Gordon Burke had already been awake and working for hours by the time the first cleanup crews arrived just before 7:00 a.m. on Sunday to begin the massive post-game cleanup of Autzen Stadium.
In the battle against garbage, measured in cubic yards, Burke is like a general – commanding between 250 and 300 people during the eight-hour Sunday clean-up.
The initial cleanup of the stadium itself is divided into three sections taken by three different crews. The first wave sweeps leftover popcorn, soft drink cups and crusted-over nacho containers into the aisles and separates out recycling materials. After they finish, a crew with blowers followed by a sweeping crew finishes the job, Burke said.
“The entire bowl will take about an eight-hour day to finish,” he said. “The bowl is the most difficult and challenging.”
While most University students are asleep on Saturday and Sunday mornings before and after home football games, Gordon Burke was up before sunrise, working at 5:30 a.m. to begin the cleanup after the Ducks’ 37-10 loss to Arizona on Saturday.
Burke is also responsible for orchestrating the setup and operation of Autzen Stadium during every home football game. As operations manager at the University Athletic Department, he often works more than 12 hours on a typical game day, and another eight the next day.
“It’s just the nature of what we do,” Burke said.
Karen Dilger, a scout parent who has worked with her son’s crew cleaning the perimeter of the stadium this season, said the aftermath of Saturday’s game was one of the lightest cleanups they’ve had this season. She said the outcome of the game often determines how bad the cleanup is the next day.
“If you saw it (Saturday), the stadium was pretty much empty by the end of the game,” she said.
Several other factors also play into the severity of the post-game mess, Burke said.
“If you’re talking garbage loads, the biggest games are the ones that get the most press,” he said. “For the Pac-10 it’s always Oregon State and Washington.”
Burke said rivalry games with evening starts typically make for the longest Sundays, as his crews still have to come at the same time regardless of how late the game is the night before.
“Those are just killer,” he said. “It’s so hard on the staff to make that turnaround.”
Burke said this year’s game against Oklahoma, which had the highest attendance in Autzen Stadium history, was one of the worst of this season.
Burke said about 20 percent of what is picked up is recycled, which can amount to as much as 42 cubic yards of recycled cans and bottles.
The stadium cleanup crews were only a small portion of the larger task of freshening the surrounding areas in parking lots, the Casanova Center and the Moshofsky Center nearby.
The crews that work during the post-game cleaning are mostly youth or service groups such as Boy Scouts, and church or high school groups.
During Burke’s six years in his position with the Athletic Department, he said several organizations have offered their services as fundraisers since before he arrived at the University.
“A lot of these groups have been here for a lot of years,” he said. “If the job is being done correctly and there’s no problem, then there’s no reason to replace them.”
One of the three early crews Sunday was the football team of Mohawk High School, a small school outside Springfield that had just defeated Wallowa 50-42 in the class 1A state playoffs the day before.
Head coach Laric Cook said his 28-member team has worked the day after all six Oregon home games this season to raise money for his own team, which earns $550 each weekend it works.
“It’s a way to pitch in and help the community,” Cook said.
After arriving home from its game at 1:00 a.m. the night before, the team came ready to work at 8:00 a.m. Sunday.
“It’s a character-builder,” Cook said. “I don’t know if it’s a team-building thing, because the older guys always pass the crappy jobs to the younger guys. There’s some seniority to it.”
Cook said the financial support his program receives for the work pays for the team’s trips and other expenses, though he said his players still don’t particularly enjoy cleaning up garbage on Sunday mornings.
“It’s not for the faint of heart at times,” he said. “It goes with the territory, but they know that coming in.”
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