Rich Brooks and Mike Bellotti got the ball rolling, but it was Chip Kelly who took it and ran with it, turning Oregon into a perennial major-bowl participant.
Brooks took the Ducks to the 1994 Rose Bowl, Oregon’s first appearance in the Granddaddy of Them All in 37 years.
Bellotti took over the following season and, in his 14 seasons, led the Ducks to appearances in 12 bowl games, including the 2001 Fiesta Bowl.
By the time Bellotti gave way to Chip Kelly as head coach beginning with the 2009 season, he had reached bowl games in four consecutive seasons, the last of those being the 2008 Holiday Bowl, a game the Ducks won 42-31 over Oklahoma State, when Kelly was offensive coordinator.
Kelly took over the following season and took Oregon’s bowl success to a whole new level.
Here’s a look at the four bowl games during Kelly’s four seasons as Oregon’s head coach, as the Ducks prepare to face Kansas State in the Jan. 3 Fiesta Bowl:
2009 season: Rose Bowl
The Ducks reached their first Rose Bowl since that 1994 season, but fell to Terrelle Pryor and Ohio State, 26-17, after failing to score in the game’s final 26 minutes. Jeremiah Masoli’s 1-yard TD run at the 11:03 mark of the third quarter was Oregon’s final touchdown, and put the Ducks up 17-16. But Ohio State notched a third-quarter field goal and a fourth-quarter touchdown — Pryor to DeVier Posey — to win the game.
2010 season: BCS National Championship
Oregon lost a heartbreaker, 22-19, to Auburn in its first appearance in the national title game, played on Jan. 10, 2011 in Glendale, Ariz. The Ducks rallied in the fourth quarter after trailing 19-11, with Darron Thomas passing to LaMichael James and then finding Jeff Maehl for a 2-point conversion that tied it at 19. But Wes Byrum’s field goal as time ran out gave the Tigers the title.
2011 season: Rose Bowl
Oregon broke through for its first Rose Bowl victory since 1916, a span of 95 years, with a 45-38 win over Wisconsin. De’Anthony Thomas came up huge in the game, scoring two long touchdown runs and amassing 315 all-purpose yards on just 12 total touches.
2012 season: Fiesta Bowl
Oregon takes on Kansas State on Jan. 3 in a game between teams that were, at one point, ranked first and second in the BCS standings and headed for a clash in the BCS National Championship. Instead, both lost games on the same day — Oregon falling to Stanford and K-State to Baylor on Nov. 17 — and the Ducks are now fourth and the Wildcats fifth in the BCS.
Sources:
Oregon football almanac: bowl game history
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Adam Sparks has been following Oregon Ducks football since 1990, and has written about the team as a freelancer since 2009.
