Tigers score 3 on final play to win national title

GLENDALE, Ariz. — If there’s ever been a more exciting moment in the history of University of Oregon football, Larry Brody has never seen it.

With 2:30 to go in Monday’s BCS National Championship game here Monday, Oregon scored a touchdown and a 2-point conversion to tie No. 1 Auburn 19-19.

It was a highlight in the 45 years he’s been watching Duck football — starting when he was a 6-year-old and watched at Hayward Field.

Unfortunately for Brody and the tens of thousands of UO fans who came here to witness the Ducks’ first-ever appearance in a national championship game in 115 seasons of football, a miraculous comeback evaporated.

Instead, Auburn kicked a field goal on the game’s final play to beat the Ducks 22-19 in front of a University of Phoenix Stadium record crowd of 78,603.

“It’s disappointing,” said Brody, 51, of Eugene, standing in the first row with his son, David, and daughter, Katie, a UO senior, after the game. “But (watching) the two best teams in the country? How can you be too disappointed? That touchdown and 2-point conversion, that was the most exciting moment I’ve ever seen as a Duck fan.”

Those eight points, however, were the only points the Ducks high-scoring offense, which led the nation and averaged almost 50 points a game, managed to score in the entire second half, after trailing 16-11 at halftime.

Thus, the greatest regular season in UO football history ended with the Ducks’ first loss in more than a year, since the 2010 Rose Bowl loss to Ohio State one year and 10 days ago. Still, the 2010 Ducks, who came into the game 12-0 and ranked No. 2 in the nation, will finish with the most wins in school history — and the best overall record, at 12-1 — since the 1916 UO team went 7-0-1 and won the program’s only Rose Bowl victory on Jan. 1, 1917.

“I’m just really proud of my players,” UO coach Chip Kelly said after the game. “I love these guys. They’ve competed. They’ve done everything we’ve ever asked them to do. It’s a special group of young men … .We’ll be back.”

The stunned faces of UO fans filled the southwest side of the stadium when Auburn’s Wes Byrum kicked the winning 19-yard field goal as time expired. Auburn fans rushed the field, the traditional confetti boomed toward the indoor stadium’s roof, and the party was on for Auburn.

But Duck fan Nancy Hess of Portland held her ground in the first row, refusing to put down her “Addicted to Quack” sign.

“You know something? I love the Ducks,” said a misty-eyed Hess, who watched the game with her husband, 1979 UO graduate Tim Hess, and stepson, Harrison Hess. “They are so awesome. They played their hearts out. There’s just not enough I can say about them.”

As the Auburn players and fans celebrated on the field, Tim Day of Manchester, N.H., was still sitting in his seat, in the very southwest corner of the stadium, with his hands folded and hanging over the railing.

“Tough loss; great season,” said Day, who was the starting quarterback for the University of Massachusetts through his senior year in 2005, when he played against the University of New Hampshire when Kelly was the offensive coordinator there. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Chip Kelly and what he’s done in just two seasons. But the better team won today,” said Day, whose good friend, Alex Miller, who played center for UMass when Day was there, is now a graduate assistant with the Ducks.

Duck fans who ventured south for the biggest game in UO history spent a pretty penny to be here.

The least expensive face-value tickets to the game were $300. But only 12,500 UO season-ticket holders had the chance to buy tickets through the UO. Others had to buy them from scalpers for prices of more than $5,000 for some.

Lots of Duck fans came to the Phoenix area just to be a part of it all, not even having tickets. Hours before the kickoff, UO fans were partying in the vast parking lots around the stadium.

Despite not having a ticket to the game, Duck fan Chris Burg of Las Vegas, who grew up in Portland and has rooted for the Ducks since childhood, said the experience of going last year to the Rose Bowl (where he did have game tickets), was so much fun that he had to come this year.

“Exciting; ridiculous,” said Burg, who came to the game with 10 friends who all rented an RV in Phoenix for $800. None of the 11 had tickets to the game. Instead, they watched it on a 52-inch flat-screen TV in the parking lot.

Martin Sobieraj, a 2000 UO graduate who lives in Phoenix now and went to Centennial High School in Portland with Burg, said he had two tickets to the game that he paid $1,700 for, but he sold them for $3,200. He said he’d rather make a profit and watch the game with his friends.

The stadium doors opened to fans 2½ hours before kickoff, and many of them couldn’t wait to get into their seats and take it all in.

“I don’t like football inside a building,” said 1955 UO graduate Donn Sullivan of Portland, who played football for the legendary Duck coach Len Casanova and ran track for Bill Bowerman. “But this is the greatest thing ever.”

One of his three sons, Chris Sullivan of Seattle, who watched the game with him, agreed: “To be here after all the games in the ’70s, wow,” said Chris Sullivan, a reporter for KIRO radio in Seattle, said. “It’s awesome. Never dreamt of this.”

Oregon and Auburn each received $21 million for playing in the game. Oregon takes its travel expenses — about $1.5 million to $2 million — out of the $21 million, and what remains is divided equally between all 10 schools of its conference. That’ll equal $2 million or a little less for the UO athletic department.