OSU Stater Magazine Fall 2023

A MOST PECULIAR TROPHY THE UNUSUAL TALE OF THE OFTEN-STOLEN, EVER-UNDERAPPRECIATED PLATYPUS. By Jack Heffernan 64 ForOregonState.org/Stater OUR COMMUNITY KARL MAASDAM B A C K S T O R Y Visitors to Oregon State’s Alumni Center will find a locked case filled with typical memorabilia items: bronze trophies, stylish letterman jackets, shiny plaques and books brimming with stories of Beaver history. At some point, their eyes will also spot something peculiar: a wooden platypus. “It’s in the category of ‘strange, but true,’” says John Valva, executive director of the OSU Alumni Association. The University of Oregon and OSU alumni associations take possession of the trophy whenever their school’s football team wins the universities’ bigannualmatchup.Whyaplatypus? Though the actual animal makes its home 9,000 miles from Oregon in faro" Australia, it features characteristics of both a duck and beaver, the mascots of the rival schools. The trophy’s relatively informal tradition began in 2007, but its history spans over six decades. In 1959, then-UO student Warren Spady crafted the trophy as a gift to the victor of the rivalry game. The trophy symbolizes his a" ection for both schools. Several family members are OSU alumni, but only UO carried a master’s track for the academic program that hewished to pursue.“Iwas the black sheep of the family,” he says. Spady hadn’t completed the animal’s feet before OSU beat the Ducks in an upset victory, staking the first claim to the prize.Ratherthan finish in the years since, he decided to leave the body atop the carving of a pile of mud, which Spady calls “its home territory.” He simply signed his name under the tail with his lucky pencil. A common refrain Spady hears: “That’s aweird trophy.”“It’s a Beaver and a Duck, so to me it’s very logical. I rest my case,” Spady says with a chuckle. Along with the feet, the exact purpose of the trophy is unshaped to this day. Soon afterits first passing,UO students allegedly stole it. It was found and OSU won it back in 1961, but was stolen yet again in 1962. The trophy then went missing for over two decades. Spady saw it again on the UO campus in 1986.This time,it included an engraved plaque listing the UO water polo team’s 1964 to 1968 wins over OSU. But in 2004, then-Oregonian writer John Canzano wrote a column about the lack of a trophy similar to ones exchanged in other college football rivalry games. Following a search, hunters trapped the wooden platypusinaclosetontheUOcampus.The alumni associations began exchanging the trophy soon after. “It’s the perfect icon forthis rivalry, and yet it’s hard to get excited about a platypus,” says Raphe Beck, executive director of the UO Alumni Association, referring to the schools’ athletic departments’ lack of interest in the trophy. “We certainly wouldn’t want to impose something on the players that wouldn’t excite them.” Instead,whenthehostassociation’s football team loses the game, Beck orValva makes the gloomytrekalong Interstate 5 to hand it over. Spady says he hopes that interest inthetrophyexpands.“It’sanhonorto create a trophy between the two schools, and I hope that it takes,” he says. However, with the future of the rivalryunexpectedlyin flux,there are a lot of unknowns. For now, the two habitats for the wooden platypus — “Platy,” as UO alumni employees a" ectionately call it — are a bookshelf in the UO alumni office and the locked case inside the OSU Alumni Center. The main debate at this point is which habitat is most natural. “The platypus trophy lives here in the UO alumni association o! ces and occasionally takes a sabbatical to Oregon State,” Beck says. He brought the trophy to OSU this spring after the Beavers beat the Ducks 38-34 in a 21-point comeback victory. Dressed in UO attire and carrying the trophy into the o! ce,Beck passed an OSU Alumni Association employee who muttered under her breath, “Go Beavs.” “At this point, no one is certain about the future of the rivalry game,” Valva says, “But I don’t have any intention of giving it back.” ↓Part beaver, part duck, the platypus struck sculptor Warren Spady as the perfect mascot for the annual OSU-UO game.

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