A Visit to Autzen Stadium

One of the fun things we did on our recent visit with our daughter at the University of Oregon was attend a football game at beautiful Autzen Stadium.

Our daughter plays tenor saxophone in the Ducks marching band so the games are a big part of her college experience.

Game day for us began with breakfast at Elmer's. We found the breakfast here so good that we ate there two days in a row.

When we walked back to our hotel, we were quite surprised to find a row of seven motorcycle officers lined up at the front entrance.

It turned out that the Oregon Ducks football team had spent the pre-game night at our hotel! That was certainly a fun and unexpected coincidence. We watched as the team filed out of the hotel and onto the buses, then the buses took off for Autzen Stadium with the motorcycle officers' lights going. It was quite an exciting start to our game day experience.

The stadium is some distance from the University of Oregon campus, with a walk "over the river and through the woods."

Some of the beautiful landscaping around the stadium.

Autzen Stadium! The "O" for Oregon was added for a Game Day telecast a few years ago.

The plaza outside the stadium, leading to Moshofsky Center and a Duck Store:

We packed a lunch from Subway and ate alongside hundreds of people inside Moshofsky Center. The center can hold up to 5000 "tailgating" fans before football games.

The University of Oregon Marching Band enters the stadium! Our daughter is down there somewhere...

Welcome to Autzen Stadium!

The Ducks band plays the National Anthem:

And the Oregon football team runs through the middle of the band to take the field!

The Oregon Duck mascot, which sometimes looks like Donald Duck due to a special agreement with Walt Disney dating back to the 1940s. Given our family's love for all things Disney, it's rather fun that our daughter ended up at a university with a Disney mascot!

It was quite thrilling to watch the game amidst a sea of excited fans wearing green and yellow. We sat in the section right next to the band, which was the perfect vantage point for us as band parents.

The band performs their halftime show:

We stayed nice and warm in the third quarter thanks to more Dutch Bros. hot chocolate!

Oregon beat the Colorado Buffaloes, 44-10. Following the game it's tradition for the band to sing, rather than play, the university's alma mater song. A moving end to a really wonderful day.

Previously: A Visit to the University of Oregon.