TR: UO, OSU, Autzen, and Reser, 8/4/07

One of the things that I wanted to do once I got settled down here in Seattle was to go check out all of the big-league campuses of the Northwest. Pullmangopher is working on Wazzu, and my tickets for four Husky games are in the mail, and yesterday I got in the car and drove down the I-5 into Oregon, to Eugene and Corvallis and the campuses of the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.

Once you get out of the Portland metro area, I-5 driving through the Willamette Valley is a lot like driving across the Palouse in Eastern Washington on I-90. It is flat, the bridge overpasses are prime Highway Patrol radar spots, and the concept of going faster than 60 mph in the left lane is unheard of.

Of all the BCS-conference universities that I’ve been to the campuses of (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Northwestern, Colorado, USC, UCLA, and Washington), they all have the feel (setting, architecture, etc.) of being at a big-time university. After walking around UO for a bit, I got the feel of being at an overgrown community college campus. There just wasn’t the feel to it. No grandiose architecture, no big open assembly spaces, and no charm. The majority of the place looked like it had been thrown up in the immediate aftermath of World War II. I also didn’t like how the campus was integrated into the rest of Eugene. It seems as if the campus was scratched together on the cheapest hunk of land the Board of Regents could find, and then the town just built it’s way out to campus.

Mac Court was one of the few exceptions to this trend. The Art Deco exterior was one of the few scraps of charm in the place. Unfortunately, all the doors were locked, so I can’t report on how the playing surface is.

Hayward Field, the legendary track and field stadium and collegiate stomping grounds of Steve Prefontaine, was being torn up and re-built in preparation for the 2008 US Olympic Trials.
The dirtiest secret that nobody in the Pac-10 wants you to know is that the legendary Autzen Stadium isn’t on campus. The Willamette River and a large park separate the campus from the stadium. Prefontaine’s legacy still looms large over Eugene, 30 years after his death. The woodchip running trails are all dedicated to his memory, and several of the plaques in the park keep mentioning him as an inspiration.

Despite it’s location, Autzen Stadium a.k.a. The House That Phil Knight Built, is everything that is advertised. A gate was open, and I was able to go down onto the field and take a look around. This place is everything that the Big House, Camp Randall, and LA Coliseum are not. Autzen does not try to overwhelm you with sheer numbers. Rather, it’s a small place with the seating going straight up. It actually felt a lot like Kinnick Stadium, except smaller, steeper, and more claustrophobic. I can see why visiting teams have so many problems up there. When the crowd gets going, that bandbox would be hell on earth.

After this, I drove over to the UO Bookstore, and while I waited for AAA to break the keys out of my car, I partook in a Mount Saint Helens pizza at Pegasus Pizza (14th Ave and Alder St.). I’m partial towards pizza with lots and lots of meat on it, and St. Helens failed to disappoint. I think I’m still full from eating all that pizza.

I then made the 45-minute drive up Highway 99W to Corvallis and Oregon State. Going from Eugene to Corvallis would be akin to the U of M bring in Alexandria, and then the St. Paul campus being called Minnesota State and being set in Long Prairie. Highway 99W was, for much of the way, a two lane road through the rural Willamette Valley.

When I arrived at the campus of Oregon State University, there were a lot of cars parked around Reser Stadium and the Gill Coliseum. It soon became clear why. OSU was having an open scrimmage/practice, similar to what the Gophers were doing up at St. John’s, so I didn’t need to sneak around to check out the interior of the stadium.

Prior to the most recent renovations, which took place after the Beavers wiped out Notre Dame in the 2000 Fiesta Bowl, Reser was the poster child for “overgrown high school college football stadium.” Fortunately, the renovations, which redid the far side of the field (behind the visitors bench), remedied that problem. Despite being the smallest football stadium in the Pac-10, it works very nicely for what OSU wants.

I also thought that OSU had much more of a college feel than their brethren in Eugene did. I also kept in mind to expect something more along the lines of the St. Paul campus of the U of M, and I thought the Corvallis campus was very nice.

I could not say the same for the town of Corvallis. The town looked like one of those that needed SOMETHING to be there in the absolute worst possible way. Thankfully for them, the university is an enormous revenue driver, and the businesses I saw in town were clinging hard to the student dollar.

One thing that I’ve noticed in all of the 3 Northwest schools I’ve visited so far is that there aren’t many college bars to be found. Maybe I’m not looking in the right spot, but considering the size of football crowds on Eugene and Corvallis on game days, I’m surprised that there aren’t more bars to be seen. I’d love to be corrected by this by some of the Duck and Beav posters here. Where do you drink (in legal establishments) in either town?

Overall, I enjoyed the day trip down to OSU and UO. I will definitely have to get down to the two places for a game sometime this year.