110 miles north of the University of Oregon campus sits Nike’s World Headquarters. The proximity of Nike’s campus to Oregon’s makes shipping cheap for Oregon’s weekly set of new football uniforms.
The Oregon Ducks never wear the same uniform two weeks in a row. While it’s not news every single week what the Ducks will wear during their upcoming game, it is news when Oregon goes where no team (Oregon specifically or other NCAA schools as a whole) has gone before.
Fresh off a blowout of Stanford, #5 Washington will visit unranked Oregon in Eugene on Saturday October 8th. With the #5 Huskies coming to town, the Ducks unveiled new uniforms they’ve never worn before.
This weekend against Washington: Webfoots.#GoDucks pic.twitter.com/hfwYz3DcWb
— Oregon Football (@oregonfootball) October 3, 2016
The Oregon Webfoots. The University of Oregon was smart not to keep with that name.
Before they were the Ducks, for a while they were the Webfoots. Oregon says that nickname was used by the team as a source of pride based on its “obscure east-coast” narrative. The Webfoots nickname was used for around the first three decades of the program’s history. Ultimately the history of the Webfoots goes back much further, but it’s good that they’re now the Ducks. Well, at least except for this weekend.
The uniforms themselves have a lot of hidden meaning in them.
On the shoulders is Oregon’s fight song “The Mighty Oregon March,” which was first sung on campus on January 7th, 1916. It’s now played at every football and basketball game and on campus at least twice a day.
One thing that sticks out about the uniform is the odd navy blue and “lemon yellow” color scheme. Well, the uniforms hint to that on the chest. When Oregon played its first game against Albany College in 1894, they had no nickname and instead were referred to as the “lemon yellow” because of the yellow on their uniforms.
The announcement didn’t surprise college football fans, some of whom seem to be growing tired of this whole “new uniforms every week” trend.
I kind of want Oregon to one day just decide "our alternate uniforms are going to look exactly like our opponents" just to mess with 'em.
— Billy Gomila (@BillyGomila) October 3, 2016
"This week for the USC game, Oregon is wearing special Cardinal and Gold uniforms to honor the beautiful color change in our leaves."
— Billy Gomila (@BillyGomila) October 3, 2016
Those Oregon uniforms look like Cal. Just sayin'
— Yahoo Sports College Football (@YahooSportsCFB) October 3, 2016
Unpopular opinion alert: Oregon should wear plain uniforms (home/away) until they start winning again #EarnYourFlash
— Andrew Nemec (@AndrewNemec) October 1, 2016
Oregon's uniforms are way cooler when they are not awful.
— Braden Shamo (@BradenShamo) October 3, 2016
