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Pamplin Media Group
Thursday, November 22, 2012
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CIVIL WAR 2012
T
he Civil War football
series is almost as old
as, well, the
other
Civil War.
Just 35 years after Oregon
reached statehood and fewer
than 30 years after the end of the
great battle between the Union
and Confederate states, the Uni-
versity of Oregon and Oregon
Agricultural College met on a
sawdust field girdiron in front of
500 curious observers.
The “Farmers” beat the “Lem-
on Yellows” 16-0 on OAC’s Cor-
vallis campus on that cold, wet
November day in 1894, beginning
a rivalry that will enjoy its 116th
renewal Saturday when Oregon
State plays host to Oregon at Re-
ser Stadium.
Now it’s the Beavers and the
Ducks and the entire state —
along with much of the nation—
taking notice of the seventh-old-
est rivalry in the land.
It’s not always been billed as
“The Civil War.” The matchup
was initially called “The State
Championship Game.”
The first reference I’ve found
to “Civil War” in state newspa-
pers came in 1929, but the term
didn’t come into vogue until the
early ‘60s.
Going into Saturday’s Reser
showdown, Oregon leads the se-
ries 59-46, with 10 ties.
The rivalry has been cyclical,
withOregon dominating the early
years, Oregon State taking over
from1936-74 andOregon regain-
ing the advantage from1975-97.
The teams went back and
forth from then until 2008, with
the Ducks winning the last four
matchups.
The rivals have played annu-
ally except in 1900 and ‘01, when
intercollegiate athletics were
banned on the OAC campus; in
1911, due to a riot that broke out
after the ‘10 game, and in 1943
and ‘44, duringWorldWar II.
Seven games have been in
Portland, and in 1912 and ‘13 the
teams squared off in Albany, of
all places.
Since 1953, the games have al-
ternated annually between Cor-
vallis and Eugene.
The rivals have met twice in a
year only two times — in 1896
and 1945.
The Beavers and Ducks nick-
names, incidentally, didn’t come
into existence for a while. The
first reference I found to the Bea-
vers was in 1910. In 1930,
“Ducks” was voted in by the UO
student body and a small white
duck named “Puddles” began to
appear at games.
But for many years, the news-
papers referred to OAC as the
Farmers, the Agrics, the Agricul-
turists, the Hayseeds —yes, the
Hayseeds —and later the Or-
angemen.
Oregon’s sobriquets included
the Lemon Yellows, the Dudes
and, in time, theWebfeet and
eventually theWebfoots.
It wasn’t until the late ‘60s and
early ‘70s that the media re-
ferred to them as the “Beavers”
and “Ducks” on a regular basis.
Historians differ on the origi-
nation of the game that became
somewhat of a cross between
the sports of soccer and rugby. It
could have been Princeton-Rut-
gers in 1869, or Harvard-McGill
in 1874, or Harvard-Tufts in 1875.
No matter, college football was
still in its infancy when the two
state schools first got it on in
Corvallis.
OAC started its program in
1893, Oregon a year later. Here is
the account from the Corvallis
Gazette newspaper from the first
meeting:
“The game was marked by
brilliant plays throughout. For
the first few plays, the Eugene
players went with a dash that
won plaudits from all, and it
seemed they would do up the
Farmers in short order. Their
game consisted principally of
straight runs around the end. On
center plays, their work was
generally ineffectual against the
heavy rush line of the home
team, and many times cost them
considerable loss of yardage.
OACmade large gains around
Eugene’s right end.
“The best of feeling prevailed
during the entire game, and little
or no slugging was indulged by
either side. The Eugene team
made a favorable impression on
everyone. With the exception of
P. Nash, who suffered a disloca-
tion of a shoulder blade in the
first half, none of the players
were injured.”
Good feelings between the
programs didn’t last long. Two
years later, in 1896, Oregon won
a game that OAC said should
have been a tie verdict. There
was controversy involving a ref-
eree and charges of dirty play
from both sides and, yes, more
than a little slugging. Even the
referee got popped.
According to one newspaper
report of the day, the OAC side
charged “that an erroneous deci-
sion by referee Otto Burchhardt
of the Multnomah Club gave the
university men points they were
not entitled to. Eugene got the
ball on a fumble within a few
feet of the college goal, and car-
ried it over the line, but lost it
without making a down. (Play-
ers from) both teams fell on it,
and apparently (Charles) Os-
borne of OAC secured it. The ref-
eree decided it to the Farmers’
ball, but when the teams lined
up, he changed his ruling and al-
lowed Eugene a touchdown.”
During the dispute, Oregon
coach (J.F.) Frick went onto the
field to “offer some advice. He
was ordered off and, refusing to
go, was carried off forcibly.
When Burchhardt gave Eugene
the protested touchdown, (Pat)
Kelsay of the Farmers’ team ac-
cused him of unfairness. Burch-
hardt told Kelsay he lied, and the
latter knocked the referee down.
Kelsay was then ruled off.”
According to a report from
Oregon officials, Kelsay— son of
Corvallis mayor Judge Kelsay—
and brothers Brady and Bruce
Burnett “initiated slugging tac-
tics and played dirty football”
during the game “while the lan-
guage they used toward their op-
ponents was such as, to put it
mildly, should have been foreign
to college young men meeting
on the field of sport.”
The other referee, F.J. Raley,
said the OAC trio “played the
dirtiest football I have ever seen.”
OAC representatives said Ore-
gon reps forced the two game of-
ficials —both representatives of
the MAC club—on them, con-
tending that “Burckhardt knows
nothing about the game and
should not have consented to act
as referee. The fact that his er-
rors were perhaps unintentional
does not compensate us for the
loss of the game.”
According to the OAC side,
“The charge against Bruce Bur-
nett is peculiarly insulting, for
he was slugged out of the game
in the first five minutes, al-
though he appealed to Raley
against the big Eugene fellows.
The man who took (Burnett’s)
place was not used to the posi-
tion, and but for his fumbles, the
college teamwould have won
easily. Citizens who attended
say the only foul they witnessed
was when Bruce Burnett was
deliberately hit in the face and
hurt so that he had to leave the
game.
“Raley paid no attention to
any of our protests, and we per-
haps did not talk to him in lady-
like terms when we called his at-
tention to the constant gross off-
plays of the Eugene men. In
playing football, we have not
time to say ‘Please’ and ‘Sir.’ ”
Three years in and it was al-
ready a heated rivalry.
By 1910, the game was a ma-
jor event on the social calendar
in the state. Thousands traveled
by train from the region to take
in the game in Corvallis, won 10-
0 by Oregon before a crowd of
5,000 in what one newspaper de-
scribed as “the most bitterly
fought football game in the his-
tory of the two institutions.”
Afterward, nearly
1,000-strong Oregon fans
stormed the field along with a
car carrying a group of UO play-
ers. That precipitated an on-field
dust-up between OAC’s Tom
May and former UO star Fred
Moullen and, an hour later, a
donnybrook at the train station
between supporters of the two
schools. The Oregon school
president, waiting to board the
train, attempted to calm the sit-
uation.
According to one newspaper
report, “He attempted to pacify
the excited partisans, told them
their demonstrations were a dis-
grace and pleaded for them to
disperse. During his talk, he was
hissed and booed by the Corval-
lis contingent.”
In the ensuing melee one UO
student’s head was shaved, oth-
ers “robbed” of their college
hats and one “felled uncon-
scious.”
The result was an indefinite
suspension of athletic competi-
tion between the schools by the
Aggies.
Two years later, the schools
agreed to meet at a neutral site
— on a hastily built field in a
park in Albany —with Oregon
prevailing 3-0 before a throng of
6,000.
In 1920, a record crowd of
13,193 packed the stands in Cor-
vallis to watch a scoreless tie.
Two years later, a crowd of
18,000 at an expanded Bell Field
saw Oregon win 10-0.
Fast forward to 1937, when
Oregon State scored a 14-0 upset
at Hayward Field, leading to a
celebration in Corvallis that got
out of hand. The next day, OSC
students held a mass rally and,
with plenty of spirits being im-
bibed, embarked on a parade to
Eugene, and among other
things, scaled Skinner’s Butte
and painted the giant-sized yel-
low “O” orange.
UO students didn’t take kind-
ly. A group of them grabbed
some of the offending Beavers,
stripped them to their under-
wear, dipped them in buckets of
yellow paint, took them up the
hill and dunked them into the
“O,” turning it yellow again.
I’m not making this up.
As the years rolled on, a lot of
good football was played. Not,
though, in 1983, when the woe-
ful Ducks and Beavers slithered
to an 0-0 tie that will live in infa-
my as the “Toilet Bowl.” There
were 11 fumbles, five intercep-
tions and four missed field goals
in the last Division-I game to
end scoreless before overtime
was introduced in 1996.
In 1994, Danny O’Neil-led Or-
egon came from behind to
claim a 17-13 victory at Corval-
lis to secure the Ducks’ first
Rose Bowl bid since 1958.
In 1998, Ken Simonton skirt-
ed right end for the winning
score in Oregon State’s 44-41
double-overtime win — still the
greatest college football game
this reporter has witnessed.
The highest stakes were in-
volved in 2000, when fifth-
ranked Oregon visited Corval-
lis to take on eighth-ranked Or-
egon State. The Beavers won
23-13 and finished an 11-1 sea-
son by busting up Notre Dame
in the Fiesta Bowl. The Ducks
beat Texas to end their cam-
paign 10-2.
In 2008 and ‘09, the Rose Bowl
was on the line for Oregon State
— and the latter year, for both
teams. Oregon spoiled the Bea-
vers’ dreams each time, making
it to Pasadena the latter year.
The Ducks and Beavers will
do it again Saturday before a
packed house at Reser and a na-
tional television audience. The
only thing that’s for sure is it
won’t end in a tie.
COURTESY OF OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
Coach Tommy Prothro gets carried off the field by his players after the Beavers’ 10-7 victory in 1957 —
which gave OSU a share of the Pacific Coast Conference title with Oregon (both 6-2). The Ducks went to the
Rose Bowl, however, because the Beavers had gone the year before and rules at the time prohibited repeat
trips.
TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO: JIM CLARK
Oregon State’s Steven Jackson runs for some of his 153 yards in the 2002 Civil War game, won by the
Beavers 45-24 in Corvallis.
TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO: JIM CLARK
Oregon’s Terrence Whitehead just beats Oregon State’s Mitch Meeuwsen to the corner of the end zone in the
2003 Civil War game, won 34-20 by the Ducks in Eugene. That game was part of a 10-year streak in which
the home team won every time.
■
Farmers, Lemon Yellows haven’t always
had ‘best of feelings’ on state gridiron
CIVILITY IN CIVIL
WAR COULD BE,
WELL, HISTORY
Kerry
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