'COOLEST TEAM' SCORES SI COVER.

Byline: Ron Bellamy Register-Guard Sports Editor 

Sports Illustrated, the nation's most prestigious sports magazine, made the University of Oregon's football victory over Michigan its cover story this week, placing the Ducks in front of millions of readers - and putting them at risk of the magazine's infamous "cover jinx."

The Sept. 29 issue, with the cover photograph of quarterback Jason Fife bounding into the end zone during Oregon's 31-27 win last Saturday, should be received by subscribers on Friday. Local bookstores hoped to have copies in stock by then as well.

"We've had quite a few calls today," Borders supervisor Sean Jones said Wednesday evening. "We've put a rush on it with our distributor and ordered a bunch of copies. We usually get 10, and we've put in an order for 500.

"Jared Siegel (the Oregon kicker) was in early this morning, looking for it. I said, `It's not there, man.' '

The cover headline is "Dazzling Ducks" with the subhead: "Rich, Cool and 4-0 (Quack, Quack)." The story, by Austin Murphy, is titled "Make Way for Ducks" and, over a two-page photograph of quarterback Kellen Clemens, states: "Wild uniforms, space-age lockers and a stunning win over Michigan: Already the coolest team in college football, Oregon has proved it belongs among the elite."

The flattering article highlights Oregon's on-field success and its off-field flamboyance, including marketing, uniforms and cutting-edge facilities.

Sports Illustrated has a circulation of 3.27 million, and this is the first time in the magazine's 49-year history that the Oregon football team has been selected for the cover after a victory. Quarterback Joey Harrington, along with Oregon State running back Ken Simonton, shared the cover before the 2001 football season.

Other Duck appearances on the cover have been rare. The SI cover of Feb. 25, 1974, featured Oregon basketball center Gerald Willett after the Ducks defeated top-ranked UCLA. Miler Dyrol Burleson made the cover in 1960 and 1964, and distance runners Steve Prefontaine and Alberto Salazar followed in 1970 and 1980. As professional athletes, Harrington, quarterback Akili Smith and basketball point guard Terrell Brandon have been cover stories, as was Nike co-founder and Oregon grad Phil Knight in 1993.

"This is great," said Bill Moos, Oregon's director of athletics. "It's all part of our focus and our vision of moving Oregon athletics into the national spotlight. And you can buy billboards and you can buy ads in USA Today, but when the publications come out and deem you worthy to be the cover story, that takes it to another level."

"It will be in the homes of literally millions of people, and a lot of prospective student-athletes," Moos said. "I don't want to call it a milestone, but it's a tremendous stage in our program."

Moos, who has a collection of every Sports Illustrated since his parents gave him a subscription in December 1964, when he was 13, said "Obviously, this is my favorite one. I think I'm going to frame this one."

Fife said he was lifting weights Wednesday morning when someone showed him a copy of the cover; the magazine issues weekly news releases about each issue on Wednesday mornings, and overnighted copies to local news media.

"At first, I thought it was a joke, like someone superimposed me on the cover," Fife said. "It's awesome. It's real flattering. I never expected to see myself on the cover of SI."

Fife said he intends to buy a copy. Just one?

"I guarantee my dad will have more than that, so I don't have to worry about it," he said.

Clemens said he expects the issue to go over big in his hometown. "I think there will be one or two people in Burns who will look to buy one," he said.

Clemens said the exposure will help the Ducks with recruiting, but reiterated, as did coach Mike Bellotti and other Ducks, that the impact will be lost if Oregon loses to Washington State on Saturday.

"I'm sure all of us are very proud and pleased of it," Bellotti said, "but that won't go very far if we don't take care of business this week."

Over the years, enough of Sports Illustrated's cover subjects have soon suffered misfortune, ranging from defeat to injury, that the "SI Cover Jinx" is an accepted part of sports culture.

Indeed, last year the magazine itself made that topic a cover story, with a photograph of a black cat and the headline "The Cover that No One Would Pose For - Is the SI Jinx for Real?"

"I don't believe in jinxes," Fife said. "I believe you control your own fate." Added center Dan Weaver: "Ohio State was on the cover twice last year, and they didn't lose a game, so we were thinking that maybe the jinx didn't count for teams that started with `O.' '

Weaver's theory, however, is inconclusive. When Harrington and Simonton shared the cover in 2001, the Ducks eventually won the Fiesta Bowl, but Oregon State, SI's pick to win the national title, finished 5-6.

An eager believer in the SI Cover Jinx is Washington State's director of athletics, Jim Sterk.

"There is a lot to that," Sterk said, tongue-in-cheek, or maybe not. "We would like that to continue."

CAPTION(S):

Quarterback Jason Fife's TD run against Michigan.