Story by Chris Brooklier
Photo provided by Corey Haugen and Davis Torgerson

Whenever it’s fourth and short for the Ducks, everyone knows what’s about to happen. Every member of the student section alternates his or her hands up and down while yelling “Big Balls Chip” in unison. With his daring coaching moves during his first two years as University of Oregon head football coach, Chip Kelly has earned this special moniker that has led to a shirt adorned with hands in a waving motion and Chip’s face.
T-shirt creators, fifth-year seniors, and advertising majors Corey Haugen and Davis Torgerson trace the origins of the Big Balls Chip nickname to the USC game on Halloween 2009 where “Chip made a lot of ballsy calls.” Haugen already had a line of shirts on the East Coast but the Big Balls shirt was his first big creation in the West. The idea was originally sent through event invitations via Facebook to twenty-four friends of Davis and Corey’s after the 52-31 victory over Stanford, but soon spread like wildfire, with 580 people attending. Even a high profile football player messaged Haugen about receiving a shirt.
Torgerson and Haugen went to the UO Athletic Department to work on getting it sold in the Duck Store in mid-October. However, like with the group Supwitchugirl and their “I Love My Ducks” shirts, the duo couldn’t get the new motto approved.
“The Athletic Department’s reasoning for the denial of the shirts was the negative connotation due to the vulgarity of the moniker,” Haugen says. “Also, word from Chip was that he wasn’t happy having his name put next to ‘Big Balls’.” The department suggested Haugen and Torgerson change the design of the shirt, including removing Kelly’s face and the nickname.
“[After the deniel] we felt very nervous to come up with something else because we didn’t want to let down over 500 people,” Haugen adds.
The duo, however, remained determined to make the shirt. They weren’t interested in profit, but just felt everyone should have the shirt and that it would build student camaraderie. After brainstorming all night, Haugen and Torgerson decided to remove Kelly’s face and replace the I’s with exclamation points, thus making the shirt acceptable again. After putting thousands of their own dollars into printing, the shirts were finally ready in late October. The next step would be to find an easily accessible spot to sell the shirts, which had to be off campus because the shirts were not officially affilated with the school. After trying to sell the shirts in the parking lot behind Pegasus Pizza, they felt they had to make the shirts even more accessible, spawning their website.
In the end, Haugen and Torgerson learned some lessons about the Athletic Department, the steps to producing a shirt, and other ideas for shirts, including a “Fear the Visor” design.