THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 2015
SPORTS
7A
‘Rootin’ Tootin’ Hooton’ cheers on Ducks
By CHELSEA GORROW
Eugene Register-Guard
Alice Hooton turned 87
this week, but as she ate her
celebratory cookie and ice
cream at The Wild Duck Cafe
in Eugene New Year’s Day,
she wasn’t thinking about
2015 or her birthday.
The
self-proclaimed
“Rootin’ Tootin’ Hooton”
was there to cheer on the
University of Oregon Ducks
football team and their win at
the Rose Bowl, 59-20 against
Florida State.
“I’ve lived in Eugene
since 1999. I’ve lived in this
area since 1948, and this is
said. “I had no idea how much
fun this would be. Everything
couldn’t have been nicer. The
food was delicious, the ser-
vice was wonderful, and the
fact that we had the screens
to watch the game — I’m
almost out of breath with ex-
citement.”
Hooton said she’s always
been a big Ducks fan. She’s
taken classes through the uni-
versity, and her youngest of
three sons managed the UO
maintenance department un-
til his recent retirement.
Hooton lives in the Patter-
son Tower apartments, just
1½ miles away, and she said
she’s “so glad I lived long
enough to be able to come
here and try a meal here and
be here to watch the game.
It’s extra special.”
A few tables down from
Hooton sat Colleen Kel-
ly with Jack Voth and her
11-year-old son, Grant, who
says he wants to grow up to
be a Ducks quarterback just
like his hero, Marcus Mari-
ota.
“My son has every sin-
gle jersey just about that
they ever made, and in fact
when Mariota started play-
ing, Grant really fell in love
with him early on. But you
couldn’t get that jersey in
kids’ sizes because they
didn’t know (Mariota) would
be such a big player,” she
said.
So Kelly had the jerseys
kids’ sizes became available,
she said.
Grant did a push-up on the
Thursday night for every
point scored by the Ducks.
“For every single point,”
Grant said proudly, admit-
ting that his arms were a little
sore. “It’s sort of a good luck
charm, and that helped us get
through all the years.”
Kelly said she was born in
Eugene and has been a life-
long Ducks fan, graduating
from the university in a year
she wouldn’t disclose.
“I lived in the same dorms
as the ones where they housed
the football players in so I
got to eat, breathe, live, ev-
AP Photo/Richard Vogel
In this photo taken with a fisheye lens, an Oregon fan raises a banner in support of her team before the Rose Bowl NCAA college football playoff
semifinal against Florida State.
PREP
SCHEDULE
TODAY
Girls Basketball — Willa-
pa Valley at Ilwaco, 7 p.m.
SATURDAY
Girls
Basketball
—
Sutherlin at Seaside, 2 p.m.;
Gaston at Warrenton, 3 p.m.
Boys Basketball — Gas-
ton at Warrenton, 4:45 p.m.;
Ilwaco at Willapa Valley, 7
p.m.
Wrestling — Astoria at
Scappoose
Tournament,
TBA
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
erything with the Ducks so I
learned all about football and
it was really fun,” she said.
She and her family were
Oregon wide receiver Darren Carrington, front, scores un-
der pressure by Florida State defensive back Trey Marshall
during the second half of the Rose Bowl NCAA college
football playoff semifinal, Thursday, in Pasadena, Calif.
would win. And sure enough,
the boys in green and yellow
came through.
“I love the Ducks,” Grant
said. “People don’t always
think that the Pac-12 stuff is
really important. I feel this is
great exposure for not only
Oregon, but also the entire
Pac-12.”
Grant also plays football,
as a quarterback, and had the
No. 8 jersey for his team just
two years ago.
“Now, everybody wants to
be No. 8, but he takes pride
in the fact that he was No. 8
before everybody else,” Kel-
ly said.
Kelly described her family
as “front row people,” as they
watched the game in front of
the biggest TV — a projector
screen — set up at The Wild
Duck Cafe for the game.
A few rows back sat alum-
nus Trevor Gant, who drove
from Los Angeles to see the
game with a group of his
friends.
“It’s just incredible for us
to beat a team this badly,” the
32-year-old Gant said, refer-
ring to the Ducks 59-20 win
over Florida State. “I’m at a
loss for words that we were
able to win by so many points
and we were sweating it in
us just went crazy, turnover
after turnover.”
His friend, Tanner Baldus,
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
Oregon wide receiver Charles Nelson, left, dives just short
of the goal line over Florida State safety Tyler Hunter
a UO student, described it as
“the perfect game” because,
half, and it’s like, ‘alright,
we’ve got our competitive-
ness going.’ And then you
just go straight for the win in
the second half.”
Gant said he was “heart-
broken” when the Ducks lost
the national championship
to Auburn in 2011 and he’s
looking forward to his team
getting back to the champi-
onship this year.
See game covertage at
http://bit.ly/14i1tZi
Follow Chelsea on Twitter
@chelseagorrow. Email chel-
sea.gorrow@registerguard.
com
AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota, right, scores past
Florida State defensive back P.J. Williams during the sec-
ond half of the Rose Bowl NCAA college football playoff
semifinal, Thursday, in Pasadena, Calif.
Ducks: Oregon is a seven-point favorite against Ohio State
Continued from Page 1A
The Ducks (13-1) and
Buckeyes (13-1) last played
in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena,
California, in 2010. Ohio State
won that game 26-17. Now
the Rose Bowl comes to Tex-
as, but with so much more at
stake.
Cardale Jones, Ezekiel El-
liott and fourth-seeded Ohio
State rallied, and then held on
for a 42-35 victory over No. 1
Alabama at the Sugar Bowl on
Thursday night.
Heisman Trophy winner
Marcus Mariota and Oregon
had it much easier. The sec-
ond-seeded Ducks crushed
Florida State 59-20 at the Rose
Bowl.
“Oregon won by 40?” Ohio
State coach Urban Meyer said,
startled when he heard about
the results during his postgame
news conference in New Orle-
ans. “I gotta go. We gotta go
get ready for that one.”
The oddsmakers have
installed the Ducks as sev-
en-point favorites.
The College Football Play-
off, a four-team tournament
that replaced the Bowl Cham-
pionship Series, has provided a
jolt to the sport.
The BCS matched the top
two teams and didn’t allow
much room for error. An early
slip often could spell doom for
‘Oregon won by
40? I gotta go.
We gotta go get
ready for that
one.’
— Urban Meyer
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
Oregon wide receiver Darren
Carrington, left, celebrates
his touchdown with tight
end Pharaoh Brown during
the second half of the Rose
Bowl NCAA college football
playoff semifinal against
Florida State, Thursday, in
Pasadena, Calif.
AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi
Oregon players celebrate their win over Florida State at the Rose Bowl NCAA college
football playoff semifinal, Thursday, in Pasadena, Calif.
a team’s national title hopes.
In the old system, it would
Ohio State to recover from a
September home loss to Vir-
ginia Tech. The Buckeyes were
a team looking for an identity
back then. They had lost star
quarterback Braxton Miller to
a preseason injury and redshirt
freshman J.T. Barrett was still
developing.
Ohio State lost by 14 to the
Hokies on the same day Ore-
gon beat Michigan State.
Two weeks into the season,
the Big Ten was already being
-
off.
But a funny thing hap-
pened. Ohio State just kept
getting better.
Barrett turned into a
Heisman contender, but then
Michigan, he broke his ankle.
In stepped Jones, who helped
Ohio State blast Wisconsin in
the Big Ten title game to earn
-
eyes beat Alabama, eliminat-
ing the Southeastern Confer-
ence from title contention.
After winning seven straight
national championships in the
BCS, it’s now two straight sea-
sons in which the SEC won’t
wear the crown.
Oregon’s loss came at
home, too, in early October
against Arizona.
The Ducks have been a
juggernaut since, winning nine
straight games, all by double
digits and scoring at least 42
points in each. Ohio State can
put up some points, too. The
Buckeyes haven’t scored less
than 31 since losing 35-21 to
Virginia Tech.
The Ducks and Buckeyes
run similar spread offenses.
Ohio State coach startled when
he heard about the results
during his postgame news
conference in New Orleans
“We know Oregon. I’ll
probably be able to call Ore-
gon’s plays because we study
them and they study us,” Mey-
er said. “There’s a mutual re-
spect.”
For what it’s worth, Ohio
State is 8-0 all-time against
Oregon.
And think about this: Ala-
bama and Florida State were
-
ular-season Associated Press
and USA Today coaches’
polls. There’s a good chance
that in the BCS the champi-
onship game would have been
Tide vs. Seminoles with Or-
egon and Ohio State playing
a traditional Big Ten-Pac-12
Rose Bowl for nothing but
pride.
Now they’ll take it to Texas
for a championship game with
which no one can argue.