By Jay Jones
One Click Sports News

Saturday night, Oregon State quarterback Lyle Moevao tweeted (@MOEVAO3):

This is what I’ve been waitin for. Payback is a b”#+@!

Sports writer Lindsay Schnell retweeted it on her account (@LindsayRae19).

We retweeted it last night on Duck Sports News (@DuckSportsNews).

This morning, ESPN’s Ted Miller named it the “Civil War ‘tweet’ of the day”.

Now, his Twitter account is gone.

Another example of when bad tweets happen to good athletes.

Where’s the next bit of smack-talk going to come from? Who will be the next Civil War Twitter victim?

We’ll let you know on Twitter.

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No SI Cover jinx, here. Move along. It’s only one of four “regional” Sports Illustrated covers for this year’s college football preview issues. Move along, now.

But even if there is a jinx…and I’m not saying there is (Jason Fife?)…those wings look pretty good.

And that’s why I have decided to dust off this blog entry from March of 2008 because the Ducks have one more Sports Illustrated cover to their credit. The Ducks now stand at five (moving past Arizona and tied with Oregon State and Stanford).

But who’s counting, right? USC and UCLA, because they have so many more to count.

Here’s the original blog entry. Enjoy.

{Are the numbers different a year and a half later? Probably. If they are, let me know. And I’ll make sure to include the updated info when I recycle this material again…in about a year and a half.)

Jay, here.

This past Thursday, Sports Illustrated opened the vault on all of their content.

Explore the 54 years of Sports Illustrated history including over 150000 stories, 2800 covers, 500000 photographs, a Wiki sports encyclopedia and links to …

Covers. Articles. Ads. Everything.

That got me to thinking: how many times has the University of Oregon been represented on the cover of Sports Illustrated? The answer? Four. (Unfortunately, I can’t count Eugene resident Brian Lanker’s 1985 Swimsuit Issue cover photograph of Paulina Porizkova.)

Then I was curious as to how that stack up against the rest of the Pac-10. Pretty well. But, as you will see, USC and UCLA are in a league of their own.

This is not an exhaustive list (because of USC and UCLA). And the cover count only represents the instances where a school is the primary focus on the cover. For example, USC’s Todd Marinovich made the cover throwing against Stanford. But Stanford really isn’t the focus (Actually, they’re kind of oblique and out of focus.). So, that doesn’t count for Stanford. And SI.com’s search feature is OK, but sometimes returns inconsistent results.

Here are the Pac-10 covers of Sports Illustrated.

Sports Illustrated Covers: OREGON – 5

Cover Dates: 06.15.70, 02.25.74, 08.13.01, 09.29.03, 08.17.09

The Ducks kind of have one more cover. Well, a lot of schools have at least one cover, sort of, with this year’s NCAA Tournament Preview edition. Kind of like “Where’s Waldo?”, where’s Malik Hairston?

Did you find him? Look right next to the “I” in “Illustrated. And, I think, that’s Malik.

UPDATE: In the comments section, Chris pointed out that Aaron Brooks was on the cover of the 2007 NCAA Tournament Preview edition (03.19.07). I kind of put this cover in the category with the above cover: it’s nice, but doesn’t count as Oregon having a cover. That’s Aaron on the basketball.

Sports Illustrated Covers: OREGON STATE – 5

Cover Dates: 10.16.61, 01.07.63, 03.05.90, 03.23.81, 09.29.03

Sports Illustrated Covers: WASHINGTON – 3

Cover Dates: 10.03.60, 10.04.71

Thanks to Alex, there is one more from 11.24.06 that did not come up in SI’s search feature.

Sports Illustrated Covers: WASHINGTON STATE – 0

Washington State joins Arizona State as the only Pac-10 schools not to have a Sports Illustrated cover. Although, I think there is a WSU player (Cowgill?) on the cover of the 2008 NCAATournament Preview edition.

Sports Illustrated Covers: CAL – 2

Cover Dates: 11.24.75, 03.29.93

Sports Illustrated Covers: STANFORD – 5

Cover Dates: 11.08.02, 03.17.97, 11.23.98, 10.07.02, 03.29.04

Sports Illustrated Covers: ARIZONA – 4

Cover Dates: 08.29.94, 04.07.97, 04.02.01, 11.25.02

Sports Illustrated Covers: ARIZONA STATE – 0

Like Washington State, Arizona State does not have a Sports Illustrated cover to its name. Unlike Washington State, though, I don’t even think they have a player on the cover of the 2008 NCAATournament Preview edition.

Sports Illustrated Covers: USC – 31

Cover Dates: Too many. First: 11.26.56 Most Recent: 11.19.07

Sports Illustrated Covers: UCLA – 35

Cover Dates: Too many. First: 01.05.59 Most Recent: 03.18.08

For more, visit the Sports Illustrated Vault.

For more on the Ducks, visit DuckSportsNews.com.

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By Jay Jones
One Click Sports News

It’s Civil War week! Can you feel the excitement? Huh? Huh?

OK. Maybe not quite yet.

But this week’s lineup on The Writer’s Block with The Register-Guard’s George Schroeder (9am – 10am, ESPN Radio KSCR 1320 AM “The Score”) should get both Duck and Beaver fans a little bit more prepared just about everyday this week.

Here’s what you can look forward to on The Writer’s Block this week:

Monday: George and I will be reviewing the Oregon State-Arizona game, looking forward to the Civil War, and talking to Oregon State head football coach Mike Riley.

Tuesday: George and The Register-Guard’s Rob Moseley will be talking Ducks and the Civil War.

Wednesday: George and I will be talking more Civil War, including a possible conversation with Oregon head football coach Mike Bellotti. We will also be giving away Oregon and Oregon State gear, compliments of Oregon Sports at The Gateway Mall.

Thursday: Thanksgiving. No show.

Friday: This isn’t for sure, but George and I are going to try to put together a show featuring nothing but Civil War talk, including replays of the interviews with Mike Riley and Mike Bellotti.

Duck fans, get all the latest Oregon sports news from Duck Sports News.

Beaver fans, get all the latest Oregon State sports news from Beaver Sports News.

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March 13, 2008

Jay, here.

On Tuesday, Eugene radio station KPNW-AM pulled “Sports Talk”, the long-running sports talk show hosted by Steve Tannen and Nate Gorman, and replaced it with Michael Savage’s “Savage Nation”. Considering that as of last week I was scheduled to appear as a regular guest on Thursdays to talk about the Ducks and the Beavers, I’ve got some thoughts on the matter.

Before I go any further, however, I want to thank Steve and Nate for having me on the show. Opportunities to regularly appear in traditional media (radio, television, newspaper) are hard to come by. They had a good show and gave me a chance. And it was fun and I really appreciated the opportunity. Hopefully, we can do it again. But if I do get another chance at local media, I now need to avoid falling into the Ted McGinley-Jump The Shark category.

While KPNW-AM and Bicoastal Media jumped even further to the right with Michael Savage, I don’t think it was the right move for local news talk, local sports talk, and local civics. Unfortunately, media companies don’t operate with those priorities in mind. They are concerned about the bottom-line. But even from a bottom-line perspective (and I don’t pretend to know what they knew when making their decision), this choice doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

I’m not going to get political here, but I don’t think Michael Savage was the best choice in this case. Regardless of your political affiliation, Michael Savage is embarrassing. And I don’t think he’s going to play well in Eugene. Yes, I understand how he adds to the conservative synergy KPNW has going on the air. But I don’t think you make that choice in Eugene. If Bicoastal felt that they needed to make a change, they probably should have kept it conservative and local, instead of right of the Attila the Hun and national. Not only would that have been different, I think that would have made the jump easier for Steve and Nate. Still painful, but easier. And I think it would have been an easier sell to the public for Bicoastal. Replacing Steve with Savage was a real barbaric act here.

Now, there’s a sports talk monarchy in the Eugene-Springfield area. While that’s good for KSCR, it’s not good for local sports fans. Look, Duck Sports News has a good relationship with everyone in local sports talk radio. George Schroeder. Justin Myers. T-Bone. Steve. Nate. And we would like to keep it that way. But just like in sports, competition is a good thing. The more quality sports talk programming the better for local sports fans. And Justin and Steve are a good example of what happens when you have programs in competition. Both competed with each other for an audience between 3p.m. and 5p.m. Instead of two shows talking about the same things, sports fans got two shows talking about sports, appealing to two different audiences. And that meant more people were talking sports. Regardless of what you might think of sports talk radio, it is the last refuge for a type of local civic (not necessarily civil) discourse. And that is a good thing.

So, where do Steve, Nate, and “Sports Talk” go from here? I haven’t talked to either Steve or Nate about what I’m going to suggest. And I don’t think they’ve asked for my opinion either. But I’m going to throw it there. Has anyone noticed what The Register-Guard has been doing over the last few months? They are changing. And they will tell you that they are changing. What are they changing into? A media company. They are no longer just a newspaper company. Look at the sports videos that they are producing (Hello, KEZI, KVAL, & KMTR.). Look at their online presence (blogs and podcasts). Look at the placement of their talent in other media (“Writer’s Block”). If I were to talk to Steve and Nate, I would suggest that they talk to the Register-Guard about getting a Register-Guard sports talk online podcast up and running as quickly as possible. The RG has the sales team needed to come up with a sponsorship. They have a stable of writers as potential regular guests (Moseley, Schroeder, Clark, Bellamy). And they have the online distribution in their website. If I were them, the end of Chad Drive is the place I would go first.

KPNW and Bicoastal “jumped the shark” in replacing “Sports Talk” with “Savage Nation”. And right about now, I’m sure Steve and Nate feel like a shark took a bite out of them. But I think there’s a chance they can bite back. They just need to get on board a bigger boat.

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Ducks fans, you know how you’re feeling right now.  But do you know how the rest of the Pac 10 feels about your team?  Do they feel your pain?  Not exactly.

Here’s a sampling from around the Pac 10 blogosphere.  Mind you, this is only a compilation, a very sour sampler.  This is not a compendium of forum and message board comments.  If want to get a glimpse into a fan’s online soul, go the message boards and forums to take a look at your own risk.

Arizona – Not available.

Arizona State – “Tucson, AZ: Where BCS Dreams Go To Die”

Cal – Not available.

OSU -”Oregon Ducks Suck Against Arizona”

Stanford – Not available.

UCLA -”No Dixon”

USC – “Dixon out with a Torn ACL”

Washington – “Wow….34-24 Arizona Over Oregon”

And we saved the worst for last…

Washington State – “WHAAAAAAA! WHAAA!”

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[UPDATE 5:45 p.m.] This broadcast issue has been resolved. The UO-ASU game will be broadcast on FSN Northwest with FSN Arizona commentators at it’s scheduled time of 3:30 p.m. The OSU-USC game will air on ABC at 5:00 p.m.

It’s a Land of Confusion out there.

So, let’s make this as clear as possible right now.

Everything that you’ve heard or read up until this point about the broadcast of the Oregon and Oregon State games is in flux and subject to change.

Hopefully, we will have a definitive word by the end of today.

If you would like to follow what is currently being said, here you go:

Got the Oregon-ASU-Oregon State TV thing figured out? Good. It’s changing again (sort of)

Bernard in doubt but TV back on for Beavers

Pac-10 TV Schedule | November 3

Local TV update

Check back at DuckSportsNews.com for updates.

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