Duck! Oregon has become a football power

Though fans today find it common to watch the Ducks play in January, when I grew up in Oregon, by the late fall you could count on only two things: rain and another disappointing season.

Since I was born in 1967 to the day I graduated in June 1989 with a journalism degree from the University of Oregon, my beloved Ducks had:

- Fifteen losing seasons.

- Two .500 seasons.

- Five winning seasons.

- Zero bowl appearances.

That's right, no bowl games, and in seven of those seasons the Ducks won just two games.

To keep the athletic program financially afloat, the Ducks would take road-game pastings against the likes of Nebraska in exchange for a big paycheck.

Television appearances were rare, and during my four years at Oregon, the now-raucous, sold-out Autzen Stadium, the home of the Ducks, had thousands and sometimes more than 10,000 empty seats.

College kids, who now storm the field after big wins, usually were nowhere to be found after halftime back then; heading to a frat house was more enticing than watching another loss.

As I was leaving college, the bowl drought exceeded a quarter-century - the previous time to that point that the Ducks played beyond the regular season was in the 1963 Sun Bowl. During those years in college football exile, six presidents were in the Oval Office, and the music scene had shifted from an emerging British band called the Beatles to the B-52's.

Success at Oregon was measured by a six-win season, which happened just a half-dozen times from my birth until I graduated.

Getting seven wins was considered a milestone, and former Oregon coach Rich Brooks said as much when I took a football-coaching class from him during my last term in school. (It never hurts to pad your grade-point average.)

On the first day of that class, Brooks wrote the number seven on the chalk board and gave a lecture on what it would mean for Oregon to achieve that win total.

Incredibly, after I graduated that fall, Brooks led the Ducks to a seven-win season, and the team was invited to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La.

But that accomplishment was ridiculed. Oregon was accused of buying its way into the postseason as the school agreed to purchase 14,000 tickets to a game more than 2,200 miles from Eugene. Oregon beat Tulsa 27-24, but Oregon took a financial hit, as at least 5,000 tickets weren't sold.

That gamble, however, impressed bowl organizers and the next year the Ducks went to the now-defunct Freedom Bowl. On Jan. 1, 1995, the Ducks did the unthinkable: They went to the Rose Bowl.

Though we had little money, my wife, Pam, who was eight months pregnant, and I went to Pasadena, Calif., hoping for an upset of mighty Penn State. We went home disappointed, as the second-ranked Nittany Lions won 38-20.

Since then, Oregon has had just one losing season and missed the postseason only twice.

Now, in my adopted home state of Arizona, my falls are consumed with praying for some rain and watching Oregon play on TV nearly every week.

And, after Monday night, I will be praying to show some humility when Oregon wins its first football national championship.

Reach The Heat Index at craig.harris@arizonarepublic.com or 604-444-8478.

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