Series History between the Washington and Oregon features hate, spite, and dominance
While Week 5 vs. the Stanford Cardinal was absolutely billed as a rivalry game, this one’s different.
It’s different for a couple of reasons. It’s a top-ten matchup, Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr. are both candidates for the Heisman Trophy, and the Ducks lost to the Huskies at home last year, which ended their College Football Playoff chances.
But mostly, it’s different because these teams just hate each other.
The annual matchup between the Ducks and the Huskies has been around since 1900 — when the Ducks beat the Huskies 43-0 — but the most significant origin of the rivalry came in 1948.
At the end of the 1948 season, Oregon and Cal were undefeated in conference play (Pacific Coast Conference). Oregon was in favor of a conference championship, but Cal elected to not play an extra game. Instead, each of the 10 schools in the PCC would vote on the conference’s champion — and Rose Bowl representative. Going in, Oregon was the presumable winner, but Washington reportedly convinced Montana — a PCC member at the time — to vote for the Golden Bears instead of the Ducks, which sent Cal to the Rose Bowl.
The most famous moment of the Oregon-Washington rivalry came in 1994 when Kenny Wheaton, a Ducks’ DB, picked the ball off from Huskies QB, Damon Huard at the three-yard line and took the ball back 97 yards for a score in the waning moments of the game. “The Pick” as it came to be known, was the Ducks’ dagger in a game that snapped a five-year Washington win streak, and it also marked a major turning point for the Oregon football program as a whole.
Including that 1900 matchup, the Ducks and the Huskies have played 114 times. Oregon has won 48 of those games while Washington has won 61, with 5 ties in there as well. In more recent history though, Oregon has been the favorite. In the 21st century, the Ducks have been victorious in 16 of 21 matchups — with a 12-game winning streak from 2004-15. Before that run, however, Washington was rarely tested, winning 61 of the first 93 matchups between the two.
While this rivalry is full of history, the 115th matchup between these two teams will likely be the most anticipated and most important Oregon-Washington game ever. Both teams are in the top ten of the AP Poll for the first time ever in a head-to-head matchup, and both are legitimate College Football Playoff candidates. Saturday should be a fun one, and also one for the history books.
