Hey everyone, just reminding you that the Emerald, aka Ben Schorzman, will be living blogging tonight from the football game. It should be a treat. I’ll also post a thread before the game starts on notes, the atmosphere, etc…but for now, I’m typing from my computer at the Super 8 motel two miles from the stadium.
The drive over was actually pretty fun. From Eugene to Burns is very scenic (although I recommend filling up your tank in Bend if you filled up in Eugene because I barely made it to Vale on a full tank). I left early enough in the morning that there wasn’t a lot of gameday traffic of fans driving to the game, however, I did see some cool signs along the way, including one that read, “Honk if you’re a Duck fan, Go Ducks and Beat the Broncos.”
It wasn’t until I hit the other side of Bend that I actually encountered fans driving. I talked to a group while we were waiting for a half an hour at road construction, and they were all wearing their green and yellow. It seemed like some of them had already started drinking too judging by the empty case of Bud Light I saw when they opened their trunk…
Then at a rest area I talked to a nice older couple who are driving from Seattle to Texas where they live. They’re from Dallas and they were taking pictures, so I took their picture for them and then we got into where I went to school, and what the hell I was doing driving 450 miles for a football game. It turns out the guy (in his late 60s) is an Oklahoma Sooner fan and said that he remembers what BSU did to them in the Fiesta Bowl. But he also pointed out that same year the Ducks robbed them in Autzen…So he’s just hoping that it’s a good game.
The funniest incident didn’t come until I crossed over into Idaho. Almost immediately I was drawing stares because of my license plate (because it was an Oregon one), my student parking sticker, and my little Donald Duck decal. One guy, driving a decked out Toyota Camry with two BSU flags and a ton of other gear actually flipped me off. What can you say, college football really does bring out the best in people. But not ten minutes later, a group of UO students came flying by and on the way past me gave the “O” and rolled down their windows to ask me questions about whether or not I was going to the game. Then they noticed the BSU fan that flipped me off in front of me and flipped him off (all four of them) on the way past. So don’t worry Bronco fans, it’s not just you guys that have classy characters, Oregon has plenty too.
But now I’m here, it’s hot, and there’s definitely football in the air! I’m gonna hop in the shower, then it’s on to Bronco Stadium! Check out odesports on Twitter and this blog for live updates!
What uniforms are they busting out? All whites? or Carbon silvers?
They’re in all whites. No carbon silver. It’s an interesting choice, but they do look very good.