The national media’s scornful, and often unfair, treatment of FSU has been a target of ChopChat as of late, as writers such as Patrik Nohe and I have taken the powers that be to task several times in the weeks leading up to the inaugural College Football Playoff.
Yesterday, Nike released images hyping the four CFB Playoff participants. Oregon’s ad features a uniformed model adorned with wings. His Florida State counterpart? Surrounded by a ring of fire. Yes, Ducks have wings. And, yeah, the Seminoles are known by the planting of a flaming spear. But it’s tough to ignore the allusion to heaven and hell. Good and evil. Your call.
It’s easy to blame Nike. And I also think it’s rather unfruitful. Granted, Nike chairman Phil Knight is an Oregon Alumnus, and Nike is headquartered in Oregon. But the athletic equipment giant also outfits numerous other teams (including all four playoff squads), and the company cites the Seminoles’ symbology pertaining to fire on their uniform sleeves. Fair enough.
So what do we make of the slanted treatment that has routinely painted Oregon as choirboys and the ‘Noles as roguish thugs? Could it be traced back to a deeper connection between ESPN, the self-proclaimed worldwide leader in sports, and Oregon itself? You decide– but such a connection most definitely exists.
Let’s lay out the groundwork. ESPN’s primary owner is Disney. But what does that have to do with its derogatory treatment of FSU, or, for that matter, a positive light shed upon Oregon? More than you might think.
According to the University of Oregon’s athletic website, Walt Disney himself was friends with Leo Harris, Oregon’s first athletic director back in the 1940s. Before then, Oregon’s athletic teams were known largely as the Webfoots, a reference to area residents’ need to adapt to the Pacific Northwest’s rainy climate, which produced muddy conditions. It’s not difficult to see how this quickly morphed into an animal mascot.
Enter the Ducks.
For a while, the Ducks were represented by a live animal mascot, like Colorado’s Ralphie, Georgia’s Uga, or Florida State’s own Renegade. His name? Puddles. Puddles the duck.
But Oregon wanted a more uniform look, and that’s where Harris and Disney came in. Disney granted Harris permission to use his iconic Donald Duck, and that mascot made its first appearance in 1934. The oral agreement stood for many years, and a photograph, which you can view here on the Ducks’ website, even shows Disney in an Oregon jacket.
Now there’s certainly nothing wrong with one friend helping out another. But history suggests that the Disney corporation preferred a formal, long-term agreement with Oregon. Because after Walt Disney’s death in 1966, the Disney corporation made what was a casual agreement official, in 1973, signing a written agreement with the University of Oregon.
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Both Oregon and Disney have continued to celebrate the relationship. The aforementioned Oregon athletics article admits that “Donald . . . was named an honorary alumnus of the University of Oregon. Thousands of area residents signed a congratulatory scroll for Donald, and that document is now part of Disney’s corporate archives.”
What does all of this mean? Well, there’s this: if you work for ESPN, essentially, you work for Disney. And if history suggests anything, it’s that Disney and the Ducks are pretty cozy. Does this have anything to do with the glowing treatment showered upon the apparently angelic Oregon as opposed to that relegated to the seemingly mischievous and impish FSU?
Again: your call. But it’s difficult to dispatch of history.