Rich Brooks, Mike Bellotti and Phil Knight built a program from almost nothing, The Ducks had gone 36 years without a bowl when Oregon won the Independence Bowl in 1989, 27-24 over Tulsa. Just over 30,000 attended that game in Shreveport, Louisiana, a small success that paved the way for bigger rewards in the 24 years since.
Down 24-10 to the Golden Hurricanes late in the third quarter, Bill Musgrave led a 17-point surge in the last 18 minutes, including a 9-yard td pass to Joe Reitzug (goducks.com photo). Greg McCallum’s 20-yard field goal with 3:07 to play provided the margin of victory. Chris Oldham picked off two passes for the Oregon defense.
On Saturday the Rice Owls won a Liberty Bowl invitation with a win over Marshall in the Conference USA playoffs, and their reaction was a little like the Ducks getting a chance to go bowling for the first time, although the Oregon players didn’t get a locker room celebration–athletic director Bill Byrne had to lobby hard to get them in the game, making an advanced purchase of 12,000 tickets to seal the deal.
The Rice players at the announcement of their bowl bid:
Duck highlights from 1989 Independence win, played in forbidding conditions, the Gulf Coast hit by a blast of arctic weather:
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