Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Wish I had the video

Every year, the University of Washington Huskies, my alma mater, and where I attended graduate school, play the University of Oregon Ducks...the place I matriculated my Freshman year of college. The reason I went to the U of O was because I was a runner and I wanted to be a better runner. Obviously I won't forget the day that I made a trip to Eugene, OR and there on the track was Steve Prefontaine. He was doing cut downs.. He was running 110s on the track trying to increase the speed of each on the four after running about 10 miles. Don, one of the coaches, asked me if I wanted to meet Steve and he came over. "We could always use some more runners, " he said. Steve is a legend but that was not exactly a true statment. They were loaded. Only months from that meeting, Steve would win the National Cross Meet and the team including my room-mate Randy James, 19th place, an All-American, would win the nationals. It was indeed an experience. But the real point of this is to explain how such a UW football fan would end up at Oregon. I would say I was conflicted. I loved the Oregon runners but I still loved my dawgs. So it came to pass that I attended the home game my freshman year at Oregon when they played the dawgs. It was a hard fought game as befits the rivalry. Oregon was ahead, but the Huskies were driving. Now the whole game amidst the Oregon student section there was one very loud Husky fan. As the game progressed he got louder and bolder and drunker. So on the last drive, he was slurring, "Go Huskies!" and the crowd just looked at him in silence as the Huskies drove down the field. The Husky fan was in his glory as the dawgs lined up for the game winning field goal. Louder and louder, "Go Huskies!" The kick went up... No good. The poor fellow utterly deflated and the crowd didn't say anything but I think he was overcome by vibes as he slunk off in silence.

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