Tagged: Webfoot

The Fourth Estate: A History of the Earliest Student Publications at the University of Oregon

Early staff of the Oregon Daily Emerald (UA REF 3, Box 92, Folder 24)
Early staff of the Oregon Daily Emerald (UA REF 3, Box 92, Folder 24)

For the first fifteen years of the University of Oregon’s existence, the campus was without any student publications. During this nascent phase of the university’s development, though, the framework that would eventually lead to the proliferation of student newsletters, newspapers, and magazines was erected. The early formation of literary societies was critical in catalyzing the rise of student publications, and the early publications set a precedent for independent journalism for more than a century. Today’s post illuminates the early efforts of students to bring news and commentary to print, focusing on the first publications created by the UO student body.

 

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The Oregon Mascot, Part 2: Becoming the Ducks

Duck_pushups_2012

This two-part series utilizes archival sources in the UO Special Collections and University Archives to show the long and contentious history of athletic mascots on the Eugene campus. Read more about the Webfoot era in Part 1.

 

It wasn’t a far leap for the Webfooter to become a Duck, yet the adoption of the latter as the University of Oregon mascot was a contentious part of Eugene history. As former Emerald sports editor Harold Mangum noted about the Webfoot mascot in 1926, “The name has been changed to Ducks in most instances, and if similarity to a duck is anything to be proud of, the world’s wrong and water runs uphill…. there is nothing brave, glorious, or inspiring about [a duck’s] presence.” Continue reading →

The Oregon Mascot, Part 1: The Webfooter Years

1905-06_Webfoot_zoom

This two-part series utilizes archival sources in the UO Special Collections and University Archives to show the long and contentious history of athletic mascots on the Eugene campus.

 

 

When the University of Oregon played its first football game in the spring of 1894, there was not a mascot patrolling the sideline and inciting crowd participation. The UO team that played Albany College was known only as the “lemon yellow,” referring to the accent color of their uniforms. When the team returned to the field for three games in the fall, there was still no defining mascot for the team. For three decades after that first season, the school would have no official representative for its sports teams, and it would take another half-century before Oregon became the Oregon Ducks. Instead UO would come to be known by an obscure east-coast reference turned pejorative turned source of pride — the Webfoot.

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