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    • The Huskies return to Autzen: don’t forget to duck
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    The Huskies return to Autzen: don’t forget to duck

    Pabio Posted on

    EUGENE, Ore. — With all those landmark moments occurring in 1967, the first Big Mac sold in Pennsylvania for 45 cents and a surgeon performed the first human heart transplant in South Africa, two events seemingly still in conflict today. with each other, as soul singer Aretha Franklin released her breakout hit “Respect.”

    The same year, in Eugene, Oregon, Autzen Stadium opened.

    During its 57 years of operation, this 54,000-seat football palace has given this coastal, picturesque state and its loyal fans a lasting taste of success, a fast ticker and plenty of admiring attention drawn by almost everyone across the university. landscape for the way the Ducks play the game.

    Seattle residents, however, would just as easily see the place flooded by the nearby Willamette River, see all that green decor turn into two-foot-tall grass covering the playing surface or scabby mold clinging to the walls, and thus demand let it be condemned, abandoned and razed.

    For the 30th time, the University of Washington football team steps into the bowl-shaped facility Saturday afternoon, facing perhaps Oregon’s best offering, the Ducks, ranked 11-0 and #1. having won only a dozen matches there over nearly six full decades.

    Autzen Stadium is previewed hours before UW-Oregon 2022 kickoff.

    Autzen Stadium is shown hours before UW-Oregon 2022 kickoff. /Dan Raley

    University of Washington football coach Jedd Fisch might be the only one on the other side of this football rivalry who looks at Autzen with wonder rather than abject contempt. Some say to give it time.

    “It’s quite a vibe,” he said this week. “There’s great energy. Great music.”

    Good music?!

    Fisch must be an Animal House fan. After all, this memorable 1978 film with a comedic bent, starring John Belushi, Tim Matheson, Donald Sutherland and Kevin Bacon, was partially filmed in Autzen, among many other Eugene landmarks.

    At the end of the third quarter, for each game, fans take a break and sing a rousing rendition of “Shout,” an Animal House anthem. With those niceties removed, emboldened Ducks fans have been known to throw dog biscuits at the Huskies, with former UW linebacker and eventual Secret Service agent Dave Hoffmann responding by eating one.

    “I expect it to be a hostile environment and a hostile crowd,” said Fisch, a previous visitor in 2021 with Arizona when it lost to the third-ranked Ducks 41-19. “When you bring the rival into the other team’s stadium, I would expect it to be a bit nasty.”

    The Autzen stadium, which is in its 57th year, has been modernized several times.

    The Autzen stadium, which is in its 57th year, has been modernized several times. /Dan Raley

    Autzen is named after an Oregon family that made millions in the lumber business and donated it to the stadium’s construction, long before NIKE founder Phil Knight opened his checkbook to create the rest of this college football Disneyland. It is not widely disclosed that the senior Autzen was an Oregon State graduate.

    The three largest crowds to watch a football game in Autzen are 60,129 people who showed up to see the Ducks beat Ohio State 32-31 in mid-October; 60,055 who attended a 41-27 victory over Arizona State in 2011; and 60,017 who watched Oregon’s 53-16 mauling of the Huskies in 2011.

    Once the stadium opened, replacing Hayward Field, which had fallen into disrepair and was turned into the school’s athletic track – and the reason Oregon chose to play so many rivalry games at Portland – the Ducks won their first four outings against the Huskies. in the new excavations.

    HUSKY WINS AT AUTZEN STADIUM

    1975, UW 27, Oregon 17

    In his first season, Don James earned UW’s first win at Autzen, 8 years after it opened.

    1977, UW 54, Oregon 0

    The Huskies totaled 474 offensive yards to Oregon’s 97.

    1979, UW 21, Oregon 17

    Mark Lee returned a punt 53 yards for a score with 1:59 left to shock the home side.

    1981, UW 17, Oregon 3

    Vince Newsome returned a blocked punt 15 yards for a first touchdown.

    1983, UW 32, Oregon 3

    Jeff Jaeger made four field goals, including a 52-yarder, to decide this one.

    1985, UW 19, Oregon 13

    Jaeger kicked four more field goals to Autzen to beat the Ducks.

    1990, UW 38, Oregon 17

    Greg Lewis broke a 53-yard TD run in the first quarter and finished with a career-high 169.

    1992, UW 24, Oregon 3

    In his first start in two years, Mark Brunell ran for a touchdown and threw one.

    1996, UW 33, Oregon 14

    Corey Dillon totaled 259 yards and 3 touchdowns.

    2002, UW 42, Oregon 14

    Reggie Williams caught 14 passes for 198 yards and touchdowns of 23, 47 and 41 yards.

    2016, UW 70, Oregon 21

    Myles Gaskin rushed for 197 yards and Jake Browning threw 6 TD passes.

    2022, UW 37, Oregon 34

    Peyton Henry kicked a game-winning 43-yard field goal with 51 seconds remaining.

    In his first season as UW football coach in 1975, eight years after the club opened, Don James turned the Huskies into a first-time winner in Autzen, coming away with a 27-17 victory. A quarterback named Warren Moon scored two touchdowns on short runs. Animal House was still three years away from completion.

    James, in fact, won his first six visits to Autzen, half of the Husky’s current total. The legendary leader finished with eight wins in 10 tries at the oft-remodeled stadium before retiring after the 1992 season.

    Oregon ultimately made it nearly impossible for UW to win there by winning 10 of the next 12 games during the 2014 season as it emerged as a regional power. The Huskies tried to get it all back in one fell swoop in 2016 by rolling to a 70-21 win at Autzen with Jake Browning throwing six touchdown passes and memorably wagging a finger as he scored on a short run.

    Counting that one, UW has actually captured two of its last three visits to this duck den, winning 37-34 in 2022 thanks to Peyton Henry’s late basket.

    Lately, it’s time for Huskies to shout, to rejoice, to take a deep breath.

    For the latest UW football and basketball news, visit si.com/college/washington

    Pabio
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