Inside The Huskies

What Else Could It Be? UW-Oregon Game Is Sellout

The Huskies and Ducks will play in front of a capacity crowd north of 70,000.
Dan Raley|
UW fans celebrate the 2023 victory over Oregon.
UW fans celebrate the 2023 victory over Oregon. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Through the course of this University of Washington football season, coach Jedd Fisch has called for sellout crowds, only to be rebuffed when the Huskies went head to head with a Mariners playoff game, the weather kicked in or his team kicked off at 8 p.m.

He didn't have to say anything, not one word, this week with Oregon coming to town.

It didn't matter if the game was late, sure to be wet or the local baseball team was in the seventh game of the World Series.

On Friday morning, more than 24 hours before kickoff, the UW announced that Saturday's game against the Ducks is a sellout.

Could it be anything but that?

The excuses, the distractions, the weather reports all go out the window when the Huskies and the Ducks meet.

This means that more than the capacity of 70,138 will squeeze into Husky Stadium.

They each could have losing records and this sort of elbow-to-elbow mass of humanity would turn out.

It's the long-standing neighboring rivalry, the stated dislike, the jealousies and envies that has each side totally immersed.

Since Husky Stadium was expanded in 1987, the UW and Oregon have played 17 times in Montlake and drawn 12 crowds of 70,000 people or more -- with 74,054 in 1995 the largest turnout in the in the 117-game series.

That was a typical Huskies-Ducks outing, with the visitors winning 24-22 and everyone feeling the pressure that day.

Husky fans celebrate the 2023 win over Oregon.
Husky fans celebrate the 2023 win over Oregon. | Skylar Lin Visuals

UW kicker John Wales had a 33-yard field goal blocked with 3:02 remaining and missed a 36-yarder wide right with 1:07 left. Two very late chances to pull it out squandered.

Don't tell anyone, but Oregon holds a 9-8 edge in victories in front of these big Husky Stadium gatherings.

Then UW coach Kalen DeBoer does a postgame interview following the Huskies' 36-33 win in 2023.
Then UW coach Kalen DeBoer does a postgame interview following the Huskies' 36-33 win in 2023. | Skylar Lin Visuals

The Huskies, of course, were on the other end of a missed field goal in 2023, in the last rivalry meeting in Seattle, when Oregon's Camden Lewis went wide right on a 43-yarder to tie on the final play of the game.

UW fans consider that the greatest win of a long-winding always emotional series that has the Huskies holding a 63-49-1 advantage heading into this weekend's game. The video accompanying this story would seem to indicate that with the wild celebration that took place afterward.

Husky students shared in the 2023 victory over Oregon.
Husky students shared in the 2023 victory over Oregon. | Skylar Lin Visuals

So here we go again, with the fifth-ranked Ducks (10-1 overall, 7-1 Big Ten) coming in harboring CFP playoff hopes and the Huskies (8-3, 5-3) trying to land a nice bowl game.

There's a lot on the line, but there always is, even when one of these teams is having a down season.

Husky fans show their enthusiasm for the 2023 Oregon game.
Husky fans show their enthusiasm for the 2023 Oregon game. | Skylar Lin Visuals

In 2021, Jimmy Lake lost his UW coaching job a week after losing 26-16 to Oregon. The reason given was him shoving one of his players during the game. Losing to the Ducks didn't help him. Nor did the game attendance.

That outing four years ago drew just 63,193 fans -- the lowest Husky Stadium crowd for an Oregon-UW game in the 36 years since the seat expansion.

There's no way Lake was going to keep his job.

HUSKY STADIUM OREGON CROWDS

Since 1987 Expansion

1989 -- 70,442

UW 20, Oregon 14

1990 -- 73,498

UW 38, Oregon 17

1991 -- 72,318

UW 29, Oregon 7

1993 -- 72,534

UW 21, Oregon 6

1995 -- 74,054

Oregon 24, UW 22

1997 -- 73,175

Oregon 31, UW 28

1999 -- 72,581

UW 34, Oregon 20

2003 -- 72,450

UW 42, Oregon 10

2007 -- 66,431

Oregon 55, UW 34

2009 -- 67,809

Oregon 43, UW 19

2011 -- 69,407

Oregon 34, UW 17

2013 -- 71,833

Oregon 45, UW 24

2015 -- 69,285

Oregon 26, UW 20

2017 -- 70,572

UW 38, Oregon 3

2019 -- 70,867

Oregon 35, UW 31

2021 -- 63,193

Oregon 26, UW 16

2023 -- 71,321

UW 36, Oregon 33

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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