Duck Football

Saturday - 28 October 2000 | Tempe, Arizona: "WHO LET THE DUCKS OUT???" As I write this journal entry, I am spent - emotionally and physically. Nearly five hours of football can do that to a person... and I was only a spectator! We were up early, decked head to toe in Duck-stuff and caught the city bus from the RV park to the center of campus. We were attending the pre-game reception for the University of Oregon President's Club... or, in other words, we were having beer for breakfast. The President's Club had rented the House of Tricks Restaurant, a popular Tempe establishment for the oh-so-fancy tailgate party. Live jazz band, flowing cocktails, over-flowing buffet tables. The music, food and drink were lovely and the U of O Athletic Director, Bill Moos, gave a nice pep-talk before we all waddled over to Sun Devil Stadium for the 12:30 kickoff.

The sky was threatening. We carried an umbrella, prepared for the deluge. We dressed in shoes and socks, brought sweaters and a fully charged cell phone. The game was live on ABC television on the west coast, so I don't know how many of you were able to catch the game. (We had to keep phoning Lisa with the score.) We were seated in the 9th row on the 10th yard line, in front of the Oregon cheerleaders. We sat with hundreds of Ducks at Sun Devil stadium - which, by the way - is a nice venue... But... we had to look to the huge TV screens at times to see the plays at the opposite end of the field. The stadium is in the landing pattern for Phoenix International... you could literally see the faces of the people in the windows of the planes overhead. When a plane was NEARLY in the stadium, we figured the pilot was either a Duck or Sun Devil and was flying low to read the scoreboard! There were 7,000 Duck fans at the game.

Anyway, a short synopsis of the game: It was ugly. The Ducks were somehow only picked to win by 6 points. They should have been able to wipe the floor with the Sun Devils - but the Devils gave the Ducks a run for their money! It was a VERY exciting game.
 
My version? They scored. We scored. They scored. We scored. They scored. They scored. We scored... anyway, it kept going like that until finally and dramatically, it was tied and after two overtimes the Ducks were victorious by one point and the skin of their teeth. 56-55. It never rained.
 
DT's version: "The Ducks defense was softer than a 2 month-old baby's butt after a serious powdering. The two scores at the end of the game, and especially the final score that tied it up in regulation - were close to miraculous. Probably the only reason the Ducks were able to pull it out was that G-d was getting back at the obnoxiousness of the ASU fans by giving them what they truly deserved. I am not sure that the Ducks deserved to win, as much as the ASU fans deserved to lose. But in the end, it's just another W in the win column in the Ducks March to Pasadena. PS: If we hadn't been 45 years old, we may have been forced to open up a can of "Whoop Ass" and give those Sun Devils a rainy day they wouldn't forget... but being the nice Oregonians that we are... we let the victory speak for itself."
 
(That was a direct quote, folks. I just do the typing around here.)

The once-loud Sun Devil Stadium fell to silence. Where once they were chanting "O-VER RA-TED" to us - they slithered out of the stadium, devil tails between their legs. They had no reason to be ashamed - they were fabulous... and probably wouldn't have been ashamed except for the fact they had been so rude to the Ducks. (While they were yelling "O-VER RA-TED" to us, I wanted to yell "BUT WE'RE RA-TED!) This score is not going to help the Ducks in the BCS rankings, I am afraid... but who knows???
 
After the game was over - after 5:00 p.m., we waited to cheer all the Ducks off the field - that took a little while, as the press cornered the coaches and players for interviews - then followed the crowds out of the stadium and into the streets of Tempe. We found ourselves back on Mill Street - and about one hour early for the bus back to Goldie, so we followed the Ducks back into Gordon Biersch. We could hardly speak - we had lost our voices from cheering for 5 hours - but we managed to order something to quench our thirst and I found enough energy to blow my duck call several times, when the entire bar was filled with the sound of Ducks blowing their horns! That was fun! We were forced to order another round of deep-fried artichoke hearts - just to make sure they were divine. They were. We chatted, in our raspy-voices, with people in the bar, but then we had to get a cab home, as we were just absolutely EXHAUSTED.
 
We have been here for a week, and tomorrow, we head out towards Las Vegas. We will be playing golf in Death Valley on Halloween.