When Oregon and Arizona State meet on a playing field or court, the Devils often make the Ducks’ life hell. But always, Oregon is able to duck out of trouble.
Oregon football head coach Mike Bellotti calls them “great fan appeal games.”
It started two years ago on the football field.
After a less-than-exciting first half at Autzen Stadium, Oregon and Arizona State went to halftime tied 3-3. The Ducks’ starting quarterback, then-junior A.J. Feeley, was yanked for then-sophomore Joey Harrington, who played the entire second half. The Sun Devils’ quarterback, Ryan Kealy, went 4-for-16 in the first half and probably should have been yanked.
Harrington threw a touchdown pass and Josh Frankel kicked a field goal in the third quarter, and the teams entered the fourth quarter with Oregon leading, 13-10. The Sun Devils struck next, after a drive that lasted almost four minutes, on a one-yard touchdown run with 1:04 on the clock.
What came next was Joey Harrington’s first home comeback, one that would help fuel his “Captain Comeback” nickname later. Harrington drove the field in nine plays and 49 seconds. The drive culminated in Harrington’s confident bomb pass to Marshaun Tucker in the corner of the endzone from the 29-yard line.
Final score: Oregon 20, Arizona State 17.
“Joey Harrington led a tremendous last-second drive, maybe as good of a drive as I’ve seen in the 11 years I’ve been here,” Bellotti said after that game in 1999.
Bellotti would see more spectacular comeback drives from Harrington, including one a year later against the Sun Devils.
But first back to 1999-2000. Later that same school year, on March 2, the Oregon men’s basketball team faced a similar showdown with the Sun Devils.

Oregon and Arizona State battled back and forth all game long. The team’s premier players were on show, with Oregon’s Alex Scales netting 31 points, and Sun Devil guard Eddie House — now a member of the NBA’s Miami Heat — pacing his team with 15 points.
House’s most important points came on two free throws with six seconds left in the game. The two charity shots put Arizona State up by four points, but more importantly made the game a two-possession contest.
On Oregon ensuing possession, Ben Lindquist threw an inbound pass downcourt to Scales, who nailed a three-pointer to make the score 74-73 Sun Devils. On Arizona State’s inbound pass, Kyle Dodd threw downcourt to House, who misplayed the ball out of bounds.
With 3.4 seconds left, Lindquist again had the task of initiating the “home run” play. He heaved it downcourt, and the ball bounced off House’s hands, into the hands of Oregon point guard Darius Wright, who had scored three points in the game to that point.
Wright drilled the three-pointer at the buzzer to give Oregon the 76-74 victory in front of 9,045 delirious fans.
“I just picked it up, turned around and shot,” Wright said after the game. “I didn’t really know it went in until everyone started jumping on me.”
If that game had an improbable finish, the 2000 football game between the two teams was the king of improbability.
The Ducks’ weekend got off on the wrong foot when their flight to Tempe, Ariz., was delayed.
“We didn’t get in until 1 or 2 a.m. that next morning,” Bellotti said. “That was the start of the game, in a sense.”
The teams started off slow on defense, and matched touchdown for touchdown on offense. Heading into the fourth quarter, the teams were deadlocked at 28-28. But Jeff Krohn passed for two touchdowns, and Mike Williams ran for another to put Arizona State up 49-35 with 5:47 left.
It was simply a setup for the wildest finish of the season.
Harrington hit Tucker for a 32-yard touchdown pass with 3:21 left, making the score 49-42 Sun Devils. After a failed onside kick and a defensive stop, Oregon got the ball back. The Ducks drove the field, but Justin Peelle was stopped on a fourth-down pass from Harrington at the one-yard line, with only 1:22 to play.
Arizona State needed only to run out the clock, but Williams fumbled the ball back to Oregon. Harrington hit Peelle in the endzone with 27 seconds remaining, sending the game to overtime.
In the second overtime period, Oregon’s Allan Amundson ran in for a score, but Arizona State answered right back with a 22-yard touchdown strike from Krohn to Williams. The Sun Devils elected to go for two points instead of one, and Krohn’s pass to tight end Todd Heap fell through Heap’s hands.
Final score, 56-55, Oregon.
“The last two years, this game has been tremendously exciting,” Bellotti said.
Exciting indeed.
There have been other tight contests with Arizona State through the recent years. The Oregon soccer team took Arizona State to overtime this season, before Annie Murphy’s goal gave the Ducks the win in the extra frame. In the past four seasons, Oregon and Arizona State have played to one-goal differences each year.
The Oregon women’s basketball team needed its key 63-56 win over Arizona State at home late last season to secure a berth to the NCAA Tournament. The Ducks’ men’s tennis team played a tough Sun Devil club to a 5-2 loss. Two seasons ago the Oregon men’s golf team was forced out of the NCAA Championships because of the finish of the Sun Devil men at the West Regionals.
Oregon and Arizona State: If history is a guide, it should be a devilishly good game to watch Saturday.