreaking. Patrick’s teams played some home games at Hayward Field, with higher-profile games contested at Multnomah Stadium in Portland (which would eventually become Jeld-Wen Field after half a century of renovations and name changes).