I'm SO PROUD!

I'm SO PROUD to be an Oregonian this morning!

For those of you who follow such things (I must admit at this point that I am not a football fan), there was a HUGE football game in Oregon last night. Rival college teams from the University of Oregon and Oregon State University played what we "affectionately" call the "Civil War" last night. I dare say that most Oregonians have an allegiance to one or the other of these schools. People either attended one or the other, or they have a family member, friend, or neighbor who did.... or they like the team colors of one or the other! For whatever reason, there is a fierce rivalry between the 2 schools.

This year is a little different, though. The winner of THIS game will go to the Rose Bowl. So--- they were calling it the "War for the Roses". Fearing that fans might not show good sportsmanship, the presidents of both schools publicly promoted friendly competition, saying that this is competition- not war. It was amazing how heated this thing got. WOW!

So... if I don't care about football and I didn't go to either one of these schools, why am I proud this morning? NO VIOLENCE was reported on the news. I'm sure somebody somewhere got into a fight, and there were the usual traffic violations. But nothing really bad happened. I am seeing reports of people in rival colors shaking hands, and the losing team is being touted this morning as having played a great game. The game was really, really close, and both teams played well (or so I'm told).

One of the Oregon players was recently in the news for hitting someone during a game- lots of bad press. I think a lot of people got a reality check during that ugly incident. It's a GAME, people! But games like this one restore my faith in sports fans.

So who won? We ALL did! It was FUN. It was EXCITING! It was a GAME. But the duck fans are just a little happier than the beaver fans are this morning. The University of Oregon ducks will be playing in the Rose Bowl. And I'm sure they don't care much about the opinion of a lady who owns a quilt shop in Banks, Oregon, but I'm very proud of the Beavers for playing a good game, and being gracious losers.