University of Oregon
The University of Oregon (UO) is located in Eugene. The university was founded in 1876, graduating its first class (five students) two years later.
The school colors are green and yellow.
Former Oregon attorney general Dave Frohnmayer is the president of the university administration. UO receives much of its funding from the UO Foundation, an independent not-for-profit organization. Foundation members include executives from Intel and the Pape company, a Eugene-based manufacturer of tractors and forklifts.
The university maintains the Riverfront Research Park on the other side of Franklin Blvd. from the main campus, next to the Willamette River. The Park is used for creating new technologies (including projects funded by the US military), such as research about artificial intelligence at the Computational Intelligence Research Lab, and genetic engineering research on Zebrafish.
Athletics
Its athletes are known as the Fighting Ducks. UO is a member of the Pacific Ten Conference conference and Division I-A for athletics. Home football games are played in Autzen Stadium. The university intends to build a larger arena to replace McArthur Court, where basketball games are played.
UO track and field coach Bill Bowerman revolutionized the athletic shoe by pouring melted rubber into a waffle iron, creating a prototype rubber sole. Bowerman went on to co-found the Nike corporation with UO alumnus Phil Knight. Nike has maintained a close relationship with UO ever since, manufacturing all university logo clothing and uniforms for the football team, including research prototypes for high-tech "smart clothes", such as jerseys with cooling systems. Controversy surrounding Nike's labor practice precipatated protests led by Students Against Sweatshops, including a tent city occupation of the lawns in front of Johnson Hall, the main administration building. Protesting students demanded independent human rights oversight in Nike's overseas factories.
In 2003, the Oregon Ducks mascot, usually a green-and-yellow wearing Donald Duck, was replaced by a Nike-designed futuristic rubber-suit wearing duck, nicknamed "Mandrake" or "RoboDuck" by the student body. The mascot's public appearances were seriously diminished after it was found to be unpopular with students and football fans.
Trivia
The university was the site of major protests against the Vietnam war.
Confrontations between students living in the West University neighborhood and the Eugene Police Department's Party Patrol have escalated into riots a number of times in the past few years.
The film Animal House was filmed on the University campus and the surrounding area.
There is a campus rumour that the "Pioneer Mother," a statue on campus of an elderly settler woman sitting in a chair, will stand when the first student graduates a virgin.
