If you are a fan of a certain age, you remember how bad Oregon football used to be.
The Ducks were once so bad that from 1963 to 1989, they didn't go to a bowl game-- 26 years. They won the 1963 Sun Bowl 21 to 14 and didn't make another postseason game of any kind until the Poulan Weedeater Bowl in 1989, winning 27-24 over Tulsa with a fourth-quarter comeback.
Oregon football used to be so noncompetitive that in the '60s, '70s and '80s they suffered through two separate losing streaks of 12 and 13 games to the Huskies. In 1983 the Civil War ended in a 0-0 tie with 13 turnovers.
In the '90s Phil Knight got involved, TV money expanded after a Supreme Court case and the scholarship limit of 85 players kicked in. The Ducks became a Top 25 program and made their first Rose Bowl in 38 years.
Knight and other boosters built the Moshofsky Center, the Ducks' first indoor practice facility and the program began to win some big-time games.
So to have the team reach a level where they've gone 12-2, 13-1 and 13-2 in the last three seasons, it's not exactly misery, not compared to the suffering of the past.
Losing stinks. It stinks whether you lose by one or a hundred. It stinks in the playoffs, in September, in a rematch, an upset, a hated rival or the College Football Playoff.
Dan Lanning is one of the best coaches in the game at 40 years old with a record of 48-8. He and the Ducks are one of the seven or eight teams with a realistic chance of winning a national title this season.
Poncho Laloulu, Bear Alexander, Dante Moore and Matayo Uiagalelei didn't delay NFL millions to finish second. But football is an unpredictable game. It might be Marcus Freeman's turn at Notre Dame. Steve Sarkisian has built a juggernaut in Austin. Curt Cignetti, Ryan Day or Kirby Smart could win another one.
The Ducks have gotten closer every year of the Lanning era. In the two years before he took over they were 4-3 and 10-4. They've gone from 10-3 and winning the Holiday Bowl over North Carolina to 12-2 and making the PAC-12 Championship game, beating Liberty in the Fiesta Bowl to winning the Big Ten in their first year in the league at 13-1 to winning two playoff games last season.
The two blowout playoff losses are what everyone remembers. To rivals and opponents it's still "10,000 uniforms, Zero natties."
This might be the year. Hopes could be crushed again, but there's no bust. A man can be defeated but not destroyed. The best sports stories are about redemption, and sometimes redemption has a long arc.
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