HOCKADAY
continued from page 2
my dorm who I hardly knew.
I think I went with different people
to just about every game of my fresh
man year. In later years we road-tripped
to Berkeley, Seattle and Los Angeles. It
was all about football. In fact, some
times my whole life simply revolved
around football.
"Wanna go camping this weekend?"
"Nope Stanford's in town."
Simply put, football is huge in the
life of the college student. And most
alums are diehards until they move
across the country. And even then,
the/re still diehard. The Pit Crew is
great and all, but I'll say it: It's all fresh
men. Sorry, Nate Jolly, but it's true
I don't mean to knock basketball,
but football is tradition. It's yellow
leaves and "It never rains at Autzen Sta
dium." It's the green turf and the splin
tered seats. And in Oregon, football is
now skyboxes and Xboxes. The former
is the main feature of newly-expanded
Autzen and the latter is the main feature
of newly-expanded locker rooms. Be
tween the Moshofsky Center, the
Casanova Center and Autzen Stadium,
the football facilities are some of the
nicest on campus. That convergence of
hot dogs and hot housing has made
football the sport of the student.
It's more than just a long run down
the field. It's changing your calendar
every Saturday for three months. It's
skipping classes to wait in a cold ticket
line.
It's standing in the rain, earlobe-to
earlobe with somebody you just met in
the first quarter, screaming your lungs
out for a team of guys much bigger and
much faster than you. But they're wear
ing that same "O" that you have on
your hat and somehow you relate.
That's Oregon football.
Contact the columnist
at peterhockaday@daityemerald.com.
His opinions do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.
JONES
continued from page 2
when you break the golden rule of tak
ing off a mascot's head. Of course, Man
drake took off his own head when he
slammed into the basketball goal's rim
in an attempt to make an acrobatic
dunk. Watching that thing hatch at
Autzen Stadium may have been one of
the darkest days in Duck football. Luck
ily they rarely bring him out at basket
ball games. If the absence of Mandrake
isn't enough to like basketball more, 1
don't know what is.
Also, basketball gives you two games
a week, so if we lose to Portland on
Thursday, ideally we only have to wait
until Sunday to redeem ourselves. In
football, you're going to have to wait a
good, long week.
The time factor has got to play an im
portant role, too. Apparently we've nev
er figured out what exactly "offsides" is,
since it feels like we get penalized with
it every other play in football, dragging
the game on for hours. Of course you
could say the same thing about the bas
ketball team never learning what con
stitutes a foul. "You can't spell foul
without Flo," I'd always say. Flo Harten
stein fouled more often than Anthony
Norwood/Lever changed his name, but
how can you dislike Flo? He's a world
traveler from Germany and Springfield.
While I can forgive Flo, there are
some people on the football team I just
can't forgive. For instance, before there
was Jared Siegel, there was Josh Frankel.
While there was great amusement in
the fact that his name resembled that of
the character Ray Finkle in "Ace Ventu
ra: Pet Detective," it got a little tiring
yelling out "Laces up!" before every
kick. Blowing three field goals and an
extra point all in one game? I just can't
forget or forgive.
When comparing the two sports, you
have to take into account the heroes.
There are always those players who suf
fer injuries, but heroically continue be
cause our bench is only one player
deep. For Oregon football there was
Reuben Droughns, who threw out the
padding protecting his bruised ribs be
cause he kept dropping the ball (key
point). The same year, Duck basketball
had A.D. Smith who fractured his
cheekbone in a freak rebounding acci
dent. Me returned with a face mask a la
"Bill Lambier" and looked more intim
idating than any Churchill grad I've ever
seen.
And the number one reason why
Duck basketball is better than Duck
football has to come down to the end.
Every year we have to watch the BCS
computer spit out the rankings. Some
times our school makes the list, some
times our school makes the list lower
than we think it should. In short, the
BCS is a horse that should be shot and
put out of its misery. Here's an idea:
Let's just put all the good and slightly
decent teams in a tournament, where
they play each other, and the students
and Rick Neuheisel gamble on the out
come. Yes, my friends, there is nothing
sweeter than March Madness. Calling
those nine over eight upsets, which take
no talent but bring all the glory, even if
it is Utah over Oregon. Compare that to
watching the Gallery Furniture.com
Bowl. No contest.
So entertain yourselves in the fall
watching Kellen Clemens without his
sidekick, Jason "Don't compare me to
Joey" Fife, but let's be honest. It's just
the hor d’oeuvre to the main meal:
Aaron Brooks and Malik Hairston. So
make sure to pack Mac, kids!
Contact the columnist
at marissajones@dailyemerald.com.
Her opinions do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.
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