History: Obee provided heroics
for the Ducks 17-14 win in 1988
■ Continued from page 1B
But Cal refused to play Oregon
and the league title came down to
a vote of Northwest schools.
“Washington sort of had the de
ciding vote for who they thought
should go and voted for Cal,”
Allen said. “So, as a result, that
year Cal got to go to the Rose Bowl
instead of the Ducks. And so Ore
gon has naturally held that against
Washington. They thought the
Northwest schools should have
held together for Northwest
schools, and that didn’t happen.”
One of the most renowned ri
valries on the West Coast had be
gun.
Following Washington’s non
vote for Oregon in 1948, it took
the Ducks six years to pay the
Huskies back with a 26-7 win in
Seattle.
But from 1954 on, the Oregon
wins were few and far between as
the Huskies won 30 of the next 39
games against the Ducks.
And one of the most memo
rable wins for former Husky head
coach Jim Owens was their 7-6
win in Seattle in 1960.
“We were behind Oregon until
the very end of the game,” Owens
said. “And the last couple of min
utes we had time for one more dri
ve, and we were able to get the
ball to Don McKeta on a pass from
Bob Hivner. McKeta was acting
like he was going to go out-of
bounds. The defensive back
slowed up a couple of steps, and
Don just streaked right up the
sideline and got by him for a
touchdown.”
For current NFL Hall-of-Famer
Dan Fouts, it was'the 1970 Duck
Husky matchup that will live in
mtamy.
Oregon came into the game as
the No. 15 team in the country
and began the game on a good
note when Fouts, a sophomore at
the time, hit Bobby Moore for a
touchdown on their first drive,
jumping the Ducks ahead 6-0.
Fouts and the Ducks appeared to
be in control of the game late in
the fourth quarter when they had
the ball and the lead, 23-22.
Facing third-and-seven, Fouts
rushed for a first down with time
running out, making an Oregon
victory imminent.
But this one got away from the
Ducks.
“I coughed up the game when I
fumbled, and they took the ball
[and] went down and kicked the
winning field goal,” Fouts said of
his late-game rush. “We were run
ning out the clock, and 1 got hit
right on the arm, the ball popped
loose and they got it. So I felt re
sponsible for that one.”
Three years after Fouts late
game blunder, Oregon blew
Washington away in its most one
sided win in series history, 58-0.
“It was one of the longest after
noons of my career I know,”
Owens said.
But the Ducks offensive display
in 1973 turned out to plague them
the very next year.
The Huskies returned the favor
to the Ducks in Seattle in 1974
showing no mercy in a 66-0 win.
The Ducks seemed to be an entire
ly different team, especially on of
fense. Oregon finished the game
with 56 yards in total offense and
had only one first down in the
first half.
The Ducks performance was so
poor that it prompted Emerald
sports writer Don Chapman to
compare the Ducks’ offense to a “a
gaggle of headless chickens.”
“That is about as big a swing
that there has been in that series,”
Owens said of the 1973 and 1974
games against Oregon. “It was re
ally very unusual.”
The Huskies kept on beating
the Ducks all the way through the
1970s, and it wasn’t until 1980
that the Ducks could muster an
other victory against Washington.
But, oh, how sweet that win
was for Oregon.
“It’s the biggest win ever in the
four years I’ve been coaching at
Oregon,” said Oregon head coach
Rich Brooks in the Oct. 29, 1974
issue of the Emerald.
Oregon trailed the 13th-ranked
Huskies 10-6 at halftime but the
Ducks turned it on in the second
half by scoring 28 unanswered
points for the 34-10 win.
The Ducks scored on a 94-yard
drive early in the fourth quarter.
Then, on the Huskies first play
following Oregon’s score, Ore
gon’s Steve Brown put the game
out of reach with an interception
return for a touchdown.
The win in 1980 was Oregon’s
last in Seattle until 1995.
As high as the Ducks were after
their 1980 win, they were that low
after their 17-10 loss in Seattle in
1984.
Oregon held the Washington of
fense to three first downs, three
first-half points and 109 yards in
total offense — and lost.
It was the Husky special teams
that won the game for Washing
ton. The Huskies, who were
ranked No. 1 in the nation at the
time, returned a punt for a touch
down and also blocked a punt.
In a phone interview earlier this
week, Brooks called the loss “one
of the toughest losses we ever
had.”
The game was also memorable
for former Washington head
coach Don James.
“The one at Husky Stadium I
remember the most is the 1984
season,” James said in a phone in
terview this week. “[We] eventu
ally went 11-1 and were second in
the nation and beat Oklahoma in
the Orange Bowl.”
Four years later, Oregon won its
second-straight home game
against Washington for the first
time since 1947 and 1948 on what
was called ‘The Play’.
Oregon was trailing the Huskies
14-10 with just 1:46 to play in the
game and found themselves fac
ing a fourth-and-one from the
Washington five-yard line.
Bob Toledo, Oregon’s offensive
coordinator at the time and cur
rent UCLA head coach, called a
play that the Ducks had never run
before: 49 special. The play called
for Bill Musgrave to fake two
hand-offs before dishing the ball
to Terry Obee on a reverse.
The play worked to perfection.
“During the reverse I saw noth
ing but open field,” Obee was
quoted as saying in the Oct. 24,
1988 issue of the Emerald. “There
was no one outside. There was no
purple at all.”
The Ducks gave the largest
crowd to ever watching a sporting
event in Oregon exactly what they
wanted with the 17-14 win.
After the Ducks’ triumph in
1988, they went winless against
the Huskies for the next five years
while being outscored 132-47.
But the collection of five years
of frustration turned into over
whelming elation within seconds
with Kenny Wheaton’s 97-yard
interception return for a touch
down in 1994.
And for the first since 1987
andl998, the Ducks beat the
Huskies in two-straight matchups
with a 24-22 win at Husky Stadi
um in 1995.
So now Oregon stands 2-0 in its
last two meetings with the Huskies.
The question for Oregon now:
Can it win three straight for the
first time since winning four
straight between 1928 and 1931?
That fact remains to be seen.
However, one thing is for cer
tain: The 45,000-plus fans at
Autzen Stadium on Saturday will
get their money’s worth — history
goes to show that.
McTyre: Rivalries make football great
■ Continued from page 1B
play to fullback Dwayne Jones. Jones took the hand
off to the outside and rumbled in for a 12-yard
touchdown carry. The most memorable drive in
Oregon history took 5:04 off the clock, seeming to
make the game a lock for the Ducks. Once again,
Wrong!
Following the kickoff, Washington quarterback
Damon Huard led the Huskies toward the end zone
quickly, but found trouble once in the red zone in
the form of a little-known freshman comerback
from Arizona.
“Kenny Wheaton’s gonna score!!! Kenny
Wheaton’s gonna score!!! ”
The call made by Allen over the radio waves that
day solidified Wheaton’s name in Oregon history
books. The call spawned a year of commercials and
season ticket promotions on Prime Sports North
west; something I bet the people in Seattle loved
seeing every 10 minutes of the day. I’ll relish that
day forever.
In 1995, the Huskies had revenge on their minds as
Oregon visited Seattle once again. But at first it did
n’t seem like Washington had a prayer as the Ducks
flew out to a 24-0 lead. However, as all great rivalry
games must possess one, there was a comeback.
The Huskies slowly worked their way back into
contention in the second half, pulling within two
yards and giving place kicker John Wales a chance
late in the game to become a hero of Oregon-Wash
ington folldore.
Fortunately for the Ducks, Wales became the goat
instead of the hero as his kick was literally blown
wide right securing a second consecutive win and
the Ducks’ first in the Emerald City in 15 years.
Games that have finishes like the past two make
rivalries what they are. That is why a rivalry game is
so great. It wouldn’t matter if both teams were win
less because when it comes down to it, it’s all about
bragging rights.
So if this is your first taste of the Northwest rival
ry, grab a seat at Autzen Stadium and fall in love
with the best thing going in college football.
Go Ducks!
Mark McTyre is the sports editor for the Emerald.
His views do not necessarily represent those of the
newspaper.
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