Week 9: October 28, 2023

Oregon went black/white/black for the first time in 8 years, in what turns out to be a relatively rare combo! They have worn this combo only three times: 2009, 2010 and 2015–all important road victories. So maybe they were chanelling that good history?

2009 victory @ Washington

2010 victory @ WSU

2015 victory @ Stanford

That is if you don't count Nightmare Green as black...

They last wore Nightmare/white/Nightmare in 2019, and wore Nightmare/Eggshell last season. The black helmets with carbon fiber wings made their third appearance of the year.

Week 8: October 21, 2023

Revealed a few weeks back, the Ducks are wearing their throwbacks for Homecoming vs the all-white Washington State. See my full post on them here.

Week 7: October 14, 2023

One of the biggest games in the 100+ years of the UW-UO rivalry! Both ranked in the top 10. ESPN Gameday in town too. 

So the Ducks pull out what has become a standard in the repertoire for "big" games...the eggshell, and more generically. IMHO, eggshell is one of the least appealing uniforms since the adventure that was 2016. This time they pair it with the chrome helmet.

They have worn eggshell jerseys four times before: two games each in 2021 and 2022.  In both those seasons they did eggshell jersey AND pants once.  Last season they won vs Arizona and Colorado in eggshell, and in 2021 they won their debut game with them against UCLA but lost the Pac-12 Championship game in them. So 3-1 record.

I have a long-standing pet peeve that the Ducks tend to wear white/silver/black in high profile games, so I am not the most pleased with this combo against UW. Just win baby!

I've done several blog posts on their big game attire luck over the years:

Wearing white helmets in big games

The Curse of Grey pants

Unlucky uniforms 2015-2019

Unlucky uniforms 2009-2015

Looking at the Throwbacks

With the Ducks on their off week prepping for the HUGE clash in Seattle October 14, I thought it would be a good time to look at the rather ambiguous release of their fan-favorite throwbacks this last week. 

They did not announce a game they would wear this set for. (update: they wore for WSU Oct. 21) This year's UW-UO Oct. 14 game is in Seattle—and honestly 2024 would be more appropriate timing due to the 1994 and 2014 history and the UW game being home next year.

Here's hoping they wear them again for Civil War! It will be the last of that matchup for the foreseeable future. 

But I bet the main reason for this announcement is for merchandise sales! AND presumably wear it again next year?? Most fans would support making this an annual tradition much like Utah does with their throwbacks.

As most of you uni-freaks know, these are based on their  uniforms of the 1980s-1990s.  (most of the pundits this week have said these pay tribute to 1984, but to me that feels off, since 1994 was the most iconic and much better year.) I was a student at UO from 1992-1997 so I have seen these uniforms in Autzen stadium!

The last time they wore a version of these was in 2014 for the 20th anniversary of the 1994 Kenny Wheaton  "The Pick" which is the seminal play/game for pretty much the entire Duck-universe. It catapulted the Ducks to the Rose Bowl that season and began what has become a modern history of winning and CFB-leading uniform indulgence.

2023 throwback

This appears to be a pretty faithful reimagining of 2014 and 1994, but to me the green looks more like their current brighter apple green, but the yellow is warmer than current yellow and more true to history. 

FUNNY NOTE: Something I didn't realize until I went to draw it for this blog is: the sleeve version of  "Duck Thru the O" lacks a front foot, while the standard logo version has both feet and tail: