Springfield’s Premier Sports Bar & Grill
■ Pool, Darts &
Video Games
■ All Lottery Games
■ Satellite Sports
Full Service Bar
GAME DAY
FOOD SPECIALS
Open Daily
11 am ’til 2:30 am
1360 Mohawk Blvd. ■ Springfield
746-0549
■ 2 Big Screen TVs
■ 13 TVs
■ Wireless Table
Speakers
014688
Campus Service Center
ff it is good enough f<fr NASCAR, it is good enough for you!
Auto Repairs and
Convenience Store
Call 338-4641
and make an appointment today!
David Maggard wants your business!
2091 Franklin Blvd.
(across from Joe Romania)
Call the Hotline 686-5808 • Springfield 746-7666
I IT'S
TIME
Homecoming equals
great deals at Pizza Pipeline
16" X-tra Large
2-Item Pizza
and 2 Free 32 oz
Soft Drinks
11/01/02
14" Large 1-Item Pizza
and 2 Free 32 oz Soft Drinks
exp.11/01/02
^Pipeline
Down the center
Dan Weaver ditched baseball
and otherthings for the mere
chance to play for the Ducks
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
You’d be daunted by this task,
wouldn’t you? Surely.
You only weigh 225 pounds,
which shouldn’t seem like an “only”
for a normal person but is actually
quite small for an offensive lineman.
So you know you have to put on at
least 50 pounds to even have a
chance at walking on to the Pacific
10 Conference power you’ve idolized
since you could walk on the ground.
In order to put on that much
weight, you’ll have to spend a year
and a half away from football, the
sport you love. That time will be
spent in the weight room and work
ing a job to make ends meet.
Then, after all that, you might not
make the team. You certainly can’t
count on a scholarship. If you do
make the team, you probably won’t
even play until your senior year.
Daunting? Not for Dan Weaver.
Why? Well, let’s just say if there
was a movie entitled “Rudy II: My
Brother Rudy,” Dan Weaver would
be the hero.
Jed Weaver, a former Oregon tight
end and Dan Weaver’s older brother,
walked on to the team in 1994 and
blazed a path for his younger sibling
to do the same. But Dan Weaver rose
rapidly — much more rapidly than
his brother — through the ranks to
become the Ducks’ starting center
and the anchor of a spectacularly
underrated offensive line.
“It’s easy to go after something
when you know it can be accom
plished,” Weaver said. “That’s how I
started contact with (Oregon), was
through my brother.”
Like Jed Weaver, Dan Weaver has
a staggering work ethic akin to
something from the silver screen,
and that work ethic has led to him to
where he is now.
But it didn’t come easily. Weaver,
a three-sport star at Redmond High
School in central Oregon, was an all
league center but couldn’t get a
scholarship offer, even from the
Ducks. So he spent the next year
and a half working at a casting plant
in his home town and volunteering
to coach the freshman football team
at his alma mater.
“He was small in high school; he
Adam Amato Emerald
Oregon center Dan Weaver (63) gained 55 pounds before walking on to the team in
2000. His brother, tight end jed Weaver, was a walk-on for the Ducks in1994.
did all his growing after he got here,”
backup center Robin Knebel said. “If
he was the same size as everybody
else, he would’ve been a scholarship
guy just like everyone else.”
So Weaver hit the weights, put on
55 pounds of muscle and came to
Oregon in the winter of 2000 with a
mission: make the team.
That he did, impressing the
coaches enough with his improve
ments over spring drills to ensure
himself a spot on the team as the
short snapper in the fall.
“I doubted myself coming in,”
Weaver said. “But after those first
spring drills and being able to
watch myself on tape improving,
being able to block guys that are
supposed to be all-world, that’s
when you get the feeling that you
could do it if you just work hard.”
Weaver’s progression didn’t stop
there. He started taking all the short
snaps (mostly field goals) for the
Ducks and worked his way onto the
offensive line. By the end of the year,
it was clear that Weaver would be
much more than “that walk-on” by
the time 2001 rolled around.
“Dan just worked his way in, and
seems to be here by his effort, by his
work ethic,” fellow offensive lineman
Joey Forster said. “He really helps
us, too, because he’s a really smart
guy. He uses that to his advantage;
he outsmarts his opponent.”
Weaver’s intelligence is well rec
ognized — he was a Pac-10 first
team all-academic honoree last
season and was named to the Veri
Turn to Weaver, page 16B
015033
Now open
Award Winning Mexican Cuisine
(formerly Cancun)
Delivery available
thru Pony Express
Authentic Mexican Food
Comes to Eugene
Hours
11-10 Sun - Thur
11-11 Fri-Sat
685 East Broadway
Eugene, OR 97401
541-344-1091
Bring this ad and receive 15% discount
on food items only when consumed in the Dining Room
Not valid with other specials and to go.