OK folks, we need to address our football team one more time this week because between all the legal and financial mumbo-jumbo, you may need to relax those brains just a bit with something satisfyingly inane.
I may have ended my tenure as a Daily Emerald columnist over a year ago, true, but I couldn’t help feeling nostalgic after watching the utter gut-stomping we gave Cal on Saturday and felt compelled to write in to my favorite publication in the world. Yes, it was a beautiful and glorious beatdown that had me and my fellow Duck alum, Gamgee, singing the fight song and shouting “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” even all the way up here in chilly Anchorage, Alaska.
Between the dozen Spencer Paysinger tackles and relentless pillaging from Jeremiah Masoli and Ed Dickson, Gamgee and I got bored, thus turning our attention to the only thing any Duck spectator can aside from the game: our jerseys. And let it be said loud and clear: Duck Nation loved the throwbacks. I repeat, we freakin’ loved them.
I realize, as I think we all do, that those jerseys are not here to stay and were just part of our jersey gimmick to garner national buzz, but for the love of god, Mr. Bellotti, you have the power to stop this and give fans what they want: A uniform and look that isn’t tacky, bloated or inconsistent, but classy, traditional and endearing.
If they can’t be our permanent jerseys because we’ve simply moved on from that era and invested too much into the “O” and the 10,000 color combinations of our new uniforms, then the least the Athletic Department can do for its fans and alumni is give them more of the classics.
I propose that these classic Duck uniforms are the staple for our home games from here on out, as it provides a link between the new and the old traditions at Autzen: Rich Brooks Field, the midfield “O,” Mike Bellotti’s legacy, the likes of Dan Fouts and Dennis Dixon among countless others. I was born a Duck (and I still have the baby shirt to prove it), and even for someone like me, the throwbacks were more than just a sentimental treat.
