November 9, 1935 -- OSC at Oregon

With recent conference expansion requiring some changes in scheduling, there has been discussion of moving the Oregon State game earlier in the season, along with the other traditional rivalries. Cal/Stanford has become the first victim of logistics; the 2012 Big Game will not hold its customary final-weekend status. This change has been met with cries of anguish and disgust and sadness that “tradition,” the opiate of the mature college football fan, is being cast aside so that television can have its way.

Eventually, this rivalry game date shuffle will hit the Civil War. So it’s important to note that UO-OAC has not in fact always been the season’s final scheduled gridiron event; the final game setting only became fixed after WW2. Oregon would often finish its season in the pre-war era on a road trip to California, or even an extended journey by train to Florida or Louisiana. Post-war, the Civil War was set in stone as the last game of the season; after the last “post-season” roadie in 1941 resulted in a 71-7 loss to Texas, it’s easy to guess why.

Since WW2, only four times has Oregon vs Oregon State not finished the regular season: twice the team went to Hawaii, once to Miami, and once against USC in Japan (the “Mirage Bowl”, so named because as an Oregon bowl game, it was a mirage). So, when it finally happens again, and the Civil War is closer to a midseason event, it’s going to feel a little strange.

This program is from the 39^th Civil War, the sixth game of 1935, the last year of an extended era when “Civil War” and “end of season” were not synonymous. Prink Callison’s team had struggled a bit, pitching three shutout wins but losing to Cal 6-0 and, the weekend before, hammered 33-6 at eventual conference co-champion UCLA. Still, even though the Webfoots had a brilliant 9-1 season in 1933, and hadn’t lost to OSC in years, this Homecoming game was expected to be the first Hayward Field sellout since… well, since the last OSC game at Hayward, in 1931. (The game had been played in Portland the last two seasons.)

As usual, the media fell over itself complimenting the game play on the field.

“Oregon’s crushing football machine … playing the driving game of a championship eleven … one of the most dramatically thrilling gridiron classics ever seen here …” 
— Bill Phipps, Register-Guard Sports Editor, 11/10/1935 

Beaver coach Lon Stiner’s inexplicable plan to start his second team blew up in his face, as his halfback Bob Mountain fumbled on the second play from scrimmage; six runs later, Oregon had the winning points in a 13-0 game. The Ducks finished the 1935 season at 6-3 – Prink Callison’s last winning season; by 1938 he would be retired from coaching, operating the venerable Lucky’s Club Cigar Store and Tavern in downtown Eugene.

The Register-Guard by 1935 had begun tallying semi-reliable game statistics. Translating these to modern layout standards is a good indicator of how far the game has progressed in the “modern era.” Nowadays you’ll find middle school first-year-in-pads teams with better numbers than this.

	OSC	Oregon
Rushing	15 carries, 76 yds	40 carries, 116 yds
Passing	5-16-3, 58 yds	1-6-3, 9 yds
First downs	5	5
Total plays	31	58
Total offense	134	125
Punts	10 / 40.8 avg	10 / 42.7 avg
Penalties	3 / 15 yds	1 / 15 yds
Fumbles	2	0

It’s safe to say that the passing game hadn’t exactly caught on yet in college football, at least out West. 

Program Notes

• To my knowledge this is the only time the entire front cover of an Oregon game program has been sponsored by any advertiser. Tobacco hustling would never get more blatant than this. (Does any smoker actually have teeth that white?)

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December 1, 1945: OSC at Oregon (Civil War)

click to embiggenThe war is over, and football teams across the country not named Army or Navy are picking up the pieces of shredded rosters and depleted coaching staffs. Some teams soldiered on through the war, and some shut it down. Oregon was one of the latter, OSC the former, and it showed during the 1945 season. A cobbled-together schedule resulted in the only season in which Oregon lost both the Civil War and Border War twice, including this week’s featured program game.

The Ducks were greener than their home jerseys in 1945. 27 of the 37 roster players were freshmen, and of the “upperclassmen” only Bobby Reynolds held letterman status, having played in ‘42 before joining the Navy. There were four juco transfers, including future standouts Walt Donovan and Jake Leicht. No other player had taken a snap since high school.  

That this team managed to win three games says as much about the quality of the opposition — of the three victims, only Cal had fielded a team in 1943 and ‘44, while the losses were all to teams that kept their programs going.

The program has but one color page, the cover, a nice period “guy holding a program with a picture of a guy holding a program with a picture of a guy holding a program…” image of Typical Fan at a bus stop in his stadium coat, by commercial artist William Macrae Gillies. (Don’t get used to these fine-art covers, they’ll be going out of style soon.)

There is solid editorial content in this program — a detailed bio of Duck coach Tex Oliver, and an explanation / apology for the season. Just not much; at 20 pages including covers, the 1945 program is a full 12 pages shorter than that of the 1941 Civil War. 

Thankfully, cigarette advertising is down this season. (Don’t get used to that, either.) Just the Chesterfield center roster spread, and the Philip Morris half-page accompanying the explanation of referee signals, and a quarter page for “apple toasted” Old Golds.

On page 4, there’s an In Memoriam placement from the team for their teammate Ronald Crites. Two weeks earlier, Crites, an Army Air Corps pilot, was on a training mission at Mahlon Sweet Field northwest of Eugene when his plane suffered engine failure, caught fire and plummeted to the earth. Crites was killed instantly; his training mate, John Ohmer, died a few days later at Sacred Heart. Investigators never discovered the cause of the crash. 

Center spread:

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November 29, 1941: OSC at Oregon (Civil War)

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The nation would be at war within ten days, but the only reflection of a war footing in the ’41 Civil War program is a mention of Mike Mikulak, backfield coach, who was called up to active duty and replaced by Manny Vezie.  Otherwise, this is a big program at 32 pages that supports the importance of the game: An OSC win would put them into the Rose Bowl for the first time in program history. (Win they did, 12-7 over an injury-riddled Duck squad; but the December attack on Pearl Harbor forced the relocation of the game from Pasadena  to Durham, North Carolina.)

ASUO business manager Jack Saltzman’s team really stepped up its game in 1941. The year’s program is loaded with a variety of ads; besides the obligatory full-color cigarette pages, there are dozens of half- and quarter-page ads for local business, national entities like Pepsi and Longines, and even pages without display advertising contain single-line text ads in the footer.

The cover art is by Howard Brodie, who would go on to widespread acclaim as a battlefield artist and later as a courtroom illustrator at high-profile trials such as the Chicago Seven and My Lai court martial.

A humorous “Glossary of Football Terms” is not all that out of date when looked at 70 years later. (“Quarterback – Nitwit who couldn’t hear the instructions you shouted to him during the game.”)

 Center roster spread:

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