Ducks or Beavers

After nearly leaving the state, the author won a Heisman by staying put

By Terry Baker

I wasn't born in Oregon -- my family moved there from Minnesota when I was a youngster -- but it became clear when I was a high school senior that people in the state considered me one of their own. I was a pretty good three-sport athlete at Portland's Jefferson High (my teams won two state titles in football and one in baseball, and two city basketball championships), and when I was choosing a college in the spring of 1959, the local papers wrote editorials all but declaring me property of the state. They argued that Oregon's population was so small that when an athlete like me came along, it was my obligation to stay at home.

The problem was, I wasn't focused on either Oregon or Oregon State. To me they were Tweedledee and Tweedledum; I grew up rooting for both schools but didn't have any attachment to either. I was leaning toward Stanford, for its academics. However, a high school friend, with whom I wanted to play basketball, didn't get a full athletic scholarship from Stanford. Oregon State offered full rides to both of us, so off to Corvallis I went. I'm glad I did.

That move was typical -- all my life I've ended up doing the right thing for the wrong reason. Here's another example: I didn't want to play football in college; I liked baseball and basketball better. As a freshman at Oregon State I wasn't even on the football team, but I had a job taking care of the balls during games. I would stand on the sideline and throw passes, and fans would yell, "Why aren't you playing?" I was having fun not playing. But one day the next spring, when baseball practice had been rained out, football coach Tommy Prothro talked me into sitting in on a team meeting. When I arrived, I saw that he had written my name on a depth chart on the chalkboard, as the second-string tailback.

Something about seeing my name up there changed my mind, and I joined the team. Before long I had moved from tailback to quarterback, and in 1962, my senior year, I won the Heisman Trophy. We went 9-2 that season and beat Villanova in the Liberty Bowl; I scored the game's only points on a 99-yard touchdown run.

After bidding Corvallis goodbye, I played for the Los Angeles Rams for three years and the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos for a year, all while completing a law degree at USC. I intended to practice law in California when my playing days were over, but while waiting to resolve a contract dispute with Edmonton that was never settled, I started my legal career in Portland and never left. You could compare me with George Bailey of It's a Wonderful Life, who has ambitions to see the world but realizes how much he has at home. I still live in Portland and work as a lawyer (mostly in business litigation), and I couldn't imagine it any other way. In 10 minutes I can drive from my house in the hills to my downtown office, which has a view of the Willamette River.

Since my playing days ended, I've watched the athletic fortunes of my state's two big universities rise and fall. Oregon has developed into a sports power, thanks in large part to its major benefactor, alum and Nike founder Phil Knight. At Oregon State the football program went into free fall in the early 1970s, suffering through 28 straight seasons with a losing record. My Beavers finally bounced back in the late '90s, and they've done especially well under coaches Dennis Erickson and Mike Riley.

While the two schools certainly have a rivalry -- located just 40 miles apart, they can't avoid each other -- it isn't as fierce as those you find in other states. I'll root for the Ducks when they're playing someone other than the Beavers, and I know Oregon alumni who often pull for my alma mater. I can't get too riled up about Oregon because I have so many friends and coworkers who went there. (Most Oregonians will tell you that our real enemy is the University of Washington.) Maybe it comes down to what those newspaper editorials said years ago when I was making my college choice: People from a state like ours need to stick together.

Terry Baker, now a lawyer in Portland, won the 1962 Heisman Trophy as a quarterback at Oregon State.

Issue date: June 21, 2004