UO SPIRIT ON TAP

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of stories on the “Road 2 Natty.”

SAN FRANCISCO — Tony Bennett might have left his heart here, but someone apparently left the Duck here, too.

Or maybe Duck mascots just have to go somewhere after they graduate from the University of Oregon.

“What the hell?” says Stephen Cross, a 1998 UO graduate, enjoying a beer at R Bar on Sutter Street Wednesday night, as the Duck suddenly appears from the darkness in the back of the small bar.

“I think he came here for a USC game (on TV) three or four years ago and never left. I think he sleeps on a cot in back.”

Chris Fogarty, also a 1998 UO graduate, owns the R Bar. The way he explains it, the Duck walked in while everyone was watching the Ducks and Beavers on TV in the 2003 Civil War game at Autzen Stadium. And he has been making appearances ever since, says Fogarty, who grew up here and became a rabid Duck fan during his freshman year at UO in 1994, the year the Ducks earned a berth in the Rose Bowl for the first time in 37 years.

“Every time there’s a game, he’ll just show up,” Fogarty says of the Duck. “Come out of his closet. It’s San Francisco, but not that closet. He’ll come out and have a good time, get behind the bar, pour a couple shots, hug babies, kiss hands. He’ll just be that guy. It’s been a nice addition for us.”

R Bar is the place to watch Duck games in the City by the Bay, bar regulars say.

“If you could picture this room so packed with people that you can’t even move or breathe or think, that’s what it’s like,” says Ariel Ungerleider, a former UO cheerleader and 2005 graduate who’s now an attorney here.

And if ever there was a season to be watching Duck football at R Bar, it was this one, Ungerleider says.

“I still can’t believe it,” she says of the UO going 12-0 and earning a spot in the BCS National Championship game against No. 1 Auburn Monday in Glendale, Ariz. Ungerleider plans to meet her father, Eugene sports psychologist Stephen Ungerleider, in Glendale and attend the game.

Fogarty and about 20 college buddies from his UO days will be there, too. And he says his Duck friend will tag along. In fact, the suit was taken to a dry cleaner here a few days ago for its first cleaning in 12 years, just for the occasion, Fogarty says. Cost about $50, he says.

This sounds like trouble. What happens when he runs into the current Duck in Glendale?

Not going to happen, Fogarty says.

The San Francisco Duck will appear only at a private party, he says. Fogarty was not planning on heading to Glendale, but then his Budweiser representative gave him two tickets. Otherwise, he was going to watch the game at the bar, which first opened under another name in downtown in 1940, he says. He bought the place in March 2003 and turned it into a Duck fan’s Bay Area paradise.

The Oregon fight song plays on the jukebox during Duck games. And the Duck comes out, like he did Wednesday, even if there isn’t a Duck game on.

“Teach me how to Ducky! Teach me how to Ducky!” a bar patron screamed as the Duck poured a few beers and strutted his stuff behind the bar. This Duck seems to have more than a bit of attitude. He slicks his fur back, and gestures like the late Rodney Dangerfield, never standing still, always bobbing and twitching.

“Most of the games here are just insane, it’s just packed,” says Paul Nadeau, a San Francisco resident who started going to R Bar soon after Fogarty bought it.

“You’ve got to get here two hours early,” Cross says. “Tough to get a seat, tough to get a drink. But it’s fun.”

A 1999 graduate of St. Mary’s University, Nadeau says he wasn’t much of a football fan, since St. Mary’s, where former UO basketball coach Ernie Kent once coached, doesn’t have a football team. But Nadeau quickly became hooked on the Ducks. In fact, Wednesday night he was wearing a green Ducks stocking hat and a yellow “La Heisman” T-shirt with UO running back LaMichael James’ image on it. He bought that at the Cooler tavern in Eugene when he was in town for the Nov. 6 game against Washington.

And when the Duck appears at R Bar?

“People love it,” Nadeau says. “It’s a great time. Definitely amps things up.”