Just ask Vic Morrow

I was watching ESPN’s “SportsCenter” this morning and I was particularly interested. See, “SportsCenter” is in the midst of a “50/50” promotion in which the show’s broadcasters, Kenny Mayne et al, are traveling around the country, hitting all 50 states in 50 days. And this morning they were in Hood River, Ore .

I earned a master’s degree at the University of Oregon in 1978, and my first newspaper job was at the Cottage Grove (Ore.) Sentinel , a weekly newspaper in the small town located about 20 miles south of Eugene, just off Interstate 5. So I listened up when they, as you would expect, talked about the movie “Animal House.” It was reported correctly that the movie about a wild fraternity house at fictional Faber College was filmed in Eugene .

Correctly but not completely. I do remember walking around campus , dodging film crews and that headless statue with the motto “Knowledge Is Good” emblazoned on it. The climactic parade scene , though, was shot not in Eugene but in Cottage Grove.

Added note: I was at the movie’s Oregon premiere in the summer of 1978. It was held in Eugene, and I attended it representing the Sentinel. Director John Landis was there, too, enjoying the single best moment of his mostly crappy career.