As a Boy Scout in Eugene in the late 1960's I had the duty/opportunity to serve as an usher at Autzen stadium for some of the Ducks games. One game in particular has stuck with me and I think exemplifies the Duck football experience prior to Mike Bellotti. Late in the season OJ Simpson was in town with USC and the Ducks were giving them more than they could handle. It was the fourth quarter, the score was close, I think a small Duck lead.

The Ducks got the ball fairly deep in their own territory and were struggling to move the ball. It seemed to me and probably most in the not-sold-out stadium that the Ducks would have to punt and USC would drive to win the game. Then an incredible play happened - a Duck receiver got behind everybody by about 20 yards, caught the ball and was headed to a sure score. He was chased by two Trojans but maintained an insurmountable lead. I was close to the 50 yard line and not very far from the field.

As the receiver came opposite me he stumbled, fell down and lost the ball. While the ball bounced about five yards away the receiver just lay there. Get up! Get up! I was thinking/shouting, but he didn't. The Trojans caught up a few seconds later and collected the ball, returning it back deep into Duck territory. If the receiver had simply lurched over to the ball the Ducks would probably have won the game.

USC went on to beat Notre Dame and be ranked number one at the end of the season. What could have been. I suspect the receiver assumed he had succumbed to inevitable Duck fate and that there was no hope. The "we can't have nice things" attitude that shows up even now sometimes. I have never seen anyone else recount this occurrence, even though there were probably over 20,000 in attendance that witnessed it. Does anyone else remember this?

Losing in the semifinals of the playoffs? Losing two previous championship games? My how far we have come!

Yes, in fact OJ's only college games under 100 yards were against the Ducks.

Of course, when you tackle him like this, makes you kinda hesitant to run the ball!!!

That was my first game. I was eight. I kept hearing about “Juice” but had little understanding of what was going on. That’s a good first college football game, I think.

TexasDuck I am in NE Texas, where are you?

Memory Lane! I ushered as a Boy Scout, only I grew up in Corvallis and at that time....loved to hate the Ducks. My best memory was ushering at the OSU-USC game of 1967 where the Beavers won 3-0 over OJ and John McKay.

It was a horribly muddy field at Parker Stadium, of which McKay donated the first dollar after the game to begin a fund for artificial turf.

Thank goodness I saw the light and went to Oregon!

30 minutes ago, Charles Fischer said:

Thank goodness I saw the light and went to Oregon!

Can I get an AMEN?