Neverending Story: Why Duck Fans Hate the Dawgs

It is an intense sports hate, fueled by many years of slights, backstabbing, crowing, preening, humilations, arrogance, pretense, denials, backroom machinations, lying, cheating, disrespect, dominance, scorekeeping, chicanery, backbiting, affronts, caddishness, brutality, rudeness, excuse-making and presumption.

Other than that, it's just another game.

For years they'd come down I-5 in their gleaming land yachts, garish colors flying in pennants and streamers and elaborate signs, hogging the fast lane, noses in the air. They'd take over Oregon's half-empty stadium and smear Grey Poupon on their rye bread and prosciutto and fancy cheese, spill their expensive scotch on hallowed ground, loudly cheer each ill-gotten touchdown as if they scored it themselves, chortling and whooping while their players danced on our O. They'd go home weaving in their sloshed caravan, horns blaring in the night, the uncouth horde that they were, their noveau riche smugness intact for another year. They won national championships and their players graced magazine covers while we suffered. It went on for generations. They taunted us. They denied their sins. And they assumed their dominance would go on forever.

Every Dawg has its day, and that day is long past.

For six wonderful years now Duck fans have enjoyed justice and redemption, and the memories of the bitter defeats have grown dim. A new generation of Ducks have no recollection of the rancorous history. The last six years have been gloriously one-sided:

2004 Oregon 31, Washington 6 Good times. Ducks D intercepts Cody Paus 4 times

2005 Oregon 45, Washington 21 Clemens air show, 425 yds 4 tds, 36 completions to 13 receivers

2006 Oregon 34, Washington 14 Dennis Dixon as a junior: 14/25 109 yards, 2 ints. We forget.

2007 Oregon 55, Washington 34 465 yds rushing, DD fools the stadium, Snoop 251 and 2 tds

2008 Oregon 44, Washington 10 season opener, Locker 12-28 for 103 yds, 3 sacks

2009 Oregon 43, Washington 19 Rory Cavaille blocks a punt, and LMJ scampers 15-154.

It wasn't always like this. They catapulted their way to national championships on our turf. They made a backroom deal to deny Oregon the Rose Bowl in '48, convincing Montana to vote for California. In '62 Washington fans rushed the field and tackled a wide-open Oregon receiver in the end zone as time expired. In '95 Lambright tried to lobby for the Cotton Bowl over a Duck team that had beaten him on the field. Neuheisel invented something he called the Northwest Championship and danced with his players on the O. In '73 and '74 they won 59-0 and 66-0, still pouring it on at the end.

The suffering, humiliation and domination intensified in the '70s, and lingered for a long time. They won five in a row, won six in a row in the '80s, lost two, won five more, won four from '99-2003. In 30 years they won 22 times, and most of those were brutal beatings, big brother against little brother, neighborhood bully against the red-headed stepchild, touchdown dancing and sack prancing and unending misery.

It wasn't always the way it is now. They used to be kings. And the Ducks were the peasants of college football. Washington once owned the region, and hoisted trophies on New Year's Day. We hate them because they earned it, one awful graceless beating at a time. To the players and younger fans it's just another game, but for Duck fans with a sense of history, these are the days of miracles and wonders, of getting even with a quiet satisfaction. Good night, Huskies. Drive home safely to your yachts and cold, spacious houses, and enjoy a long winter of sad recollection of the old glory.

I'd write more but my granddaughter is over and wants to play Chutes and Ladders. I'd let her win, but she's a clever little duckling and already has me figured out. She has the board set up and a gleam in her eye, just like Darron Thomas will on Saturday afternoon.