Officials at University of Oregon and Oregon State University hope to gather as much blood as possible for this year’s Civil War rivalry – blood in the form of donations, that is.
The Civil War Blood Drive began at the EMU on Tuesday and will continue on campus through Friday, and at any Red Cross location through Saturday. The blood drive partnership, sponsored by both universities, along with Lane Memorial Blood Bank and the American Red Cross, seeks to harness the competitive spirit of the rivalry between Ducks and Beavers for a good cause.
Kristi McElhinney, community affairs coordinator for Lane Memorial Blood Bank, said 700 donors are expected to participate in the drive this week. Each donor empties out about a pint for transfusion use and in the process, casts a ballot for the Ducks or the Beavers. The team with the most votes will be announced during the Nov. 29 Civil War football game in Corvallis.
Donors also enter in a raffle to win two tickets to the heated rivalry game.
The blood drive is in its seventh year, and OSU has won the first five. Scott Waggoner, an OSU volunteer in Eugene who helped organize the drive, said OSU’s dominance is a result of the atmosphere surrounding the event. OSU advertises the drive extensively and has more beds to accommodate donors.
University of Oregon, Waggoner says, has a blood drive every month, while OSU has only one every term.
“It’s like a carnival,” Waggoner said of the OSU drive. “Friends donate together. Frats go down together to donate. It’s an event.”
Last year, however, University of Oregon triumphed for the first time, collecting 3,709 pints of blood to OSU’s 3,521 – it was the largest drive in the event’s history. Waggoner said record turnout was due to an influx of OSU volunteers who helped University of Oregon collect blood donations.

The rivalry, though, is secondary to many students like freshman Adam Purcell, who are simply interested in donating blood to help others.
“I didn’t even know about (the competition) when I signed up,” Purcell said as he waited to donate blood.
By happenstance, Purcell saw the sign-up desk at the EMU entrance while walking by. Deciding it was time to do a good deed, he signed up to have blood drawn for the first time. Volunteers took him upstairs to the EMU Gumwood room where he sat and filled out a long form meant to screen patients whose medical or travel histories make blood donation too risky.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” he said. “I had a nice big breakfast; I’m just a touch shaky.”
Purcell was indeed shaky going into the drawing: so shaky that initial tests revealed he had a pulse rate of 114 beats per minute, too high to safely donate blood. A nurse patiently asked him to sit down so that his heart could slow enough for him to safely venture behind the curtain to donate.
“I took a Chinese midterm today,” Purcell said, explaining his high blood pressure.
After he calmed down, Purcell went to get his pulse checked again. His pulse rate was back down to 94 beats per minute and he was ushered behind the curtain and seated on a bed. Nurses handed Purcell a heart-shaped squeeze toy to distract him, then plunged in the needle.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Purcell said after watching his blood climb out his arm and up the needle. “And I feel good about myself.”[email protected]