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QuickTake:
If it seems like the Ducks have been traveling a lot this postseason, there was a year they voyaged much farther — and under far stranger circumstances.
Herb Yamanaka picked up a cold in Miami.
The 91-year-old Oregon associate athletic director told me it was worth it — even if it will keep him from this week’s Peach Bowl. For all he’s seen in his 67 years with the Oregon athletic department, he had yet to watch his Ducks take home an Orange Bowl title.
“Once in a lifetime,” Yamanaka said. “The whole experience was just awesome. The bowl committee did a great job of hosting the Ducks.”
Well, I told Yamanaka, that was sort of why I called.
See, the Ducks are traveling a lot this month. It was Miami last week. Atlanta this week. And a win against Indiana in the Peach Bowl on Friday would mean a flight back to Miami for the national championship game.
It’s so much travel that during Dan Lanning’s appearance late last month on the “Pat McAfee Show,” the hosts joked that the Ducks were basically flying to Japan.
Well, Oregon has done that before. And Yamanaka was on the flight.
And while everything went well last week at the Orange Bowl, Yamanaka remembers that trip to Tokyo 40 years ago to play in the 1985 Mirage Bowl against USC as being a little more hectic.
It started with Jerry Allen.
At the time, Yamanaka wore a few hats for the athletic department, but largely described his duties as being a guy who got things done. And as the Oregon Ducks waited for their flight to Tokyo in the Seattle airport, his job became making sure everyone got on the plane.
Most did — there was some hesitance to allow South African kicker Dean Otto onto the flight for political reasons — but what Yamanaka remembers most is Oregon’s current play-by-play man.
“I was called to the podium, and they said Jerry Allen can’t fly with you,” Yamanaka said. “‘You have his ticket as Jerry Allen and his passport says Jerry Smith. He can’t fly.’”
Yamanaka explained Allen’s job, that he used the name Jerry Allen for professional reasons, and eventually got him on the flight.
The chaos, however, was just beginning.
A comedy of errors
Here’s a far-from-complete list of things that happened on the trip, per Yamanaka and Ken Goe’s on-site reporting in The Oregonian:
1. Instead of staying at the Otani Hotel as contracted, teams were shipped to the Miyako Inn because the game’s sponsor failed to pay a bill.
The Miyako Hotel was not equipped to house full-grown American football players. Showerheads reached chest level on most, and beds were just 6 feet long.
“We had to put chairs at the ends of the beds so they could sleep at night,” Yamanaka said.
2. A press conference for both teams with Japanese media before the game was delayed significantly because event organizers didn’t realize they’d need a translator.
3. Groundskeepers attempted to shoo teams away from practice fields they were contractually obligated to use.
4. Players and coaches from both teams showed up in suit coats and ties for a promised happy hour banquet with their Japanese hosts — and arrived to no food, no drink and no hosts.
5. Otherwise, there were no events or shuttling of teams around. Specifically, Oregon coach Rich Brooks was upset with the lack of a “cultural experience” for the players involved.
“I don’t think the people who put this game together had the players’ interests at heart,” Brooks said. “I thought it would be a great experience. … It leaves a bad taste in your mouth. They show you how it’s supposed to be and, when you get here, it’s not that way at all.”
Not that the Ducks were flawless
It wasn’t as if Oregon was perfect, either.
The year before, Yamanaka and a handful of UO staffers flew to Tokyo on a scouting trip ahead of the bowl game. Before leaving, Yamanaka taught them a few basic Japanese phrases to help impress their hosts.
One was good morning — ohayō — which Yamanaka explained was easy to remember because it sounded like “Ohio.”
So on the morning they met the manager of the Tokyo Hilton, the group bowed, curtsied and confidently delivered their greeting.
And were met with a noticeably cold reception.
Confused, Yamanaka asked what they had said.
“Good morning,” one staffer replied.
“How did you say it?” Yamanaka asked.
“Cincinnati.”
A Tush Push to get home
As for the game? It was largely forgettable for the Ducks.
USC won 20-6 in a game in which Oregon quarterback Chris Miller left with a cracked pelvis. USC improved to 6-5 and headed to the Aloha Bowl. The Ducks finished 5-6, closing their season in front of 62,000 fans at National Stadium.
But Oregon’s best formation was yet to come.
After the game, Yamanaka said he remembers Brooks telling players to enjoy their last night in Japan.
“You all played your hearts out. You represented Oregon well. Go have a good time, but at 8 o’clock the buses roll.”
At 8 o’clock, the buses were waiting on one player. And when he showed up, he told coaches he had lost his passport and wallet.
“So coach looks at me,” Yamanaka said, “and says, ‘Get his butt home.’”
By then, Yamanaka had seen enough football games in his life to know what to do. As the Ducks rolled through customs in Tokyo, Yamanaka positioned the wallet-less player behind three towering offensive linemen and himself.
It was the first Tush Push in international territory.
“We got him through,” Yamanaka said. “We may have lost the ballgame and gone through quite the ordeal, but we had a great time.”
I told Yamanaka that if Oregon’s offensive line protects Dante Moore in the same way on Friday against Indiana, Oregon might have a chance of heading back down to Miami.
“We had to be innovative and progressive and had a relentless pursuit for perfection — and we did it,” Yamanaka said. “And if the Ducks win again, I’ll be back at the Orange Bowl.”