The Oregon bandwagon gets bigger as it rolls
THE HOME
STRETCH
ROBBIE McCALLUM
If you live in Eugene very long,
you tend to get cut off from the rest
of the world. Underneath the
clouds and rain, and in between the
hills and trees of the Willamette
Valley, you get disconnected.
The rest of the world forgets
about us, too.
For years, college football ig
nored the Oregon football team.
The perennial underdogs, the ever
mediocre, they just didn’t get any
respect.
Even a breakthrough year in
1994, when the Ducks won the Pa
cific-10 conference title and made
it to the Rose Bowl for the first time
since 1958, didn’t convince the
guru’s of college football that Ore
gon was a worthy team.
Five straight winning season’s
and four bowl appearances con
vinced some, but not the preseason
pollsters, who left the Ducks out of
their top-25 polls. One publication
even picked Oregon to finish sixth
in the Pac-10, behind USC, Wash
ington and UCLA.
Being snubbed by the rest of the
country has become standard at
Oregon. And it is a motivator for
Oregon players.
“Not too many people know
what we've got going on up here,”
Sophomore wide receiver Keenan
Howry said. “It's sad when you
don't get recognition, but it does
motivate us,”
Before the Oregon-Wisconsin
game Sept. 23, ESPN GameDay’s
Lee Corso made a snipe at Eugene,
stating that “nobody knew where
Eugene even was.”
Two weeks later, to Corso’s sur
prise, ESPN GameDay made its first
trip ever to the northwest for the
much-anticipated UCLA-Oregon
matchup.
A big Oregon upset over then-No.
6 UCLA put the Ducks in the spot
light in front of a national audience.
The following week’s upset over
No. 6 Washington was even bigger
for the program. Yet another nation
al audience watched as the Ducks
used their awesome defense and
equally impressive offense to em
barrass their Pac-10 rivals. Even
Kunge against new Pac-10 tourney
■ Women s basketball coach
said it may muddle season
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
Not everyone involved with Ore
gon basketball was ecstatic about
having a Pacific-10 Conference post
season tournament for the 2000-01
season.
Duck head coach Jody Runge
wasn’t happy to hear the news, de
spite all the indications that Oregon
would be the leading contender to
host the first-ever women’s postsea
son tournament in Pac-10 history.
With the exception of the Ivy
League, every NCAA conference has
or plans to have a men’s postseason
conference tournament.
Such is not the case in women’s
hoops.
“I was pretty much strong-armed
into going along with it,” Runge told
The Register-Guard. “The Atlantic
Coast Conference is the only other
league in the country that has a dou
ble round-robin schedule and then a
league tournament. It backs up the
start of league play (into December)
and leaves us a very small window
to help our RPI rating.
“Then we have almost two weeks
off before we go into the [NCAA]
tournament, and if you do well in
the conference it’s very hard to beat
another team three times.”
Runge advocated keeping the cur
rent double round-robin schedule, in
which each team plays each other
twice, when the planners were dis
cussing the tournament in August.
“I think there are a lot of unan
I was pretty much
strong-armed into going
along with it
Jody Runge
Basketball coach
swered questions,” Runge told the
Emerald in an August interview.
“Conceptually, yeah, it’s easy to jump
on the bandwagon and say ‘Let’s go
for it.’ But the logistics still need to be
worked out.”
The women’s tournament will
feature all 10 Pac-10 teams, unlike
the men’s tournament, which fea
tures the top eight. The women’s
tournament will be played a week
earlier than the men’s so both can
be televised.
Peter
DeFazio
Democrat for Congress
A Different
Kind of
Congressman.
■ “While others play politics with the environment, Rep.
DeFazio votes to protect it.” “We could use more coura
geous leaders like him in Congress, legislators who put the
health and well-being of our families, our communities and
our future first.”
—Jonathan Poisner, OR League of Conservation Voters
■ “It would be difficult to find someone to represent District
4 with even half of Peter DeFazio’s energy, brain power and
integrity. We particularly applaud his leadership in fighting
trade policies and fast-track legislation that are, at the core,
anti-labor and anti-environment.”
—Eugene Weekly, 10/22/98
■ “Unlike many politicans, [DeFazio] has produced far more
substance than show.”
—Register-Guard, 10/7/00
Turning Down Payraises to Fund Scholarships
Peter DeFazio has voted against every congressional payraise since he was elected to
Congress. He turns back the money from the payraises to fund a Presidential Scholar
ship at the University of Oregon and eight scholarships at community colleges through
out southwest Oregon each year. In all, he has funded more than 90 scholarships.
more importantly though, the
Ducks cracked the top-10 in the AP
polls for the first time since 1995.
The 28-17 win over Southern
California Oct. 14 was the kicker.
What followed was a media frenzy.
Everywhere you looked that week
in the college football world, they
are talking about the Ducks and
their undefeated Pac-10 record.
You might even think that people
have heard of Eugene, Oregon (pro
nounced you* jean ory*gun).
Headlining both the espn.com
and cnnsi.com college football
websites this past week was Ore
gon’s victory over No. 21 Arizona,
leaving the Ducks alone in the con
ference lead.
Said CNNSI.com before last Sat
urday’s game: “The ferocious at
mosphere of Autzen Stadium,
where the host Oregon Ducks have
won 18 straight games, has
emerged from obscurity to gain na
tional attention this season. The lat
est to try to conquer Eugene is Ari
zona, and as if the Wildcats offense
won't have it hard enough trying to
hear... the Oregon defense is sec
ond-to-none in the Pac-10.”
USA Today Sports had a crew on
hand for the Arizona game, its first
trip to Eugene ever.
And whether or not you jumped
on the Oregon bandwagon this sea
son, or six years ago, move over be
cause the national media is spread
ing the news: Oregon is a team to
watch out for.
Robbie McCallum is a sports reporter for
the Emerald. He can be reached at
coach_robbie@lycos.com.
Oregon head coach Jody Runge can’t stand the sight of a Pacific-10 tournament.
You are cordially invited
to attend your
NEW Career Center's
./IO<US£
Thursday,
October 26, 2000
Second Floor, Hendricks Hall
We wish to welcome you into the 2000-01 school year
in our newly remodeled office.
Please feel free to visit us between the hours of
10:30 a.nu - 4:30p.m.
for this special occasion.
Refreshments.