1954 Oregon Ducks football team

1954 Oregon Ducks football
ConferencePacific Coast Conference
Record6–4 (5–3 PCC)
Head coach
CaptainRon Pheister
Home stadiumHayward Field, Multnomah Stadium
1954 Pacific Coast Conference football standings
Conf. Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
No. 2 UCLA $ 6 – 0 – 0 9 – 0 – 0
No. 17 USC ^ 6 – 1 – 0 8 – 4 – 0
Oregon 5 – 3 – 0 6 – 4 – 0
California 4 – 3 – 0 5 – 5 – 0
Washington State 3 – 4 – 0 4 – 6 – 0
Stanford 2 – 4 – 0 4 – 6 – 0
Idaho 1 – 2 – 0 4 – 5 – 0
Washington 1 – 6 – 0 2 – 8 – 0
Oregon State 1 – 6 – 0 1 – 8 – 0
  • $ – Conference champion
  • ^ – Selected as Rose Bowl representative
    UCLA won rivalry game over USC, but no-repeat rule was in effect
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1954 Oregon Ducks football team represented the University of Oregon as a member of the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) during the 1954 college football season. In their fourth season under head coach Len Casanova, the Ducks compiled a 6–4 record (5–3 in PCC, third), and outscored their opponents 218 to 159. The team played its home games on campus in Eugene at Hayward Field, and at Multnomah Stadium in Portland.

On a morning deer hunt east of Eugene in mid-October, senior guard Jack Patera of Portland mistakenly shot and killed former Oregon teammate Ken Sweitzer, a graduate assistant.[1][2] It was ruled accidental and he was cleared of negligence.[3] This was the second death for the team in two months; in mid-August, junior guard Doyle Higdon of Cottage Grove was killed in a logging explosion while removing stumps.[2][4]

Oregon won all four games against northwest PCC opponents; their next sweep came 26 years later.

Schedule

DateOpponentRankSiteResultAttendanceSource
September 18at IdahoNo. 18
W 41–07,000[5]
September 25StanfordNo. 16
L 13–1830,214[6]
October 2Utah*
L 6–711,000[7]
October 9at California
W 33–2731,000[8]
October 16USC
  • Multnomah Stadium
  • Portland, OR
L 14–2422,766[9]
October 23San Jose State*
  • Hayward Field
  • Eugene, OR
W 26–710,000[10]
October 30at Washington
W 26–738,300[11]
November 6at No. 1 UCLA
L 0–4146,435[12]
November 13Washington State
  • Hayward Field
  • Eugene, OR
W 26–1416,500[13]
November 20at Oregon State
W 33–1421,200[14]

References

  1. ^ "Shot kills ex-Oregon grid star". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. October 14, 1954. p. 1A.
  2. ^ a b "Tragedy stuns Oregon squad". Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. Associated Press. October 15, 1954. p. 14.
  3. ^ "Patera cleared of negligence". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. October 15, 1954. p. 1A.
  4. ^ "UO athlete, co-worker killed in blast". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. August 14, 1954. p. 1.
  5. ^ Strite, Dick (September 19, 1954). "Webfoots wallop Idaho 41–0". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. p. 1C.
  6. ^ "Stanford upsets Stanford". San Francisco Chronicle. September 26, 1954. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Utah defeats Oregon, 7 to 6". The Billings Gazette. October 3, 1954. Retrieved May 1, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Oregon stuns Cal gridders". The Sunday News Tribune & Ledger. October 10, 1954. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "SC rolls to 24–14 win". The Register. October 17, 1954. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Shaw leads Ducks to 26–7 win over shaky San Jose". The Fresno Bee. October 24, 1954. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "After 5 years, 'poor Huskies,' 26–7". The Oregon Daily Journal. October 31, 1954. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Top rated UCLA blasts Oregon, 41–0". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. November 7, 1954. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Ducks overcome Washington State". The Sunday Oregonian. November 14, 1954. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Oregon's Shaw leads 33–14 win over Beavers". Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. Associated Press. November 21, 1954. p. 4, sports.
  15. ^ "1954 Oregon Ducks Schedule and Results". College Football @ Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  16. ^ "1954 Football Schedule". University of Oregon Athletics. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  17. ^ "2023 Oregon Football Record Book" (PDF). University of Oregon Athletics. p. 49. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
  18. ^ "Schedule/Results (1954 Oregon)". NCAA Statistics. National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.