Oregon Signing Day: Eugene Becoming a Recruiting Destination For Top Athletes

As someone who has the benefit of six decades of observation, this writer can testify to the many lean years of national relevance in Oregon sports.

Oh sure, there were the occasional blips in an otherwise flat-line of athletic history: Oregon's "Tall Firs" basketball championship, Terry Baker's Heisman, the '77 Trail Blazers' championship season, Oregon track stars, Oregon State's back-to-back College World Series titles...

But nothing to stamp on the collective American conscience the concept of "Oregon" and "Powerhouse" being remotely connected.

Even Oregon's once-reliable worldwide claim to fame - its timber industry - has been felled at the knees.

Speaking of knees...ouch!

Don't mention that word lightly around any true Oregonian.

Over the years, many a faint hope of an Oregon sports dynasty has vanished on the frail legs of a Bill Walton, Sam Bowie, Greg Oden, Brandon Roy or Dennis Dixon - to name a few.

To add insult to injury, it seemed that losing was the only way to draw the best players.

Those were the lean years, when mediocrity was mercifully pardoned through the draft lottery. Or at the college level, when fate smiled and a local, in-state recruit somehow happened to blossom into a star.

At the whim of chance, it was left to a potential superstar to sail the Oregon ship out of its tangled Sargasso Sea.

But like an ill wind, disappointment more often than not prevailed.

However,  just as numbered ping-pong balls can sometimes reward inferiority, another dynamic - less dependent on luck - is now in play at the University of Oregon.

Two programs in particular - football and track and field - are finally attracting the very best athletic talent from every corner of the nation - not by failure, but by virtue of their success.

Yes, the Eugene Oregon campus is becoming a destination for elite travelers on a road ultimately leading to a career in professional sports. And if that journey happens to include an education and a chance to participate in a top-tier athletic program, why not Oregon?

The football and track and field facilities have progressed to a point of being second to none.

Coaches Chip Kelly and Vin Lananna, respectively, have become icons in their sport.

Both programs are consistently in the top-five national rankings (Oregon women's T&F currently no.1).

Fan support doesn't get any better.

And the geographic diversity, climate and small-town feel of the Eugene area seems to have the makings of a perfect four-year wayside on the road to the future.

Is it any wonder then, that this week a record recruiting class of four and five-star athletes in both programs will be setting pen to paper on U of O stationery?

And doesn't it feel good to know that it was excellence - and not a lucky draw - which brought them here?

Needless to say, both programs have maxed-out their recruiting budgets, even to the point of having to reject some amazing athletes. This speaks of team depth and longevity of success.

Is it possible that someday soon, we will be able to utter the words "Oregon" and "Powerhouse" in the same sentence?

Not just possible, but probable.

As long as we don't use the word "knee" in the same breath.