[sundial_life] Beavs vs Ducks: Civil Thermonuclear War

There are people who know about this already; The Civil War, Oregon's annual big-college signature rivalry, is setting to get underway. I'm listening on KEX. The pre game show is in full swing.

I am bored silly by sports, except for one thing; Beaver football. One of my many misadventures was an attempt to become an IT professional by attending OSU and majoring in Comp Sci. This was back before they even called it "IT"; everyone studying CS at that time called themselves 'programmers'. But I digress.

This was the early '80s, when OSU was a basketball powerhouse (although never able to get a title, and flirted with #1 in about 1981, I think it was) and the football program was a joke without the funny part attached. Who remembers Joe Avocado...er, Avezzano? I sure do. Mad Magazine joked that OSU and Northwestern should be scheduled to play a game in the Rose Bowl just so the two teams could get a look at the inside.

Despite the fact I never came anywhere close to graduating, OSU got under my skin and remains there to this day. And now, how times have change; the Beav basketball program is hardly the giant that it was, and football...wow. Five bowl games in six seasons. While OSU hasn't quite yet grown into the promise it has showed over the past six years, the Beavs seem to be getting taken a lot more seriously than they used to be.

The Civil War, of course, is the proverbial horse of a different color. I remember, back in the '90s, OSU had a certain pitiful, pathetic season. No wins at all going into the Civil War. They won that one, though, and the next day the Corvallis Gazette-Times had, in 144-point red across the top of the page WE OWN THE STATE! You'd of thought they'd had a winning season. A Civil War victory can make up for a lot of pain.

Anyway, and to bring this back on course, this Civil War is huge. See, two weeks ago, OSU had two games in front of it and had to win both of these last two games to get a bowl invite. UO, on the other hand, had two games and only had to win one.

Then OSU beat Stanford, and UO lost to USC.

Now we have two teams with everything on the line. Not just the state bragging rights, but instead of a winner and loser this time around, one team's season ends today. One team goes on to a bowl, and the other goes home and into history as The One Who Lost.

This is going to be one heck of a game.

It's gut-check time, guys. I'm, of course, for the Beavs.