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Next up in our weekend miniseries introducing the Big Ten’s four newest members: the University of Oregon. Or, as it’s known to many, the University of Nike, the big business co-founded by proud Oregon alum Phil Knight, who has reportedly donated over $1 billion to his alma mater and kept its football team fashion forward (400-plus uniform combinations, courtesy the swoosh).
1. Illinois is where the future Judy Belushi — bride of John — attended undergrad. Oregon is where ‘Animal House’ — starring Belushi and also featuring a current administrative aide in the UI’s Grainger College of Engineering — filmed many of its scenes.
Monticello resident and 2009 UI Office Professional of the Year KATE FREEMAN, who had a small part in the 1978 film that become one of film’s most acclaimed comedies: "I was a junior in college, a theatre major at the University of Oregon in Eugene, living with my parents and brothers. When I heard that there was a movie in town, I went to extra calls, bringing my acting resume, which basically listed everything I had ever done, and a professional headshot that I had made a year or so earlier.
"When I walked up to the tables, where they were receiving those who wanted to sign up as an extra, the staff member asked: 'Do you realize that this is a professional headshot?'
"I said, 'Yes, I want to work as an actress.' He also looked through the three pages of acting experience and said he was impressed!
"The next day, I received a call to appear in a small town about 20 minutes from Eugene to work as an extra in the parade scene. I was very excited. I asked for the day off from my day job; and skipped my classes for the day.
"I spent the day on the Cottage Grove Street, cheering and hanging out. I must have watched the parade six to 10 times. At first it was exciting, and the cheering was genuine; but as the day wore on, it was less and less interesting. Most of the main action shots were performed down the street from where I stood; I couldn’t see them that well.
"John Belushi said hello to me when he was thrust into the crowd at one point during the scene and stood next to me for a while. I thought that he was a genuinely nice guy.
"I decided that I didn’t really want to go back to the extra job after the one day because I knew that it wouldn’t matter to the film at all, and I needed to resume my day job and go to my classes the next day. To my amazement after making that decision, the next day I was asked to come in to audition for a speaking role; they asked me to dress the part of a sorority girl in the '60s.
"My mother offered me her cashmere button-down sweater, which she didn’t let me wear the last time I had asked her.
"When I walked into the makeshift studio, there were at least 10 other women dressed in '60s attire and hairstyles in the waiting room. I decided not to let the fact that I was up against so many bother me. I had auditioned many times by then. When called, I walked into the studio and in my nervousness shook hands with everyone there, including the camera man.
"I was handed a script and was told I was auditioning for a role as a sorority sister, Noreen. There was one Noreen line and one group line on the page. My line was: 'They were horrible' and the instruction was to also say: 'eeeeeeeeeeeoooooowwwww' with the other sorority sisters — spelled just like that.
"They asked me to read it several times and I never did say 'eeeeeeeeeeeoooooowwwww' the way they wanted me to, so I didn’t think that I got the part but we left on friendly terms.
"Later, I found out that I was the only one the casting director and others gave a '10' rating out of 10.
"The next day I got home from my classes and my brothers had written up on the family whiteboard: 'You’re a star!!!' with a note to go to the same small town again and meet with the casting director. As I drove into a parking lot near the location, I noticed one of the other women who I had auditioned the day I did.
"I thought, 'Oh. This is just a callback. I didn’t get the part yet ... OK.' So I joined her, and we went to the director’s office. I was told to have a seat. The casting director came in looking right at me and said, 'There you are!' I need you to come with me.
"I followed him to another location and met the director John Landis and his girlfriend. He said hello and asked me how tall I was. I told him 5-11 — and his girlfriend said, 'Do you want me to stand next to her?' She was 6 feet tall.
"I then acquiesced, and said, 'Well, I‘m 5-10 and a half.' He smiled and said it was nice to meet me. The casting director asked me to wait there, while he went to talk to Landis at the other end of the room. I looked around the room, which had some beautiful potted plants. The casting director came up to me and said, 'You’re going to be a very rich young lady! You’ve been cast as Noreen.'
"Suddenly, my surroundings became very distinct. I drove home seeing details that I’d never seen before. Years later, when I heard the song from the movie 'Yentl' — 'This is One of Those Moments,' I thought of this moment in my life.
"I was given a contract to sign and was costumed and made up the next day. I was getting to know the fellow actors and actresses in the scene when I saw the property master bringing a thick pair of glasses over to the group. I said 'Wouldn’t that be funny if Noreen wore those?'
"Just then, he handed them to me. Everyone laughed. I was inwardly dismayed that I was not going to look at all attractive, but I laughed and enjoyed making the scene. We made the last scene first, the walk home after the road trip, in which I said my one line and the 'ewwwww,' which is how I would spell the group exclamation. The direction was very clear, and we did this in one or two takes.
"The next four days were spent at the Dexter Lake club, the roadhouse bar where Otis Day and the Knights played. I had a great time there; I learned a lot from the more seasoned actors and actresses. They were very precise about some things, like the 'tea' that was supposed to be beer staying at the correct level in the glasses in each take but were looser about other things.
"We were able to talk between takes and I got to know who was from Hollywood and a bit about their lives. The late Stephen Furst, who played Flounder, offered to introduce me to his casting director if I came down to Hollywood.
"I sat next to John Belushi again during his makeup session and mine. He seemed a bit tired and seemed introspective at the end of the filming. I had some interesting conversations with one of the writers, Doug Kenney. He had a very serious side and was very active in the direction of the film.
"I was paid handsomely for the time it was shot and I still receive residual checks for my five days of work on 'Animal House.' I thought this would be the first of many films I would work on but my life took a different direction.
"The experience of 'Animal House' gave me the confidence that I could work with the big boys — I applied many of the things learned to my later acting roles and to my current directing for the Great News Radio Theatre Troupe.
"I encourage anyone who wants to perform, to go ahead and seek out auditions — go for it, you never know where it will lead."
2. Sparty and Purdue Pete may look tougher, but a more fit Big Ten mascot you will not find than Oregon’s duck, inspired by Disney’s Donald but nicknamed Puddles.
The proof is in the push-ups he does for every point Oregon — traditionally one of college football’s highest-scoring offenses — puts on the board. During an 81-7 rout of Portland State last fall, poor Puddles dropped and gave the TV cameras 546 push-ups in a three-and-a-half hour game.
3. Sometime in the ’60s, the story goes, the term ‘jogging’ was introduced to the American lexicon, replacing what up to then was referred to as ‘roadwork.’ Credited with bringing it here from New Zealand: legendary Ducks track coach Bill Bowerman, whose 1966 book ‘Jogging’ popularized it stateside.
UI associate professor JULIAN CATCHEN, who earned his Ph.D. at Oregon: “Oregon is one of the only places in the country where a track meet, hosted at Hayward Field, will be more popular — with the bleachers stuffed with people — than almost any other contest.
“The 1970s runner Steve Prefontaine is a legend, as is Bill Bowerman, the former track coach who started Nike in the Eugene area with former UO runner Phil Knight and who also invented the modern running shoe.”
4. That’s where Oregon’s home city gets its famous moniker.
Virginia Tech science dean KEVIN PITTS, who earned his Ph.D. at Oregon and spent 23 years as a professor, associate dean and vice chancellor at Illinois: “Eugene truly is ‘Track Town, USA,’ from legendary Hayward Field that hosts the Prefontaine Classic and every major track meet in the country to ubiquitous crushed bark running trails to Oregon Ducks national track and field titles to Track Town Pizza.
“When I was a student in Eugene, I would go out for run and it was not unusual to encounter, or, more likely, be passed by Olympians such as Mary Decker, Alberto Salazar or Maria Mutola out training.”
5. During a 2007 football game vs. USC, Autzen Stadium registered a noise level reading of 127 decibels, among the highest on record.
Former sports scribe GEORGE SCHROEDER, columnist for the Eugene Register-Guard from 2007-12: “Autzen Stadium seats only 54,000 — which means they stuff fewer than 60,000, all told, into the stadium on game days. Yet it has a reputation as one of the loudest venues in college football.
“I was skeptical — until I experienced it. When the Ducks get it going — or when the Ducks need to get going — the place is a cauldron of ear-crackling noise that far exceeds most others.
“As someone who traveled all over the country covering college football for USA Today, I experienced plenty of great atmospheres. Autzen is not the loudest.
“There are a few stadiums with higher volume — The ‘Shoe in Columbus, or Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, and I could add a few more — but there aren’t many.
”Those few typically have almost twice the capacity of Autzen. Most of the larger venues across college football’s landscape aren’t nearly as loud, at least not consistently so, as the tight little oval in Eugene, where Duck fans think their pride and passion, expressed as a wall of noise, fuel performance.
”That’s what I meant by 'when the Ducks need to get going,' and what I think sets Autzen apart from most others. College football’s atmospheres are all so different, and there’s something to love about each. But what I think generally sets atmospheres apart is whether a crowd is proactive or reactive.
”Reactive crowds get loud — and often really, really loud — when their guys make a huge play. It makes for extraordinarily cool moments. But proactive crowds think they’re part of the contest. They’re trying to influence the outcome, and they believe they can and will. And the best of these do it on every play, all day long.
”Gameday at Autzen Stadium can be like that. Something in the collective psyche of Oregon fans — could be their perpetual belief, even after decades of Phil Knight/Nike-fueled sizzle and success, that the program, and maybe the state and the region, is overlooked and underappreciated — coalesces at Autzen.
”The result is extraordinary, which is why it’s among my very favorite places to watch college football. If Big Ten fans hit the road to catch their team in Eugene, it might become one of theirs, too.”
JAMES CREPEA, Ducks beat writer for The Oregonian: "Autzen Stadium is quite loud and considering its official capacity of 54,000, it is certainly on the short list of loudest stadiums in college football on a per-capita basis.
"But anyone suggesting Oregon is a louder place to play than buildings that are at times twice the size of Autzen is sorely mistaken. Tiger Stadium on a Louisiana Saturday night is absolutely deafening. Ohio Stadium, Beaver Stadium and for big games Jordan-Hare Stadium and Memorial Stadium at Clemson are all louder."
6. When it comes to paying coaches, Illinois and Oregon are a lot alike, according to contracts obtained by The News-Gazette via open-records request.
Dan Lanning (left, 22-5 as Ducks football coach) is due to make $7.2 million next year. Bret Bielema (18-19 at Illinois) will make $6.65 million, counting a $500,000 retention bonus on July 1.
Dana Altman (345–152 as Oregon men’s basketball coach) has $4 million coming next year. Brad Underwood (143-88 at Illinois) will make slightly more — $4.3 million, including a $300,000 retention bonus on May 31.
7. Other than that, Oregon and Illinois don’t share much in common.
Penn State Professor SEAN LAURENT, who earned two degrees at Oregon and served on the UI faculty from 2016-21: “UIUC is big — in size and number of faculty and students (35,467 undergrads in 2023-24) — while UO is quite a lot smaller (19,970).
“In terms of setting, UIUC is on the plains, so flat, flat, flat, with lots of corn and soybean farming. UO is in Eugene, in the heart of Willamette Valley, surrounded on two sides by mountain ranges, with hills, rivers and big trees everywhere.
“Last, even if UO is smaller, Eugene is much bigger (pop. 178,000) and C-U is much smaller (combined pop. 128,000), so Eugene’s got more of everything: restaurants, shops, activities.”
8. Wander off campus a bit and the scenery will won’t resemble anything in existing Big Ten towns.
Portland historian TAMA TOCHIHARA, who earned two UI degrees and taught at Oregon: “Oregon is a state of natural beauty and abundance, from the Pacific Coast, to the Cascade Mountains to the Columbia Plateau, salmon, deer, elk, huckleberries, and Oregon marionberries and Hood strawberries.”
9. Not every Duck is thrilled about Oregon joining a supersized Big Ten.
2001 Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year JOEY HARRINGTON, who went 25-3 as Ducks quarterback: “It’s disappointing that our conference has had such terrible leadership over the last two decades that we’ve ended up in this position.
“It’s disappointing that college football has come to the place where regional ties and rivalries take a back seat to TV dollars.
“It’s disappointing that these decisions are made without consideration of everyone who will be affected — i.e., the softball players who said ‘I signed up to play in the best softball league in the country, in a place where my parents could come watch me play. I didn’t sign up to play Rutgers and have my parents fly to New Jersey.’”
10. Unlike the other three Pac-12 transfers, Oregon won’t do much to bolster the Big Ten’s academic prestige.
On U.S. News & World Report’s national university rankings, Oregon checks in at No. 98, ahead of only Nebraska (No. 159) and behind Northwestern (9), UCLA (15), Michigan (21), USC (28), Illinois and Wisconsin (tied for 35), Rutgers and Washington (40), Ohio State and Purdue (43), Maryland (46), Minnesota (53), Michigan State and Penn State (60), Indiana (73) and Iowa (93).
