Civil answer not a problem.

Byline: Bob Welch / The Register-Guard

I COULDN'T RESIST. In honor of the 105th edition of the Oregon-Oregon State football game, a special Civil War edition of Q&A:

Q. Who won the game 90 years ago?

A. What is this, a trick question, a double-reverse on the opening play? No game was played in 1911 because of what happened in 1910. Following a 12-zip UO win in Corvallis, a riot broke out between "Webfoot" rooters headed for the train station and Oregon Agricultural College "Farmers." The state Board of Regents decided to quell tempers by not having a game the following year.

In an attempt to ease the rivalry into some semblance of sanity, the regents chose a neutral site - Albany - for the 1912 and 1913 games, but fans of both schools grumbled so much that the Corvallis-Eugene format resumed in 1914.

Q. Why might Oregon rally girl Michelle Flanigan be especially interested in the Ducks winning Saturday?

A. Because she was on the Beaver rally squad the previous two years. Flanigan, a junior whose parents bleed orange and black, transferred because OSU's rally squad was de-emphasizing dance, which she loves. "No regrets," says Flanigan, who has had no trouble switching loyalties. "I couldn't be happier."

Q. What's the Dwight Eisenhower-Winston Churchill connection to the Civil War game?

A. Funny you should ask. In spring 1944, shortly before D-Day, the two were in England, inspecting paratroopers of the 101st Airborne when Ike stopped in front of Don Malarkey, a soldier in the 506th Regiment.

"Soldier, where are you from?" asked Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander, future U.S. president and, of course, ultimately the face on a U.S. silver dollar.

"Astoria, Oregon," Malarkey answered.

Eisenhower asked what Malarkey had done before the war. He said he'd been a student at the University of Oregon.

Ike then asked who'd won the previous fall's Oregon-Oregon State game. The irony? The two schools hadn't played that fall, having halted their football programs for two years because most of their players were off fighting for Ike and other generals.

Churchill, the British prime minister, inexplicably passed up a chance to talk Beavers and Ducks. "Well, son," he asked, changing the subject. "How do you like England?" Yawn.

Malarkey, whose story is documented in Stephen Ambrose's (and HBO's) "Band of Brothers," graduated from the UO in 1948 and still loves the Ducks. "I'll be rootin' for them Saturday," says Malarkey, now 80. "I'm a great fan of the Harringtons. Played high school ball against Joey's grandfather."

Q. What is generally agreed to have been the highlight of the 1983 Civil War?

A. The pre-game flyover by the military jets. That was the infamous 0-0 game that forever locked the Beavs and Ducks in history as the last two NCAA teams to play to a scoreless tie, the tiebreaker rule beginning in 1996. (That was the last time Oregon was shut out; OSU, meanwhile, hasn't shut out anybody since.)

Q. In 1941, OSU beat Oregon 12-7 to earn a Rose Bowl bid. Where was that bowl game played?

A. Durham, N.C. Pearl Harbor had just been bombed; officials feared Pasadena was too vulnerable to an aerial attack.

Q. Why, in 1972, was Oregon's 30-3 win in Corvallis particularly sweet for UO tailback Don Reynolds?

A. He grew up across the street from OSU's Parker Stadium, scored a 60-yard touchdown on the Ducks' first play from scrimmage and helped UO beat OSU for the first time since 1963. Duck fans ripped down one set of goal posts with five minutes left in the game and deposited them in front of OSU's bench.

Q. Two years later, what did OSU coach Dee Andros - well-known for his fiery pep talks - tell the troops before the game?

A. That under no circumstances should they let Duck fans take down the goal posts if UO won. He wasn't addressing the team but the student security staff. (It was a moot point; the Beavs won 35-16.)

Q. Were those real ducks that OSU students had killed and were waving in the faces of Duck fans after the Beavers' win last year in Corvallis?

A. Yup.

Q. Is there any hope that Beaver and Duck fans can, in the words of Rodney King, "just get along?"

A. Yes. After I wrote about Larry Cousins, perhaps the lone Duck fan in Iceland, I got an e-mail from Edward Weinman, perhaps the lone Beaver fan in Iceland. The two, it turns out, don't live too far apart.

They e-mailed each other. The result? They're watching the game together Saturday night - eight hours time difference - on the Armed Forces Network.

Then again, maybe we should see how they're doing after the game.

Bob Welch can be reached by phone at 338-2354 or by e-mail at [e-mail].