Money quote from the Oregonian wrap-up of the game:

“I guess we were just distracted,” Washington running back Chris Polk said. “We’re better than this. I was prepared, but I didn’t expect (the crowd) to be this hostile.”

An email from our buddies at EPD:

Local area Law Enforcement was kept busy on game day for the Duck’s season opener. The officers working the game itself ejected 60 spectators. 44 of those ejections were alcohol related. There were 7 related to disorderly conduct and the rest were misc. reasons such as trespass and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

The post game traffic was complicated by a DUII crash into a telephone pole on Coburg Rd near Harlow Rd. around 7:39 PM, resulting in a power outage to a large area and snarled traffic (Incident #68781). The driver suffered minor injuries and was arrested for DUII. Arrested was Elizabeth Yural Sholes, 111978. Repair crews were able to temporarily secure power lines to open Coburg Rd. until the post game traffic
subsided and they could resume repairs. As of this release they were still working on it. Two more DUII drivers were arrested by EPD out of the post game traffic. OSP accounted for one more, SPD two, and LCSO has yet to report in.

Officers were kept busy with other non-game related calls involving disputes, fights, a street robbery.

The USA Today Coaches top 25 poll debuted today with the University of Georgia taking the number one spot. Oregon placed 20th on the pre-season poll.

The poll, used as one of the factors to determine who plays in the BCS championship game, rounds out its top five USC, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Florida.

The only other Pac-10 team to crack the top 25 is Arizona State at number 16.

Chess boxing:

The match began over a chess board set up on a low table in the middle of a boxing ring.

Stripped to the waist, wearing towels around their shoulders and headphones playing the lulling sound of a moving train to drown out the baying crowd, the men played for four minutes.
Then off came their reading glasses and on went the gloves and the mouthguards.

For three minutes they beat each other and then, when the bell went, the chess board was back in the ring and they picked up the gentlemanly game where they had left off.

Sorry CJ. Rugby is cool, and all, but if chess boxing isn’t the best sport ever, I don’t know what is.

It was a big day for Eugene at the Olympic Trials yesterday. In the men’s 800 final, Nick Symmonds of the Oregon Track Club, Andrew Wheating of Oregon and Christian Smith, also of the Oregon Track Club, took first, second and third, respectively. The crowd at Hayward Field went absolutely nuts, even those watching the jumbotron in the Eugene ’08 festival area.

The race, probably the most memorable of the Trials, has received write-ups in both the Chicago-Tribune and The New York Times. Sports Illustrated columnist Tim Layden profiles Wheating and his meteoric rise, making some not-so-subtle allusions to a certain mustachioed Oregon runner of yore. For the most comprehensive coverage of the race head over to letsrun.com.

Symmonds and Wheating both stayed in the back of the pack until the homestretch, as is their wont, before burning the rest of the field with their trademark kicks. Both were somewhat of underdogs going into the finals, which led to some live-blogging foot-in-mouth over at the Eugene Weekly blog. “It’d be a miracle if both of them go to Beijing,” EW writer Chuck Adams wrote at 8:21 p.m. This was followed at 8:28 by “Holy Fuck. Wheating and Symmonds are going to Beijing.”

Smith’s third-place finish was perhaps the most dramatic. He literally dove face-first over the finish line and into the track, beating Khadevis Robinson by six-hundredths of a second. Robinson filed a protest, claiming Smith had grabbed him as he fell. The protest was denied. For his part, Smith can’t even really remember if he grabbed Robinson or not, which led to a rather odd quote. From letsrun.com:

“We both fell and I was hoping anyone was there, if Jesus would’ve been there I would’ve grabbed him.”

However, the Tribune story has a slightly different quote from Smith:

“I was so lactated I couldn’t see. I was hoping Jesus was out there so I could have grabbed him, too.”

In any case, watch your back, Big J. There’s a lactating Olympic athlete after you.

So apparently there’s this, uh, Olympic Trials thing happening in Eugene soon. I guess it’s kind of a big deal or something. Anyways, while everyone else is creaming their collective pantaloons (including Eugene writer Kenny Moore), I thought I would list some of the athletes to watch for.

• Former Rennie’s Landing doorman Colin Veldman qualified for the hammerthrow. We’ll drink to that!
• UO running phenom Galen Rupp will be tearing up the men’s 10k. Rupp has 120 percent of the lung capacity of an average person.
• Alicia Shay will be running the women’s 10k. Shay’s husband and fellow elite runner Ryan died of a sudden cardiac arrest during the 2007 US Olympic Marathon Trials. Runner’s World just ran a good story on her.
• UO whiz kid Andrew Wheating has qualified for the 800 and 1500. Wheating came out of nowhere this year and had an absolutely explosive season, including a sub-four mile and the third fastest 800 in school history.
• Other qualified Ducks in the Trials are Rachel Yurkovich in the javelin, Nicole Blood in the 1500 and 5k, A.J. Acosta in the 1500 and Ashton Eaton in the decathalon. Former Duck Tommy Skipper qualified for the polevault.

In preparation for the ’08 Olympic Trials, the painfully white City of Eugene is bracing itself for an influx of mysterious, dark-skinned athletes by giving diversity training to volunteers, police and hospitality workers. I don’t know what’s funnier – the actual story or the news anchor’s faux outrage. Maybe it just sounds a lot stranger to people who haven’t been embedded in this bizarre Bermuda Triangle of crazy for the past two or three years. For example, when I watched this I said, “Yeah, that sounds about right for Eugene.” Thanks to Mike G. for the tip.

Both The Oregonian and and the Register-Guard have front-page stories on Phil Knight today. The Oregonian story is huge, covering Knight’s influence in the UO and much of the controversy that accompanies it. Knight refused to be interviewed for The Oregonian. It’s funny because Knight actually requested an interview with the R-G to clear up some of the same issues that the O story brings up. He said he wanted to assure people that the new arena project was not “some kind of unseemly scam on the taxpayers.” The R-G article is mainly a Q&A fluff piece, although it’s interesting to hear Knight speak out.

One point of interest is that Knight’s $100 million donation comes with the stipulation that it can be withdrawn if the UO does not secure state-backed bonds for the new arena by June 1. The state legislature approved a $200 million bond in February, and the UO will take its case to the State Board of Higher Education next month for final approval. Coincidently, the UO spent $270,000 in lobbying expenses in 2007, up from $90,000 in 2006. I wonder how much they’re spending this year?

You know, if there’s one group in football that doesn’t get as much press as it deserves, it’s the offensive line. Well, the Duck’s offensive line is looking to put a little glamor back in the position. They just put out a calendar full of humorous, surreal beefcake shots of themselves. All the proceeds will go towards the National Childhood Obesity Foundation (natch). If you’re wondering how surreal, well …

I’d make a lot of snarky comments, but Everyday Should Be Saturday is already on top of things. Thanks to OC Alum Ian Spencer for bringing this to our attention.

A must-read for Ducks football fans (and anyone who wonders how well injured players are treated at Oregon):

Because he wanted to travel with the team, Dixon didn’t have surgery until Dec. 15. Two days later he was walking without crutches. After five days he was riding a bike. In two weeks he was throwing, and a month after that, he was running. Day after day, as Dixon lay on a massage table in the training center, Terrell tested the knee’s range of motion and Dixon watched the myriad televisions tuned to ESPN. The draftniks didn’t mention him as they talked about other quarterbacks — Matt Ryan, Brian Brohm, Chad Henne — whom he had outplayed for 2 1/2 months.

Agent pitches to potential draftees are often superficial, all about dropping names and promises. Jeff Sperbeck of Octagon went to Dixon in early January with a concrete proposal. He wanted to turn Dixon’s dormant Heisman website into a platform to broadcast his rehab. The site would rebuild Dixon’s image as trainers rebuilt his knee. He wouldn’t be ready to work out in February at the NFL combine or in March on Oregon’s pro day, but the Internet could help persuade skeptical NFL general managers that Dixon was still worth drafting.

The Oregon Commentator brings you its eighth issue of the year, The Sports Issue. Inside you will find:

• A somewhat interesting editorial
• “Rifle and Pistol Sports” by Publisher Guy Simmons
• “Sonic Doom” about the sketchy sale of the Seattle Supersonics by Managing Editor Jake Speicher
• The only NCAA bracket in the country with Sudsy on it
• “Rugby: Best Sport Ever” by Associate Editor CJ Ciaramella
• “Ray Schafer: A Model American” by Sarah Cate
• “Budget Golf” by newby Matt Tham
• “Hypocrisy of MCC affiliates disrespectful of campus culture” by Sean Jin
• “How the homeless will save the economy” by Another Perspective columnist Austin Himes
• A stellar representation of the ASUO by Bryanna Torgeson
• And much, much more!

The Oregon Ducks made the NCAA tournament, which begins Thursday.  The Ducks are a No. 9 seed and play Mississippi State in the first round.  The Bulldogs finished 21-9 overall and won the Western Division of the SEC.  The Ducks are in the same bracket as Memphis, Texas and Stanford, with Memphis being a likely second round match up.

Hopefully Mitch Platt and StingRay Schafer will lead us to victory.

There are many problems some of my friends and I have with the Pit Crew. I think it’s a shotty sports fan group for the most part. There will be a commentary about this in the OC’s next issue, next week, but for now, read this article from SI.com and decide if the Pit Crew is a good use of student funds (granted they only get a few hundred dollars, but still). I really hope the athletic department discontinues the Pit Crew section in the new arena.

There are two opinion pieces in the Ol’ Dirty today about Duck wrestling getting the ax. From the editorial:

The clearest explanation of why wrestling won’t be back next year is that there is no clear reason.

From a sports column by Doug Bonham:

Out of the research I’ve done, interviews I’ve conducted, and everything I’ve seen surrounding the end of the program, not one of the athletic department’s arguments holds much water.

My initial reaction was “isn’t Title IX a clear reason for having to cut wrestling?” But then I read this ODE feature from last week that reported:

Contrary to common belief, the decision to remove wrestling is not a Title IX issue; Oregon qualifies for Title IX under history of expansion of opportunities for women, which doesn’t require removing men’s sports.

I contacted Joe Giansante, associate athletic direct — external communications, asking if Title IX actually isn’t connected to cutting the sport. He said that Title IX was a factor in the decision, but only because it is a factor in every decision the department has to make. He said that Title IX and money have incorrectly been pointed to as the sole reasons for the sport being eliminated. From an e-mail: (more…)

 

The $100 million pledge by Phil and Penny Knight has a timeline, reported by the Oregonian Saturday and the RG today. The agreement of the Knights’ gift says none of the $100 million may be used for construction purposes and it expires on June 1. So unless the Legislature approves the $200 million in bonds for construction of the new arena by Feb. 29, when the current emergency session ends, the athletic department will not get the $100 for the Legacy Fund.

“We’ve said from the beginning, to people who’ve asked about it, that (the Knights’) pledge is contingent on us being able to move forward on the arena project,” said Allan Price, the UO’s vice president for advancement, when contacted Saturday. “But we haven’t made a big deal about it.”

[…]

“Clearly, we’ve said that the arena project is the highest priority for the athletic department,” Price added. “And if we can’t move forward on it, why give that money to the Legacy Fund?”

And if the Legislature doesn’t approve the bond request? Then it looks like that would be a deal-breaker on the Knights’ donation, Price said