The Oregon-Oregon State rivalry (no longer officially “The Civil War”) has a long and storied tradition, with its 124th edition taking place Friday night in Corvallis. ESPN sideline reporter Shelley Smith is on the ground covering the Ducks-Beavers game amidst a lot of fog, and she relayed quite the story early on as part of a discussion about how intense this rivalry is:
https://twitter.com/FTBBurner11/status/1332501142584975360
Here’s a transcription of Smith’s comments there:
“This truly is one of the nastiest rivalries in all of college football. And how do I know? Because I’ve been to a bunch of them. Once I was here with my niece Vanessa, who was wearing a Ducks’ jacket, and she got hit on the head with a chunk of ice. It didn’t knock her out, but it knocked her silly.”
Smith then goes on to share a more standard story about current Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith:
“I was also here when Jonathan Smith was the quarterback, he’s now of course the head coach. He zinged a pass into the end zone, won the game, and knocked the Ducks out of the Rose Bowl. The Oregon-Oregon State hate is really real, believe me.”
The personal story there was certainly a bit unexpected. But it did perhaps illustrate the point of this being quite the rivalry. Hopefully this particular edition won’t see anyone hit in the head with ice.
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About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.