Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Wednesday, October 30,2002
Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
NBA: Los Angeles at Portland
6:30 p.m.f ESPN
Duck hunt starts as Oregon stumbles
(M'. m—mV; tamam—5^ ——i ^111 ^
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Carson Palmer (3) said that the Ducks "lack class" after the Trojans'44-33 win Saturday, and also said it was the best win of his career.
USC quarterback Carson Palmer takes a few parting
shots after the Trojan win, and the Ducks react
Oregon Notes
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
Suddenly, it’s open season on the Dueks.
After suffering their second-s. raight loss to Southern Cali
fornia on Saturday, the Oregon football players had to suffer
through the comments of Trojan quarterback Carson Palmer,
who beat the Ducks for the first time in his four-year career.
Among other things, Palmer said the Ducks have a “lack of
class,” and that there was “nothing better” than winning in
Eugene.
“I don’t know anything we ever did to show little class,”
Oregon linebacker Kevin Mitchell said at practice Tuesday. “I
don’t know where that’s coming from. That’s (Palmer’s) deal.”
Oregon tight end George Wrighster explained that the
Ducks expected this, sort of.
“That’s what happens when you’re the winningest program
in the Pac-10 over the last nine years; everybody wants a
chance to beat you,” Wrighster said. “Carson Palmer said this
was the best victory of his five-year career, I mean, one victo
ry? That’s a testament to our program.”
The Ducks will run into a little more bad blood when they
face the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday. Stanford was the
only team to beat Oregon last year, and the Ducks felt that
the Cardinal celebrated excessively after the game, as many
of the players and band members danced at midfield at
Autzen Stadium.
How good is Howry?
Oregon wide receiver Keenan Howry set the Pacific-10 Con
ference record for consecutive games with a catch Saturday,
and now he’s eying a record that hits closer to home.
With two more touchdown catches, six more overall catches
and 394 more yards, Howry will hold Oregon record in all three
categories, and will then, officially, hold the mantle of the most
productive receiver in Duck history.
“To have him be the leading receiver in our history is a
tremendous compliment to him and the type of person he
is,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. “He was, by most
Turn to Football, page 14
Fans don’t let fans
use ‘ThunderStix, ’
especially not at UO
Up until this last weekend, I thought I’d seen just about
everything.
Was I ever wrong.
Sitting in the student section Saturday at Autzen Stadi
um, I was surrounded by thousands of long, white, skinny
tubes filled with air. Then, as the Ducks saw USC’s lead jump
even further, these ThunderStix were strewn in the air. It
was almost as if I had to watch these things fly by my head
more than the game itself.
Then Sunday, while sitting down
and watching the final game of the
World Series, I noticed that an unlucky
Giants player was struck — on purpose
— by another stick, this time colored
red, as he went to pick up the ball near
the outfield fence.
What in the name of the Jeffrey
Maier is going on here?
Are fans at sporting events across
the nation so inept at making noise
when cheering for their team that they
have to pick up two inflatable pieces of
plastic and bang them against one an
other as though they were 6-year-olds?
Apparently so. However, thanks to the Pacific-10 Confer
ence, those of us at football and basketball games next sea
son won’t have to put up with these things again.
If you haven’t heard, the good folks in the Pac-10 decided
— despite what could be obvious complaints from fans in
the future — to ban the noisemakers from future conference
football games. That’s going to take effect beginning next
season.
As for basketball, noisemakers were already prohibited,
but if you ask most opposing schools, McArthur Court really
Hank
Hager
Behind the dish
Turn to Hager, page 14
UO enjoys physical Pac-10 play
Adam Amato Emerald
Robi Thayer (left, jumping) said she isn't afraid of big, physical teams like North Carolina.
Two Oregon players prove
women’s soccer to be a contact
sport, and use it to their advantage
Soccer Notes
Jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
It’s not football, although many Euro
peans would disagree.
The only padding is the tougli plastic
pieces that protect their shins. But
women’s soccer is a physical sport.
“A lot of contact is inherent in the
game,” Oregon head coach Bill Steffen
said. “It’s a contact sport and it can be
played with a certain level of physicality.
There are physical challenges, and the
players like that to an extent.”
It isn’t a matter of the game being
dirty, but a problem that Steffen finds is
that the women can’t get away with
things that men can in soccer.
It all comes down to the discretion of
the referee depending upon the situation
and the tolerance he or she has at the
time, according to Steffen.
Two Oregon players who know what it
means to be physical are senior Robi
Thayer and sophomore Christine Mintz.
Thayer and Mintz, who are two of the
tallest players on the team, find that, as
defenders, they take the majority of the
cards and fouls.
Thayer enjoys the opportunity to hit
people, and in Friday’s game against Ari
zona, she found that perfect opportunity’
to take a shot at one of the Wildcats’ top
players.
Turn to Soccer;page 12