There's Just No Ducking Fans At Autzen Stadium

Actually, it's a nice place.

For a Duck.

But if you're anything else - particularly a Washington Husky - Autzen Stadium is no place like home.

More than 32 years after it opened, the Oregon football facility in Eugene has become a nightmare for visiting teams, whose ability to compete is impaired maybe as much by the fans in the stands as it is by the players on the field.

Paul Hackett, in his first year as USC's coach, returned to Autzen Stadium for Oregon's most recent home game, Oct. 24, for the first time since his days as a Trojan assistant in the late 1970s. He said Duck fans have become full-fledged participants, to the point where they influenced the outcome of Oregon's 17-13 victory.

"We made a quarterback change in the second quarter and two of his first three plays were illegal procedure," Hackett said. "The guys up front couldn't hear him. We had six illegal procedures in the game. We had too-much-time penalties twice.

"All of those things I would attribute to the fabulous job the Oregon fans - the Oregon people - have done at Autzen Stadium. It's a far, far different place to play than I remember it being years ago when I was last there.

"They have a very fine football team, and when you add the crowd . . ."

The combination of good teams and supportive crowds has made Autzen every bit as hostile as Oregon's legendary basketball arena, McArthur Court, nicknamed The Pit. In the 1990s, the Ducks' home record is 37-16 (.698) - including a 4-0 mark this season. Since the Rose Bowl season of 1994, the Ducks are 22-7 (.759) at home. They have won 10 of 12 in Eugene.

And they are favored to make it 11 of 13 against the Huskies on Saturday (12:30 p.m., Channel 4).

"I'm glad we have enough players who have played in Eugene who can convey what a hard place it is to play to the younger players," UW Coach Jim Lambright said. "They have great fan support for an imposing team.

"It's a more dominant stadium every time you go down there."

As the Trojans found out, no player or team is safe from experiencing Autzen's lack of hospitality. But the Huskies are a target more inviting than any other.

"Oregon fans see purple and go nuts," said Ken Goe, a sportswriter for The Oregonian in Portland. "It's the big brother/little brother syndrome. Washington is everything the Oregon boosters want to be."

Sure to be given an extra-special welcome Saturday will be Brock Huard, Husky quarterback whose mere appearance will remind Oregon fans of what most consider Autzen Stadium's greatest play ever.

In the 1994 Oregon-Washington game, Brock's brother Damon led the Huskies on a late drive that, had it been successful, would have given Washington the lead. Instead, Kenny Wheaton intercepted Damon's pass and returned it 97 yards for a touchdown that secured a 31-20 Duck victory.

On the way off the field, Damon was confronted by Oregon player Rich Ruhl, who made uncomplimentary gestures and remarks Brock hasn't forgotten.

"It's a hostile environment," Brock said this week while doing his best to maintain a dignified, anti-inflammatory front. "It's like it was in high-school gyms during basketball and having fans chant `little Huard' or `ugly' or whatever."

He said what makes it difficult is the proximity of the fans to the field, because there is no running track to create a buffer like in Husky Stadium.

The field-to-fans closeness contributed to one of the better stories involving a Husky at Autzen Stadium - Dave Hoffmann eating a dog biscuit in front of Oregon fans prior to the start of the 1992 game.

"The linebackers always warmed up in the corner of one of the end zones," Hoffmann said from Atlanta, where he is in Secret Service school. "So we were in a corner of the stadium going through our pregame warmups and rituals. The crowd is hollering and yelling at us like you expect down there.

"People were throwing things, and a dog biscuit hit right down by us, and Lambright picked it up and held it up.

"I just decided to pop my helmet up, and I grabbed it out of his hand and ate it in front of the fans. They shut up real quick."

WSU quarterback Ryan Leaf got into it with the Autzen fans last year.

After throwing a second-quarter pass interception, he came to the sideline, jumped up on a table and motioned to the fans that they should make even more noise.

"I just threw that interception. It was just like `I'm not down on this, I'm having fun out here, so scream as loud as you want,' " Leaf said of his reaction. "So I got them up a little bit more.

"It was something I didn't need to do."

Autzen Stadium exists in part because of the generosity of the late Thomas Edward Autzen, a lumberman, sportsman and philanthropist. The 1941 Oregon graduate donated $250,000 for the construction of what would be a modestly priced, $2.5 million, 41,698-seat facility bearing his name.

A bigger source of funding was the 1,000 sponsors who ponied up $1,000 each in exchange for the opportunity to buy two season tickets for seats in prime locations for 25 years.

The athletic department, which had purchased the land upon which the stadium rests, provided the balance of the construction costs.

Autzen hasn't always had a reputation as a difficult place for a visiting team to play.

Before 1990, the Ducks had a 52-61-5 record at Autzen, where the Huskies under Coach Don James won six straight times and nine of 12. Lambright is 1-1 at Oregon.

"It's like Oregon State and WSU in that there's no track and the fans are close to you," James said from Tucson. "I never really looked at it so much from that standpoint as much as I did from the standpoint of how hard Oregon played.

"I always kind of laughed at the fans. They'd throw dog biscuits. I wasn't so concerned about the Ducks (fans) behind us as I was with the ones (players) in front of us."

Autzen is a memorable place for James. In 1977, the Huskies, who were 1-3, beat the Ducks 54-0 in a game that launched a Rose Bowl season.

"We went down there as the underdog," James said. "The word was out that Rich (Oregon Coach Rich Brooks) had every recruiting prospect in the state of Washington down there. And we beat them 54-0."

James' last game at Autzen in 1992 was memorable because of the condition he was in when it was over. He suffered a broken jaw when he was accidentally run over on the sideline by an Oregon player.

"One of our guys, I think it was Frank Garcia, hit one of their guys - kind of a late, cheap shot - and knocked him into me," James said. "It was a good thing I had the headset on or it probably would have killed me."

He recalls being knocked down and his watch getting knocked off.

"I said some things in the postgame interview . . . I said something about Beno Bryant having a good game, and I don't think he was even on the trip," James said. "I was told I was a little blurry."

And blurry is something coaches and players are experiencing more and more at Autzen Stadium.