| | | Editor's Note: Ken Kesey, author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Sometimes a Great Notion" died Saturday at age 66 after surgery for liver cancer. One of his last published works was this column he wrote for Page 2 last November about his passion for University of Oregon football.
|  | | Ken Kesey, shown in this 1997 photo, led the Merry Pranksters on an LSD-fueled bus ride that became a symbol of the psychedelic 1960s. |
U of O football has been a major part of my family's fare for 60 years or so -- ever since we moved into the Eugene scene when I was 6.
My dad was a mighty Oregon fan, and every fall was full of Duck talk. I can remember long, drizzly, cold Saturday afternoons, shivering in the car with my father and brother, parked somewhere along the river with our shotguns between our knees, watching for ducks as we listened to the Ducks on the radio.
"Yep, we're rootin' for 'em and shootin' for 'em," Dad used to say. This was years before TV.
Football has always been part of our family, as far back as I can remember. I played right guard for four years in high school. Single wing. My senior year, we got a new coach and a new system: the T-formation. I seemed to be the only one able to remember the complicated new plays, so I was the play-caller as well as the right guard, offense and defense -- a star!
At the U of O, I got some other thoughts. At 177 pounds, I was too small to play guard, too slow to play backfield, and too stubborn to admit it. After my first season on the bench, coach Bill Hammer, one of Len Casanova's assistants, took me aside and let me know that he was starting a wrestling team, and he needed a 177-pounder. I needed another sport -- not to mention a chance to end my football career in honor. I finally nodded OK. For a while, I felt like I was back in the car beside the river, shivering with my father and brother.
|  | | Like these folks at Autzen Stadium, Kesey caught Ducks fever at a young age. |
My senior year, the Ducks went to the Rose Bowl to play Ohio State. Our whole family had tickets to the game. In the last few seconds we missed a field goal which would have tied the score. For days afterward, I was sore all over.
Nothing has been bigger in my sporting life since then-- except for Saturday's game against the Beavers. This is -- as they say -- the Big One, bigger than any postseason bowl, bigger than any rankings. Bigger, even, than any previous Civil War game. Two coaches at probably the peak of their careers. Two teams at the pinnacle of their powers. Two schools practically in each other's backyards. And two all-time avid packs of football fans.
Also, ahem, two tickets which I foolishly ain't got. Damn! If the game were in Eugene, I'd have a lot of connections. But up in Corvallis? Nary a nibble. Must be that's why I'm writing this little piece:
Any kindhearted souls out there able to help a worn-out old Duck?
Postscript: ESPN was able to help Kesey land those tickets to last year's Oregon-Oregon State game in Corvallis. Alas, Kesey's Ducks lost 23-13.
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