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

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Oregon State Head Coach Jonathan Smith and Oregon head coach Dan Lanning talk before the game as the No. 9 Oregon Ducks take on the No. 21 Oregon State Beavers at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Ore. Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022.Ncaa Football Uo Vs Osu Rivalry Game University Of Oregon At Oregon State /

Miscellaneous

At one point, the Ducks and Beavers indeed played for a trophy.

Awarded to the winner between 1959 and 1961, the Platypus Trophy was a unique idea that officially didn’t last long enough, as it somehow got lost in 1962.

In 2004, John Canzano, a writer who most of both Duck and Beaver fans know about, wrote an article that said how he didn’t like that the Civil War didn’t have any trophy to be awarded to the winner, well, that was until Warren Spady, the creator of the trophy, contacted Canzano and then a year-long search occurred, the search itself ended in 2005 when the trophy was found in a closet at Oregon’s McArthur Court.

While it hasn’t been recognized by the two universities yet, the trophy is now awarded to the alumni association of the winning school, with Oregon taking it home 13 times and Oregon State winning it in a total of 6 occasions.

To end this article, we’ll explain the reason why this rivalry isn’t called “Civil War” anymore, and it’s quite simple yet controversial.

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It isn’t called like that anymore because of the connections to the American Civil War against slavery, the decision to retire the name would get intensified even further by the death of George Floyd and its subsequent protests back in 2020.

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