Having lived all my life in the Willamette Valley, I’ve survived through the dark days of Oregon football. The 2-9 seasons, the scoreless Civil War ties and of course, the 11 losses to Washington in 13 tries.
Yes, the Huskies had our number for the first seven years of my life. Even during the glory years of Derek Loville, Bill Musgrave and Gregg McCallum (no relation), Washington got the best of my beloved Ducks. When Oregon went to the Independence Bowl in 1989, the team had its first successful year since 1964. But even that team was dealt a 20-14 loss by the Huskies.
It was an almost annual occurrence. Rich Brooks’ Ducks, clad in yellow and white, would always fall to the purple and gold Huskies from Seattle.
One year, everything changed.
It was 1994, the Ducks stood 3-3, poised to finish yet another season at the .500 mark. ABC sports made one of its rare visits to Autzen Stadium for regional coverage of the Washington game.
The Ducks held a shaky 24-20 lead over the No. 23 Huskies. Husky quarterback Damon Huard had his offense surging down the field, looking for a fourth-quarter comeback. With a minute left, Washington had a first down at the Oregon eight yard line. An Oregon loss seemed imminent. Like many loyal Oregon fans of the era, I turned the television off to go find better ways to occupy my time.
Luckily, my father had the radio on upstairs. Just as I was walking out of the living room, I heard Jerry Green’s piercing announcer’s voice scream, “Kenny Wheaton intercepts the football! Kenny Wheaton intercepts the football! Kenny Wheaton’s gonna score!”
I ran back to the television, but because of the audio delay, all I caught were 44,000 rowdy Oregon fans swarming the field and toppling the left goal post. Freshman cornerback Kenny Wheaton, second on the depth chart at the time, intercepted Huard’s pass near the goal line and returned the ball 97 yards to secure the 31-20 win. By many accounts, it was the biggest play in Oregon history.
At that exact moment, the tide turned in the Northwest. Washington no longer dominated Oregon on the field. The game changed the Oregon-Washington matchup from a grudge match into a intense, bitter rivalry.
The Ducks went on to the Rose Bowl that season and pushed the program to a new level.
Since then, Wheaton went on to a three-year stint with the Dallas Cowboys, and is now nursing an injury and is without a professional team. Brooks had a brief head coaching stint with the St. Louis Rams and made it to the Super Bowl as an assistant with Atlanta.
Oregon football has recorded more wins than any other Pacific-10 Conference team since 1994 and has gone on to four bowl games in that span.
It is the Oregon-Washington rivalry that has undergone the biggest change. The Ducks have won five of their last seven games against the Huskies and finished higher than them in the Pac-10 standings three times.
Players and fans attending this season’s Washington game were reminded of Wheaton’s heroics Saturday as the former Oregon cornerback was named an honorary captain. When the famous interception was played on the Autzen Stadium megavision screen, Wheaton buried his head in his hands in embarrassment.
Wheaton was not embarrassed, however, to see his former team demolish the No. 6 Huskies, 23-16. Oregon defensive backs Jermaine Hanspard and Matt Smith each picked off Husky quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo once, though neither came close to the magnitude of Wheaton’s pick in ’94.
Wheaton’s presence also reminded Duck fans that the last time Oregon defeated two top-10 opponents on consecutive weekends, it went to the Rose Bowl.
It’s still too early to really tell, but the Ducks may have what it takes to reach the Rose Bowl — and they reached this point on a foundation laid by Kenny Wheaton and his teammates.