I’m gonna quack while I still have the chance

My adult life began in Oregon. I was 29 when I entered graduate school at the University of Oregon , hoping to learn the craft of journalism.

Hey, the professors taught me what they could. And while earning my master’s degree, I learned enough to fool a few publishers into hiring me to cover the news.

Long before my real career began, though, I worked as an assistant to Oregon’s sports information director. And while I was older than all the other assistants, I had fewer actual sports-reporting skills. So during home football games, when all the other assistant got to sit in the press box, helping themselves to the lavish food/drink spread that Oregon put on in those days, I was banished to the sidelines, tethered to the field phone so that I could relay messages from the field to the press … and vice versa.

It was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. I got to stand next to the Oregon players as team after team came into Autzen Stadium , usually running over the Ducks every way imaginable. No matter. I was as close to the action as a non-participant could be.

Those two seasons were Don Read years. Bad years. By my third season, I had graduated and was working for the weekly Cottage Grove Sentinel . And that was when Rich Brooks came to town. And almost right away, though the team’s record didn’t improve appreciably, anyone could see that a new spirit had gripped the team. For the first time in years, the Ducks began to think that they could win.

Oh, it didn’t happen right away. Losses, big ones on occasion, still happened. Gradually, though, Brooks whipped his teams into shape. They climbed out of the conference basement, and no longer could teams come into Eugene with a guaranteed win.

By the time Brooks left and Mike Belotti was hired as head coach, the scene was set. The Ducks began to saunter. The began to challenge for the conference title and began going to bowl games. Even the Rose Bowl. They even won a few.

And now comes Chip Kelly. And his high-powered offense. Undefeated and still sauntering, they take on one of those powerful SEC teams, Auburn, and its heralded quarterback.

You’ll excuse me if I take a second … and quack quietly.

Oh, and check out the Jimmy Fallon video below.