by DSH contributor Mike Hayden
The view from Cove; for all you new Duck fans:
Look it up on the map, if it’s even on there. We may be tucked away in the Northeast corner of Oregon, but we love our ducks as much or more than most. The view from here might seem a little insignificant, but it is a view nonetheless.
A little bit about us. I say “us” because we are many. We are scattered throughout the land, and have been fans of Duck football since sometime in the 1960’s. We have seen the good the bad and the ugly….all of it. The exact year we became fans, for most of us, is not known nor does it matter. For as you may, or may not have heard, if you remember anything about the 60’s (to include the year you became a Duck fan) you weren’t really there.
Moore to the story: Oregon football didn't begin with "the Natty" and LaMichael James (benzduck.com photo).
Autzen was new and watching a football game was just something to do on a warm fall day. As in, “hey there’s a football game, wanna go?” We usually schooled up in groups of 10 or 12, and sat anywhere we wanted. Nobody cared, and there was plenty of room. The order of the day was to spread out the picnic goodies on a row of seats, rid yourself of the wine laden bota bag strap that had been cutting into your shoulder, and a light up a joint. Aw, football at its finest. If it was a balmy afternoon, sometimes it was hard to see the field with all the marijuana smoke hanging in the air like jabba the hutt shaped clouds of volcanic ash. Nobody really paid much attention to the game, as it was just a place to hang out with some type of commotion going on below you, but then it happened. Slowly, those of us with our backs to the game, turned away from our picnic, stretched our legs out on the empty row of seats in front of us, stuffed our gullets full with the last half of an Arctic Circle Gomer burger and watched the game. We were hooked, and fifty years later we are hooked still.
You “new” fans, fans from the year 1980 to present, have no perspective with which to measure the Ducks of today. I realize it was not your choice to be born when you were born, and I cannot stress enough how it would not have been my choice either (to be born then). Admit it; you politically correct Decade-enders have some issues to deal with before you can get fully giddy about something as pure as football. Thank heavens the Duck fan at the other end of this typer wasn’t born then, mostly because he wouldn’t be able to appreciate what we have today, without first living yesterday. And what a yesterday it was, you will have to take my word for that. Here is something I would like you new fans to remember; when our Ducks screw up (and they will screw up), get off their canvasbacks and love them unconditionally. Love them as much as your dog still loves you when you screw up. A final note, we 60’s Ducks want a “Natty” (thanks Cliffy) as much as the rest of you. The difference being, we are giddy about our Ducks and we have paid our dues. You have not.
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