Civil War: A brief history of the Oregon vs. Oregon State rivalry

Rowdy fans and an abduction

While much less notable than other rivalry incidents like the multiple ones involving the Iron Bowl (Alabama vs. Auburn), the Civil War rivalry has had various off-field incidents, with one of them happening in 1960, with two unidentified Oregon students abducting the Oregon State homecoming queen, a woman named Ardis Henry, the students also gave OSU a ransom note which asked the body president of that university for either a bicycle or scooter ride to UO for the Ducks to be invited into the game, however, the president refused to join the students and queen’s playful attitude and declined.

As for the homecoming queen, it was claimed she was unharmed, acted pretty nicely, and went along with the plan, with the only condition being that she would return home by dinner time, which she did.

Other notable examples include one of the earliest examples of verbal arguments, taking place after the Ducks won in Corvallis in 1910 and even going as far as causing the rivalry to not be played the following year, and College GameDay’s first visit to Corvallis in 2010, where it was claimed that after the victory that sent the Ducks to the 2011 BCS National Championship Game, a group of Duck fans lit a T-shirt saying “I hate your Ducks” (phrase that mocked the insanely popular song “I love my Ducks”) on fire, which caused damages to the turf at Reser Stadium and led to the arrest of an student.